The beginning of the international project Women Beyond Borders dates back to 1992, when it was conceived by California's artist Lorraine Serena and Elena Siff with the goal of linking curators and artists of the wide world. To date, 400 artists, curator and criticians are involved in the project. It is a unique mail art project, whose initial concept is small wooden boxes (9 x 6 x 5,5 cm) sent to all participating artists who transform them into an art object.

The artworks were first shown in the SB Contemporary Arts Forum (Santa Barbara, California) and presented in the accompanying catalog in 1995. Since then, the exhibition is constantly complemented by new parts and travels through US, Asian and European cities. One of the more interesting informal presentations, with the title Boxes On The Train, was held in 1996 in the sleeping wagon on the way from Graz to St. Petersburg and crossed eight state borders. In 2001, the project was shown at the City of Women Festival in Ljubljana. In 2007, the exhibition was in Missoula Art Museum (Montana). (source: DIVA)

“Women Beyond Borders”, international project

Three Slovene artists selected by Barbara Borčić (SCCA-Ljubljana Director): Marija M. Pungerčar, Ema Kugler, Janja Vrabec

For the international project “Women Beyond Borders” I have chosen three Slovene woman artists: Marija M. Pungerčar, Ema Kugler, Janja Vrabec. In their art practice, all three artists have been occupied by the question of women and the position of woman artists in society. In some specific aspects, their artwork has been related to fashion. Two of them, Marija M. Pungerčar and Ema Kugler, have been known as fashion, set and costume designers. Their creations, however, have never been meant to be simply worn. They have always been used in the context of performance, exploring the symbolic, semantic, and visual possibilities of dress-as-object within the framework of a contemporary ritual. These experiences can be traced in their recent art practice.

Ema Kugler’s field of interest covers different media: performance, installation, and video. Her inter-media performances combine word, body-sculpture, movement, acting, video picture, and music. The performances form a basis for her video works of advanced technology questioning the relations between nature and culture, mythology and everyday rituals.

Marija M. Pungerčar’s installations and performances are characterized by play and humour and are, at the same time, reflections upon the repeated everyday rituals, bond to place and time. We could say that the artist has become a contemporary nomad willing to share her experiences with others.

Janja Vrabec explores the relations between a painting (its margins and the decentered surface), real objects (clothes, a shoe, a handbag, flowers), ready-made images (shadow pictures), and the specific gallery space. The artist arranges the material into still lives, and finally freezes a chosen incident into a frame. Her recent objects derive from the artist’s own imagery. They are fragile personal memories, subtly transformed and combined into works of art. (Source: Statement by Barbara Borčić, SCCA-Ljubljana Director, February 25, 1998).