Transcultural Connections: Art in socialist Yugoslavia / Art in today’s migrations

Until February 2023, the exhibition Connections—Danish artists from the former Yugoslavia is being shown at SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark. This exhibition will be the backdrop for the seminar Transcultural Connections: Art in socialist Yugoslavia / Art in today’s migrations. However, the seminar programme is not specifically focused on artworks in the exhibition but on their artistic, cultural, and historical contextualisation in a wider transcultural perspective.  

The seminar thus aims at giving the audience an insight into the Yugoslav artistic and cultural heritage and at pointing to the potential of transcultural art to question the notion of cultural and national belonging. This dual approach will be addressed in the form of a one-day seminar programme including presentations by Danish and international scholars, artists, and curators.

The morning session will be dedicated to some of the main trends that shaped the art scene of the socialist Yugoslavia. The audience is introduced to this rich and complex period of 50 years through two keynote presentations. Yugoslav Socialist Modernism and the Other Line by Branislav Dimitrijević and Communal work of Neue Slowenische Kunst in the 1980s and early 1990s by Zdenka Badovinac.

The afternoon session is dedicated to art and migration in a transcultural perspective. Heidi Vad Jønsson will open the session giving a historic introduction to the developments in Danish migration from 1960 until today and drawing attention to the notion of welfare state in a globalized world. Her introductory presentation is followed by Sabine Dahl Nielsen’s and Irfan Hošić’s presentations on curating contemporary art exhibitions with plural cultural affiliations. Hošić will draw on his curatorial experience from KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture in Bihać—Bosnia and Herzegovina, where much of his work revolves around art dealing with migration, diaspora and belonging. Using the Berlin-based art space Savvy Contemporary as her main case study, Dahl Nielsen will present international art projects dealing with aspects of cultural plurality in a transcultural perspective.

In each of the two above-mentioned sessions, there will be an artistic presentation. In the morning, Rena Rädle will give a talk on the art project Ironworks ABC, which was carried through in collaboration with Vladan Jeremić; it revives the socialist heritage of the Sisak Ironworks sculpture colony and addresses the potential of the ideology of work tied to self-management. In the afternoon, Damir Avdagić will introduce the audience to his artistic praxis dealing with historical trauma and its transgenerational reach among members of the Ex-Yugoslav communities in diaspora.

The seminar will be moderated by Anne Ring Petersen and Tea Sindbæk Andersen from the University of Copenhagen. While Sindbæk from the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies will moderate the first session, Ring Petersen from the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies will moderate the second one. 

The seminar is a collaboration between SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen. It was made possible with the generous support from the Danish Arts Foundation, The Obel Family Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation and Centre for Modern European Studies (CEMES).

Seminar fee: 123 DKK (including refreshments and lunch)

Programme

8:30–9am: Arrival, registration and morning coffee/tea.

9–9:10am: Introduction to the seminar by Tijana Miskovic (PhD fellow at the University of Copenhagen and SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark).

9:10am–12:30pm: Session I—Art in socialist Yugoslavia (includes breaks)
Yugoslav Socialist Modernism and the Other Line by Branislav Dimitrijević (Professor of History and Theory of Art at the College of Art and Design in Belgrade).

Communal Work of Neue Slowenische Kunst in the 1980s and early 1990s by Zdenka Badovinac (Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb).

Ironworks ABC by Rena Rädle (artist).

Discussion moderated by Tea Sindbæk Andersen (Associate Professor at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen).

12:30–1:30pm: Lunch

1:30–4:30pm: Session II—Art in today’s migrations (includes breaks)
Also a question of moral leadership by Heidi Vad Jønsson (PhD in History, University of Southern Denmark, Studies in History and Social Sciences).

The Art Space as a Site of Transcultural Encounter by Sabine Dahl Nielsen (PhD in Modern Culture and Cultural Dissemination Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at University of Copenhagen).

Between the two worlds by Irfan Hošić (Professor of Art History at the University of Bihać and Artistic Director of the KRAK Center).

History, memory and inter-generational transmission: Selected works by Damir Avdagic by Damir Avdagić (artist and educator).

Discussion moderated by Anne Ring Petersen (Professor at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen).

4:30–5pm: Closing
Questions from the audience, and closing by Tijana Mišković.