Sanja Ivekovic – General Art. Selected Works 1974-2006

Sanja Ivekovic – General Art. Selected Works 1974-2006

Sanja Ivekovic, Novi Zagreb, 1979/2006

Sanja Ivekovic is regarded as one of the most important artists of a ‚middle’ generation. In addition to an extensive retrospective of her work, the exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein will also show a selection of her recent works. On first impression the photographs, videos, objects and performances, that Sanja Ivekovic has created since the mid-seventies, seem to follow the laws of a glamorous pop culture. For instance, in „Double Life” from 1975 Sanja Ivekovic contrasted conventional icon-like magazine and advertising photos of women with private pictures of herself, in which the related gesture compels a comparative and reflexive reading. Inscribing herself as a person and thus the private into public discourse, in her work Sanja Ivekovic pursues the question of how the routines of everyday life are influenced by the dictate of fashion, advertising and the star cult. At the same time, for the artist the body is always only the body in the representation – an image surface dominated by the gaze. Sanja Ivekovic purposely exposes herself to the male gaze, emphatically placing the body, sexuality and gender in the context of the political. In her most recent works she also refers to the collapse of former Yugoslavia, the ethnic cleansings, the living conditions of refugees and women’s anti-fascist resistance.

The exhibition has been realized in cooperation with the Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, where Sanja Ivekovic’s first comprehensive solo exhibition was shown in 2001.

Discussion
The artist will be having a discussion with Marie-Luise Angerer, media theoretician, Cologne; Sylvia Eiblmayr, art historian, Director of the Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck; Nataša Ilic, art historian and curator of the exibition, Zagreb; Bojana Pejic, art historian and curator, Berlin; Charles Esche, Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (invited).
Wednesday October 4, 7 pm

Film evening
On the occasion of her exhibition, Sanja Ivekovic will be presenting a selection of her video works from 1974 to 2003 at Die Brücke.
Saturday October 7, 7 pm

Thanks go to: Sylvia Eiblmayr, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck. In 2001, Sylvia Eiblmayr presented the first comprehensive sole exhibition of the works of Sanja Ivekovic. A large part of these works will also be on display at the Kunstverein.

Loans provided by: Generali Foundation collection, Vienna; Block collection, Berlin; Kontakt. Die Kunstsammlung der Erste Bank-Gruppe, Vienna; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb.

Sponsors: Privatbrauerei Gaffel, Becker & Co.; Kunsttrans, Zagreb; Mireille Ruch („Der Blumenladen”, flower store, Cologne); MACtac Germany; VPS, Krefeld; City of Cologne.