kustoska izjava :: curatorial statement

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KUSTOSKA IZJAVA

Jubilarni 25. Memorijal Nadežde Petrović je, na inicijativu umetničkog direktora Miodraga Krkobića, kolaborativni projekat koji potpisuju četiri kustosa različitih senzibiliteta, ali sa jedinstvenim ciljem da se kritički i odgovorno preispitaju i reartikulišu postojeći dometi kulture. Kreativno promišljanje koncepta 25. Memorijala odvijalo se sa ciljem da se u trenutku oslabljenog delovanja kulturne produkcije na državnom nivou, kreira inovativan i svež odgovor na postojeće stanje. Izložba funkcioniše na nekoliko nivoa: umetničkom, kulturnom, životno-estetskom, komunikacijskom, političkom, naučnom i saznajnom. Kreiranjem ovakve platforme, nije stvorena samo zona za aktivnu umetničku praksu, nego i primer borbe i reagovanja, tj. kritičnosti u kulturi i društvu.

Slogan ovogodišnjeg memorijala Ja sam to što jesam, korenspondira sa likom i delom Nadežde Petrović. Životni izbori Nadežde Petrović, rastrzani između kontradiktornih ideologija i sistema, ali uvek podređeni njenim dubokim ubeđenjima o potrebi konstantnog progresa, o slobodi i zajedništvu naveli su nas na razmišljanje o kontekstu vremena u kom živimo i radimo, o mogućnostima koje su nam svima date, o izborima koje činimo kao pojedinci, ali i kao društvo. „Ja sam to što jesam“ u domenu umetnosti stimuliše cirkulaciju različitih slojeva jezika, povezivanje ljudi i kultura, kao i bivstvovanje u punom potencijalu u odnosu na date uslove i mogućnosti sada i ovde. Sa jedne strane se nalaze istorija, institucija, ime, resursi, lider, strategija i diskurs, a sa druge nezavisne individue koje imaju različite afinitete i interesovanja, ne pripadaju direktno sistemu, ali ih odlikuje rešenost da deluju. Izložba 25. Memorijala ima za cilj da ukaže na značaj dinamičnog procesa, slobodnih dela, reči i akcije.

Iako bi se možda mogla uočiti utopijsko emancipatorska estetska dimenzija koncepcije 25. Memorijala, ideja je da ona u jednu ravan postavi različite kontekste. U lokalnom se zalaže za smislenu i proporcionalnu, ali i održivu kulturnu proizvodnju čiji je glavni fokus odgovornost prema nasleđu, njegova nova i temeljna čitanja koja su zasnovana na aktivnom procesu, a ne na autokolonizaciji već postojećim formama mišljenja. Autokolonizacija je izbegnuta i u globalnom smislu, jer su inostrani umetnici umesto pasivnog učešća zasnovanog na stereotipnim očekivanjima takođe bili uključeni u istraživački proces, detaljno upoznali društveno kulturni kontekst i na njega odreagovali. Svi učesnici u projektu radove su promišljali specifično za 25. Memorijal Nadežde Petrović, iz čega treba iščitati kustoski postupak koji nije zasnovan na prečicama, niti na lakim rešenja, već na dijalektici, na istraživanju, pregovaranju i neprestanom preispitivanju kao opštim uslovima za smisleno delovanje. Svi prisutni autori svesni su značenja reči samorealizacija, ne kriju se iza maski postojećih ideologija, nego deluju tako što sugerišu nove odnose. Cilj izložbe je da se stvore koegzistentne mreže, zajednica koja nije definisana odnosom spolja-unutra, već gustinom veza u njenom središtu i duhom koji ih povezuje.

Zbog traume tokom kriznih godina, lokalna umetnička produkcija je često delovala u odnosu na hegemone umetničke centre zapadnog sveta umetnosti, kao marginalizovano i nesigurno drugo. Ovaj projekat stoji u liniji sa onim kulturnim delatnostima, koje nisu želele da reinterpretiraju niti ožive socijalističko nasleđe, već da stvore hibridnu paradigmu, koja će na sasvim poseban način uzeti najbolje od “dva sveta” i izboriti kao subjekat za kreiranje umetnosti koja se zasniva na optimalizaciji onih resursa koji su danas dostupni. Tako zamišljena, ova izložba je između ostalog i svedočanstvo o onima koji su ostali u Srbiji, i onima koji uprkos nepostojećoj kulturnoj politici, a izvan očekivanja drugih, stvaraju na najprofesionalniji mogući način.

