FROM THE COLLECTION: WOMEN ON POSTERS

Poster exhibition
Silvan Furlan Hall, Slovenian Cinematheque
13. – 17. 4. 2016

Every year, the cooperation with Kurja polt festival gives the Slovenian Cinematheque an opportunity to showcase those posters from its rich collection that usually remain in the depots and are only rarely – if at all – exhibited. They are not neglected because they are uninteresting or lacking in value. With the abundance of posters, designed for films firmly anchored in the canon of film history, those made by prominent artists and designers, or those accompanying the Cinematheque’s regular programme, they simply do not get their turn. Since Kurja polt is a thematic festival, the posters for the accompanying exhibition have been selected with this year’s topic in mind. We can observe and assess them with new and different criteria, focusing on that “something” we might otherwise overlook or find perfectly ordinary. When collected and exhibited together, they become even more interesting because we are given the opportunity to compare them.

The exhibition, which is part of the From the Collection series, is dedicated to the depiction of women on film posters. The topic is so extensive that it is impossible to show its richness and diversity or point to the numerous differences in content and meaning. We therefore limited our selection to posters of Slovenian and Yugoslav distributors from the 1950s, 60s and 70s and then divided the small number of selected posters into two sections. The first includes posters featuring women as the signified or the signifier; that is, either playing the role of a femme fatale or indicating the spy action genre, while the other group includes posters with women as victims or mostly helpless characters in crime thrillers.

Metka Dariš
Head of Museum Department, Slovenian Cinematheque