Škart Book Talk | Building Human Relations Through Art

Škart Book Talk | Building Human Relations Through Art

30.05.2025, 19:00
Sandwich, Malmaison Studios
Bucharest, Calea Plevnei 137C, 2nd floor

Škart Group’s workshop in Bucharest features a public event dedicated to the book “Building Human Relations Through Art. Škart collective (Belgrade) > from 1990 to present” (Onomatopee 224, 2022), with the participation of the artists and of the curator and book editor, Seda Yildiz.

“The decision to make a book first came the night when I met Škart, while looking at their art practice which is not often materialised. It made me think about how to present, archive, and share such fluid, collaborative artistic practice. I realised that particularly their practice from the 2000s-today, which is often undertaken behind closed doors, for instance with the elderly, or vulnerable children, has not been made public as the printed works from the 1990s. I had the urge to present them to a wider audience while unpacking these relations. As a curator, exhibition as a medium is the first thing to come up with, but perhaps selfishly I wanted to create something more durable, and mobile so that it can reach out to many. This is how the idea of making a book on Škart, with Škart, and involving others whose paths crossed with Škart, came. I see book as a multivocal space that we created together.” – Seda Yildiz

Since the 1990s, the Škart Group (Serbia/Slovenia) have been preoccupied to make art an integral and engaged part of everyday life, through collaboration, care, pleasure, activism and solidarity, by using simple resources and creative ideas, and the power of sharing life and working together. In Škart’s practice, the medium or the product are not important, but the message, which can take the form of (visual) poems, posters or actions, with no necessarily direct political statements, but more poetic and abstract, and which can further use the streets and public spaces as free grounds to spread the message. Škart Group is an interdisciplinary collective founded in 1990 at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade by Đorđe Balmazović (Žole) and Dragan Protić (Prota).

Seda Yildiz is an independent curator and art writer based in Rotterdam and Gothenburg. She has a background in art practice, design and literature. Her socially engaged practice often takes the form of discursive exhibitions, public programs, writing, and publishing. Her research interests centre around self-built artists’ archives and self-organisation strategies, mainly in the former East. Collaborations and approaches to making art public are becoming more and more central to her practice. Conviviality and friendship are central values in her practice.

The talk is moderated by Ștefania Ferchedău. The event is organised by the Institute of the Present in the frame of the projects “The Architecture of Human Relations” and “In the archives. (Yet) Invisible Histories”.

This project is supported by the Romanian Order of Architects, from the architectural stamp duty, and by The King’s Foundation. Cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. Partner: Sandwich. Visuals: Bianca Petrescu.

The project does not necessarily represent the standpoint of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN cannot be held liable for the content of the project or the manner in which the outcomes of the project may be used. These shall devolve entirely on the beneficiary of the financing.