Photo: Špela Škulj
3 – 23 April 2026
P74 Gallery
You are cordially invited to attend the opening of the exhibition 1982 by Špela Škulj on Friday, 3 April 2026, between 7pm and 9pm at the P74 Gallery in Ljubljana.
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Most of Špela Škulj’s major works have been created using photography, video, and installation, yet they do not fully reveal her technical skill and ingenuity. She has always been interested in how different things work, in acquiring new knowledge, and in combining different media – the latter is most apparent in the project Things We Don’t Do (part of Project 0, 2021), which erases genre boundaries and simultaneously exploits the visual, performative, and technological means. This exhibition, entitled 1982, combines two installations: a kinetic sculpture and an installation that includes participatory elements. Both speak of different contents, but with a common consideration of causality, the principle of cause and effect.
The law of reciprocity, commonly known as the law of action and reaction, is one of the fundamental laws of physics and applies to many phenomena, both in nature and among humans. The piece features a clip of a football goal from the 1982 match where the Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb claimed the championship of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The video depicts part of a kinetic sculpture that operates according to the principle of chain reaction: each element dictates the movement of the next. Why 1982? Because Škulj is to some extent continuing the reflection on finding one’s own roots (The Weight of Legacy, 2022) or, to be more precise, on inserting oneself in the world one inhabits. She uses her year of birth as a starting point and subject matter, and thinks about what has changed over this time, what keeps repeating, and what the situation is today.
In 1982, the first computer virus is discovered. The Falklands War both begins and ends. The Boeing 757 takes flight for the first time. The Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon starts the Lebanon War. The longest lunar eclipse in the twentieth century occurs (a partial eclipse lasts 236 minutes and a total eclipse lasts 106 minutes). The first compact CD player is manufactured in Germany. The first execution by injection takes place in Texas (USA). Mexico announces it cannot repay its foreign debts, triggering a debt crisis that quickly spreads throughout Latin America. Princess Grace of Monaco dies as a result of a car accident. China becomes the first country to reach a population of 1 billion. The football match that the artist highlights is used as a populist device to discuss current events worldwide. Israel attacks Gaza, Israel attacks Iran, Iran attacks Israel, America attacks Iran… What will follow? Although, as individuals, we try to act as functionally and sensibly as possible, the world constantly exposes us to nonsense. We try to create space for positive change through our actions, but these are mostly attempts to make us feel better.
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Špela Škulj (1982) is a visual artist working in contemporary photography and video. Her work frequently addresses ecological issues and the irreversible human impact on the environment, and shows a posthumanist worldview through which she explores loneliness and the feeling of meaninglessness of human existence in the contemporary world. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad, including at the Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, P74 Gallery, Photon Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Central Station in Maribor, AQ Gallery in Celje, and Chef d’Oeuvre in Osaka, Japan. She was a 2014 and 2017 finalist at the Different Worlds: Young Contemporary Photography competition, the winner of the 2016 Photon Gallery Photobook Competition, and twice a finalist for the OHO Group Award (2019, 2022). In addition to her own projects, she works as a theatre lighting designer. She lives and works in Ljubljana.