Kontakt: Conceptual Art from Ex-Yugoslavia. Installation view, Audain Gallery, 2011. Photo: Kevin Schmidt.
Kontakt: Conceptual Art from Ex-Yugoslavia
May 12 – August 13, 2011
Audain Gallery
Kontakt: Conceptual Art from Ex-Yugoslavia gathers works from some of the most important representatives of Yugoslavian conceptual art, including Sanja Iveković, Katalin Ladik, Neša Paripović, Raša Todosijević and The Gorgona Group, which first developed in the late 1950s by exploring performance, print-based work and photography. This exhibition marks the first time many of these important works will be shown in Canada.
Kontakt: Conceptual Art from Ex-Yugoslavia showcases conceptual art from the former Yugoslavia that took up performative and conceptual strategies in an environment of geo-political restraint. Locating the art of the former socialist countries within an international art context not only draws attention to the wide set of practices used in that art, but also to the dynamic, reciprocal connections and dialogue from which those practices emerged.
A major aim of the Kontakt collection is to reflect on forms of conceptual art production within Europe’s changing political geographies and on the changing parameters of time and space in that environment. It is their recognition of and response to those changes that made the artists of the 1970s precursors of political changes yet to come. Not simply pointing to art activities in Eastern Europe, the exhibition reflects the transformed political geographies and the international emergence of conceptual and actionist art practices that developed simultaneously since the late 1960s.
In the 1970s, video was taken up as both a means to document performances, and to question, at a meta-level, video itself as a form of image production and reproduction. An exploration of video’s intrinsic quality and a recognition of Vancouver as an important early site for conceptual art practices led Croatian artist Sanja Iveković to realize the performance Meeting Points at Vancouver’s Western Front in 1979. At a time when political borders hindered mutual artistic exchange, Meeting Points marked an international connection for conceptual art practices and artists.
Curated by Sabine Bitter.
Events
Opening Reception
Wednesday, May 11, 8pm
Talk: Models for Sponsorship
With Walter Seidl, the Curator of the Collection of the Erste Group, Vienna.
Tuesday, May 10, 5pm
Roundtable: Situating Conceptual Art
Tuesday, March 10, 6pm
Support Material
