KiBela, space for art

MMC KIBLA / KiBela, space for art, Maribor, Slovenia
Opening hours: Monday–Friday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Saturday: 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

KiBela - ARCHIVE

THE CONCEPT:
- the concept of liberating and connecting classical and electronic media
- artistic (non)messages and artist's responsibility
- art in connection with science and technology
-new esthetics and ecology of the mind.

The concept is contemporary, multimedia and intermedia related.

KiBela incorporates a spectrum of different ideas, methods and visions that coexist in art. The creativity of traditional media is important to enrich electronic ones, but all in the context of historical continuity of visual art, in the sense of a bigger aesthetization and integration of electronic media and principles in art. In high tech projects a complex intertwining of reciprocally operating systems, for example sound and picture, that we present to public in a multimedia way, is very interesting.

In the first ten years since the gallery is opened an exclusive approach of installing art in the space has been developed: various art aesthetics in space being such by content or by media that artists use in a creative way. KiBela archive includes approximately social art openings, performances, presentations and other art events, that are installed in a classical way or as high technological settings and architecturaly challenging projects.

KiBela hall is on the ground floor of Narodni dom and was rennovated in January 1999 with the purpose of installing visual and other forms of art. Otherwise the KiBela programme has been running since the year 1996 when Multimedia Center Kibla has been established. In the second half of the 90's plans for KiBela have begun to take form with the help of experience and common knowledge-in a time when emergence of new technologies and art approaches has already become self-evident and necessary when planning a contemporary gallery.

Technical equipment can measure up to the national and global institutions for visual art and culture, often with technological artistic approaches, for it is appropriately equipped.- Computers with audio-video cards, access to the internet with its own server, video projectors and video cameras, different kinds of screen, light bodies, unique steel tracks, panels and exhibition chamber.

KiBela is also a multi-purpose entertainment space for organizing seminars, presentations, round tables, press conferences and rich cultural programs, including exhibitions, theatre performances, video projections, concerts, literary readings, debate clubs, etc.

The following artists have exhibited in the space for art: Remigiusz Dobrowolski, Stelarc, Raj Petrot Kraljev, Vojko Pogačar, Trevor Batten, Alain Escalle, Marina Gržinić, Igor Štromajer, Marko Butina, Bob Ostertag, Vuk Čosić, Simon Biggs, Nigel Helyer, Jon Rose, Teo Spiler, Machine for Making Sense, Mitja Koštomaj, Anne Farrel, Marti Ribas Duran, Nuria Garcia, Ken Gregory, Dragan Sakan, Marko Modic, Grejpfrut, Magdalena, Thomas Bayrle, Mirko Simič, Zoran Todorović, Dušan Geržič, Tatjana Vujinović, Sonja Savić, Damijan Švarc, Dunja Zupančič, Marko Jakše, Eduardo Kac, Dragan Živadinov, Twilight Demo Group, Here Nor There, Mirjana Rukavina, Sonda, Machine, Picture This, Marko Črtanec, Matjaž Krivic, Sestre, David Carson, Magdalena Pederin, Clif, Machine, Urška Golob, Mojca Kasjak, Christopher Hales, Diana Dominges, Jože Šubic and more than hundred other artists!

In the 21st century KiBela remains a modern, contemporarily equipped international base of art.

Aleksandra Kostič, curator