6.06.2024/6 p.m. DUM Project Space, Kolodvorska 6, Ljubljana.
Igorj Eškinja: Reframed / Studio visit (2021)

The focus of this year’s first conversation between art historian and theorist Leonida Kovać and curator Tevž Logar will be on the Croatian artist Igor Eškinja’s artwork Reframed / Studio Visit (2021).

Eškinja constructs his architectonics of perception as ensembles of modesty and elegance. The artist “performs” the objects and situations, catching them in their intimate and silent transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional in terms of their formal appearance. Using simple, inexpensive materials, such as adhesive tape or electric cables, and unravelling them with extreme precision and mathematical exactitude within strict spatial parameters, Eškinja defines another quality that goes beyond mere physical aspects and enters the registers of the imaginative and the imperceptible. And it is precisely this element of ephemerality and elusiveness which will be the main focus of the discussion on Eškinja’s artwork Reframed / Studio Visit, which contains numerous interweaving elements and different appearances; it is simultaneously a drawing or photograph, an object or image, and yet, also none of these things.

Two years ago, we launched a new discursive-exhibition format at DUM under the (umbrella)title How Art Matters. And How It Means. One of the main goals of the project was to focus attention on the artwork itself. In an era of hyperproduction, surrounded by large, loud, and “important” exhibitions, biennials, and festivals, it has become a rather complicated task for one to focus on an individual work of art. Works of art are very fragile materials that also require special attention, just as the language of art also needs special understanding; not only for art theorists, but also for the viewer – that is, for communication with the public.
Therefore, we believed that it was important to establish such a project, one in which the public could “read” the art work. The programme will be based on the presentation of a work of art accompanied by a conversation and discussion – a hybrid lecture using forms from the visual, performative, and media fields – in a specific format: 1 space, 1 artwork, 1 evening of discussion. In 2024, the main motive has been declared as “disappearance”. Disappearance as the main motive is intended to lead us towards discussions about works in terms of their fragility through which many important questions for art, such as temporality, time, ephemerality, the presence of art, and the materiality of an idea, can be raised…

Igor Eškinja (1975) studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. His works have been shown, at Manifesta 7, Italy; Alberta Pane Gallery in Paris, France, and Venice, Italy; Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’Art Contemporain, Luxembourg; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia; MAC/Val, Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, France; Savy Contemporary, Berlin, Germany; Federico Luger Gallery, Milan, Italy; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMSU), Rijeka, Croatia; Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia; Museum of Perception, Graz, Austria; MAC, Lissone, Italy; ADN Galeria, Barcelona, Spain; Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna, Austria; Power Plant Gallery, Toronto, Canada; MARTa, Herford, Germany; the 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Yekaterinburg, Russia; Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Burgos, Spain; FRAC Pays de la Loire, France; Welcome Foundation, London, UK; Mirror, Power Plant, Toronto, Canada, and many others.

Leonida Kovač (1962) is an art historian and theorist, curator and full professor at the University of Zagreb, Academy of Fine Arts. Her main fields of interest are contemporary art, feminist theories, and critical theories. Since the 1990s, she has been paying special attention to the presentation of works by female artists in both her curatorial practice and accompanying theoretical writings. Among those artists are Dorothy Cross, Rita Duffy, Katarzyna Kozyra, Orshi Drozdik, Nan Hoover, Duba Sambolec, Edita Schubert, Nasta Rojc, Ana Opalić, and Yael Toren – just to mention a few. She has published ten books, including Dis-enactments (2023), Anonimalia: Normative Discourses and Self-representation of 20th Century Women Artists (2010); Tübingen’s Box: Essays on Visual Culture and Biopolitics (2013); In the Mirror of the Cultural Screen: Jagoda Kaloper (2013); and Mrđan Bajić: Disenacting Transversals (2016), as well as numerous academic articles. She was curator of the Croatian Pavilion at the Sao Paulo Biennale in 2002, and at the Venice Biennale in 2003. From 2002 to 2005 she was the elected vice-president of the International Association of Art Critics – AICA. She has organised and co-organised several international academic conferences, the most recent being Memory, Word and Image: W.G. Sebald’s Artistic Legacy (University of Amsterdam, 2019).

Tevž Logar (1979) works as an independent curator, editor and author. He has curated or co-curated a number of group and solo exhibitions, including Lost in the Moment That Follows, The Ovidiu Șandor Collection (2023); Larisa Sitar: Robust Boast (2022); When in Doubt, Go to a Museum (2021); the Triennial, 54th Zagreb Salon – Without Anesthesia (2019); Borderline Relation (2018); Ulay: I Other (2017), Vadim Fishkin: Light Chaser (2016); Ulay: Irritation (2015); Crossings (2014); Jasmina Cibic: For Our Economy and Culture for the Slovenian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennial (2013); Bas Jan Ader (2012); Tanja Ostojić: Body, Politics, Agency (2012); Accretions II (2011),… and collaborated with institutions, galleries, collections and publishers, such as: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Łódź; The Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Kunsthalle Praha; TBA21, Vienna; The Ovidiu Șandor Collection, Timișoara; Ans Azura Auction House, Bucharest; Kunsthalle, Bratislava; Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka; Ludwig Museum, Budapest; James Gallery, New York; VOX, Montreal; Cooper Gallery, Dundee; American University Beirut; CAC Geneve; Kontakt Collection, Vienna; National Gallery of Kosovo; Galerija Gregor Podnar; Suprainfinit, Bucharest; Mousse Publishing, Milan; Routledge, New York; and Artforum, New York. For the 58th Venice Biennial in 2019, he worked with the Pavilion of Republic of North Macedonia as curatorial consultant and the Pavilion of Republic of Kosovo as a writer. In 2018, he edited a monograph about the work of the Croatian conceptual artist Goran Trbuljak. From 2009 to 2014, he was the artistic director of the Škuc Gallery in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a lecturer in 20th Century Art History at the Academy of Visual Arts (AVA) in the same city. He was the screenwriter of the full-length documentary Project Cancer: Ulay’s journal from November to November (2013) and is a co-founder of the Ulay Foundation (2014) in Amsterdam, where he now sits as a member of the Advisory Board. In 2014, he was nominated for the Gerrit Lansing Independent Vision Award (Independent Curators International) in New York. He lives in Rijeka, Croatia.

production: DUM – Association of Artists
Project is supported by: Cultural Department of the City of Ljubljana
Project co-organizers:
Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory
Maska – Institute for Publishing, Production and Education AVA – Academy of Visual Arts