29 May 2013

Exhibition Password: Printmaking succeeded in Ljubljana, next stop: Belgium

Exhibition Password: Printmaking succeeded in Ljubljana, next stop: Belgium

The exhibition Password: Printmaking was on view at the International Centre of Graphic Arts from 17 April to 26 May 2013 as a part of the EU project Password: Printmaking, Traveling Exhibition and Art Residencies(2012–2014). Now the exhibition is traveling to the Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium, where will be on view from 9 June to 28 July 2013.

The project Password: Printmaking, Traveling Exhibition and Art Residencies (2012–2014) thus creates a structure for creative connections between the organizers of long-established print exhibitions, residency programs and exchanges, and develops links between artists, theorists, art institutions, and art academies in Europe. The project is focused on contemporary printmaking and contemporary practices involving reproducible visual art, and creates a discourse about the today's power of the graphic art medium – in its content, messages, and communicative force – as a tool for conveying artistic visions and ideas. Besides, it provides a platform for collaboration between institutions with an established tradition in graphic art; between artists who – in the age that favors electronic media – work equally in the field of printmaking; and between diverse audiences.
Many may wonder ifit makes sense to concentrate solely on one aspect of artistic expression – on printed art alone, especially at a time when everything seems possible in art as well as life. At first glance, such an approach can, indeed, seem arbitrary, especially since the boundaries between the different media have largely evaporated. But even so, printmaking is a medium that, while tied to a time-consuming process and requiring familiarity with various kinds of mechanical and chemical knowledge and skills, co-exists with other forms of contemporary artistic expression. It may well be true that the print is no longer at the center of attention today and may even be something of an 'endangered species', excluded from most of the big contemporary art events, but does this mean that its creative force is not alive and that it has no power to influence the way we see and think about things, which is the essence of art?
In Ljubljana, the exhibition Password: Printmaking presented contemporary graphic art as a heterogenic phenomenon, which should not be reduced to individual phenomenal forms. Artists have used different derivations and combinations of graphic techniques and (re-)defined the medium in its close relation to the content. The exhibiting has shown that the printmaking in its extended and multimedia sense is far away from being an art form in decline.
Further stops of the traveling exhibition Password: Printmaking are as follows:
8 August – 22 September 2013: MCSG, Krakow, Poland.
10 October – 25 November 2013: CIEC Foundation, Betanzos, Spain.
10 December 2013 – 25 January 2014: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia.
February – March 2014: Foundation Tallinn Print Triennial, Tallinn, Estonia.

Participating artists and curators are:
Belgium: bolwerK, Paul Hendrikse, Damien De Lepeleire, Lieven Segers, Sofie Dederen – curator.
Croatia: Kristina Restović, Emanuela Santini, CelestinaVičević, Iva Gobić Vitolović, 
Daina Glavočić – curator.
Estonia: Joonmeedia, Triin Tamm, Anna-Stina Treumund, Anu Vahtra & Nam Kim, 
Jaanus Samma – curator.
Poland: Marta Kubiak, Paweł Kwiatkowski, Marcin Pazera, Rafał Śliwczyński, 
Marta Raczek-Karcz – curator.
Slovenia: Boštjan Čadež, Jon Derganc, Tanja Vujinović, Klemen Zupanc,
Božidar Zrinski – curator.
Spain: Pedro Luiz Cembranos, Àngela Cuadra, Àngel Masip, Javier Pividal, 
Javier Martín-Jiménez – curator.

As a part of the project the catalogue has been published:
Password: Printmaking, Travelling Exhibition and Art Residencies (2012–2014)
Editor: Breda Škrjanec; Texts: Sofie Dederen, Diana Glavočić, Jaanus Samma, Marta Anna Raczek-Karcz, Božidar Zrinski, Javier Martín-Jiménez; English, 144 pages, 8 eur.

The EU project Password: Printmaking, Travelling Exhibition and Art Residencies (2012–2014) is coordinated by the International Centre of Graphic Arts (Ljubljana, Slovenia), while its other partners are: Hablar en arte (Madrid, Spain), the Frans Masereel Centrum (Kasterlee, Belgium), the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Rijeka, Croatia), the Foundation Tallinn Print Triennial (Tallinn, Estonia), and the International Print Triennial Society (Krakow, Poland).


This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
With the support of: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana
Media sponsor: Radio Študent
Project manager: mag. Breda Škrjanec, t. +386 (0)1 2413 805, breda.skrjanec@mglc-lj.si

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