31st Youth Salon : Corrections

HDLU – Croatian Association of Visual Artists

Trg žrtava fašizma bb, Zagreb

www.hdlu.hr

4th-23rd of September 2012.

Opening hours: 4:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.

Admission free

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31. SALON MLADIH : KOREKCIJE
31st YOUTH SALON : WHERE TO ELECT THERE IS BUT ONE

“Where to elect there is but one, / ‘Tis Hobson’s choice – take that, or none,” says Thomas Ward in his 1688 poem “England’s Reformation”, referring to the famous Hobson’s paradoxical choice of “take it or leave it”. As the story goes, Hobson rented horses and let the customer choose whichever they wanted, provided that the horse picked was the closest one to the stable-door. A couple hundred years later, in light of the theoretical discourse of choice, Hobson’s choice resounds as a brisk and resigned satire of all the resistance movements, from his contemporary Guy Fawkes to our own contemporaries, the various Occupy movements, who hide themselves behind the masks of the very same anarchist from London.
It would be difficult, even impossible perhaps, to determine the actual number of biennial exhibitions worldwide, but we can safely guess that there may be hundreds of them, that they differ in scope, and that there are very few of them which, not unlike our Youth Salon, stubbornly attempt to change, redefine and even abolish themselves with each new incarnation. Ever since its inception in 1968, each new Salon has, in its own way, attempted to evade the fundamentals of either Cross-section or Situation approach to current art production; nevertheless there remains a constant paradoxical truth that all the Salons have so far fallen victim to a single, distinctive trait of the political reality of the region (and beyond). Regardless of the changes’ course, for better or for worse, each new elected body has thoroughly rejected the work of the previous one and has started from scratch. From uncompromising selection, foreign guests, open ateliers, authors’ exhibitions, across the revolution and all the way to the market, there have been so many approaches, tried, proven and soon abandoned after they had demonstrated their precise advantages and weaknesses. This year’s Salon intends to go back to those successful attempts of fellow curators and artists, to establish a continuum by reapplying their well-proven methods and bring to the fore the one question that lingers in the background of these exhibitions: is there any possible way of artistic rebellion through institutionalized channels?
This very question is the cornerstone of the exhibition at hand. The diagnoses, in keeping with the previous exhibitions, persist: in many cases the level of visual literacy is extremely low, the submitted works of art are accompanied by texts that (even though produced by future holders of university level degrees) sometimes happen to be inarticulate almost to the point of amazement, while the inventiveness or the level of performance are largely indicative of the absence of any interest and self-education. In line with this, it is my opinion that this selection suffers from the same ailments that plague any group exhibition. In other words, the criteria differ from and struggle not against the intention of presenting the finest of the production, but the requirements of the review exhibition of the Youth Salon: to highlight the new names, bring out the artists whose concept or execution stand out in any way, or who have submitted applications that were complete, well-devised and made sufficient sense. One should not, however, presume that there are no rejected works better than those accepted. This might indeed be the case, and it is precisely why the archive of the submitted applications is open: because the Cross-section and the Situation are not only represented by the exhibited works, but by the works which have been rejected, as well as those works which have refused to apply to Salon.
This Salon considers everyone accepted and, therefore, this issue’s program, the Corrections, is open to everyone. Youth Salon is not a single month in two years’ time. In fact, the issue of the future life of the Salon lies not in the exhibition alone, but in the work between two Salons, all the efforts made by participants, the collaboration between the institution and the individual, and the development of the system of education. It is safe to establish that the said has been true, or at least partially applicable to the concepts of all the previous exhibitions. Accordingly, it is very likely that such situation will go on by sheer inertia. This year’s Youth Salon is yet another experiment, the 31st in a series of experiments and its results must be observed in light of its experimental nature; which is exactly what the Salon can and should, if nothing else, afford itself.

Curator of the 31st Youth Salon: Vladimir Čajkovac

Exhibited: Jelena Azinović, Vanja Babić, Jelena Dabić, Sebastijan Dračić, Dalia Finek, Martina Grlić, Luka Hrgović and Duje Medić, Vida Guzmić, Nina Kurtela, Ivan Latin, Hana Miletić, OKO, Pavle Pavlović, Petar Popijač, Ivan Prerad, Dina Rončević, Igor Ruf, Damir Sobota, Lana Stojićević, Stipan Tadić, Vanja Trobić i Damir Žižić.

PROGRAM: CORRECTIONS

1. Could artists rebel through institutions at all?

The central issue of this year’s Salon is the shape and purpose of the exhibition as Salon gradually came to oppose the institutionalized events and the most frequent objection to the “exhibited cross-section of two years’ creative work” is directly opposite the original ideas of rebellion of the young artists. This years’ Salon features only 20 works out of 180 submitted, but the true paradox is in the fact that a large number of those “rejected” – or in this Salon’s preferred wording, “not included”, has already been included in exhibitions of more renown. What future format of presentation will be responsible for treading new paths in art, while at the same time providing space for the affirmation of upcoming young artists, and must this platform necessarily have the format of an exhibition?

