23.03.2023.
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talk
Meanderings ― The possibilities of collective work and organizing
Meandriranja ― Mogućnosti kolektivnog rada i udruživanja, Galerija Nova, Zagreb, 2023. (foto: Vanja Babić)

SPEAKERS:
Miljenka Buljević, Goran Sergej Pristaš i Kornel Šeper

MODERATION AND CONCEPT:
Bojan Krištofić

Galerija Nova, Teslina 7, Zagreb
23/03/2023, 7 pm

As part of the Nova 2.0 program, marking the 20th anniversary of the program direction of Zagreb’s Nova Gallery, a series of public events entitled Meanderings – conversations with the protagonists of the local art scene – will map the meanderings of avant-garde artistic tendencies in Zagreb from the 1960s to the present day. WHW has invited the curator, designer and writer Bojan Krištofić to conceptualize and moderate these conversations.

The first public talk featuring Branka Stipančić, Antun Maračić and Darko Šimičić focused on self-organized and non-institutional cultural spaces that operated from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. From that period onwards, we follow the thread of independent artistic and cultural work which, through its search for innovative means of cultural production and presentation, managed to redefine the status of art and culture, and the forms of mediation between the artist and the audience. 

At the second edition of Meanderings, we are going to talk with Miljenka Buljević, Goran Sergej Pristaš and Kornel Šeper. As actors of the scene took shape in the 2000s, they participated in the performing, musical, literary and other independent cultural movements, and in the different forms of organizing and spatial action.

Through self-organizing, cultural workers and artists in the 2000s responded to the urgent need for regional and international affiliation with progressive cultural tendencies, growing a dense network of collaboration and production, which also shaped cultural policies. The programs of small, independent, continuously active organizations, such as the Multimedia Institute (MI2) and MaMa Club, Miroslav Kraljević Gallery and Močvara Club, along with the programs of curatorial, artistic and cultural collectives and organizations such as [KONTEJNER], [BLOK] – Local Base for Culture Refreshment, Attack!, BADco., Booksa, Nova Gallery, Greta Gallery and many others – have become synonymous with artistic and cultural production that persistently operates beyond nationalist, commercial or exploitative practices, and emphasizes the importance of public space not just as a platform and means for work, but the reason for coming together and collaborating on cultural and artistic exchange.

What is the role of small and independent organizations? What kinds of spaces do they occupy in the city? Under what conditions do they work? What challenges and problems do they face? What are the possibilities and limitations of the participative and collectivist work model? Why are we still here?

The public talks are part of the Nova 2.0  program, which is taking place as part of Kultura Nova’s Support for Organizational and Artistic Memory, and Nova Gallery’s discursive program The History of Art and Society: The Spaces of Self-Organization.

 

The program is supported by:
Office for Culture, International Relations, and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb
Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Kultura Nova Foundation