The artist made the video Little Girl together with her little sister Zala Ožek (now 16) at the primary school Zala was attending at the time. Taking on the role of cameraman, Zala filmed her schoolmates at class and during the breaks, as well as their interactions in the school corridors. The main part of the film consists of conversations between Zala and two of her classmates, revealing how these children see and reflect their position in the education system, where they see themselves in the labor market in the future, and how they understand a person’s possibilities for active involvement in politics and society. Hodošček structures her footage separately, steering the narrative into reflection on this generation’s potential social and economic position in a future marked by the current unstable political, social, and economic circumstances. The video also broaches questions about the education system within the neoliberal paradigm, raising doubt as to its potential as a means for a person’s self-realization, proposing instead non-institutional forms of education.

 

The installation Landscape consists of a video made in a retirement home and audio recordings and photographs taken in elderly people’s private homes. The work focuses on the process of aging as seen from the vantage point of the elderly, exploring the ways an individual experiences old age, and how ageing is perceived in the broader social context. Age seems to be regarded as a problem by society, to be tackled with the aid of the cosmetics industry and a healthy lifestyle. Alternatively, the elderly are seen through the prism of demographic analyses and the economic system which often describes the retired population as a financial burden on the national budget. In her work, the artist tries to find out how such public representations of age affect a person, the place they assume in society after retirement, and the ways they perceive their identity, family ties, and social relations in the final period of their lives.

Maja Hodošček (b. 1984) works in the media of video and installation, exploring social relations in the policies of exchange and collaboration, with special emphasis on speculative modes of representation in relation to the documentary. To this end, she focuses on the concept of work as a means of self-realization, the dynamic of work and labor processes, their transformative potential, and the position of a subject in the organization and structure of labor. Hodošček has presented her work at solo exhibitions (e.g. In the Background, P74 Gallery, Ljubljana, 2011; Raw Material, Gregor Podnar Gallery, Ljubljana, 2010; Landscape, Likovni salon Celje, 2010) and group exhibitions (Three Artists Walk into a Bar, deAppel, Amsterdam, 2012; Kontinuiteta, Center sodobnih umetnosti Celje, 2011, among others). In 2010 she received the OHO Award. Currently she is completing her master’s degree at the Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem, the Netherlands. In addition to her artistic practice she also works as a curator for the Center sodobnih umetnosti Celje.