Exercises in a Collection is an exhibition based on reflection about collections and their exhibitions. It puts forward the idea that works of art and their displays are not something static or permanent, with univocal meanings and ways of seeing, but that works of art need to be considered and thought about over and over, displayed in various ways, in diverse interrelations and concepts. In other words: a collection needs to be practiced. Over the last decade, discussions about collections and their exhibitions have become a significant part of contemporary museological practices. This of course entails more than just talking about the changes in their formal and conceptual aspects; it also requires looking back into their past, examining their history: what were the mechanisms that triggered starting a collection, which methodologies were used, what role did financial incentives play? Because collecting is not a neutral process, but is tied to various cultural policies, which are, for the most part, reflections of the ideologies of a certain time.
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In collaboration with the Non-Aligned Art Collection Laboratory of the Center for Contemporary Art of Montenegro, Podgorica (Marina Čelebić, Anita Ćulafić, Nađa Baković, Natalija Vujošević)
Curator: Bojana Piškur
Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova
Ljubljana, Slovenia
