Sanja Iveković
Sweet Violence
December 18, 2011–March 26, 2012
Special Exhibitions Gallery, third floor
The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, second floor
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 708-9400
MoMA.org
Iveković (b. 1949, Zagreb), came of age in the post-1968 period in former Yugoslavia, at a time when artists broke free from institutional settings, laying the grounds for a form of opposition to official culture. In the 1970s Iveković probed the persuasive qualities of mass media and its identity-forging potential, and after 1990—with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the birth of a new nation—she focused on the transformation of reality from communist to post-communist political systems.
The exhibition includes over 100 works, presenting the full range of the artist’s practice from conceptual photomontage to video, social sculpture, and performance. Among the highlights, Iveković’s series of photomontages, Double Life (1975–76), addresses the media’s role in identity formation; the performance Triangle (1979) is a response to political cults of the leader and systems of political surveillance; the video Personal Cuts (1982) fuses historical inquiry with feminist politics; and the installation Report on CEDAW U.S.A. (2011) exposes the disregard for women’s rights that today pervades both transitional societies and democracies that pretend otherwise. Iveković’s major sculpture Lady Rosa of Luxembourg (2001), which, along with documentation of its original public presentation and critical reception, takes center stage in the Museum’s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, adopts a generative approach to historical memory. Drawing on a remarkable 40-year artistic practice, the exhibition presents Iveković’s unflinching view of gender roles, the official politics of power, and changes in national ideology.
Panel Discussion
A panel discussion focusing on art and politics takes place on Monday, December 12, at 6:00 p.m. Participants include Ivana Bago and Antonia Majača, curators, Institute for Duration, Location and Variables [DeLVe], Zagreb; Charles Esche, Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Sanja Iveković, artist, Zagreb; Bojana Pejić, art historian and curator, Berlin; and Martha Rosler, artist, New York. Roxana Marcoci, Curator, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, moderates the discussion. Tickets can be purchased at MoMA at the lobby information desk or the film desk, or online at MoMA.org/talks. This program takes place in The Celeste Bartos Theater at MoMA, in the Cullman Education and Research Building at 4 West 54 Street.
Performance
Sanja Iveković‘s performance Practice Makes a Master, with Sonja Pregrad, takes place on December 12 at 8:00 p.m., December 14 at 5:00 p.m., and December 15 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets can be obtained free of charge at MoMA at the lobby information desk or the film desk, or online at MoMA.org/talks. This program takes place in MoMA’s Classroom B, in the Cullman Education and Research Building at 4 West 54 Street.
Publication
Sanja Iveković: Sweet Violence, a major publication featuring essays by curator Roxana Marcoci and literary critic Terry Eagleton, offers a philosophical context for investigating urgent issues such as women’s rights, political activism, and collaborative tactics in art.
Sanja Iveković: Sweet Violence is made possible by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation. Major support is provided by The Modern Women’s Fund, established by Sarah Peter, and by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional funding is provided by David Teiger, The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Trust for Mutual Understanding, and The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.
*Image above:
Collection the artist. © 2011 Sanja Iveković.
