[Nettime-ro] Fw: Konverzacija

Konverzacija

(A short-notice show)

Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

Usce Save bb, Novi Beograd, Yugoslavia

Phone: (381 11) 3115 713

Fax: (381 11) 3112 955

E-mail: msub@eunet.yu

Sunday, October 20, 2001, 13h

Project by:

Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

Centre for Contemporary Art - Belgrade

The project Konverzacija is conceived as an opening exhibition of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade under its new management. During the 90s the Museum represented a cultural mirror-image of the official policy of the ex-Serbian regime. Konverzacija - the first big international show of contemporary art in Belgrade after many years - marks an attempt to alter the institutional treatment of contemporary art in Serbia. The show aims at establishing, re-establishing and confirming communication among artists and curators in Serbia, in the region, and internationally.

Opening date

The opening of the exhibition is deliberately scheduled for October 20, commemorating the day when in 1965 the Museum building has been officially opened as well as the day when Belgrade has in 1944 been liberated from Nazi occupation by Tito’s partisans and Soviet Red Army.

Why Konverzacija?

In many of its meanings, the term konverzacija (conversation) is first of all taken to denote an informal interchange of thoughts, and to signal the ability to open that interchange within an isolationist environment. Conversations will take place in many different aspects during preparing, mounting and interpreting this show. Given that to converse implies a verbal act, it cannot be literally taken as the theme of the show. However, most of the invited artists employ forms of conversations in juxtaposing sometimes opposed lines of thoughts and discourses. The intention of the show is to present social and personal implications of this talk with others. The Latin word conversare means to turn constantly, which is precisely the aspect of contemporary art which is to be put forward: an ability to turn positions through mutual interchange of ideas and actions. Finally, another origin of the word was also important to confirm the title of this show: conversari in Latin means to keep company with.

List of participating artists:

AES (Moscow), Dejan Andjelkovic&Jelica Radovanovic (Belgrade), Huseyin Bahri Alptekin (Istanbul), Breda Beban (London), Luchezar Boyadjiev (Sofia), Phil Collins (Belfast), Mirjana Djordjevic (Belgrade), Biljana Djurdjevic (Belgrade), Uros Djuric (Belgrade), Kendell Geers (Johannesburg), Dejan Grba (Belgrade), Roza el Hassan (Budapest), Aleksandar Battista Ilic (Zagreb), Zdravko Joksimovic (Belgrade), Dragan Jovanovic (Belgrade), Dejan Kaludjerovic (Belgrade), Ivana Keser (Zagreb), Zsolt Kovacs (Belgrade), Marko Kovacic (Ljubljana), Miodrag Krkobabic (Belgrade), Yuri Leiderman (Moscow), Aleksandar Macasev (Becej/Belgrade), Nikoleta Markovic (Belgrade), Goranka Matic (Belgrade), Ivan Mestrovic (†), Era Milivojevic (Belgrade), Mihael Milunovic (Belgrade/Paris), Oliver Musovik (Skopje), Zoran Naskovski (Belgrade), Vladimir Nikolic (Belgrade), Vesna Pavlovic (Belgrade), Dan Perjovschi (Bucharest), Marjetica Potrc (Ljubljana), Anri Sala (Tirana/Paris), Jayce Salloum (Vancouver), Tomo Savic Gecan (Zagreb/Amsterdam), Saso Stanojkovik (Skopje), Balint Szombathy (Sremska Kamenica/Budapest), Nebojsa Seric Soba (Sarajevo/Amsterdam), Skart (Belgrade), Natasa Teofilovic (Pancevo), Zoran Todorovic (Belgrade), Rasa Todosijevic (Belgrade), Milica Tomic (Belgrade), Marija Vauda (Belgrade), Vera Vecanski (Belgrade), Dragana Zarevac (Belgrade).

Curatorial team:

Branislava Andjelkovic, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

Branislav Dimitrijevic, Director, Centre for Contemporary Art - Belgrade

Dejan Sretenovic, Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

In a conversation: one person throws a ball; the other does not know whether
he is supposed to throw it back, or throw it to a third person, or leave it
on the ground, or pick it up and put it in his pocket, etc.

Ludwig Wittgenstein