BODY ECSTATIC BODY ECLECTIC BODY ECCENTRIC 

WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT: OPEN CALL for young artists, working in the field of video, film, or moving image.

How has the pandemic changed the collective understanding of the body, community, everyday life and our sense of self?

Running from September 17 to October 30, 2021, the ULAY Foundation organized an international exhibition BODY ECSTATIC BODY ECLECTIC BODY ECCENTRIC in our project space in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Curated by Hana Ostan Ožbolt, the exhibition looked at the issue of the body and its performativity in a variety of media (moving image, photography, performance), juxtaposing some of the most important artistic positions from the 1970s (Letícia Parente, Sanja Iveković, Ulrike Rosenbach, Marina Abramović, Annegret Soltau, Ana Mendieta, Ulay) with those of more recently established and emerging artists, who work with digital media or solely in the post-digital realm (Jeremy Shaw, Elena Tejada-Herrera, Arvida Byström, Molly Soda, Iza Pavlina). Presenting artists who use (their own) body as medium to challenge traditional conceptions of gender and sexuality, self-imaging and the narrative of women's ongoing struggle for social justice, the exhibition dealt with the body and the bodies: their groupings, rituals, presence and absence. Public environments, where certain kinds of physical movement were once taken for granted, are today, in this time of the pandemic, differently categorized and choreographed; the architecture of domestic space is being reconceptualized; and the body is increasingly contained, bordered. What does the body desire today? Is the desire of the "ecstatic body" of 2021 similar to that of the "ecstatic body" of the past, and what does the "ecstatic" state even mean, when so much of our lives is spent and shared on a screen? How do bodies metamorphose, adapt to society's pressure and can they ever free of these limitations? 

How did young people feel and face the pandemic?

As part of the exhibition, we organized an OPEN CALL for YOUNG ARTISTS, working or experimenting in the medium of video, film or moving image, addressing - in any way - the issues mentioned above, resonating with the current time. The open call started in August and was running until October 25. We received 91 videos from over the world, and the final decision was an extremelly difficult one.

The jury consisted of three (3) units:
- the participants of the educational program Academia Nuts, students from various fields and backgrounds (Monika Curk, Andraž Dolinšek, Brina Jenček, Anita Končar, Lana Požlep, Ema Radovan, Ava Tribušon Ovsenik);
- two representatives of Lidl Slovenia (Tina Cipot, Head of Corporative Communication and Anita Srac, Head of Marketing);
- and two curatorial members of the ULAY Foundation.

All three units' votes counted equally and led to the final selection of 11 WINNERS winners and 2 SPECIAL MENTIONS.