15-22.10.2022
Timișoara
COLLEGIUM: Artist collectives and works from the ‘90s
NEDA KOVINIĆ x The Sadness, ŠKART, 1992–1993
workshop 15–16.10.2022, 10:00-14:00 + 17.10.2022, 17:00-20:00
Lapsus
ANDREA PALAŠTI x Frozen Art, Led Art, 1993–1994
workshop 18–20.10.2022, 17:00-20:00
Minitremu
registration: https://forms.gle/TGc3Sz3F1RLzoR4b8
ARTIST TALK: NEDA KOVINIĆ & ANDREA PALAŠTI
22.10.2022, 16:00
Indecis
IP—The Institute of the Present organises a residency programme aimed at researching and rediscussing artworks created in the early 1990s in Romania, Hungary and Serbia, together with their contexts, the (temporary) artistic collectives or solitary initiatives conceived as solutions for new gestures, sometimes utopic at their time. The artists selected in the 2022 call are Neda Kovinić, researching “The Sadness” by ŠKART Group, 1992–1993; and Andrea Palašti, researching “Frozen Art” by Led Art Group, 1993–1994. The artists are in residency and Timișoara between 14–23 October and will give workshops and a talk in connection with their research. The residency programme is developed in the frame of the “Uncensored Act” project undertaken by the Institute of the Present as part of the Timișoara European Capital of Culture 2023 official programme. Co-organising and hosting partners in Timișoara are Minitremu, Lapsus, Indecis and The Secret Garden Bookshop.
The workshops are open to age groups over 16 years old, students, art professionals and cultural public alike, and will be given in English. Participation is free of charge and registrations are open at: https://forms.gle/TGc3Sz3F1RLzoR4b8. Details on the workshops’ focus and the artists follow below.
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NEDA KOVINIĆ x The Sadness, ŠKART, 1992–1993
workshop 15–16.10.2022, 10:00-14:00 + 17.10.2022, 17:00-20:00
Lapsus, Timișoara
The ŠKART (“scraps”) Group appeared at the exhibition “Private – Public,” which marked the entry of critical artistic practices into the public space of Serbia during the nineties. ŠKART Group (consisting of Dragan Protić and Đorđe Balmazović, and their collaborator at the time, photographer Vesna Pavlović) started in 1992 with the action “The Sadness” within which they had been present in different locations sharing to passers-by poems printed on cardboard plates. Songs, that were always halfway between precise observation and witty pathos, marked the attitude of active resignation in relation to relapses of nationalist euphoria and in relation to the rejection to formulate a critical attitude in a numb and closed society through the forgotten feelings of empathy and solidarity. For example, the poem “Sadness of a Potential Traveller” was distributed at the train station, “Sadness of a Potential Vegetable” at the market, and “Sadness of a Potential Return” was sent by mail to acquaintances who were among hundreds of thousands of those who left Serbia since the beginning of the war. The mission of the group was to draw attention towards what people would otherwise not notice. ŠKART’s work is cross-disciplinary, ranging from multi-media, literary publications, and performance, including street actions. Their work sometimes expresses personal feelings (theirs or others) which can reflect a story of the larger society. This is exemplified in “The Sadness Project” which was ŠKART’s public declaration of personal sadness during the winter of 1992–1993.
The workshop given by artist Neda Kovinić proposes: an introduction into the social-political context of former Yugoslavia during the period in which “The Sadness” artwork set down its roots, connected to the Romanian situation of that time, while also introducing ŠKART’s art practice together with the artist own practice and interest in their work in contemporary context; body movement and writing practice sessions; exploring interactions with passers-by in various public spaces around “The Sadness” poems.
Questions raised: What would be a public space for socio-political art actions nowadays? If the 1990s made out a step towards the public and outside the established art institutions by going out into the street, market, stations, what would be a contemporary gesture of going out into public? If ŠKART recognised sadness as a key emotion or affect, what emotion would we single out today as a symptom? Would we rather talk about stress, anxiety, depression, narcissism, alienation?
