SALT Galata
Bankalar Caddesi 11
34420 Karaköy Istanbul
Turkey
Moderna galerija
Windischerjeva 2
SI- 1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA)
Plaça dels Àngels, 1
08001 Barcelona
Spain
L’Internationale is a confederation of European museums working in collaboration with universities and other partners. The confederation takes its name from the 19th century workers’ anthem, “L’Internationale,” which called for an equitable and just global society. Currently the confederation is operating within the five-year programme The Uses of Art – The Legacy of 1848 and 1989. Its publishing platform L’Internationale Online presents articles, opinions and e-publications on the intersection of art, heritage and larger (geo)political questions.
A critical re-reading of the 1980s is central to L’Internationale’s programme. The 1980s mark a decisive decade in the establishment of today’s neoliberal world order. This transformation took on different guises across Europe and was met with critical artistic thinking in varied ways. Within this area of research, three new chapters are now opening in Istanbul, Ljubljana and Barcelona. The complete programme will be reflected in a publication due next autumn.
Mapping the 1980s—Part 2:
One and the Many
September 6–November 13, 2016
SALT Galata, Istanbul
The exhibition looks into the production and distribution of things. It tackles the period 1955 to 1995 in Turkey, by following the material results of gradual industrialisation as well as its contingent infrastructural disposals. Following a shift in the mid-80s from a mixed to a liberal economy, for the first time ever producers in Turkey could trade in foreign currencies without ultimate supervision by the state. The exhibition frames the topic primarily via the stories of selected artifacts common to the 80s, a period when industrial products met a voluminous consumer market for the first time. The show is conceived by Meriç Öner.
New Spaces, New Images. The 1980s Through the Prism of Events, Exhibitions, and Discourses – Part 1
October 14, 2016–January 1, 2017
Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
Based on a selection of events that shaped developments in Slovene art in the final decade of Yugoslavia, the exhibition New Spaces, New Images presents a cross-section of the major exhibitions, events, and art spaces of the time. Social changes, the political crisis following the death of the Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, and the economic crisis inevitably had an impact on art and culture. Early in the decade, a wave of new art swept over Yugoslavia just as it did over the rest of Europe. The show is curated by Asta Vrečko and Martina Malešič.
Hard Gelatin. Hidden Stories from the 80s
November 4, 2016–March 19, 2017
MACBA, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
In Spain, the 1980s mark the first decade after the Franco dictatorship. The official account advocated installing a democracy that prioritised necessity over reason and looked toward the future to the detriment of analysing the recent past. Focusing on the period from 1977 to 1992, the exhibition reflects on a series of historical events of a socio-political nature. It features the work of groups, cultural activists and artists who went against the grain by embodying attitudes that, ten years earlier, had been symbols of refutation, irony and political dissent. The show is curated by Teresa Grandas.
The Eighties Against the Grain
International seminar
Wednesday, December 14, 2016, 11am–8:30pm
MACBA, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
Coinciding with the exhibition, a one-day seminar will reflect on the broader re-reading of the 1980s by L’Internationale. This will be accompanied by case studies recently conducted in Spain by a generation born in that period, that demonstrate the need to look at the past in order to understand and write the present. The seminar builds on Walter Benjamin’s proposal “to brush history against the grain” in order to question those compact, seamless accounts that speak of a victorious past. Today a revision of Europe’s recent past—now that its foundations have proved not to be as solid and triumphalist as we were led to believe—seem more pertinent than ever.
Participants in the seminar: Nick Aikens, Zdenka Badovinac, Alberto Berzosa, Marta Echaves, Merve Elveren, Equipo Palomar, Diana Franssen, Nav Haq, Luis López Carrasco, Pablo Martínez and Fefa Vila
L’Internationale Online
This summer, L’Internationale Online published a new thematic issue: “Ecologising Museums.” The research on the theme of ecologising institutions continues with a series of opinion articles by Amy Franceschini of Future Farmers. Also, still ongoing, is Opinions contributor pantxo ramas’ latest post “Taking Care, Making Care.”
