Lucia Gregorova

My field of interest in this regard lies mainly in the area of Pop Art tendencies, gender issues and Conceptual Art of the 1960s and 1970s. I am very interested in specifica of the Central European art with the background of the dominant narratives in the generally canonized history of the Western art. As I have mentioned before, I am planning two international exhibitions and publications concentrating on the art of the 1960s and 1970s and one thematic curatorial show concerning the contemporary European art. The residency in Vienna would be of great benefit for my work in these projects.

The residency was very enriching for my professional life. During the time I was able to meet artists, curators, cultural managers from numerous institutions and NGOs and lecturers at the Academy of Fine Arts. I had a chance to see the museums, attend the openings of the exhibitions, lectures, collections, libraries and various cultural spaces.
I have been working on a text for the monographic book on Stano Filko for several months before the residency. I was lucky to have a chance to explore more references and international context of his work in Vienna. During the residency I was able to finish the basic text.  
Although Bratislava is close to Vienna, staying in the centre of the city and meeting the other residents and professionals has brought me an unexpected benefit. The environment and the conversions were very inspiring for me. During the residency I have received the good news that I will curate that I will curate the exhibition of Jana Želibská in the Czech and Slovak Pavilion at the 57. Venice Biennale in May 2017.
During the residency I have conceived the concept of the international exhibition Kozmikomiks that was held in tranzit.sk in June – July 2017 in Bratislava. This exhibition was directly inspired by the Vienna residency and I also included the artist Martin Lang (USA) who was at the residency in MQ also in October. He created a new video work addressing the Viennese context that we were uncovering together – the personality of the linguist and psychoanalyst John Weilgart and his artificial language for aliens, first published in 1961. Martin Lang connected his story to the story of Esperanto and he used the idea of artificial languages to comment on the reduction of free public space.
Since my residency in MQ in Vienna I have stayed in contact with many professional from Austria and from abroad. Being a mother of 2 children I really appreciated the chance to take my first curatorial residency not far from home. Working as a curator at the Slovak National Gallery I thus had the precious opportunity to stay in Vienna which was very important for me as a beginning of my further exploration of the connections and futures possibilities of cooperation on the exhibition and publication projects between Slovakia and Austria. Vienna as a centre of Central European studies with the organizations such as tranzit provides the information and contacts but also generates the philosophical and arthistorical discourse in many key issues. Especially because of this, I am very grateful that thanks to the residency programme I could find ways for my future professional development. One of the great outcomes of my residency was the exchange of books between Erste Stiftung and the arthistorical library of Slovak National Gallery which very appreciated as an act of coopearation and donation for our institution where the books and magazines can get to wider public, to artists, other art professionals and students (https://www.sng.sk/en/research/library).
I really enjoyed my studio in MQ, everybody I have met from Q21 and tranzit was very helpful, welcoming and warm and I would highly recommend this residency programme to both artists and curators.