Maja Hodoscek (1984) is an artist, pedagogue, and researcher. She works in the intersection between art, education, politics and everyday life.

Tell us about yourself Maja

I am an artist and researcher, occasionally curator. I make video works, installations and initiate various workshops.  I studied at the Dutch Art Institute in the The Netherlands and after my studies, I returned to Slovenia, where I am still based. My work was shown widely in international exhibitions and film festivals. I think the highlight of my career is that my art practice enables me to travel quite intensively and that my work is situated in collaboration. 

 Greatest inspirations or influences? 

I am interested in modes of learning, behaviour, and performance. Therefore,  different disciplines inspire me, such as psychoanalysis, sociology, radical education but also experimental film and literature. I enjoy reading, I read in a quite eclectic way, usually several very diverse books at the same time. My immediate surrounding has a strong presence in my work as well. Most of my projects are made in collaboration with different social groups or individuals. I value collaboration, it is a process that impacts me the most and from which I learn profoundly. 

Challenges of what you do, and how do you see the art world changing in this coming decade? 

Every project is a new challenge. My work is process-based and doesn’t rely on a script, but rather a particular situation becomes the essence of the work. The film very much happens in the moment it is being filmed. 

Favourite websites, publications or social media handles? 

Hm,  mostly I use Instagram.  

What would be a dream project for you?

My recent work was presented on a solo exhibition entitled Imagine in Dom omladine in Belgrade, Serbia. I showed new video works that are centered around the question of work in relation to performance, self – exploitation and alienation. They were produced during my residency at Tabakalera (San Sebastian), where for the first time I worked with professional actors. I constructed a situation, where actors were performing in front of the camera for several hours without a script or any other form of instruction. They couldn't rely on anything besides themselves and on the presence of a camera. This absence and duration of the event opened up a space for various affects to emerge. Besides studio work, I am also very much engaged in organizing common learning spaces in high schools, where a sort of parallel curriculum takes place. We discuss various archives, experimental films and other materials that are normally absent from the state curricula. I guess in this context, my dream project would be a sort of emancipatory learning environment that can breathe and sustain itself independently from the neoliberal ideology.