DECODING - Contemporary Art from Bosnia and Herzegovina
National Museum of Montenegro, Cetinje, 08/07/2014 - 10/12/2014
ABOUT
One of the primary missions of the National Museum of Montenegro refers to inter-regional cooperation through organizing exhibitions which would presentcurrent events on contemporary art scenes in particular countries. This project, which has yet to come to life, is now starting with the exhibition Recent Art of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The exhibition is designed as a display of a reviewablecharacter, with a flexible thematic and media framework which is to promote the creativity of artists who have been active on the Bosnian- Herzegovinian art scene during the last decades. Three cities - Sarajevo, Trebinje (RS) and Banjaluka (RS) - which are,conditionally speaking, larger cultural centres in which Academies of Fine Arts and the leading cultural institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovinaare located, represent nuclei for identifying the artists and their work. This certainly was not a limiting factor in terms of the selection of artists due to the fact that the selection was entrusted to distinguished experts in the field of fine arts, art history, theory of art and media: BrankaVujanovic and Jon Blackwood (for Sarajevo), Igor Bosnjak (for Trebinje, RS), Slobodan Vidovic and PredragTerzic (for Banjaluka, RS).Although the selectors presented a detailed explanation of their selections in the texts that follow, it is important to note that these are internationally recognized and renowned artists whose work in recent decades created a new scene whose development was temporarily anesthetized by socio-political circumstances and discrepancy in cultural strategy;this led to a kind of atrophy of collective sensitivity for artistic creations and reduced visibility of contents that definitely deserve to be presented outside their narrow geographical limits.However, this is not an isolated case in the region; we are faced with an increasing fragmentation into “microscenes” which act slightly autistic within their local borders (that are often reduced to a city or municipality); they are without reliable “tools” that could create synergy and establish a unique cultural platform from which it would be possible to conceive a particular scene in the full sense of that meaning and evaluate it in relation to other scenes of the region.Consequently, the focus is, and should be, on artists that are making efforts tore animate the need for connecting so that, slowly but safely, not only the exchange of cultural events takes place but also a stronger link is established between artists; a kind of hermetic relationship towards artistic tendencies in the region is to be replaced by an open interaction in a cultural space that once used to be unique.
* Excerpt from Ana Ivanovic text
Image featured: Operation: The New Gallery - Calgary, acrylic on canvas, 150 cm x 150 cm, 2007 / Mladen Miljanovic
For More Information
MORE EXHIBITIONS
ABOUT
One of the primary missions of the National Museum of Montenegro refers to inter-regional cooperation through organizing exhibitions which would presentcurrent events on contemporary art scenes in particular countries. This project, which has yet to come to life, is now starting with the exhibition Recent Art of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The exhibition is designed as a display of a reviewablecharacter, with a flexible thematic and media framework which is to promote the creativity of artists who have been active on the Bosnian- Herzegovinian art scene during the last decades. Three cities - Sarajevo, Trebinje (RS) and Banjaluka (RS) - which are,conditionally speaking, larger cultural centres in which Academies of Fine Arts and the leading cultural institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovinaare located, represent nuclei for identifying the artists and their work. This certainly was not a limiting factor in terms of the selection of artists due to the fact that the selection was entrusted to distinguished experts in the field of fine arts, art history, theory of art and media: BrankaVujanovic and Jon Blackwood (for Sarajevo), Igor Bosnjak (for Trebinje, RS), Slobodan Vidovic and PredragTerzic (for Banjaluka, RS).Although the selectors presented a detailed explanation of their selections in the texts that follow, it is important to note that these are internationally recognized and renowned artists whose work in recent decades created a new scene whose development was temporarily anesthetized by socio-political circumstances and discrepancy in cultural strategy;this led to a kind of atrophy of collective sensitivity for artistic creations and reduced visibility of contents that definitely deserve to be presented outside their narrow geographical limits.However, this is not an isolated case in the region; we are faced with an increasing fragmentation into “microscenes” which act slightly autistic within their local borders (that are often reduced to a city or municipality); they are without reliable “tools” that could create synergy and establish a unique cultural platform from which it would be possible to conceive a particular scene in the full sense of that meaning and evaluate it in relation to other scenes of the region.Consequently, the focus is, and should be, on artists that are making efforts tore animate the need for connecting so that, slowly but safely, not only the exchange of cultural events takes place but also a stronger link is established between artists; a kind of hermetic relationship towards artistic tendencies in the region is to be replaced by an open interaction in a cultural space that once used to be unique.
* Excerpt from Ana Ivanovic text
Image featured: Operation: The New Gallery - Calgary, acrylic on canvas, 150 cm x 150 cm, 2007 / Mladen Miljanovic
For More Information
MORE EXHIBITIONS
