Škuc Gallery is part of the SKUC association, a pillar of non-profit culture in Slovenia. Over the last thirty years, Škuc Gallery has developed into an international artistic venue for exhibitions, contemporary art events, publishing and documentation. The opening of the exhibition venue at the end of the 1970s came in response to the mainstream exhibition policy of the established national galleries and art institutions in Slovenia. This was the result of efforts by Taja Vidmar Brejc, an art historian and curator and the first artistic director of Škuc Gallery. The first exhibition in the new gallery was a retrospective of the OHO group. Under new artistic directors in the 1980s, (Dušan Mandić, Marina Gržinić, Barbara Borčić), Škuc Gallery became a centre of Slovenian (sub)culture, taking a radical position toward institutional culture. In this period, there were many multimedia projects, presentations of artists within Zagreb and Belgrade’s conceptual movements, such as Raša Todosijević, Mladen Stilinović, and Goran Đorđević, and the first projects of the now established Slovenian visual artists and collectives such as, IRWIN, V.S.S.D., Bojan Gorenec and Marjetica Potrč.

At the turn of the decade, under the direction of Tomislav Vignjević and Alenka Pirman, the gallery had to confront its own history and reputation as an elitist, alternative space. The annual program came to include various artistic positions and focused on; the first solo exhibitions of young Slovenian artists; solo exhibitions or outside projects of established Slovenian artists; solo exhibitions or outside projects of foreign artists; thematic group exhibitions by guest curators and socio-cultural documentary exhibitions. In 1996 Gregor Podnar was named artistic director until June 2003, when Alenka Gregorič took over the position. Since October 2009, Tevž Logar has, as Artistic Director been responsible for the program and continues to work with some of Skuc Gallery’s established program strands, while introducing more innovative approaches.

In recent years, the Gallery’s programme has predominantly relied on integrating various conceptual guidelines set by the Artistic Director, focusing mostly on artists and artistic practices dealing with social and geo-political issues within contemporary society. The program is oriented to the context of the ‘Former East’, but is also slowly trying to engage in a dialogue with the West.

The exhibition programme aims to maintain a balance between local and international presentations. The conceptual guidelines and orientation of the exhibition programme can be divided in different contextual segments which are the backbone for forming the programme, that are always connected to specific trends and issues within contemporary visual art.

As a production centre, the gallery seeks to ensure a professional platform for international artists and curators. In addition to its regular exhibition programme, Skuc Gallery began developing commercial activities in 2001. The gallery currently collaborates with eleven international artists (mostly from countries of ex-Yugoslavia and the wider region of South-East Europe), presenting their work at European contemporary art fairs.

Skuc Gallery’s present and future exhibition activities are focused on thematic exhibitions related to the context of a specific issue, that are approached by connecting the local and international environments, presenting a formal or concrete issue in the form of an exhibition, or establishing a critical discursive dialogue. These are designed to initiate long-term research projects on specific artistic practices and issues that have been explored throughout history by artists, curators and theoreticians, while always considering the contemporary perspective.

Skuc presents approximately 10–12 exhibitions each year.

Most outstanding projects in recent years:

Broken Down Walls of the Crimson Salon, 2010;

Ulay: Become, 2009;

Slovenian Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennial, Mihatrukelj, x = 0, / y = 0, Interference in Process;

Political Practices of (Post-)Yugoslav Art, SKC in SKUC, The Case of Student Cultural Centre in the 1970s, 2008;

Schengen Women, 2008;

Space Invaders, 2007;

Mladen Stilinovich: Artist at work, 2005.

Skuc Gallery seeks to complement its exhibition program of contemporary art with projects of new media art and other contemporary artistic practices, such as performance, sound art and discursive projects.

Skuc Gallery’s educational programme aims to supplement the exhibition programme with artist talks, symposiums, discussions, projections, workshops and special guided tours. All exhibitions are accompanied with explanatory wall and curatorial texts on individual works of art and larger conceptual ideas at work. Skuc Gallery has a small reading room where books on contemporary visual art can be read or purchased, including Skuc Gallery publications.

Skuc Gallery is publishing publications which are focusing mostly on contemporary visual art mostly in the form of exhibition and annual catalogues, theory and criticism readers.

Total internal floor area of 251m^2. Exhibition space, 200 m²; offices: 23 m²; support services / art handling area / storage, 28 m².