Barbara Borčić in Urša Jurman
Foreword
In the second issue of the platformaSCCA newspaper we are still dealing with the research project Manifesta in our Backkyard (for an in depth presentation of the project see the Internet page of SCCA-Ljubljana: http://www.ljudmila.org/scca).
After the first issue in which the leading role was taken over by the relation between M 3 and Ljubljana as the host city or to be more precise the Ljubljanas contemporary art scene, this issue is dedicated to the analysis of this European biennial exhibition of contemporary art and individual works of art.
In writings about large exhibitions individual works of art are often neglected for the benefit of general critiques of the event or are dealt with in a negligible fashion with stereotype, in advance prepared and general statements as concerns contemporary art. This was confirmed also on the case of M 3, especially if we take into account the response in the local media.
In order to avoid this at the Manifesta in our Backyard project, we have formed a group for analysing works of art (this group consists of Alenka Pirman, Marjetica Potrč and Jože Barši) and at the same time we also encouraged younger writers to prepare analyses and interpretations (see Open Scene).
The third issue of platformaSCCA is going to deal with methodological and theoretical embarrassments of art criticism. This arose as an answer to the problems experienced by many a writer in this number while writing about specific works of art, the lack of analytical texts on contemporary works of art and projects in Slovenia and the impression that can hardly be avoided in the Slovene cultural space: that art is for the art criticism more often than not only an excuse for defending particular and personal interests and an pretext for reciprocal settling of accounts.