Dialogi
Eurozine
Dialogi
2010-05-20
Summary of Dialogi 1-2/2010
In the introductory editorial Emica Antoncic writes about the fragmentation and the lack of a public presence of feminism in Slovenia, which was evidenced also in the last issue of Dialogi in a set of articles on feminism. Although Slovenia since the 1970s on has had progressive legislation in support of gender equality, antifeminism is today on the rise and has a powerful influence on the thinking of the female population itself. Antoncic finds that contemporary feminism is not capable of shaping a movement which could publicly oppose right-wing populism and systematically expose cases of hidden discrimination. This is clearly part of a wider phenomenon in which right-wing populism is becoming increasingly aggressive, while the political left is completely absent and the leftist intelligentsia is less and less inclined to engage in public debate.
Curator Breda Kolar Sluga talks with Darko Golija, sculptor and professor of sculpture at the Pedagogical Faculty in Maribor. They discuss his creative work, the still-to-be-established Academy of Art in Maribor, the position of artists in the city and the increasingly problematic situation in connection with the European Capital of Culture project for Maribor in 2012. "Maribor needs a world-class elite, more contemporary art in the public space, more entrepreneurship, new facilities for the Art Gallery, youth theatre, two more universities and several older ones with additional education, and last but not least a good rock band," says Golija.
Janez Vrechko, professor at the Department of Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, brings a revolutionary discovery for Slovenian literary studies to light: the great Slovenian modernist poet Srechko Kosovel (1904-1926) was familiar with the views of the Russian constructivists on space, time and movement when he himself began to create spatial poetry and base it on his movable philosophy. The poem Kaleidoscope attempts to affirm the idea of Tatlin's "art-machine", relying on Moholy-Nagy's Light-space modulator and its space-time effects.
The bulk of the issue is devoted to the theme Alternatives to neoliberalism. Editors Ciril Oberstar, Karolina Babich and Peter Kuralt have gathered together texts from younger authors who provide a sort of map of the alternatives within neoliberalism, not an absolute alternative to the currently prevailing socio-economic model nor a radical break with it, but rather a selection of alternatives which have developed and offer themselves within neoliberalism itself. Whereas the current global economic crisis at the level of macro policy has trigged a hysteria of questions about everything that is wrong with the dominant economic model, the practices presented in Dialogi enable insights into functioning at the micro level and deal with the dysfunctional aspects of current economic policy in a specific way. We publish articles on social economy, the concept of the commons and its management, workers' self-management and workers' cooperatives, complementary currencies and ethical codes and regulations.
In the literary section we publish prose by Milan Vincetich, Tomaz Mahkovic and Polona Skrinjar, and poems by David Bedrach.
In the criticism section Marko Golja reviews the novel Angels, Demons, and Whores (Angeli, demoni in kurbe) by the Slovenian writer Franjo Francic , and Mojca Puncer reviews The Aesthetics and Politics of Modernism (Estetika in politika modernizma) by the Slovenian philosopher Ales Erjavec . Matjaz Drev writes about the Slovenian translation of Narcotics by the well-known Polish author Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, and Robi Sabec about Historical Reader I in II by the Bosnian writer Miljenko Jergovic. Nina Cvar analyses A Serious Man, the new film by the Coen brothers. Mojca Puncer writes about a performance of Hamlet under the direction of Lithuanian directors Oskaras Korsunovas and about two productions of the dramatic text Boat for Dolls by the Serbian author Milena Markovic, as performed by the Serbian National Theatre in Belgrade and the Drama of the Slovenian National Theatre in Ljubljana.
In Detector film editor Robert Petrovich interviews Professor Toni Klis from Maribor Second Gymnasium about a pilot project introducing film culture into secondary schools.
Janez Strehovec contributes a philosophical essay on modern configurations of space and individual choreographies within them in the case of shopping malls.