City Art Gallery Ljubljana

The City Art Gallery Ljubljana – known as Mestna galerija Ljubljana in Slovenian language – consists of two spaces: Mestna galerija 1 and Mestna galerija 2. This Municipal Gallery is a fine art exhibition space in the old centre of Ljubljana that has been operating continuously for almost 50 years. It has a broad exhibition programme and organises presentations of Slovene artists abroad. For years the space was directed by Aleksander Bassin, it has been recently succeeded by Alenka Gregorič, the former artistic director of Škuc Gallery.

Background and venues

The City Art Gallery Ljubljana is the ancestor of the old building of the Jakopič Pavilion (the first Ljubljana exhibition space built in 1908 by the painter Rihard Jakopič). After it was demolished in 1961 the house at Mestni trg 5 was chosen for the new venue for exhibition activities and their management. In November 1962, the Jakopič Pavilion was renamed as Mestna galerija Ljubljana. In 1990 and 1991, the Municipality of Ljubljana financed a thorough renovation of the building. In addition to modernised exhibition rooms and offices in the converted loft, the gallery now also features a café on the ground floor.

In 1996 the City Art Gallery Ljubljana opened its new premise, Mestna galerija 2, to feature its permanent collection. Soon this venue became the programme addition to the Mestna galerija 1 featuring the newest production of Slovene and international artists. Since 1996 the Mestna galerija administrated also the Bežigrajska galerija (established in 1976) and since 2002 the new venue also on the north-bound artery: the Bežigrajska galerija 2.

When the City Museum of Ljubljana and the City Art Gallery Ljubljana merged into a new public institute Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana in 2009, Mestna galerija 1 and 2 are administratively operates under the umbrella institute as two of eight autonomous units specialised or connected to the contemporary art and culture. There are plans to close the premise of Mestna galerija 2 at the end of 2010 after the new space in the complex of Tobacco Factory will open for the presentation the Tobacco Museum Collection including for presentations of actual contemporary art projects of national and international dimensions. Additionally this is going to be the first space for the residency for international artists and curators in Ljubljana.

Programme and mission

Both venues of City Art Gallery Ljubljana are focused on the production and presentation of exhibitions of contemporary art positions. The City Art Gallery Ljubljana also provides a public service with exhibitions of modern and contemporary visual art in Slovenia and abroad. A special exhibition programme is dedicated to occasional overseas tours, organised for the most part on a reciprocal basis or upon invitation from foreign museums and galleries.

The City Art Gallery Ljubljana also promotes the visual arts by producing publications and prints and organising seminars, lectures, art workshops, fairs, shows and cultural events compatible with its main activities.

Mestna galerija 1

Staging approximately 8 exhibitions annually, the Mestna galerija 1 featured beside solo exhibitions of Slovene artists (special attention receive artist from Ljubljana) also to complex group exhibitions linking national and international artist positions and statements. This activity has become stronger since the appointment of the new artist director Alenka Gregorič. Such projects are usually curated by her, often in cooperation with other national and international colleagues. Opening complex but focused topics of contemporary arts, such projects mirror the most vital themes of the field as it was recently in the discursive project Communication networks curated by Alenka Gregorič and Bojana Piškur, the senior curator of the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition featured almost 30 more and less established international authors and artistic groups as Ernesto Neto and Erzen Shkololli, including two Slovene artists Apolonija Šušteršič and Vesna Bukovec. Beside the exhibition the presentations and discussions were staged with the aim to develop and bring the topic of the project closer to the public, namely the "missions" of progressive art institutions today, where authors of the project see the need for the creation of new communication networks, both within its local environment and in a broader sphere, with other networks in what is called "transversal linkage". The active participants were also guests from many international institutions such as Eyal Danon from the Israeli Centre for Digital Art in Holon, Iara Boubnova from ICA in Sofia, Gülşen Bal from Open Space in Vienna, Zoran Erić from the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Ana Janevski from the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and others.

