Saša Glavan: Travelling the World of Art

In the world of contemporary art travelling has most certainly become a modus operandi, however it is usually due to the lack of time of the overbooked protagonists restricted to a mere quick overview of a certain artistic climate. Such a situation enables of course only segmental overviews, often also without a true contact with the artists. Therefore for example the main sources of information with regards to the events on the Eastern part of the European continent, regardless of the big boom of art from beyond the iron curtain remain magazines and exhibitions, which are published or take place in the West.

Even networking and various conference lists on the world-wide web did not give a satisfactory result regardless of the euphoria at the beginning. They have enabled the flow of mostly dull information, however it was soon pretty obvious that for a detailed look into a certain artistic event, and even more so for the actual "making" of projects, physical attention at the place of the event and a personal contact is needed.

Study excursions within the frame of the World of Art courses for curators started in 1998. The intention was clear: take young people who will, in the future, deal with art outside of their domestic circles and in individual cases show them the variety, various methods, approaches and techniques within the artistic scene. At the same time the travels were planned in such a way that they covered as many individual segments as possible; from meetings with curators of large art institutions to visits of alternative spaces and discussions with artists. This year the traditional visit to Vienna was accompanied by visits to Poland and Sarajevo. The latter represented a novelty for the visit was, for the first time, opened also for individuals who did not attend the course. It has proven that such research of individual art scenes presents a welcomed opportunity for professionals also, who are already dealing with contemporary art and encounter the aforementioned problems of lack of time and overwork.

This is most probably also the reason that concrete consequences of the World of Art programme appeared this year, despite not being present in former years. Apart from the exhibition Visitors, which will open in October 1999 in the Škuc Gallery and is signed by the course attendees of this years course for curators, the artists from Sarajevo will present themselves also at three other exhibitions on the sunny side of the Alps: in Kostanjevica, Celje and Maribor.

V svetu sodobne umetnosti so potovanja nedvomno postala modus operandi, ponavadi pa so žal spričo pomanjkanja časa prezaposlenih protagonistov omejena le na površen prelet določene umetnostne klime. Takšne razmere seveda omogočajo samo segmentarne preglede, pogosto celo brez dejanskih stikov z umetniki. Glavni viri informacij o dogajanju na vzhodni strani evropske celine, kljub velikemu bumu umetnosti izza železne zavese, tako npr. še vedno prepogosto ostajajo revije in razstave, ki nastajajo oz. se dogajajo na Zahodu.

Tudi mreženje in različne konferenčne liste na svetovnem spletu kljub začetni evforiji niso dale zadovoljivega rezultata. Omogočile so sicer pretok pretežno suhoparnih informacij, a hitro se je izkazalo, da je za poglobljen vpogled v določeno umetnostno dogajanje, še bolj pa za dejansko "delanje" projektov, potrebna fizična navzočnost na mestu dogajanja in osebni stik.

Študijska potovanja so se v sklop tečajev za kustose Svet umetnosti umestila v letu 1998. Namen je bil jasen: popeljati mlade, bodoče umetnostne akterje ven iz domačih logov in jim tako na primerih pokazati pestrost različnih metod, pristopov in tehnik delovanja znotraj umetnostnih scen. Obenem so bila potovanja zasnovana tako, da so pokrila čim več posameznih segmentov; od srečanj s kustosi velikih umetnostnih institucij do obiskov alternativnih prostorov in pogovorov z umetniki. Letos sta se že tradicionalnemu Dunaju pridružila Poljska in Sarajevo. Ravno slednji pa je predstavljal novost, saj smo obisk prvič odprli tudi za tiste, ki niso vključeni v tečaj. Izkazalo se je, da so tovrstne raziskave posameznih umetnostnih scen dobrodošle tudi profesionalcem, ki se s sodobno umetnostjo že ukvarjajo in se soočajo z opisanimi težavami pomanjkanja časa in preobilice dela.

To je najbrž tudi razlog, da so se doslej pretežno neotipljivim "rezultatom" Sveta umetnosti letos pridružile tudi čisto konkretne posledice. Poleg razstave Obiskovalci, ki se bo oktobra 1999 odprla v Galeriji Škuc in jo podpisujejo letošnji tečajniki tečaja za kustose, se bodo sarajevski umetniki predstavili še na treh razstavah na sončni strani Alp: v Kostanjevici, Celju in Mariboru.