The centerpiece of this cluster is a digitized catalog, or rather, a dense documentation of the ŠKUC Gallery from the time when I, together with colleagues or myself (depending on the period), curated the art program of the ŠKUC Gallery from 1980 to 1986.
This catalog, which is the basis for a digitized archive, was created, so to speak, from papers, yellow, half-wet postcards that served as invitations to hundreds of events, exhibitions and happenings at Gallery ŠKUC, a space that still functions and defies time.
The archive drawn from here therefore focuses on the first and only integral review of the history of Gallery ŠKUC in the 1980s. This archive was published in 1987 as a separate issue in the magazine Sinteza, and then also as a beautifully made catalog with black glossy cover, which marks on its inside cover the year 1978 with the project OHO, and in 1986 this detailed history is marked by a IRWIN painting Malevich between the two wars.
The catalog contains a detailed cataloging of exhibitions, reproductions of invitations for a single year, since 1978, lists of all major printed special editions and an extensive bibliography. Here you will find information about who formed the leadership and my introductory study of the main stages of the development of art in visual culture, the period when art becomes a political and social practice, when it begins to work hand in hand with theory and critical discourse, and when the meaning of the visual opens towards photography, media, installations and performance.
The Student Culture and Art Center (ŠKUC) in Ljubljana was and is an important milestone in the subculture and new visual expression of the current millennium. Together with the youth media – Tribuna, Mladina and Radio Študent – it represented one of the pillars of socialist progressive culture, theory and views in Ljubljana and the Socialist Republic of Slovenia within the former Yugoslavia during socialism. ŠKUC worked with program editors and curators, that formed many activities, and the curatorial visual program was the domain of the ŠKUC Gallery. For those who struggled, including Taja Brejc and many others, getting hold of the gallery spaces at Stari trg 21 in Ljubljana meant a turning point towards the possibility of progressive artistic presentations.
It is no coincidence that the gaining of the premises and the inauguration of the ŠKUC Gallery coincided with the opening of the exhibition of the group OHO, a pioneering conceptual and reistic (to objects and things gravitating ) position of the neo-avant-garde, artistic creation and vision. After the departure of the pioneers who had gotten the space, young, increasingly punk-oriented and alternative-inspired editors and curators came to the ŠKUC Gallery. From 1980 to 1986, happenings, exhibitions, symposia and publications that were produced really meant a new way of thinking about the world and also about what art can do in relation to social movements. During that time, with the help of very cheap printing, even handmade printing in the beginning, in editions of 100 or more, most of the publications were produced almost in a kind of partisan way. The inspiration for the publications came from punk and alter fanzines, as well as the expansion of print publications with the release of music cassettes by now legendary groups such as Laibach, Children of Socialism, etc.
Osrednje mesto v tem sklopu pripada digitaliziranemu katalogu, ali bolje rečeno, gosti dokumentaciji delovanja Galerije ŠKUC v času, ko sem s kolegi ali sama (odvisno od obdobja) vodila likovni program Galerije ŠKUC in sicer od leta 1980 do leta 1986. Ta katalog, ki je osnova digitaliziranega arhiva, je nastal tako rekoč iz papirjev, rumenih, na pol vlažnih razglednic, ki so služila kot vabila na stotine dogodkov, razstav in dogajanj v Galeriji ŠKUC, prostora, ki še deluje in kljubuje času.
Arhiv, ki se izrisuje, se torej osredotoča okrog prvega in edinega integralnega pregleda zgodovine Galerije ŠKUC v času osemdesetih; ta pregled je bil leta 1987 objavljen kot separat v reviji Sinteza in nato objavljen tudi kot lično narejen katalog s sijajnimi črnimi platnicami, ki na svoji notranji strani ovitka obeležuje leto 1978 s projektom skupine OHO, leto 1986 pa to podrobno izpisano zgodovino obeležuje slika skupine IRWIN Malevič med dvema vojnama.
Katalog vsebuje natančno katalogizacijo razstav, reprodukcije vabil za posamično leto, vse od leta 1978, navedbe vseh pomembnih posebnih tiskanih izdaj in obširno bibliografijo. Tukaj so podatki, kdo je sestavljal vodstvo ter moja uvodna študija o najpomembnejših etapah razvoja likovne v vizualno kulturo, časa ko likovna umetnost postane politična in družbena praksa, ko začne delovati z roko v roki s teorijo in kritičnim diskurzom, in ko se likovna umetnost vsled pomena vizualnega odpre v smeri fotografije, medijev, instalacij in performansov.
Torej vse, kar je v katalogu, je zdaj digitalizirano in na voljo pregledovanju in poglobljenemu študiju, obenem pa gre za dodatno digitalizacijo reprodukcij iz kataloga, celotne publikacije, časopisov in fanzinov.
Študentski kulturni in umetniški center (ŠKUC) v Ljubljani je bil in ostaja pomemben mejnik subkulture in novega vizualnega izraza tudi sedanjega tisočletja. Skupaj z mladinskimi mediji – Tribuno, Mladino in Radiom Študent – je v času socializma predstavljal enega od stebrov socialistične progresivne kulture, teorije in pogledov v Ljubljani in Socialistični republiki Sloveniji v okviru nekdanje Jugoslavije. ŠKUC je deloval z redakcijami, ki so pokrivale številne dejavnosti, likovna ustvarjalnost pa je bila domena Galerije ŠKUC. Pridobitev teh prostorov na Starem trgu 21 v Ljubljani, je za tiste, ki so se borili, med njimi Taja Brejc in mnogi drugi, pomenila zasuk v možnost progresivnega likovnega ustvarjanja.
Ni naključje, da je pridobitev prostorov in inavguracija Galerije ŠKUC potekala prav z otvoritvijo razstave skupine OHO, prelomne konceptualne ali reistične neoavantgardne pozicije, likovnega ustvarjanja in vizij. Po odhodu pionirjev, ki so izborili prostor, smo v Galerijo ŠKUC vstopili mladi ter vse bolj punkovsko usmerjeni in alternativno navdihnjeni redaktorji in redaktorice. Od leta 1980 do leta 1986 je vse to dogajanje, razstave, simpoziji in publikacije, ki so izhajale, resnično pomenilo nov način premišljevanja sveta in tudi tega, kaj umetnost zmore v povezavi z družbenimi gibanji. V tem času je s pomočjo zelo poceni tiskanja, na začetku celo z ročno izdelanimi tiskanimi publikacijami v obsegu 100 ali več kopij, večina publikacij nastala skorajda v nekakšni partizanski maniri. Navdih za izdaje so prinesli punkovski in alter fanzini ter tudi razširitev tiskanih izdaj z izdajami glasbenih kaset skupin, ki so danes legendarne, Laibach, Otroci socializma, itd.