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

Biography: 

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)

The Soros Center for Contemporary Art – SCCA Zagreb was founded in 1993 and registered as an independent nonprofit organization, a citizens’ association in 1998 as The Institute for Contemporary Art, as the successor of SCCA Zagreb. The founders of the Institute are a group of art historians, curators, artists, photographers, designers, publishers, university professors and journalists.

At the time of its establishment in 1993 the aims of the SCCA – Zagreb were to upgrade to the existing system of institutions of contemporary art in Croatia, to promote artists, visual arts and other artistic creativity, to initiate the documentation on contemporary artists, and to build a recognizable network of contemporary art production in the area where we were active. At the beginnings, the Institute acted as a logistics centre for helping artists and their promotion, as the organizer of exhibitions, and has participated in the formation of civil society in Croatia.

Janka Vukmir, theorist and curator
Summary: 

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

 

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)

The Soros Center for Contemporary Art – SCCA Zagreb was founded in 1993 and registered as an independent nonprofit organization, a citizens’ association in 1998 as The Institute for Contemporary Art, as the successor of SCCA Zagreb. The founders of the Institute are a group of art historians, curators, artists, photographers, designers, publishers, university professors and journalists.

At the time of its establishment in 1993 the aims of the SCCA – Zagreb were to upgrade to the existing system of institutions of contemporary art in Croatia, to promote artists, visual arts and other artistic creativity, to initiate the documentation on contemporary artists, and to build a recognizable network of contemporary art production in the area where we were active. At the beginnings, the Institute acted as a logistics centre for helping artists and their promotion, as the organizer of exhibitions, and has participated in the formation of civil society in Croatia.

 

Art organization (review of historical practices through the XX century to the present day), research project kuda.org

Art Organisation analyses the phenomenon of artistic (self)organisation and relations within artistic groups and collectives in the post-Yugoslav region during the last fifty years, and the ways it influenced the profile and quality of their artistic production. Research within the project Art Organisation is aimed at group and collective processes of creation and internal dynamics between artists and other participants in them. The focus is on self-organised initiatives outside the framework of official institutions. Through the phenomena of self-organisation, the project questions the role of civil society organisations as potential progressive places in society through dealing with art.

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 2019, the interviewed were collectives and groups in the field of contemporary art, theoreticians and art historians, and protagonist artists who realized their practice through group art work.

Art Organisation is part of a wider project Vectors of Collective Imagination where kuda.org cooperates with partners: Multimedia Institute mi2 and Kulturtreger-Books, Zagreb (HR); Glänta Gothenburg  (SE); Kontrapunkt, Skopje (MK) and Berliner Gazette, Berlin (DE).