Odgovor na pitanje koliko autora učestvuje u ovogodišnjoj selekciji je kompleksan, jer se na listi izlagača 25. Memorijala Nadežde Petrović nalaze stvaraoci različitih profesija (vizuelni umetnik, grafički i modni dizajner, arhitekta, naučni istraživač…) koji će se predstaviti radovima/projektima realizovanim pojedinačno, u paru ili kolektivu. Izabrani autori u svojim praksama polaze od konstantnog preispitivanja konteksta u kom stvaraju/deluju, medija u kojima rade i tema kojima se bave. U formi zidnih crteža, foto, audio i ambijentalnih instalacija, reinterpretiranih klasičnih medija slike i skulpture, medijskih projekata, intervencija u javnom prostoru, statističkih mapa, dokumenata, autori komentarišu i iznose zanimljive perspektive o brojnim realnostima današnjice. Tako su u fokusu aktuleni umetnički sistem, njegova sve prisutnija spektakularizacija i glamurizacija, odnosi margina-centar i pozicija umetnika u okviru istih, distopijski prostor korporacija, mass mediji kao sredstvo kolektivnog anesteziranja ili kao instrument u formiranju kolektivnih identiteta, lični zapisi i mapiranja situacija, ljudi, događaja koji na izvestan način govore o svima nama, našoj istovetnosti i posebnosti, o neprestanom procesu redefinisanja. Mogućnost izbora koja se nametnula kao koncepcijska okosnica naše selekcije pokreće i problematizuje u daljoj interpretaciji izloženih radova/projekata brojne teme i pitanja: odluke, želje, šanse, promašaje, pokušaje, snagu, nemoć, otpor, predaju, sećanje, zaborav, vrednost, nasleđe, odnos tradicionalnog i savremenog. Producirni radovi govore o kompleksnoj stvarnosti ili deluju kao upitanost o njenim neprestanim provokacijama. Izložba opstaje kao one male, ali ne i malobrojne, teritorije i zone, glasne u odbrani ideje permanentnog preispitivanja tekovina sveta koji ih okružuje.

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CURATORIAL STATEMENT

Jubilee Twenty-fifth Memorial Nadežda Petrović, on the initiative of its Art Director Miodrag Krkobić, is a colaborative project signed by four curators with different sensibilities but with a joint aim to critically and responsibly examine and rearticulate the existing standards of culture. Creative programming behind the Twenty-fifth Memorial was structured around an aim to create an innovative and perspicuous discourse in response to the waning cultural production of the country. The exhibition functions on several levels: artistic, real-asthetic, communicational, political, scientific and cognisance level. Establishing this conceptual platform offered a model for fierce critical engagement in culture and society, and not just a space for active artistic practice.

The title of this year’s exhibition – I Am What I Am – corresponds with life and work of Nadežda Petrović. Petrović’s life choices – torn between opposing ideologies and systems but always dominated by her faith in constant progress, freedom and community – caused us to consider the context of the times we live in, possibillities that we’re given and choices that we all make as individuals and as a society. I Am What I Am in the domain of art stimulates circulation of various levels of language, networking people and cultures, as well as fulfilled existence in relation to given conditions and options here and now. On one hand there is history, institution, name, resources, leader, strategy and discourse, and on the other are independent individuals with different affinities and interests which are not coopted by the system but are defined by their dedication to act. Exhibition of the Twenty-fifth Memorial has made its goal to point at the urgency of dynamic process, of free labour, words and actions.

Although it may seem as utopistic deployment of emancipatory aesthetic dimension, the concept of the Twenty-fifth Memorial was to place various contexts on a single plane. In local aspect, it promotes conscientious, proportional and sustainable cultural production, whose main focus is its responsibility towards legacy, and its new and fundamental reading is based on an active process, and not on self-colonisation towards pre-existing frames of thought. Self-colonisatin has been avoided in the global sense as well, because international artists have been included in active research, instead of being offered a passive role based on stereotypical expectations. They were enabled to examine the socio-cultural context and to respond to it. All participants in the project responded specifically to the Twenty-fifth Memorial Nadežda Petrović, which reflects the curatorial approach that is not based on shortcuts or easy solutions but on dialectic, research, negotiation and questioning as basis for conscious action. All artists are familiar with the concept of self-realisation and are not hiding behind masks of existing ideologies, but respond by suggesting new inter-relations. The aim of this exhibition is to create co-existing networks, a community that is not defined by inside-outside binary but on the complexity of intercommunicable connections in its core and the spirit that holds them in place.

Because of the trauma of the last two decades, the local art production was forced to respond to hegemonic centres of western art world as its marginalised and insecure other. This project relates to the culture activity that declines to reinterpret or re-live the socialist legacy, but creates a hybrid paradigm that uses the best of both worlds and rises to the challenge of being a subject for culture production based on optimal and available resources. In that aspect, this exhibition is also a testament to those that stayed in Serbia and, in spite of nonexistant culture policy and imposed expectations, create in the most professional manner.

The answer to the question how many artists are the participants of this exhibition is complex; the list of exhibitors of the Twenty-fifth Memorial Nadežda Petrović includes visual artists, graphic and fashion designers, architects and scientific researchers. The authors will present works and projects that are realised individually, in pairs or as collectives. Despite their profession, the selected authors have in common the constant rearticulation of context in ther chosen practice, medium or topics. In the format of graffiti, photo-, audio and ambient installations, reinterpreted classic mediums of painting and sculpture, media projects, interventions in public spaces, statistic maps or documents, the artists commented and brought in focus various perspectives of present realities. Some of the themes are: the art system, its increasing spectacularisation and glamourisation; relations margine-center and artistic positioning within; dystopian spaces of corporations; mass media as means of collective anaesthetising or as instrumental in forming collective identities; personal insriptions and mappings of situations, people, events that in some ways relate to all of us, our individuality and separateness, within ceaseless process of redefining. The option of choice that imposed itself as conceptual framework of this selection, addresses and problematizes numeous themes and questions: decisions/desires, opportunities/misses, strength/powerlessness, resistance/resignation, memory/forgetting, value/legacy, traditional/contemporary. Produced works talk about complex realities or challenge its provocations. The subsistence of the exhibition depends on small but numerous territories and zones that remain vocal in defense of an idea of revising the legacy of the world.