FUNDUS - Winter's Uncle; Summer Tale (WU ST)
Is a dance-theatre performance in which the space is taken by forty five museum items from the repository of the City Museum of Ljubljana and twenty contemporary artworks. The installation functions both as a museum exhibition and a scenographic performance. The performance was premiered on 1 December 2009 in Gallery Jakopič Ljubljana. The Repository WUST installation was open from 1-7 December 2009.
The performance The Repository WUST questions the role of preservation, protection and recollection through a random theatrical archive space. The play is set in a museum depot or in a place where objects, that are otherwise temporarily removed or taken away from view, are stored and preserved. The entry into the environment of fine art inside the scheme of a theatrical space is created with words: Can I ask a question? Yes, of course. On another level, the entries are immediate - either as the opening of a SPACE, the unveiling of artefacts (objects covered with a theatre curtain which rises), or through invisible, sublime doors, when a performer enters a new EVENT as a guard.
At first the theatrical is created by the dialogue between two guards; and later on, the theatrical stems from fine art, as perceived by the audience. The relationship between the guards is the relation between movement (moving pictures, dancing) and inactiveness (the guard stands as a statue, an oil painting in contrast to a photograph).
An enormous grey mouse slides across dusty floors, it cares (Lat. cura) for all the covered objects in the museum, it is constantly checking whether life is present. The other guard sleeps in an armchair, it is covered so that it can later jump into the space of movement like a watch spring in the lit-up labyrinth of the theatrical. The objects travel together with the protagonists, from memory to the archiving and opening of the memory. The performance changes into exhibition and vice versa. The paradox of the theatrical meeting fine art is in a mutual relation between the two perceptions. The conclusion consists of a conversation with the audience who enter the space between the performance.
Barbara Novakovič Kolenc
artists:
Zora Stančič
Damijan Kracina
Polona Maher
Katarina Toman Kracina
Nataša Skušek
Mladen Stropnik
Sašo Vrabič
Matic Sonnenwald
Živa Žitnik
installation sketch
Fundus ZSPP / The Repository WUST
The storehouse of the City Museum of Ljubljana contains a diverse collection of objets d'art and everyday items which are in one way or another connected to the history of Ljubljana (the museum's collection policy) or to the wider domain of contemporary life in Ljubljana. The items in the collection represent a wide span of history, all the way from 5,000 B.C. (a wooden prehistoric wheel with axle) to today (a recent election poster). With varying material composition and condition, the items pose a challenge to conservators who take great care to create the optimal environment for preserving and extending the life of the objects.
The museum's collection is comprised of 90,000 catalogued and numbered artefacts. Upon their acquisition, the majority of them are hidden away from the public eye, stored in the museum's depots, with only 7 % of the objects ever on display in the permanent and temporary exhibitions. Displaying an object is the discretion of the curators. Items are chosen according to the context of the exhibition, the time period, the motives, the historical milieu ... Some objects still haven't been exhibited and never will be. Despite their condition, beauty, or interest, the right circumstances to include them have not arisen.
With the project Fundus ZSPP/ The Repository WUST we have opened the doors to the museum's storehouse for a new and unencumbered view ... The choice of artistic objects for the project Fundus ZSPP/ The Repository WUST was simple: paintings and sculptures were selected which the authors of the project found - for what ever reason - appealing. The selection is atypical yet interesting; connecting different artistic eras, it simultaneously negates and accentuates time distances. Fundus ZSPP/ The Repository WUST is a refreshing combination of objects from the museum's collection, dance, theatre, and contemporary visual art works.
Katarina Toman Kracina