Art in socialist Yugoslavia ◆ Art in today’s migrations
Until February 2023, the exhibition Connections – Danish artists from the former Yugoslavia is being shown at SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark is showing. This exhibition will be the backdrop for the seminar TRANSCULTURAL CONNECTIONS Art in socialist Yugoslavia ◆ Art in today’s migrations. However, the seminar programme is not specifically focused on artworks in the exhibition but their artistic, cultural, and historical contextualisation from a wider transcultural perspective.
The seminar aims at giving the audience an insight into the Yugoslav artistic and cultural heritage and at pointing to the potential of transcultural art to question the notion of cultural and national belonging in Europe today. This dual approach will be addressed in the form of a one-day seminar programme including presentations by scholars, artists, and curators from different parts of Europe (Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Serbia and Slovenia).
The morning session will be dedicated to some of the main trends that shaped the art scene of socialist Yugoslavia. The audience is introduced to this rich and complex period of 50 years through two keynote presentations. Yugoslav Socialist Modernism and the 'Other Line’ by Branislav Dimitrijević and the Communal work of Neue Slowenische Kunst in the 1980s and early 1990s by Zdenka Badovinac.
The afternoon session is dedicated to art and migration in increasingly transcultural Europe. Heidi Vad Jønsson will open the session by giving a historic introduction to the developments in Danish migration from 1960 until today and drawing attention to the notion of a welfare state in a globalized world. Her introductory presentation is followed by Sabine Dahl Nielsen’s and Irfan Hošić’s presentations on curating contemporary art exhibitions with plural cultural affiliations. Hošić will draw on his curatorial experience from the KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture in Bihac – Bosnia and Herzegovina, where much of his work revolves around art dealing with migration. Using the Berlin-based art space Savvy Contemporary as her main case study, Dahl Nielsen will present international art projects dealing with aspects of cultural plurality from a transcultural perspective.
In each of the two above-mentioned sessions, there will be an artistic presentation. In the morning, Rena Rädle will talk about the art project Ironworks ABC (Abeceda Željezare) realised with her partner Vladan Jeremić. The project revives the socialist heritage of the Sisak Ironworks sculpture colony and addresses the potential of the ideology of work tied to self-management. In the afternoon, Damir Avdagić will introduce the audience to his artistic praxis dealing with historical trauma and its transgenerational reach among members of the Ex-Yugoslav diaspora communities.
The seminar will be moderated by Anne Ring Petersen and Tea Sindbæk Andersen from the University of Copenhagen. While Sindbæk from the Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies will moderate the first session, Ring Petersen from the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies will moderate the second one.
About
The seminar is a collaboration between SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen. It was made possible with the generous support from the Danish Arts Foundation, The Obel Family Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Centre for Modern European Studies (CEMES).
Place: SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark, Sølvgade 48-50, 1307 Copenhagen K / Auditorium
Date and time: 5 November 2022 from 08:30 to 17:00
The seminar fee is DKK 123 (including refreshments and lunch)
Registration is mandatory. Book your ticket here