Maja Hodošček

Maja Hodošček (1984) is an author of video works, installations, initiates workshops, and curates exhibitions. Her practice is research-based and experimental, focusing on performance, behavior, and modes of learning. She finished her MA at the Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem, NL.

Her work was shown widely on international group exhibitions such as “Hidden Curriculum“ (tranzit.sk, Bratislava), “Silence is Deafness Here“ (Gallery Podroom, Belgrade), “Beyond the Globe“ (Moderna galerija, Ljubljana), “South by South East“ (Guangdong Times Museum, China), “Pipe Dream“ (Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna) and “Travelling Communiqué“ (Museum of Yugoslav History, Belgrade).

She presented her work on solo exhibitions in Dom omladine (Belgrade), Museum of Contemporary Art – MSUM (Ljubljana), Miroslav Kraljević Gallery (Zagreb), ŠKUC Gallery (Ljubljana) and Gallery Gregor Podnar (Ljubljana) etc.

In 2020 she received the national award Rihard Jakopič for artistic achievements, and in 2010 she won OHO Award.

On the residency Hodošček will continue with her research that looks at historical formation of neoliberal subjectivity and its relation to the notion of visibility. She is interested in how the awareness of being observed effects the self.

Hodošček will explore key historical examples of how business organizations collaborated with the field of psychology in order to change the mindset of workers, and working environments and how this investment led to the current production model that is dependent on performance and display of the self.

She will finalize the montage of her latest experimental video series, where she connects the invention of the self as a tool of production with image-based practice.

During her residency at the MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Hodoscek got acquainted with the cultural scene of the city by visiting museums, galleries, open air film (Kaleidoskop, etc.) and performance festivals (ImPulsTanz). She has met with other residential artists and curators, as well as the local art community. She visited exhibition openings and guided tours, visited museums from other fields, such as The Narrenturm museum, etc.

She explored the city with a bicycle, riding across neighborhoods, discovering markets, streets, and parks. She spend a lot of her time at the Yppenmarkt, meeting people with who she engaged in conversations, and soon the market was her favorite place in the city and her daily ritual. Her other favorite almost daily ritual was swimming in the Danube river, and the space by the river was her place for reading and writing.

During her stay, Hodošček continued with her research that looks at the historical formation of neoliberal subjectivity and its relation to the notion of visibility. Hodošček explored key historical examples of how business organizations collaborated with the field of psychology in order to change the mindset of workers, and working environments and how this investment led to the current production model that is dependent on performance and display of the self.

During her stay, she also organised a workshop for sixth-form students on the topic of dream incubation. She was interested in how dreams can be guided and whether we can use dreams to forge community ties and develop new strategies of disobedience. The workshop took place in October as part of the City of Women festival in Ljubljana.