Another project marking the new period of the City Art Gallery Ljubljana was the January 2010 featured exhibition Sweet nowhere curated by Alenka Gregorič and presenting the production of 13 mostly Ljubljana-based artists or art tandems and collectives, which are dealing with the city of Ljubljana from different points of view (architectural, social ...) and in different media (photography, music, video, film ...). This exhibition was also accompanied by a guided tour of the exhibition together with a number of artists. The show featured also the work of Matej Andraž Vogrinčič, Vuk Ćosić & Matej Andraž Vogrinčič, Tadej Pogačar & P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Institute, Vadim Fiškin and others.

In recent years, the solo exhibition programme has focused on the older generation of Slovene artists such as Zdenko Huzjan, Zmago Jeraj, Boris Gaberščik, under the new artistic director the stage of Mestna galerija 1 is also dedicated to the younger generation such as Uršula Berlot. At the end of 2010 a group show of young artists who have received national and international awards from the Balkan region of Balkans is planned.

Mestna galerija 2

Established to house and to present the collection of City Art Gallery Ljubljana, soon after its establishment the Mestna galerija 2 has become the prolongation for the realisation of the programme of Mestna galerija 1. It is focused on a bit less established, but indeed important and interesting (inter)national artists who often bring the novelties to the progressive development of the art system. Beside the middle and older generation of Slovene artists (Nikolaj Beer, Herman Gvardijančič, Franc Mesarič or Herman Pivk among others) already under the directorship of Aleksander Bassin it had featured young promising Slovene artists as BridA in 2007. Recently the space features further solo exhibitions of young established artists as Miha Štrukelj or Arjan Pregl, who recently exhibited the new series of humorous drawings and video projections entitled 299 kosmatih in bobu Bob. The changes of the new leadership in the programme is also noticeable in the Mestna galerija 2.

The space serves further also for solo exhibitions of foreign artists. In 2005 the gallery featured A Print Retrospective 1962–2003 of Bridget Riley presented over 40 screen prints, selected by the artist, with the aim of offering a rare opportunity to examine the preoccupations and development of Riley's involvement with this medium over the last four decades. The Mestan galerija 2 often shows artists from the Balkan region as it was the solo exhibition of Macedonian artist Vana Urošević 2009 or Croatian tapestry artist Jagoda Buić in 2007. In 2009 the Montenegro artists Draško Dragaš, Nikola Simanić and Olivija Ivanović were presented.

Mestna galerija 2 also presents group exhibitions. In 2009 the largest project of City Art Gallery Ljubljana produced with other Slovene partners last years was staged beside the Mestna galerija 1 also in the Mestna galerija 2. As the first project of this kind in Slovenia, the exhibition of drawings entitled Drawing in Slovenia II. 1940–2009 presented 137 artists and their 310 works. Arranged chronologically presented all the major artists and their drawings in various techniques. The exhibition intended to confirm the creative power of Slovenian artist and revealed the continuity and development of drawing as an independent means of artistic expression.

The collection

The City Art Gallery Ljubljana collection comprises 190 mostly donated original works on paper by 70 Slovene and 60 foreign artists. It has a heterogeneous character as artists from different periods and styles of expressions are presented – from traditional, realistic portrayals of objective reality to fantasy and abstraction. The concept of the collection grew out of the gallery's exhibition activities. Mostly all the major representatives of Slovene art of the 20th century are included, although the City Art Gallery Ljubljana started to collect works for its collection only in the 1990s.

The collection is not presented permanently, but periodically. The first public display of the collection was staged on the premises at Mestni trg 4 in 1996 and after a few months was dismantled. In 2002 it moved to another location at Mestni trg 11/1 where it presented 50 artists from all generations, from the oldest, Marij Pregelj and Vladimir Makuc, to the youngest, Silvester Plotajs-Sicoe, featuring a wide range of techniques, subjects and foreign works not previously exhibited.

External links

City Art Gallery Ljubljana

Contents

Background and venues

Programme and mission

Mestna galerija 1

Mestna galerija 2

The collection

See also

External links

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