Jana Flego and Katarina Petrov: Inside-Out
Author: Jana Flego and Katarina Petrov
Title: Inside-Out
Year of creation: 2004
Owner: Jana Flego and Katarina Petrov
Work Data: A series of 4 videos: VIDEO 1: Art institutions, Cultural politics and financing, Political and social function of art. VIDEO 2: Contemporary art and mass media, Contemporary art and technologies. Content VIDEO 3: Evaluation of art. VIDEO 4: Relationship: curator – artist, Contemporary artist.
Format: DVD
Duration: VIDEO 1: 22’18 min, VIDEO 2: 21:32 min, VIDEO 4: 31’19 min
Description of work:
The project Inside-Out is raising the issue and reflecting upon the position of contemporary artist in light of various factors that influence his/her professional realisation. The message of the project is aimed towards raising the awareness on the issue of both professional and larger public. The authors ascertain that an artist constantly encounters on his/her way influential factors that are not necessarily connected to his/her creative work. This applies to factors that arise out of the altered functioning and (self)understanding of the art field as such but also to those that occur in spaces that are (supposedly) excluded from the artistic field and are connected to economic, political, mass-media, scientific and other social spheres. In their previous research, which is among other things the basis of the project Inside-Out, the authors have analysed the attitudes and activities of those established representatives of various vocational groups and artistic orientations who work within the frame of Slovenian contemporary art scene. Based on the findings of that research, they have assembled a kind of psychological-geographical-political-aesthetic model of activities within the art field in Slovenia. That ‘scientific’ model was subsequently transferred into a concrete artistic medium: a spatial audio-visual installation that includes a cacophony of attitudes, beliefs and convictions of established Slovenian curators and artists (Igor Zabel, Alenka Gregorič, Žiga Kariž, Dragan Živadinov, Davide Grassi etc.). In a material artistic sense, the installation represents different starting points, ideas and statuses of individuals active on the Slovenian artistic scene; it interweaves and connects them critically in a kaleidoscopic sound violence and visual disintegration. The installation thus becomes a systematic-anarchic collage of opinions and reflections on contemporary art and those factors that influence it, its main significance being the audio-visual confrontation enacted on the screens and visual projections by Slovenian curators and artists.
Jana Flego (1977)
Between 1996 and 2000 she studied Fine Arts at the Ljubljana School of Drawing and Painting. She works within the field of contemporary art, stage and costume design and restoration as well as with design and illustration. In 1998 she has co-founded the Association MKC Medvode. She presented her artistic work among other occasions in ŠKUC Gallery in Ljubljana (2004, 2005), at the Ljubljana festival Break 21 (2000), at the fortress Goričane (1999), in Labin, Croatia (1997). She collaborated as stage designer on projects of Škuc Ventilator, Chilli Space, the full-length feature film An Ode to Prešeren by Martin Srebotnjak and on projects of MKC Medvode. As assistant costume designer she worked on numerous TV series (Our Little Clinic, It Happens, Gardeners) and movies (History of Istria, Suburbia, Blind Spot, Marmelade).
Katarina Petrov (1974)
Graduated in 2004 at the School of Fine Arts in Ljubljana at the Painting Department. She works in the field of design, art, visual communications and Web presentations design. She presented her artistic work in Škuc gallery in Ljubljana (2004-2005), at the Mala Loka fortress (1997, 1998, 1999) and at exhibitions at School of Painting and Drawing – High professional school 1997-1999). She designed several Web presentations for artists, exhibitions and cultural organisations and conducted two workshops.