May 4–22, 2016
Fundació Antoni Tàpies
Aragó 255
08007 Barcelona
T +34 934 870 315
Programme of conferences and artistic projects on the current and past uses of modern art arising from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Curated by Oriol Fontdevila. Abstract Socialismis the second part of Performing the Museum project.
May 4, 6pm
Presentation programme and conversation with the artists
With Jasmina Cibic, Fokus Grupa and Søren Thilo Funder
Free admission—Auditorium. Limited places
May 4, 6:30pm / May 11 and 18, 5:30pm
Programme of projections
Featuring works by Jasmina Cibic, Søren Thilo Funder and Doplgenger
Free admission—Auditorium. Limited places
May 13, 5pm / May 14, 8pm
Lectures
With Andreja Hribernik, Ljiljana Kolešnik, Dalibor Martinis, Aleksandra Sekulić, Barbara Steiner and Ana Dević from What, How & for Whom/WHW
Free admission—Auditorium. Limited places
May 4–22
Artistic intervention
Fokus Grupa in Antoni Tàpies. Collection, 1955–65
Permanent Collection. Level 1.
Abstract Socialism
During the early years of the Cold War, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia took an unexpected stand in relation to modern art. Artists and intellectuals embraced abstract art, while the country’s cultural policy also saw it as a possibility for educating the people and for social progress. Yugoslavia distanced itself from the Soviet Union’s condemnation of abstraction, yet was never totally behind the formalist ideas currently fashionable in North America.
The Yugoslav context has contributed to later generations of artists questioning the basis of what has been called socialist modernity. Yet it also seems that the principle of utopia that nourished this project has never ceased to be recognised and is received as an inheritance with which to challenge the amnesiac state informing museums and the cultural neoliberal policies of today.
Abstract Socialism is a programme of conferences and artistic projects on the current and past uses of modern art arising from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It focuses on contemporary art practices that establish alliances with this legacy, albeit in a disruptive key, as well as historiographical accounts pointing to a critical review of the political and cultural initiatives that previously served to promote modern and progressive art.
