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Studiotopia

 

 

 

 

Maja SMREKAR  

 

Hosted by: Ars Electronica

 


Ljubljana, Slovenia 
www.majasmrekar.org


 

Biography

My work has been established in the international art and science milieu, based on interdisciplinary research of the developments and application of ideological structures in contemporary society. Grounded in sculpture and new media, my practice has allowed me to contribute to the theoretical knowledge exchanged within the academia, as well as to lead strong collaborations in developing cross-conceptual productions that include installations, performances, site specific art, videos, sound, workshops, lectures, talks and texts - all connected with technological practice. For example, in a recent series of four projects K-9_topology (2014-2017); I have explored the co-evolution between humans and dogs, in large-scale and site-specific installations that combined biotechnological, ethologycal, olfactory, video, performative, interactive, drawing and sculptural elements. These pointed towards emphatical distance to the Other, and questioned taxonomies of gender, race, class, culture, nation and religion. My current ongoing artistic research titled !brute_force (2019-2020) dwells on the dimensionality of techno-otherness connected with the canine imagination, while addressing some aspects of artificial intelligence that challenge our social and political reality. Within Studiotopia I will further reflect on how such diverse elements coexist in the installation space, through both dialogues with scientists and continuous artistic production. 

Maja Smrekar (SI) graduated at the Sculpture Department of Fine Art and Design Academy in Ljubljana, Slovenia, holds Master of Arts in New Media, and was in 2019 awarded the highest degree for her artistic achievements by the Rector of the University of Ljubljana (equivalent to scientific title PhD). She has been a guest professor at the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana (2018 - 2019), as well as a visiting lecturer at Interface Culture Lab, University of Art and Design, Linz (2018). Smrekar has exhibited at festivals such as Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), Click festival (Elsinore, Denmark), Transmediale (Berlin, Germany) and Musrarra Mix (Jerusalem, Israel), as well as ZKM Karlsruhe (Germany), Musée de l`Homme (Paris, France), MAK Vienna (Austria), Het Neuwe Institut (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), RMIT Gallery Melbourne (Australia).

 In 2018 she has been invited as a freedom of expression promoter by an initiative of the Equal Opportunities for Women to become a member of Slovenian PEN centre (part of PEN International). Awards: 1st Prize - Cynetart festival 2012, awarded by European Centre for Arts Hellerau (Dresden/Germany), Honorary mention at the Ars Electronica festival 2013 (Linz/Austria), Prix Ars Electronica - Golden Nica 2017 in Hybrid Art (Linz/Austria), she was awarded Prešeren Foundation Award 2018 - the highest national award for artistic achivements by the Republic of Slovenia. She lives and works in Ljubljana (Slovenia).


Artist's Statement

As an interdisciplinary artist collaborating with scientists over the last 10 years, I believe I am able to reflect on the above selected UN sustainable development goals from both fields. However, as I examine my gathered material I always simultaneously allow my technical and conceptual investigations to be guided by intuition to be finally translated into artistic storytelling. Such artistic practice allows me to address challenges of hybrid processes that speak to the complex nature of human and nonhuman relationships in our contemporary society as a whole. Therefore, I hope the aspects of my previous research would add an engaging perspective to this residency, as I hope they would concurrently inspire further examination of how this kind of art-sci dialogue outputs evolve in our increasingly digital, global, and optocentric world in order to discuss the potential impact of such genre of collaborations on the audiences of the future.

 

 

 

 

 

#INSTALLATION   #SITESPECIFICART   #SOUND&VIDEO

 


 

SDG Goals:

  • Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
  • Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
  • Goal 13: Climate Action
  • Goal 15: Life on Land

 


 

Collaborates with:
Jonas JØRGENSEN

     
 

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