In November, we continue to carry out important projects that mark the autumn-winter programme of public service activities of the Piran Coastal Galleries.
In the Loža Gallery in Koper, the exhibition by MARINA GRŽINIĆ & AINA ŠMID entitled ODPADNIŠKE ZGODOVINE (Renegade Histories) will open on Friday, 25 November 2022. The authors have been working with video since 1982. They have participated at numerous video, media, and film presentations and been the recipients of numerous awards. In 2003, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in Germany showed their retrospective entitled MARINA GRŽINIĆ / AINA ŠMID (1985–2003). In 2011, Galerie D.O.R. in Brussels ran their retrospective entitled MARINA GRŽINIĆ / AINA ŠMID, 30 LET: 26 DEL V 5-ih DELIH / MARINA GRŽINIĆ / AINA ŠMIT: 30 YEARS: 26 WORKS IN 5 PARTS (a projection of video works from 1982 to 2011). In 2017, Kunstraum Lakeside in Klagenfurt hosted a grand exhibition of new works and installations entitled Marina Gržinić in Aina Šmid – RADIKALNA SODOBNOST: pregled 35 let dela (1982–2017) (Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid – RADICAL CONTEMPORANEITY: a review of 35 years of work (1982–2017)), curated by Aneta Stojnić. The Piran Coastal Galleries are not hosting a retrospective, but rather a rearticulation of the existing state in video production in the national context. The artists are exhibiting for the first time in the Piran Coastal Galleries, presenting rich content and a review of their work. The exhibition will run until 28 February 2023.
Their stories are positioned at the intersection of documentary and fiction with the aim to introduce new tactics of performative operation. The videos are conceived in such a way that they reveal the processes of social contradictions, racial discrimination, and expropriation by the capital. Gržinić & Šmid warn about the necropolitical aspect organised by the European space. In their work entitled Čista Svoboda/Pure Freedom they explain that the present-day globalisation is the main cause of wars that are driven by the global capitalistic “First World”, hence of circumstances that do not succeed in recognising the effects on other fields, such as culture and education. One of the most important suggestions in their work is that we recognise the appropriation of the visual from the side of the post-industrial, digital, economic, and political system and fit the political fight in its place. More info at…
A day later, on Saturday, 26 November, it will be time for the traditional, 39. PIRANSKI DNEVI ARHITEKTURE (PDA) / 39th Piran Architecture Days. Ever since the beginning, the Piran Coastal Galleries has participated with the Dessa Gallery from Ljubljana in the organisation of this internationally renowned event. The honorary patron of this year’s event is Minister of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia Dr Asta Vrečko. The PDA programme includes a conference on architecture or lectures by renowned architects from different countries, an exhibition, and the award ceremony of the Piranesi awards as well as numerous accompanying events. Lectures on this year’s theme HONEST ARCHITECTURE will take place on Saturday, 26 November 2022, in the Portorož Auditorium. The conference will conclude on Saturday evening with the opening of the Piranesi exhibition and the Piranesi award ceremony in the Stone Hall of the Monfort Gallery in Portorož. This will be followed by a gathering accompanied by the music of Vlado Batista & jazz trio Stringsi.
Attention should be drawn to two events in the PDA accompanying programme, which will take place the day before the conference, on Friday, 25 November 2022: SPREHOD PO POTI ŠTORTA (from 11 am to 1 pm, gathering point at the Fornače bus station, Piran) as an introduction and preparation for the exhibition by Marjetica Potrč entitled VODA IN ZEMLJA (Water and Earth), which will open on 17 December 2022 in the Piran Town Gallery. The walk is organised by Abakkum Zavod za krajino, kulturo in umetnost Piran with the support of the Piran Coastal Galleries.
After the walk, the programme will continue in the evening in the Herman Pečarič Gallery, where at 7 pm the opening of the PIRANESI 30: 30 LET REVIJE PIRANESI exhibition will take place. The exhibition organised by the Piranesi Foundation in collaboration with the Piran Coastal Galleries will be open until 20 January 2023. More info at…
The third symposium sculpture, created by the Italian sculptor ALBERTO SCODRO at last year’s FORMA VIVA 2021, will be moved from the workshop in Seča to Izola in November. The three and a half ton stone sculpture will be placed on the green surface in Livade, the area near the new bicycle park (the asphalt pumptrack polygon), which the Municipality of Izola has dedicated to active pastime. The sculptor’s intention was to transfer one of the most beautiful scenes in the starry sky, the Milky Way, to Istrian stone. The artistic interpretation of the myth of the origins of this galaxy is malicious, as it ironically grounds the symbolism of the Greek tale.
The autumn activities of the pedagogical programme are very diverse. In addition to numerous creative workshops for kindergartens and schools, we would like to point out an interesting novelty: our custodian educator Ana Papež prepared a short expert video contribution on the topic of graphics, which in the words of students is one of the more difficult things for them to grasp in the art lessons. In cooperation with a teacher and educator from the Sečovlje Primary School, Prof of fine arts Andreja Ozebek, the Piran Coastal Galleries organised a graphics workshop. Pupils learned about the three graphic techniques (of flat and letterpress print): a monotype, pochoir, and collage print. The purpose of the “graphics lesson” is to bring graphic creation closer to all art teachers as well as students, since the film covers both the practical and theoretical parts. The video is available on the Piran Coastal Galleries website and has Slovenian and Italian subtitles to make this fun lesson available to all deaf and hard-of-hearing children and teens as well as the widest possible audience. Students can learn about concepts such as the matrix, circulation, art graphic, industrial graphic, graphic sheet, etc. They learn about what should accompany an original art graphic, that is the handmade impression which is marked by the author’s signature (the serial number of the impression in a specific series or circulation, the technique, the title of the work, the years of its creation, the author). This graphics lesson will also be an important tool in the preparation for the winter Prešernovanje OGP 2023. More info at…
On Friday, 21 October 2022, the Monfort Gallery in Portorož hosted the opening of the international group exhibition entitled NEXT GENERATION. It is an important contribution of the Piran Coastal Galleries to connecting study practices of this field with the public museum-gallery space. The exhibition presents artworks of 33 young authors from eight art academies and university programmes for the visual arts in Venice, Ljubljana, Vienna, and Koper. The project, which was accompanied by a two-day international symposium entitled NOVI HORIZONTI: GENERACIJE, UMETNOST IN TEME PRIHODNOSTI (New horizons: Generations, art, and topics of the future), was conceived as a collective moment of meeting, gathering, and confronting an international group of professors, assistants, artists, and students who participated at the Monfort Gallery in Portorož between 20 and 22 October 2022. The exhibition will be open there until 30 December 2022. More info at…
You are warmly invited to visit the exhibitions currently running in Koper. Until 15 November 2022 you can visit the exhibition of the perspective artist LARA JERANKO MARCONI entitled NOREC (Lunatic) at the Loža Gallery. At the Meduza Gallery in Koper you can visit the exhibition of the fourth edition of the SPEKULA 22 manifesto until the end of the year. It presents works (installations, photography, video, paintings) of the artists ŽIGA KARIŽ, VIKTOR BERNIK, IGOR ANDJELIĆ, and LEON ZUODAR. More info at…
We look forward to seeing you!