Curator: Miha Colner
Production: SCCA-Ljubljana, 2011
Duration: 65′ 50”

The socialist system which reigned in Eastern Europe a considerable part of the 20th Century seeded a notable fear in the e.g. western democracies on the basis of the enforced propaganda that had created numerous stereotypes about that geopolitical area. Totalitarian organisation of everyday life, poverty, repression, lawlessness, specific collective urbanisation and aggressive industrialisation are probably some of the most common misconceptions about the “wild east” before (and after) the fall of the Berlin Wall. That kind of discourse had vehemently found its way also into the context of fine arts that considers eastern part of the old continent as a morbid and dark place, marked by gloominess, remnants of architectural projects and decaying industrial objects.
The selection of five works displays different genres of works and generations of artists from Slovenia that refer to such dark motives of decaying industrial spaces. However, in these works the industrial heritage is interpreted in a more undogmatic and ambivalent ways that have not necessarily negative connotations.

In her video entitled Away Ana Sluga (2006) presents a painful demolition of an old building that is symbolising the end of a certain period in time on the very personal as well as on broader public level. The capitalist system has become a global dogma that shows no respect to the past or responsibility to the future. On the contrary, it aims at reshaping and homogenising all the people and places of the entire Earth. In music video spot It Rains by hard-core group Tožibabe [Kiss and Tell] Zemira Alajbegović & Neven Korda (1986) present a dark picture of the urban centre, their marginal and industrial structures that reflect rebellious spirit of Yugoslav hard-core movement in the 80s. In acted video performance Song of Flesh and Image Was Made Body Marko Kovačič (1985) uses stage scenery of heavy industry production hall for a subtle portray of interplay between fiction and reality. It is based on seeing the already seen and recycling the scenes of the past in an entirely new context. In computer animated video Zone D TEMP Group or a part of the group (Robertina Šebjanič, Peter Košir, Luka Prinčič) (2005) presented the possibilities of changing the purpose of degenerated, mostly, industrial districts in Ljubljana and juxtaposed them to the living urban spaces. Zone D was a part of a wider project by TEMP Group that had in 2006 squatted abandoned Rog Factory in the centre of the capital city for cultural purposes and other public interests. In cooperation with the dance group En Knap Sašo Podgoršek (1996) created dance video work Vertigo Bird. He used elements of performing arts and contemporary dance to present a personal relationship of choreographer Iztok Kovač to his home town filled with industrial remains and abandoned mine shafts.

Ana Sluga, Away, 1′
Ana Sluga, 2006

Alajbegović Zemira & Neven Korda, It Rains, 2′ 29”
Alajbegović Zemira & Neven Korda, 1986

Marko A. Kovačič, Song of Flesh and Image Was Made Body, 16′ 25”
ŠKUC-Forum, Ljubljana 1985

TEMP Group (Robertina Šebjanič, Peter Košir, Luka Prinčič), Zone D, 11′ 59”
Robertina Šebjanič, 2005

Sašo Podgoršek, Vertigo Bird, 33′
En-Knap & TV Slovenia, 1996