A contemporary hommage of Jože Plečnik's oeuvre.
On occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jože Plečnik (1872–1957), a key figure of the Modernist movement in architecture and creator of numerous buildings and monuments around the city of Ljubljana, in 2022 Luca Lo Pinto and Olaf Nicolai curated an exhibition titled I Am Only the Housekeeper, but I Don't Know… in the Slovenian architect's former home. The publication retraces the contemporary interventions undertaken by the curatorial duo, who invited twenty-five internationally recognised Slovenian and foreign artists, allowing them to enter the house through their own works to commemorate Plečnik's oeuvre and place its reading into a different and more contemporary context. Drawing inspiration from a fictionalised letter ascribed to Urška, Plečnik's hypothetical governess, the exhibition creates new perspectives within the house and accepts that "things can be a certain way, and that they can also be different," as stated in Urška's letter.
Works by
John Armleder, H. C. Artmann,
Nairy Baghramian, Avi Beracha,
Pierre Bismuth,
Monica Bonvicini, Pablo Bronstein, Michael Dean,
Jason Dodge, Hansi Fuchs, Lena Grossmann, Ana Kučan, Janette Laverrière,
Enzo Mari, Hana Miletić,
Carsten Nicolai, Saša Pavček, Julie Peeters,
Manfred Pernice, Florian Pumhösl, Fabio Quaranta, Ana Roš,
Giovanna Silva,
Mladen Stilinović, Diamond Stingily, Sophie Thun.
Luca Lo Pinto (born 1981) is an Italian editor and curator. He is the Artistic Director of MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. He is co-founder of the magazine and publishing house
Nero. From 2014 until 2019 he worked as curator of Kunsthalle Wien where he organized solo exhibitions of
Nathalie Du Pasquier,
Camille Henrot,
Olaf Nicolai,
Pierre Bismuth,
Babette Mangolte,
Charlemagne Palestine and the group exhibitions
Time is Thirsty;
Publishing as an artistic toolbox: 1989-2017;
More than just words;
One, No One and One Hundred Thousand;
Individual Stories and Function Follows Vision, Vision Follows Reality. Other curatorial projects include
Io, Luca Vitone (PAC);
16th Art Quadriennale (Palazzo delle Esposizioni);
Le Regole del Gioco (Achille Castiglioni Studio-Museum);
Trapped in the closet (Carnegie Library/
FRAC Champagne Ardenne);
Antigrazioso (
Palais de Tokyo);
Luigi Ontani (H.C. Andersen Museum);
D'après Giorgio (Giorgio de Chirico Foundation, Rome);
Conversation Pieces (Mario Praz Museum). He has written for many catalogues and international magazines. He edited the book
Documenta 1955-2012. The endless story of two lovers and artist books by Olaf Nicolai, Luigi Ontani,
Emilio Prini,
Alexandre Singh,
Mario Garcia Torres and Mario Diacono. In 2014 he published a time capsule publication titled
2014.
Olaf Nicolai (born 1962 in Halle, East Germany, lives and works in Berlin) produces
conceptual artworks influenced by a philosophical background inherited from its formative years in East Germany, questioning the deadlocks of romanticism and Marxism. Alternating between photography, sculpture, publishing, design, installation and performance, Nicolai creates artistic situations whose purpose is to hijack the production patterns of the industrial world as well as its cultural, financial and social representations.
