From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon exhibition

The International Centre of Graphic Arts hosted the exhibition From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon between 7 November 2019 and 8 March 2020. The authors of the exhibition were Nevenka Šivavec, Breda Škrjanec and Gregor Dražil.

After each edition of the Biennial, when the hundreds of exhibited prints disappeared from the gallery spaces and only their traces remained in the form of an exhibition catalogue, a handful of selected works and artists, the prize winners of the most prominent, international jury, were inscribed into the history of the Biennial with capital letters. The exhibition From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon consisted of the works of the prize winners kept in the collection of the International Centre of Graphic Arts. At that time, the works on display were mainly those that the museum had recently acquired through purchase and donation, as well as works that had not been especially exposed. The exhibition showed the breakthroughs and continuity in the art canon of the second half of the 20th century. At the same time, it opened up to the challenges posed by the future additions to the Biennial Prize Winners Collection.

Following the example of other major art events, the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts set up a system for awarding international prizes as early as its first edition in 1955. Following a tradition that is still maintained today, the exhibited works were examined by renowned international jurors before the official opening, and after discussion, a list of the winners was drawn up. The opening protocol, in which the prize winners were announced, was always set as one of the highlights of the Biennial, in keeping with any major event that wants and needs to attract the attention not only of the professionals but also of the general public.

The exhibition was accompanied by the catalogue Shifts in the Canon: The Nature and Significance of the Prizes Awarded by the International Juries of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. The catalogue introduces the juries that have been awarding prizes since 1955. It examines both the professional profiles of the participants and the patterns observed in ideological, political and national configurations. Three comprehensive texts with contrasting interpretations offer a reflection on the winners of the Biennial of Graphic Arts in three periods from 1955 to the present. The publication is rounded off by a look into the past and present of the MGLC Museum Collection. As the organizer of the Biennial of Graphic Arts, the museum is responsible for the preservation and research of the heritage of this event, including the systematic collection and presentation of the works of the prize winners.

The catalogue was edited by Gregor Dražil and the essays were written by Gregor Dražil, Giuseppe Marchiori (reprint of a commentary in Sinteza magazine on participating in the juries of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts from 1970), Nevenka Šivavec and Breda Škrjanec. The catalogue is published in a bilingual edition (English-Slovenian), it has 153 pages and more than 60 colour reproductions. It was designed by Ivian Kan Mujezinović.