Neda Kovinić’s performances, films and installations stem from creative processes taking place in temporary collaborative artists’ communities. The main elements of her work are participatory performances of the artists of different practices and experiences. She cherishes the principles of fair practices, including the practices of care, empathy and closeness. She works with the people and immediate surroundings where the group exercises and rehearses – be it a forest, be it an old modernist architecture or a new high-rise urban landscape. Kovinić’s exhibitions document the process of collective research in the form of an artistic installation. She often uses drawings that she makes during the process, words and sentences as a part of her poetic-theoretical narration, or the videos based on the language of structuralist film and post-production as an artistic form. Lives and works in Belgrade. https://nedakovinic.wixsite.com/neda-kovinic/home
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ANDREA PALAŠTI x Frozen Art, Led Art, 1993–1994
workshop 18–20.10.2022, 17:00-20:00
Minitremu
In 1992, the Serbian artist Nikola Džafo exhibited a FRIDGE and visitors were invited to store and freeze their belongings for a “better future.” This event was part of the exhibition “Exposing to the Labyrinth” in Belgrade, and it was one of the first exhibitions to directly oppose the culminating Yugoslav Wars. A year later, Nikola Džafo initiated the art collective LED ART (Ice Art) and together with other artists created a performance by the title “Frozen Art” in which artworks were frozen in a collective action in a rented refrigerator truck parked on a busy street in Belgrade. In the conditions of WAR, freezing artworks was a symbolic act: an engaged critical commentary of the “icy reality,” the destroyed and “frozen” state.
From today’s perspective, “evil” and “cold” are approaching us again. Freezer trucks and ice correspond to our current “icy reality,” even though we are melting due to global warming. The war in the middle of Europe, new casualties, floods, migrations, banning abortions, inflation, fear and unease. The workshop will take a closer look at the medium of water and ice, how it can be modified, rearranged and used in different actions, times and spaces. In these times, art can be regarded as a “quixotic gesture!” How to act in these extraordinary situations? Should we freeze or flood? Can water and/or ice be used as “disobedient objects” and respond to current social and political developments? Come and join this experimental query by thinking transversally, comparatively, collectively and beyond aesthetics and art.
About the group LED ART (Ice Art) and its historical context: https://monoskop.org/File:Led_Art_Documents_of_Time_1993-2003_2020.pdf
ANDREA PALAŠTI is a visual artist and educator based in Novi Sad. She works across artistic, curatorial and pedagogical boundaries focusing on issues of cultural geography, the responsibilities of history and its impact on the present, through photography, video and illustrated lectures. She is a board member of the SULUV gallery, and associate professor at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad where she teaches Elements of Visual Art, blending her collaborative artistic research projects with educational strategies. www.andreapalasti.com
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IP—The Institute of the Present is a research and an artist and theory resource platform in the field of visual and performing culture conceived by Ștefania Ferchedău and Alina Șerban, established in Bucharest.
The “Uncensored Act” programme dwells on the idea of community, collective action, collaboration and solidarity in the spirit of shared values, with a course that is closely connected to the history of Timișoara in the 1989 context.
The project is part of the “Cultural Programme Timișoara 2023—European Capital of Culture” and is funded by the City of Timișoara through the Center for Projects.
COLLEGIUM residency programme is organised in the frame of the projects “Uncensored Act” and “Collegium: artistic generations and collectives.” Cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
Partners: Minitremu, Lapsus, Indecis and The Secret Garden Bookshop
Media partners: Radio Guerilla, RFI, Radio România Cultural, TVR Timișoara, Radio Timișoara, Tion.ro, Agenda, Press Alert, Express de Banat, Dumbrăvița TV, Știri de Timișoara, Best of Timișoara, TeleU
Production and facilitation support: Bianca Băilă, Mihaela Tilincă
Visuals: PREN
Photo: Archive Led Art
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.
Contact: ip@institutulprezentului.ro
