Janez Janša (performance artist)

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Janez Janša (Born in 1970 as Davide Grassi in Bergamo) is a conceptual artist, performer and producer graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Milan, Italy. His work has a strong social connotation and is characterized by an inter-media approach. He is co-founder and director of Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana.

His artistic outcome happened in 1996 with the urban installation “I Need Money to Be an Artist” realized first in Ljubljana, Slovenia and then in Venice, Italy. In 2001 he became President of the Management Board of “Problemarket.com – the Problem Stock Exchange”, a virtual platform on which shares of companies dealing with problems are floated. The following year Janša produced “machinaZOIS” an electromechanical patron that financially supports contemporary artists and artistic productions. Then he started the development of “DemoKino – Virtual Biopolitical Agora”, a virtual parliament that through topical film parables provides the voters with the opportunity to decide on issues that are becoming the essence of modern politics: the questions of life. In 2005 Janša established the platform “RE:akt!” that examines media's role in manipulating perceptions and creating (post)modern historical myths and contemporary mythology. A part of this platform is the project “Mount Triglav on Mount Triglav” by Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša.

Parallelly to these socio-political projects Janša investigated the field of Virtual Reality and neurofeedback technologies.

Between 2000-2002 he developed and performed with Darij Kreuh “Brainscore – Incorporeal Communication”, a performance for two operators, which act in a virtual reality environment through their avatars and between 2004-2007 he leaded the project “Brainloop”, an interactive performance platform which allows a subject to navigate a virtual space merely by imagining specific motor commands.

Janez Janša is co-editor with Ivana Ivković of the textual and pictorial reader “DemoKino – Virtual Biopolitical Agora” published by Maska and Aksioma in 2005.