CFP: Exhibiting in Slovenia II (City Museum of Ljubljana, 21-22 Apr 2022)

Photo: TIAMSA/Johannes Nathan

Among the many reasons for the organization of the first symposium of Exhibiting in Slovenia: A Symposium on the 110th Anniversary of the Jakopič Pavilion in 2019 were the anniversaries that year of several important Slovenian art institutions, including of the Jakopič Pavilion, the first venue in Slovenia built specifically for exhibiting art. The excellent response to this event clearly demonstrated the keen interest in our more than hundred-year-long practice of regular exhibiting of art, architecture, and design among members of the professional community and the broader public. The second edition of the symposium, therefore, continues to explore these topics.

Submission deadline: 15 Dec 2021

The symposium is dedicated to the medium of exhibition, the phenomenon of exhibiting visual arts, architecture, and design, and questions regarding the art system in Slovenia in the context of the broader Central-European framework from the 19th century until today. We extend an invitation for submissions to all those exploring these topics in diverse contexts and fields.

We welcome contributions that:

– discuss group and monographic exhibitions of Slovenian art, architecture, and design both in Slovenia and in other art centres, prominent international exhibitions, and the exhibitions of foreign art in Slovenia;
– deal with broader exhibition complexes in the given geographical framework, for example, exhibitions of selected institutions, artists, or curators, exhibitions that can be connected or compared because of their content or some other aspect, periodic exhibitions, etc.; 
– focus on various organizational settings for exhibitions, from exhibitions organized by artists themselves to larger national presentations;
– examine the contemporaneous reception of exhibitions and their long-term impact or the various relations between exhibition and art, politics and society;   
– research the role of art in various exhibition formats that do not primarily deal with visual arts;
– discuss the cultural-political and institutional framework of exhibitions and the exhibition policies of individual institutions;
– consider exhibitions as a means of cultural diplomacy.

We encourage an interdisciplinary and comparative approach in considering specific exhibitions and exhibition practices. We welcome all content that provides an in-depth consideration of the symposium’s topic. We accept all research approaches and subjects, except for presentations of the submitters’ own artistic or curatorial exhibition projects.

The presentations are to be up to 20-minutes long. To apply, please send an abstract (up to 150 words) and your CV (up to 70 words) to miha.valant@ff.uni-lj.si by 15 December 2021. We will inform you about our decision by mid-January 2022.

Participants from outside of Slovenia may give their lectures in the English or Serbo-Croatian language; presentations in Slovenian will not be simultaneously translated into English.

The symposium is being organized in cooperation with: the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana (MGML), the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory (IZA), the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška (KGLU), and the Božidar Jakac Art Museum (GBJ) as well as the France Stele Institute of Art History (the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, ZRC SAZU), and the Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (FF) as part of the research project Exhibiting of Art and Architecture between Artistic and Ideological Concepts (ARRS 2020/1108).

Symposium Committee: Alenka Gregorič (MGML), Andreja Hribernik (KGLU), Urška Jurman (IZA), Martina Malešič (FF), Goran Milovanović (GBJ), Katarina Mohar (UIFS ZRC SAZU), Miha Valant (FF), Asta Vrečko (FF), and Beti Žerovc (FF).

The symposium is financially supported by Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) and the ERSTE Foundation.