Milky Way
The multimedia exhibition ‘Milky Way’, connects artistic, educational, scientific, technical and performative content, is permeated with avant-garde and contemporary art theories and practices, and will bring us an unusual experience within the Other? Europe programme arch. The exhibition will run from 25 November to 30 December across several locations in Novi Sad:
Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina
Cultural Centre of Novi Sad
Biro in District (until 11 December)
The exhibition includes artists and art groups from Novi Sad, Serbia, the region and the international art scene throughout history, but also includes relevant contemporary art practices. The open form of the exhibition implies the integration of various media, procedural and interdisciplinary research, performance and collective action, interventions in real and digital space, discussions and exchanges, including utopian and socially critical attitudes.
The exhibition presents examples of unstable and emancipatory artistic practice, from avant-garde to contemporary, media, and post-media art. As its starting point, it refers to the results of the project ‘The Continuous Art Class’, New Media center_kuda.org, aimed at mapping the social and artistic history of Novi Sad, through the presentation of a network of protagonists and references, artistic, social and political theory and practice that influenced the Novi Sad neo-avant-garde of the 60s and 70s. For this reason, the central part of the exhibition is occupied by the ‘Media Ontology’ map, as a key segment of The Continuous Art Class project, which presents the research methodology of the project and covers the field of historical avant-gardes from the beginning of the 20th century, through the post-war neo-avant-garde, all the way to contemporary artistic media production. The exhibition continues to develop by broadening the perception of local and international practices, by presenting other projects of a kind of mapping of the art scene, such as the East Art Map of the Irwin group, social and interdisciplinary positioning visible in the work ‘Društevni porterti’ by Uroš Đurić and the radio podcast ‘Femkanje’ by Bojana Knežević and Katarina Petrović, and network mappings present in Vladan Joler’s projects.
The need for mutual networking and connection, closeness and joint action, noticeable in natural laws, exists in art scenes throughout history and in various, often distant geographical places. The avant-garde processes, as drivers of artistic experiment, innovation, progressiveness, engagement and freedom of artistic expression, marked the artistic and social history of Novi Sad. The question is how to preserve these values in the local environment, its visibility and connection with similar, significant activities in the region and the international cultural space, and their relations to contemporary, innovative media and post-media practices.
How to establish dialogue nowadays and connect the values of the complex phenomena of historical avant-gardes, neo-avant-gardes and possible post-avant-gardes? How important is resistance to existing systems in art, society and technology for the development of critical artistic practice and how much is it present as a reflection of dissatisfaction with imposed, default and established dogmas, prejudices and taboos? Also, do conservatism, nationalism and xenophobia, contrary to the avant-garde cosmopolitan and supranational spirit of connection, strengthen in the conditions of the contemporary closed and isolated society?
The ‘Milky Way’ project represents a public segment of the Centre for Intermedia and Digital Art of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, focused on mapping, affirmation and presentation of intermedia, interdisciplinary and hybrid approaches to art, and continuing to introduce new functions of the Museum concerning various processes in contemporary culture.
Programme:
25 November
5 p.m. / Opening of the exhibition segment in the District
6 p.m. / Opening of the exhibition segment in the Art Salon of the Cultural Centre of Novi Sad
7 p.m. / Opening of the exhibition segment in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina and performance by Ilija Belorukova
7.30 p.m. / Film screenings at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina
Zoran Popović, ‘Gestural Speech of Joseph Beuys, a 12-hour lecture’, Edinburgh, 1973
Irwin, ‘An Apology for Modernity. The NSK State-in-Time Pavilion’, a film by Irwin and Igor Zupe, with a guest appearance and a conversation with the authors
26 November / 12 p.m. / Screening of the documentary film ‘Project Cancer’, with a conversation with screenwriter and curator Tevž Logar / Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina
7 December / 6 p.m. / Audio-visual performance ‘SIRENS by NOVI_SAD’, Ryoichi Kurokawa / District, SCC Fabrika
14 December / 5 p.m. / Guided tour of the exhibition, curator Sanja Kojić Mladenov with artists
The sponsor of MSUV is the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities. Exhibition support: “Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture 2022” Foundation, Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia, EU Japan Fest from Tokyo and Austrian Cultural Forum from Belgrade. Co-organization: Center for New Media kuda.org.
Photo: Yong Kuan Kim, Kukje Gallery, Seoul