Leader: Karla Pudar

Wednesday, Septmeber 5th, 7:00 p.m.
Joanna Warsza, Laura Palmer Foundation, Warsaw
Marko Golub, HDD, Zagreb
Leila Topić, MSU, Zagreb

Saturday, September 8th, 7:00 p.m.
Annabelle Diot, Lordculture, Pariz
Emily Butler, Whitechapel Gallery, London

Saturday, Septmeber 15th, 7:00 p.m.
Borbála Szalai, freelance curator, Budapest
Áron Fenyvesi, Trafó Gallery, Budapest

Lead by: Martina Kontošić, Tihana Puc, Martina Vrbanić, Marko Janković

Friday, Septmeber 21st, 7:00 p.m.
Biserka Cvjetičanin, Institute for International Relations, Zagreb
From the European Coal and Steel Community to the Creative Europe: European Cultural Policy and Cooperation
Sanjin Dragojević, Faculty of Political Sciences, Zagreb
The Importance of Strategic Planning for Culture Development

Saturday, September 22nd, 7:00 p.m.
Stefano Baia Curioni, Universita’ Bocconi, Milano
Status Creation Process in the Contemporary Art

2. PKP – Curatorial Platform Practicum

Open office of the Curatorial Platform Practicum (KPP) is situated on the second floor of the Ring.
Curatorial Platform (CP) is a project launched in the 2008 intended to provide additional theoretical and practical training in the field of contemporary art. CP is dedicated to improving the knowledge of visual arts and to being a meeting place and a workplace for artists and curators from Croatia and abroad. Along with two established research programs, the Methods and Strategies of Exhibition Practices and the Text and Context, this year’s program includes the Curatorial Platform Practicum. Work on an actual exhibition project is an important part of the curator program, as it provides the participants with an insight into possible methodological, technical and theoretical tools available to them in the course of crafting a concept and bringing about the devised project.

Curatorial Platform Practicum (CPP) was introduced to the life of the Salon during the analyses and final defining stages of the current, 31st Youth Salon. As a part of a learning experience, the Practicum is an attempt to create an entity of critique within the Salon itself, striving to monitor the work of the curator, analyse the concept, purpose and objectives of the Salon, the ‘selection’ process of the artists involved, keep track of events, and engage in dialogue with guests and participants of the entire event.
Through analysis, research and exploration of the publicly open archive of submitted works, the Curatorial Platform will try to deconstruct the Salon with the ultimate goal of providing guidelines for its future embodiments. Thus, in dialogue with the current Salon and within the current “CORRECTIONS” program, it strives to produce one of the possible curatorial concepts.
CPP will monitor, index and critically process the contents of the current Salon and problematize the role and the future of the Youth Salon.

Coordinator: Mirna Rul

www.kustoskaplatforma.com

Participants of CPP: Julija Gracin, Barbara Katić Jovanović, Čejen Černić, Nevenka Šarčević, Irena Solenički, Ana Perišić, Tea Hatadi, Željana Bilušica, Lena Di Sopra, Mirna Rul, Lidija Gamulin, Dora Sapunar i Ana Benčik

PARALLEL SALON

Committee for the Parallel Salon is located on the first floor of the Ring.
It is intended to create an opposition to the Salon by relying on the vague traditions of Gorgona’s legacy and the imaginary pavilions of the General Idea Collective, rather than the methods of the traditional Salon of the Reject. The Parallel Salon will be used as a tool in search of a vision of what the Salon might have been, by means of browsing through and exploring the submitted works, public reassessment of the contents of the archive of submitted works, the selection criteria and the possibilities of exhibition, exploring the opinions expressed by artists, visitors and guests about the positions of the selection, the purpose of both the artist and the institution, and by analysing the works and artists included in the Salon of the Reject.
Research results will be included in the Catalogue of the Salon.
Coordinators: CPP and Vladimir Čajkovac.

The case for the Antisalon or the Salon of the Reject within the limits of the Parallel Salon will be advocated by Vladimir Tatomir and Stipan Tadić. We believe that in these cases we can no longer speak of rejected artists or works of art, but that the Salon of the Reject is interesting as a case study of young artists’ positioning, the conditions that foster opposition and the relationship between artists and institutions. We are pleased that this year we can bring this aspect to the table of critique of the Salon’s institution.

