11 Apr 2009

Announcing the establishment of The Július Koller Society

The founding committee of The Július Koller Society (SJK) is pleased to announce its public registration as a civic association based in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The SJK is founded in memory of the artist Július Koller (1938–2007), whose oeuvre, in its stringency, obsession and peculiarity, is one of the most idiosyncratic and consistent in European visual arts since the 1960s.

Mission:
The Július Koller Society (SJK) is a non-profit association of citizens whose aim is to preserve, research, enrich and relate to the public the artistic heritage of Július Koller. A collection site and archive of the artist's work, a research and study centre, as well as a place for public debate and reflection, the SJK organizes domestic and international projects and activities in the areas of fine arts, art history, visual studies and cultural theory. It furthermore encourages the exchange of ideas and information in these fields, challenging the canons, geographies and master narratives of established art histories. Opposed to a reduction of arts and culture to their economic, populist or merely spectacular aspects, one main focus of the SJK is to research and highlight the specific conditions and histories of anti-canonical, peripheral and hitherto marginalized artistic practices.

Július Koller, U.F.O.-naut ?
As its first public activity, The Július Koller Society, in collaboration with the Slovak National Gallery, is proud to present Július Koller, U.F.O.-naut?, the first international conference on the oeuvre of Július Koller.

Speakers:
Milan Adamčiak, Katarína Bajcurová, Zuzana Bartošová, Peter Bartoš, László Beke, Dušan Brozman, Vladimíra Büngerová, Peter Čepec, Lynne Cooke, Josef Dabernig, Ľubomír Ďurček, Silvia Eiblmayr, Charles Esche, Stano Filko, Andrea Giunta, Lucia Gregorová, Klaus Groh, Daniel Grú�?, Petra Hanáková, Vít Havránek, Mária Hlavajová, Tom Holert, Aurel Hrabušický, �?Nataša Ilić, Jiří Kovanda, Alex Mlynárčik, Katarína Müllerová, Joanna Mytkowska, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Boris Ondreička, Florian Pumhösl, Kathrin Rhomberg, Peter Rónai, �?ukasz Ronduda, Georg Schöllhammer, Kateřina Šedá, Jiří Ševčík, Mladen Stilinović, Branka Stipančić, Tomáš Strauss, Timm Ulrichs, Jiří Valoch, Jan Verwoert

Dates: 23–26 April 2009
Location: Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
For more information see: www.sjk.sk; www.sng.sk; sjk@sjk.sk

The Július Koller Society
Honorary President: Květoslava Fulierová
Founding Members: Georg Schöllhammer (chair), Mária Hlavajová, Aurel Hrabušický�?, Naďa Lovišková, Roman Ondák, Boris Ondreička, Kathrin Rhomberg
Researcher: Daniel Grú�?
Organization: Ina Mertens

Thanks to: tranzit.org