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OVERVIEW:
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Intermedia artists
Information about the works and international collaborations of Slovenia's most significant, pioneering and internationally renowned artists - including Marko Košnik (Egon March Institute), Marko Peljhan (Projekt Atol Institute), Vuk Ćosić, Igor Štromajer (Intima Virtual Base), Davide Grassi (since 2007 his name being Janez Janša) (Aksioma Institute), Vadim Fiškin (DUM Association of Artists), Damjan Kracina, Darij Kreuh, Borut Savski, Luka Frelih, Jaka Železnikar, Tanja Vujinović (EXSTAT) and Teo Spiller – is available in the Intermedia art timeline section of this overview.
As the intermedia field is by definition collaborative, the above artists create many of their projects in collaborations – Marko Peljhan collaborates with a technical crew ( Projekt Atol Institute being a producer of Dragan Živadinov Noordung Cosmokinetic Cabinet projects) and with musicians (eg Tao G Vrhovec Sambolec) from Slovenia as well as with international artists (eg Carsten Nicolai) and curators (eg Thomas Mulcaire from South Africa); Marko Košnik has collaborated with dancer and choreographer Mateja Bučar ( DUM Association of Artists) and with his international colleagues, mostly musicians and artists (eg Mike Hentz) from German-speaking countries; and Igor Štromajer ( Intima Virtual Base) has frequently collaborated with Davide Grassi ( Aksioma Institute) as well as with musician Brane Zorman and stage director and painter Vlado Repnik ( GVR). There have also been important collaborations between Jaka Železnikar, Aleksandra Globokar, Zvonka Simčić and Tanja Vujinović, all of whom later went solo. Programmer and media artist Luka Frelih has often contributed his skills to projects conceived by Marko Peljhan, Vuk Ćosić and Borut Savski.
Some visual artists have formed production units, representing the crossroads where different artistic directions and visions communicate under a common production roof. The 3via Art Association supports projects by Borut Savski, Mojca Marija Pungerčar and Marjan Kokot, while the Domestic Research Society produces projects in a newly-built Kabinet space conceived by Alenka Pirman, Damjan Kracina and Jani Pirnat, and engages in online wiki projects, eg Razvezani jezik - The Unleashed Tongue.
As anticipated by the group creative efforts of NSK over a period of some two decades, from 2000 a number of collaborative projects began to transform into a continuous shared authorship with the formation of new artistic groups or partnerships, most notably son:DA and the BridA collective.
The son:DA artistic alliance, which first emerged in 2000 within the context of the Klon.art.resistance group, has focused on interdisciplinary studies, speaking (and linking) new and old technologies in a critical and ironical way in its multimedia projects, installations and situations. In 2007 son:DA received the Golden Bird Award. The BridA collective conceptually bridge science and art; by combining computer science and social studies with art theory and practice, their works are realised in a hybrid world where the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional co-exist. BridA’s approach to collective work is conceptual: in this way new ideas are not only realised efficiently but also confronted and analysed immediately. Both groups regularly present their work internationally.
As the Slovenia Cultural Profile database does not feature individual artists – unless they are running their own NGO organisation and productions – there follows an overview of some emerging names in the field. During the last five years a new wave of artists from diverse backgrounds has appeared – at this stage it is impossible to determine whether they will develop full-blown intermedia concepts or are only flirting with intermedia arts. Given the diversity and (lack of) structure in the sector, which is extending and reinventing, merging performative practices with participatory and sharing principles, it would not be appropriate to single out or pigeon-hole particular authors, however a few of them have developed a conceptual framework and are internationally involved.
Artist Polona Tratnik is also active as a curator and organiser of various events, and as a writer and editor of texts on philosophy, aesthetics, contemporary art and culture. She has received several prizes (Rotary Award, Golden Bird Award) and is so far the only Slovene artist engaged in the field of so-called biotechnology art. She has exhibited at home and abroad either as a painter or as a multimedia or biotechnology artist, with selected presentations at L'Art Biotech (2003 Nantes, France), Breakthrough (2004 The Hague, Netherlands), the Biennale of Electronic Art (2004 Perth, Australia) and The Seven Sins – Ljubljana, Moscow (2004 Ljubljana, Slovenia). In 2005 she organised and curated the Break Festival 2.3 entitled New Species - more information about her projects and an archive of texts on the subject is available at http://www.ars-tratnik.si.
Multi-engaged copyleft author, DJ and programmer Luka Prinčič is the man behind many other artists’ intemedia or free software projects, and also the founding father of Kamizdat net, Slovenia's first non-profit net.label.
Miha Ciglar is a composer and sound artist from Maribor who now lives and works across Western Europe. His compositions for interactive dance performances, computer music and audiovisual installations often include mixing board and human body as instruments in combination with saxophone, guitar, vibraphone and/or double bass - more information is available at http://ciglar.mur.at.
Miha Presker received the OHO Group Award in 2007 for his project with Luiza Margan called Formication. His work comprises mainly installations and interactive sculptures, which use light as their main inspiration and material in order to research and display the contrast between human and machine perception.
Marko Batista, one of the founding members of the multimedia group Klon:Art:Resistance (together with Miha Horvat of son:DA), now lives and works between Ljubljana and London. He continues to explore digital sound environments in connection with image transformation processes, technology, networking data, sound layering and displaced soundscapes, collaboration, linking concepts, (new) media studies, hybrid spaces, contemporary society, diversity of art systems, politics of art and other fields of contemporary mixed media art – more information is available at http://www.project-data.info.
Martin Bricelj works as a media artist and graphic designer. He co-founded the CodeSign Studio for Visual Communication and the multimedia collective CodeEp, where he organises different audio-visual events (eg the Spring Festival in Ljubljana) and exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. He has exhibited in many galleries and museums, including the ICA in London, Kaapelithas in Helsinki, Columbia University in New York, Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires, the Kunsthaus in Graz, and many others. He has received the Europrix Top Talent Award (TTA) and the British Council International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year (IYDEY) Award - more information is available at http://www.martinbricelj.com.
Other artists who have flirted with intermedia arts include Boštjan Špetic (Decoupage, presented at Break 2.3 and the IFCA Festival), Daša Lakner (Ojdipus/Celica organizma, Krivda spomina, etc) and Robertina Šebjanić (Medmesto, together with Špela Ivančić and Saša Spačal).
Err0r, a creative collective comprising Boštjan Špetič, Martin Hribar, Martin Preželj, Anže Veršnik and Daša Lakner, conceives, organises and performs several ‘homegrown’ intermedia projects, including multimedia performances and interactive sound installations. This is probably the youngest Slovene intermedia art group, and its creative core is gathered in and around Cyberpipe - more information is available at http://www.kiberpipa.org/err0r.
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