“In Slovenia the contemporary art scene has changed since the 90’s: that is, the way we work today is different from the way we worked in the past. But there’s a strange situation in contemporary art, in performances and in the theatre: a sharp difference between what we are and how we react. There’s a discrepancy, a missing link, and that’s why today we are moving faster, we talk faster, we are trying to re-establish a communication with friends we worked with in the past, but they are still here. Compared to the Soros period the protagonists have changed because the image and the structures of the finances have completely changed. So we are different in a way because we can no longer follow the course we were following: The structure of the finances is putting the structure of contemporary art under strain, on the one side it’s going well but on the other it is not.
A network and a website that ensure contacts between the countries of Central Eastern Europe is indispensable. Above all we have to be aware of the complex happenings in the world: when a part of the world is isolated, and it doesn’t matter which, there is always great damage because there is a mutual need for exchange between industrialized countries and those in a phase of transition. Therefore at the moment, the network is a possible base for communications, database, information and anything else it has to offer: because the network becomes like a human being, and is essential to contemporary art. The website is as useful as a book, but what good is a book if it’s not read? It has to be updated and made as functional as possible. It’s important to have contact with people, through the network and the database, to be able to go as far as possible. I know from my own experience, because I speak to people, and thanks to the information systems, at the same time, we can arrange team work and projects for the next ten years. In a few months Slovenia will become a member of the EU. But in reality Slovenia is a part of Europe, as it was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and belongs also to the Balkans. Its identity, made from mixtures and influences from other countries, will still remain the same. In moving towards the EU care has to be taken so as not to lose the human dimension: it’s more about humanity than interpersonal relations. At the moment there’s a tendency to discover Asian and African art to widen the vision of the world, but the Balkans are part of the world too.
Cooperation and joint curatorship of an art project can be complicated, and very often it means working alone for years. It’s certainly a sort of luxury: if curators are working on the same project, the time they need to produce something really valid can be a problem. Cooperation really works in theory but needs a lot of time in my experience.
Private and state funding is a sensitive subject, I can speak for my own experiences. I regularly receive economical support from the council of the commune of Lubijana, from the Department of Culture and Research and from the Ministry for Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. But I still have to find sponsors to finance projects. It would be excellent to have independent funds, that way I could apply personally to banks and work in freedom: but when all’s said and done, what is freedom?”