Kaja Kraner, Izidor Barši (ŠUM Collective): Alternative Organizing and Survival Strategies in Contemporary Art

World of Art | School for Curatorial Practices and Critical Writing | Year 16


Meetings will be devoted to consideration of: systemic, cultural and political specifics that are from the 90’s onwards essential to characterization of the production and functioning of contemporary art in Slovenia; presentation of some examples of alternative organization, functioning and production of exhibitions from the local area; reflection/confrontation of different approaches in response to systemic conditions such as those found in some recent artistic and curatorial practices in the international arena.


Photogallery (photo: SCCA-Ljubljana Archive)


Izidor Barši holds a degree in philosophy and sociology of culture at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. He has contributed texts on philosophy, art and architecture to Tribuna, Mladina, Delo, Praznine, and Emzin. Since 2010, he has been a regular contributor at the culture and the humanities desk at Radio Študent; since 2013 he is a member of the editorial board of Šum magazine. Between 2014 and 2015 he was the editor of Tribuna magazine. In addition, he has helped organise and lead a few theoretical reading seminars focused on philosophy and theory at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Moderna galerija, and Rog Factory.

Kaja Kraner primarily works as a writer of critical, theoretical texts and radio shows in the field of contemporary art. She helps create the programme of Pekarna Magdalenske mreže, is a member of the editorial board of Šum and a co-editor of Art-area, an emission on Radio Študent. In addition, she (co-)leads reading seminars on contemporary art organised by Šum and Neteorit collective. She has focused especially on the relations between art, politics, and theory, as well as on the production conditions of contemporary art. She is currently exploring the concept of the geopolitics of art in the framework of her PhD.