We started our first visit to Ljubljana as part of our residencies with a walk to the Škuc
Gallery, where we were met by Nevena Aleksovski, an artist and gallery associate. Škuc (a
student cultural center) is a cult venue where many now-established artists once exhibited.
Today, with the presence of many galleries in the city, they are seeking their own specificity
in experimental, process-based exhibitions and research, which occupy a good part of the
program. The gallery is just one part of the activities of the Škuc association, which, among
other things, runs a gay and lesbian club and has been promoting LGBT culture for four
decades, organizes concerts, performances, workshops, publishes publications, organizes
the Mediterranea youth biennial in Trieste, etc. After talking with Nevena, we headed to the
studio of the Kela art collective, which recently moved to new premises and currently has 11
members. In the studio, we met part of the collective in the working process and a few
colleagues who also worked in the space. In the dynamic atmosphere of the studio, Peter
Fettich and Peter Rauch introduced us to the collective's work. It is a collective that
organically came together out of a need for space and a common interest – to explore
expressive artistic approaches, which have photography as their common point. They share
the costs of the space in which they create both individually and collectively, which resulted
in several exhibitions to which they were invited as a collective. Kela has also established
itself as a space where, with the assistance of the collective members, it is possible to carry
out the production of specific ideas and enlargements, which turned out to be a need in the
scene.
From Kela, we went to the Photon gallery, which specializes in photography and operates in
Ljubljana and Vienna. We were met by Špela Pipan, the curator, who guided us through the
current exhibition by Hungarian photographer Anna Fabricius. In the building, which houses
the headquarters of many NGOs, studios, training spaces and galleries, we also visited the
P74 gallery. It is an artist run gallery, whose leader is the artist Tadej Pogačar. P74 also
functions as a publishing house when exhibiting contemporary art. The gallery's foyer is also
an exhibition space, with a focus on drawing, print, zine or publication. This space is called
the Capsule.
Our visit to Ljubljana was marked by a warm, spring day, so we walked between the spaces
and spent most of the day outdoors.
