VIDEO INTERVIEWS | Art Organization (review of historical practices through the XX century to the present)

VIDEO INTERVIEWS Art Organization (review of historical practices through the XX century to the present)

Research project kuda.org

 

The Art Organization is a long-term international research project that analyzes the phenomenon of artistic (self) organization and relations within art groups and collectives in the post-Yugoslav region in the last fifty years, and the ways in which it influenced the profile and quality of their artistic production. The research within the project Art Organization is focused on group and collective processes of creativity and internal dynamics between artists and other participants in them. The focus is on self-organized initiatives outside the framework of official institutions. Through the phenomena of self-organization, the project questions the role of civil society organizations as potential progressive places in society through dealing with art. The project covers a wide historical field through discussions with the protagonists of these practices from the 1990s to the present, with a review of the experiences and heritage of organizing and collective creation in the recent past of local and national culture, through the neo-avant-garde of the 60s and 70s and Belgrade Surrealism of the 1930s.

The introduction to the research of group work, joint authorship, working conditions, was conducted during 2017 through interviewing participants and protagonists of the contemporary art scene from Yugoslavia and continued during 2018/2019. The research team is composed of members of kuda.org with associates from Belgrade, theoreticians and art historians Milica Pekić and Stevan Vuković, and Ana Peraica from Split.

 

During 20017 - 2019, the interlocutors in the interview interviews were collectives and groups in the field of contemporary art, theoreticians and art historians, and protagonist artists who realized their practice through group artwork.

Marko Pogačnik, artist, founder of the movement and art group OHO, Kranj-Ljubljana, after which the initiator of the transformation of this group into a new artistic initiative Družina v Šempasu (Družina v Šempasu), is today an active research artist in the international network.

 

Zdenka Badovinac, theorist and curator, director of the Modern Gallery and Museum of Contemporary Art in Ljubljana (MG + MSUM). In her research so far, she has covered a large part of the practice of contemporary art in Slovenia, which includes the work of art groups.

 

Curatorial collective What, How & for Whom / WHW, Zagreb
WHW projects are conceived as platforms for socially engaged models of cultural production and reflection of social reality. WHW was named after its first exhibition: What, How and for Whom, on the occasion of the 152nd anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, held in 2000 in Zagreb. What, how and for whom are the three fundamental issues of every economic organization concerning the planning, concept and realization of exhibitions, as well as the production and distribution of works of art and the artistic position in the labor market. These issues became the motto of WHW’s work and a source of inspiration for all subsequent projects.

 

IRVIN Group (IRWIN, NSK) interview was conducted with two members: Miran Mohar and Borut Vogelnik, artists active in the work of the IRVIN art group, lecturers at the University of Ljubljana and at private universities in Slovenia and the region.

 

Dejan Sretenović, art historian and theorist and curator of the Center for Visual Culture at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, previously director and program editor of the Center for Contemporary Art Belgrade (1994-2000)

 

Dunja Blažević, historical art, curator, editor of the visual program of the Gallery of the Student Cultural Center (SKC) in Belgrade from 1970 to 1976 and director of the SKC from 1976-1979 and director of the Center for Contemporary Art / SCCA / pro.ba in Sarajevo since 1996 -2010.

 

Janka Vukmir, theorist and curator, president of the Institute of Contemporary Art Zagreb, former editor, curator, and one of the directors of SCCA Zagreb (1993-1997)

 

Branka Stipančić, curator and critic in the field of art and the first director and curator of the Center for Contemporary Art Zagreb (SCCA - Zagreb, 1993-1997) and one of the founders of the SCCA network in Amsterdam.

 

Dean Zahtila, founder and member of Labin Art Express (L.A.E.), Labin
Labin Art Express (L.A.E.) is an independent underground cultural and artistic association, founded in 1991, with its headquarters in the coal mine in Labin, Istria Region, Croatia. In 1993, L.A.E., the first independent radio station in Croatia, was closed by a government decision in 1996, and in 1998 the international multimedia cultural center "Lamparna" in an abandoned coal mine building. It was the first step in the realization of their capital project "Underground city KSKSI" and the establishment of the first real futuristic underground city in the world, in abandoned tunnels and halls of the former coal mine in Labin, 160 m below ground level, with streets, bars, restaurants, galleries, concert halls, children’s playground, swimming pool, coal mine, museum, red light, etc., with government, mayor, police, and laws. L.A.E. is not a clan group of artists whose creativity is esoteric, but an exoteric cultural and artistic association that collaborates with artists and "artists" who share the basic idea that "art today must be: young, comprehensive, universal, modern, fierce, moral and synthetic."

 

Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Ljubljana
In 2007, the three artists joined the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and officially changed their names to the party's leader, the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Jansa. While they renamed themselves for personal reasons, the boundaries between their life and art

 

Nebojsa Vilić, Skopje, theorist, writer, art historian, lecturer at the University of Skopje at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts and the Faculty of Fine Arts and the first director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art Skopje.

