About

The World of Art educational program was introduced in 1997. It appeared as a reaction to the dominating state concerning contemporary art and interpretation in Slovenia. In the nineties, art production in Slovenia experienced a renaissance, while the theoretical and curatorial apparatuses lagged behind. Formal education in art history has included neither contemporary production nor the art theory and the young experts have mainly turned towards past periods due to their lack of knowledge and apparatuses for decoding contemporary tendencies in art. In response, the World of Art program brought a series of public lectures, which shed some light upon the artistic practices and art theories significant for the understanding of contemporary art. As a unique program in this field, it also offered a course for curators of contemporary art, enabling participants to gain knowledge necessary to perform the work of a contemporary art curator.

In the first year, the World of Art program was organised by the Škuc Gallery. In 1998 it became the program of the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts - Ljubljana and gained a specific international character thanks to the Centre's extensive international links, especially within the Region (Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the newly formed countries of the former Soviet Union). This was also the year in which the course, i.e. the eight-month-long process of conceptualising and setting up the contemporary art exhibition, was prolonged to ten months and upgraded with study trips abroad, offering participants the opportunity to look beyond the borders of the local situation and familiarize themselves with the variety of various methods, approaches and techniques of operation in the art system and art milieus of neighbouring countries.

In 2002/2003 the World of Art has entered its sixth year of operation. During the last three years it was organised within the frame of the newly established SCCA, Center for Contemporary Arts - Ljubljana (SCCA-Ljubljana), a successor to the Soros Center. Though still bearing the label of an 'informal' program, the World of Art has continued to develop, change and evolve. Following a number of experimental endeavours in previous years alongside the course for curators of contemporary art and the series of lectures, a new program segment was launched in 2002: workshops on the theory and criticism of contemporary art and workshops on the concepts of contemporary visual practice. The first series of workshops has been conceived to contribute to the theoretical reflection and stimulate writings on contemporary art, while the objective of the second series has been to encourage artists to analyse and reflect on artistic concepts, as well as their own practices and positions in the world of art.

With its complex structure the World of Art is a unique educational program in Slovenia: it has established the mechanisms necessary for reflective operation in the world of art, and has been continuously developing and adapting to the rapid changes emerging in the art world and social conditions.

Every year the program concludes with an anthology in which we publish the lectures, present the achievements of the course and the concluding exhibition as well as add conversations with the lecturers.

Saša Glavan