Miran Mohar at Summer School as School 2018
July 20, 2018, 20:00
Venue: Boxing Club

Summer School as School
July 16 – August 2, 2018

Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina is pleased to announce “What Do Contemporary Art and Graphic Design Have in Common?” by Miran Mohar, part of Summer School as School 2018 Public Program.

We need to frequently reflect on our professional activity and the media we work in. If we don’t reflect on these things, we can come close to Marcel Duchamp’s saying “stupid as a painter”, which we can also read as “stupid as a designer or architect …” He divided art into lower-status art or retina art, which only pleases the eye, and cerebral art, which is based on rational reflective principles. Design without reflection is rather a craft. Design should in general positively contribute to humanity and should be critical to unjust societies and political systems, instead of just serving as the aestheticization of neoliberal capitalism. Today, contemporary art can be an inspiration and can help improve design, just as design influenced modern art in the beginning of the 20th century. Just think of Russian constructivism and John Hartfield. He is one of the best examples of artists who used the language of art for political posters. He merged art and design in the best way possible. He is still one of the most influential designers and his works still communicate with us today. Many of us still refer to his artistic methods. In his book from the early the 1970s, Design for the Real World, famous American theorist and designer Victor Papanek wrote about the ethical dimension in industrial design and architecture and his ideas are still topical and valuable today. In my presentation, I will show and comment on some examples of my works (or of the groups I’m working with) and explain how I personally intertwine/connect my different professions, being an artist and graphic and set designer.

Miran Mohar (born 1958 in Novo Mesto, Slovenia) is an artist based in Ljubljana.
He is a member of the Irwin artists group and a co-founder of the Neue Slovenishe Kunst art collective, the graphic design studio New Collectivism and the Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre.
Together with four other members of Irwin (Dušan Mandič, Andrej Savski, Roman Uranjek and Borut Vogelnik) he has participated in all Irwin projects and exhibitions since 1984. Here are some of them: From Kapital to Capital, Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2017; Planting Seeds, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, 2016; From Kapital to Capital, Moderna galerija Ljubljana, 2015; Hans in Luck - Art and Capital, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, 2014; Former West, HKW, Berlin, Art Turning Left, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, 2013; A Bigger Splash, Tate Modern, London; NSK Passport Office, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Manifesta, Genk, 2012, The Global Contemporary. The Art Worlds after 1989, ZKM /Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe; Impossible Communities, State Museum of Modern Art, Moscow; The International, MACBA, Barcelona, 2011 / Paris, The Promises of the Past, Centre Pompidou, 2010 / Moscow,Third Moscow Biennial, New Old Cold War, 2009 / Krems, Kunsthalle Krems, State in Time, 2009 / Taipei, Taipei Biennial, 2008 / New York, Museum of Modern Art, Eye on Europe: Prints, Books & Multiples, 1960 to Now, 2006 / Istanbul, Istanbul Biennial , 2005 / Venice, Venice Biennial, Personal Systems, 2003 / Berlin, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Retroprincip, 2003 / Berlin, Gropius Bau, Berlin-Moscow /Moscow-Berlin, 2003 / Hagen, Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Museotopia, 2002 / Rome, Galeria Moderna e Contemporanea, Le Tribu' del'arte, 2002 / Vienna, Museum of 20th Century, Aspects and positions, 1999 / Istanbul, Istanbul Biennial, 1997 / Rotterdam, Boyman Museum, Manifesta, 1996 / Ljubljana, Moscow, Apt Art and Ridzina Gallery, NSK Embassy – Moscow, 1992, Moderna galerija, Slovenske Atene, 1991 / Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1988, London, Riverside Gallery, 1887

As a member of the New Collectivism graphic design team he co-designed numerous books, posters and other graphic design products for the following institutions: P.S.1/ MOMA New York, Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, Kunst Werke Berlin, Irwin, Laibach, Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre, En Knap Dance Company, Castello Di Rivoli, Kampnagel, and others.

Since 1983 he has made several set designs for the following theatre and dance companies: Randy Warshaw Dance Company, Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre, Red Pilot and En Knap Dance Company.
He is also a co-funder and member of architectural movement Maja Farol and a member of European Cultural Parliament since 2001.
From 2008 he is also an associate professor and vice-dean at AVA, Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana.
He is also a tutor at the SCCA World of Art curatorial school.
www.irwin.si
www.ava.si