 

MAGNET Group, Belgrade / Novi Sad
The group "Magnet" was founded in 1996 by scholarship holders of the Literary School "Tradition of the Avant-Garde", which was initiated and led by Vujica Rešin Tucić from 1993 to 1995 in Belgrade, Palić and Ečka. The core of the group consisted of Nune Popović, Ivan Pravdić, and Jelena Marjanov, and Siniša Tucić, Nikola Popović, Marija Lončar, Vladimir Acan, and Mina Vuletić participated in the work, as well as other associates of different professions and ages. The group "Magnet" operated until 1998, with the goal of finding and presenting a creative and non-violent way for a mass fight against the totalitarian regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

 

Božidar Mandić, founder of the Clear Streams Family, Rudnik Mountain
In May 1977, Božidar founded the commune Porodica bistrih potoka in the hamlet of Brezovica, at the foot of the Rudnik mountain. The principles of the commune are Philosophy of the Country, Open Home, Poor Economy, and Art. This is where Mandic's life and artistic work begins. Implementing the concept of non-enlightenment enlightenment, the Family of Clear Streams lives a real utopia of realizing an island on which, within the struggle for the Planet and the Individual, it opposes globalism, technology, progress, and profit ...

 

Focus group, Rijeka / Iva Kovač and Elvis Krstulović
they have been working since 2012, thus giving a new dimension to the cooperation that began in 2009. Both graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb with shortcomings whose conservative environment they compensated with extra-institutional engagement. Before coming to study in Zagreb, they lived in Rijeka, where they returned in 2013, becoming an important building block of the Rijeka independent scene, extremely well connected with the actors of regional culture. Their work is often marked by long-term interdisciplinary artistic processes that thematize nationalism, precariat, power relations on the art scene, and beyond. They were and still are involved in leading and creating programs of organizations such as Medica, SIZ, and Delta 5, which gave them a direct insight into the work processes from an organizational and curatorial perspective, and not exclusively artistic.

 

ŠKART Group, Belgrade / Đorđe Balmazović and Dragan Protić
Škart is a collective founded in 1990 at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. During the experiment through their work, they primarily focus on the medium of poetry and design. “Architecture of human relations” is their main concept. Through the constant flow of the collective, present from its very beginnings, members work collaboratively to develop new values. They are especially able to accept "nice" mistakes during the making process and work tirelessly to combine work with pleasure.

 

Multimedia Institute MI2, Zagreb / ​​Petar Milat and Tomislav Medak
The Multimedia Institute (Mi2) operates in the field of new media culture, research, and implementation of digital technologies, social activism, and cultural governance. Mi2 advocates participatory public policies in the fields of culture, technology, and common goods; encourage the linking of the independent cultural sector and activists; promotes progressive cultural practices and production. Mi2 is the (co) organizer of the Human Rights Film Festival and numerous music, audio-visual, and publishing programs. Mi2 is also the Croatian creator of Creative Commons licenses. Since its founding in 1999, the organization has assisted in the incubation of numerous cultural and social initiatives, including the Clubture cultural program exchange platform and the Right to the City spatial justice campaign.

 

You can watch video interviews/interviews at the following links:

Interview with members of the curatorial collective What, How & for Whom / WHW, Zagreb, Ivet Ćurlin and Ana Dević

Interview with IRWIN members: Miran Mohar and Borut Vogelnik, Ljubljana

Interview with Dean Zahtil, Founder and Member of Labin Art Express (L.A.E.), Labin

Interview with Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Ljubljana

Interview with Nebojsa Vilic / Nebojsa Vilik (DENES and ZERO Group), Skopje

Interview with members of the MAGNET group, Novi Sad

Interview with Božidar Mandić, founder of the Clear Streams Family, Rudnik Mountain

Interview with Focus Group, Rijeka / Iva Kovač and Elvis Krstulović

Interview with members of the SKART group, Belgrade / Djordje Balmazovic and Dragan Protic

Interview with members of the multimedia institute mi2, Zagreb, Petar Milat and Tomislav Medak

Talk about art organizations with Dejan Sretenović (Autopsia Group)

Talk about art organizations with Dunja Blažević (ZVONO Group)

Talk about art organizations with Branka Stipančić (Group of Six)

Interview with Marko Pogačnik (OHO group), Ljubljana

Interview with Zdenko Badovinac, Ljubljana

Interview with Janka Vukmir on the role of Soros Centers for Contemporary Art - SCCA in the region and the conditions of art production in the 90s, Zagreb

Interview with Dejan Sretenović on the role of Soros Centers for Contemporary Art - SCCA in the region and the conditions of art production in the 90s, Belgrade

Interview with Dunja Blažević on the role of Soros Centers for Contemporary Art - SCCA in the region and the conditions of art production in the 90s, Sarajevo

 

 

Art Organization is part of a wider project Vectors of Collective Imagination in which kuda.org collaborates with partners: Multimedia Institute mi2 and Kulturtreger-Booksa, Zagreb (HR); Glänta, Gothenburg (SE), Kontrapunkt, Skopje (MK) and Berliner Gazette, Berlin (DE). The project was supported by the European Commission through the Creative Europe program from September 2018 to September 2020, with the structural support of the FFAIART Foundation for Artistic Initiatives and local program support from the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia and the City of Novi Sad.