An exhibition will be placed in the facilities of Medika Company. For further information and application write to antisalon12@gmail.com.
Organization of Antisalon / Salon of the Reject: Stipan Tadić, Vladimir Tatomir

ARCHIVE OF THE SUBMITTED WORKS

Documentation regarding those participants who have applied for the Salon and approve inclusion of their works in the program of “CORRECTIONS” will be available for review.

3. SALON OUT OF

One of the objectives of the current Salon is to broaden the Youth Salon’s operations beyond the scope of national selection and biennial exhibition. Youth Salon exhibition will be host to Greek artist Petros Moris and Noah Angell will hold a lecture upon recommendation of Irena Borić. At the exhibition, which they will curate in October in the spaces of the HDLU, the Youth Salon will attend the installation of works by a young artist Mladen Miljanović for [BLOK].

Thursday, Septmeber 13th, 7:00 p.m.
Petros Moris, Curatorial Platform KERNEL, Atena – London
Procedural: Collection – Structural Adornment / Inherited Activity
Performance, interview with the artist

Wednesday, September 18th, 8:00 p.m.
Noah Angell
Forgetting and Negative Space in the ethnographic field recording
Performance-lecture, interview with the artist

Date yet undetermined
Mladen Miljanović, Banja Luka
Goodnight / State of the Body
Announcement of exhibition planned for October, curated by Ivana Hanaček, Ana Kutleša and Marijana Rimanić for [BLOK] within project “In Between the Worlds”.

4. WORK PROGRAM

Workshops

Monday, September 17th, 6:00 p.m. – Friday, September 22nd, 6:00 p.m.
Organization and promotion of an exhibition
Leader: Tena Razumović

The intent of the workshop is the development of practical skills and personal qualities required for the organization of art, design or event exhibitions. The applicants will be educated as team members, but they will nevertheless be exposed to a wide range of organizational issues. The intention of the workshop is to entice the applicants to take active part in the workshop, develop their skills in project planning, to encourage them in the management of their projects, to help them acquire practical knowledge in marketing and presentation of projects and to effectively cooperate within a team, as well as act as its leader.

The applicants are encouraged to submit their application to e-mail address hdlu@hdlu.hr, or at the telephone no 01/ not later than September 14th with reference Razumović

Tuesday September 18th, 7:00 p.m.
Artists as participants in labour market, with regard to copyright law and financial implications
Leader: Stribor Jurčić, copyright specialist

Panel on protection of copyrights owned by visual artists and realization of rights arising from authoring a piece of art, part of the rich Pegaz copyright education program for Croatian authors, producers and performance artists in cooperation with HDLU. Free admission for all applicants.
This workshop will be dealing with the problems that the visual artist face once they become a part of the labour force – whether they are to deliver their pieces as freelance artists or they are employed as creative personnel in production of web pages, logos, illustration etc. We would like all of us to share our experience with issues such as copyright and financial protection aspects of implied or written contractual engagements, tax issues, chartered freelance artist status and, furthermore, the problems of unlawful alteration of the copyright protected works, plagiarism, unfair competition of “Chinese goods” and similar issues.

The applicants are encouraged to submit their application to e-mail address hdlu@hdlu.hr, or at the telephone 01/ not later than September 14th with reference Jurčić

Ongoing program / Pilot program

Friday, September 14th, 7:00 p.m.
Incubator – Case study
Project managers / moderators of the debate: Marko Janković, Martina Kontošić
Walking in the wake of a hypothesis stating that in between their potentials, institutionalized education and realization, artists find themselves in a logistic vacuum, the Salon will host a debate concerning the development of focused support for young artists. Further developments of the concept would include analyses of aspects of education, relations with administrative bodies and issues of representation arising in the course of cooperation between the artist and the project manager. The desired outcome of such cooperation is increase in the number of artists capable of overcoming the difficulties of adapting to the reality of market conditions and life outside Academy, thus continuing their creative production.

GUIDE (through art scene and art market)
Closed debate
Meeting of the Working Group established with the objective to develop the project of organizing a market for contemporary art in Croatia by determining the current situation, defining a framework for future development, testing a system for creating value and defining a price for a piece of contemporary art, and – after long-term study has been conducted – assembling the insights in a handbook for purchase of works produced by contemporary artists.

Course – Cultural Management
Closed debate
Meeting of the working group for initiation of a new university course for management in culture, lectured within educational institutions belonging to the University of Zagreb. The group shall meet to discuss and create a framework for future contents of the course and examine the reality of conducting such a course.

5. MOVIES

STRATEGIES OF RESISTANCE – open selection of movies dealing with issues of rebellion and resistance
Sundays, 5:00 to 10:00 p.m.

Video program – a wide selection of short videos, including experimental and music video.
Selection by: Livio Rajh
Tuesdays, 9:00 to 10:30 p.m.

Entire program for the 31st Youth salon is available here.