Difference between revisions of "Alkatraz Gallery"

Revision as of 22:32, 29 March 2011

Situated in Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone and run by KUD Mreža Arts and Culture Association, Alkatraz Gallery started out as a project initiated by young students of academy in 1996. Encouraging experimental art, site specific projects in different approaches and media, the main goal of the gallery is to monthly feature the projects of young (inter)national artists. Since 2008 the Alkatraz Gallery is visiting international art fairs with the aim to present more radical positions of the artists that are coming out from critical or even ironical situations towards the actual global problems.

Background

After studios in Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone were in the middle of 90s slowly filled by artist, the Alkatraz Gallery was founded by the informal group of artists, at that time mostly students of the Department of Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts and Design with Boštjan Drinovec and Nataša Tajnik on the head and primarily with the goal to present home production of Metelkova.

In 1998, the gallery obtained two curators, historians of art Bojana Piškur, today the senior curator of Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, and curator Jadranka Ljubičič, who is managing the Gallery since 2000. They reorganized the programme: besides exhibiting artists from Metelkova, the gallery began to work with more recognized and international artists.

As a non-profit space, the Alkatraz Gallery has been sponsored by the Soros Foundation from the time of its formation until its withdrawal from Slovenia. Since 1998, its has been co-funded by the Municipality of Ljubljana and by the Ministry of Culture.

Exhibitions

With more than one exhibition per month the Alkatraz Gallery is featuring mostly the recent production of Slovene artists, presented as solo exhibition, so there was recently exhibiting Žiga Kariž, Nika Oblak and Primož Novak, Goran Medjugorac, Tina Smrekar, Nika Autor, Robertina Šebjanič, Slađana Mitrović, Sara Filipović and plenty other artists from Slovenia. International artist presented recently in the Gallery include Loreta Visic, Elke Auer and Esther Straganz, Miklós Erhardt, and many artist from the Balkan region as Goran Despotovski, Srdjan Ljubiša Stoiljković, Isidora Ilić, and many others.

Commercial activity

Since 2008 the Alkatraz Gallery is visiting international art fairs with the aim to present more radical positions of the artists that are coming out from critical or even ironical situations towards the actual global problems. Since then the Gallery attended each year one art fair: in 2008 Volta Show in Basel, and in 2009 Viennafair. Each time the Gallery presented art works of Damijan Kracina, Nika Oblak and Primož Novak and Tomaž Tomažin.

Collaborations

The gallery regularly collaborates with festival organisers and other visual arts organisations, mostly those that are based at Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone (such as City of Women International Festival of Contemporary Arts and SCCA-Ljubljana Centre for Contemporary Arts). In 2009 the gallery was one of the venues of the Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Art. It also cooperated with the Studio 8 Gallery from Ljubljana with whom the art project of the Brazilian artist Camila Rocha was presented.

Contemporary Art Tea Parties

Since 2006, Petja Grafenauer, Jadranka Ljubičič, and Zoran Srdić have been organizing Contemporary Art Tea Parties as a joint project of KUD Mreža Arts and Culture Association, the Alkatraz Gallery, and the GULAG Institute for Contemporary Art and Culture. The monthly events have encouraged public discussions on current issues in contemporary arts but have recently faded into an annual event. In 2009 the Contemporary Art Tea Party accompanied the Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Art where the lack of a large exhibition venue in Ljubljana was discussed.

Location and exhibition space

Located within the Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone, in the former barracks of the army of ex-Yugoslavia, the Alkatraz Gallery is known for its specific "outlook:" the façade is covered almost entirely with mosaics and different sculptures, inspired by the slogan of Metelkova mesto citizens all for one and one for all. Large numbers of young participants contributed significantly to shaping of its look.

gallery: 90m² (10m W x 9m D x 4.5m H), incorporating 30 linear metres of wall space
installation system: hammer-and-nail installation throughout
lighting: halogen lighting system
sound: mixing table, amplifiers
technical equipment: 2 TV sets, digital camera, digital camera, video recorder, screen, video projector, slide projector, laptop computer
climate control: none
availability: space can be rented if the event fits the programme

External links

Gallery

Alkatraz Gallery, interior, 2009

Expanded space (Razširjeni prostor) exhibition, Appendix 2 gallery, Warsaw, 2010/11

Alkatraz Gallery, established in 1996 as an artist run space, located in Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone, Ljubljana

Tomaž Tomažin, V čast klobuku [In honour of the hat], light box, detail, in the Tomaž Tomažin and Damijan Kracina / Serious players exhibition, curated by Jadranka Ljubičič, Alkatraz Gallery, 2010

Tomaž Tomažin's light boxes at the Preview Berlin fair, Berlin, 2010

Opening of the Podobe popolnosti exhibition by Alenka Sottler, Kiki Omerzel and duo Lukatarina, 2011

Alternative historization of the alternative, the exhibiton of Matija Praznik at Alkatraz Gallery, 2017.

Damijan Kracina in front of his artwork Devonian future, Zero Gallery, Berlin 2010

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 * [http://metelkova.goucher.edu/interviews.html#Jadranka Video interview with Jadranka Ljubičič, director of Alkatraz Gallery]
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 [[Category:Visual arts venues]]