The Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana and the KUD Mreža arts network are staging two group exhibitions of feminist art created as part of and also alongside academic study. The first exhibition, entitled Éden, dva … pet (kosmatih) predlogov za boljši jutri (One, two... five (big fat) suggestions for a better tomorrow) was open for viewing at the Alkatraz gallery, and the second is part of the centenary of the University of Ljubljana and has been set up in the newly established Mala galerija at the Bank of Slovenia at Slovenska cesta 35.
The term ‘Loud-Life’ has been coined as a counter to ‘Still-life’ (tihožitje in Slovenian, literally ‘quiet life’), which was one of the rare art genres that women artists could pursue even up to the end of the 19th century. In art schools they were not permitted to depict nude life models, since this was considered inappropriate and indecent for them. The notion of indecency was of course merely a glass ceiling that prevented women from exploring more profitable ‘high’ historical art. The condition for such art was the skill of depicting the human body – i.e. nudes.
Loud-Life is an exhibition that instead of bouquets clearly and loudly proposes a rethink of the position of women, the LGBTIQ community and other vulnerable groups. At the same time, in a period when increasingly prominent traditionalist discourses are becoming hateful and (cis)sexist in mindset, the exhibition and its artists are demanding the support of the wider community, or as bell hooks puts it, “feminism is for everybody”.
Artists: Polona Drobnič, Tilyen Mucik, Urška Preis, Nina Baznik, Qëndresë Deda
Expert Director: doc. dr. Petja Grafenauer
Custos: mag. Ana Grobler
MGBS Curator: Vladimir Vidmar
Production: KUD Mreža, Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Academy of Music
