Weaving Worlds: Collections in Conversation

Moderna galerija + Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana, Slovenia

A celebration in the village, a rest in the field, a family portrait, a pair of yoked oxen, a crowd in front of the fortune teller’s house, a forest above the village, majestic trees, a lamb in her arms… People and animals are united in the free-spirited, good-natured simplicity of living beings. This is how poetically Oto Bihalji-Merin interpreted naive art, which he understood stylistically and substantively as a devotion to everything earthly and as a silent rebellion against excessive burdens, but today this interpretation is in complete contrast to the world we live in. These works, created around the middle of the 20th century, testify to the endless enjoyment of the blessings of nature. Today, anthropocentric dominance over nature, under the influence of capitalist appetites, has exploited nature almost to the extreme.

The failure to recognize the interconnectedness of the human and the more-than-human, of culture and nature, has led to the ongoing destruction and exploitation of nature. The Anthropocene or Capitalocene, characterized by humanity’s devastating impact on nature, driven by capitalism’s excessive thirst for growth, has transformed the planet’s ecosystems and pushed them to the brink of collapse. Is it possible that, faced with ecological catastrophe, we are now seeking refuge in the rare and invaluable practices of human life in harmony with nature? What could the earth, water, fallen trees, wool, and the wider living, more-than-human world teach us if we listened carefully? By shifting our perspective from that of appropriators to that of collaborators, can we forge an ethical relationality that creates and nurtures networked connections with all forms of life?

The mantra of the farmer’s wife while working with the bees in the film Honeyland – “half for me, half for you” – embodies this ethos of balance and care. This simple principle illustrates the possibility for humanity to establish a relationship with nature not as conquerors, but as respectful participants in a shared world.

At the philosophical level, the question of establishing an equal relationship between the living and the non-living world, between the human and the more-than-human, is becoming increasingly relevant. Philosophers such as Rosi Braidotti examine the processes of self-organization of more-than-human beings and the complex, often discordant relations between these processes and cultural practices, while at the same time rethinking the sources of ethics. In this context, ethical relations form networks or rhizomes or interconnections that transcend human otherness and include the more-than-human, the post-human and the non-human. This view emphasizes human interdependence in the broadest sense and calls for the cultivation of a relational ethics of becoming that creates affirmative connections and recognizes our shared coexistence with the more-than-human world.

On the other hand, ceramics, tapestries, embroidery and textiles are artistic handiwork, created in direct contact with some of the elements of nature and are part of the worldview of harmony with nature, which was formed in the last century in opposition to the dominant currents. Although these techniques are most often viewed through the prism of applied arts and attributed a secondary and most often exclusively utilitarian value, they are now the focus of attention of the current global art world, which is frantically searching for alternative existential solutions.

Yugoslav idealism is different in terms of the issues of human emancipation as a general class issue, coexistence of all and socialist man as a creator in cooperation with nature. The techniques of ceramics, tapestry, embroidery, etc. are an equal part of artistic creative wealth. In 1978, the then Socialist Republic of Macedonia or its Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje was the first commissioner of a presentation in the Yugoslav pavilion at the Venice Biennale entitled From Nature to Art, from Art to Nature , whose theme was the de-alienation of man from nature. Or as curator Sonja Abadžieva writes, “the progressive, engaged action of the Yugoslav people” regarding the negative consequences of industrialized civilization is “directed towards the socialization and democratization of art in the closest connection with life and nature or, more precisely, towards a solid and homogeneous synthesis of human (life) and art – and their complete identity and indivisibility – absolute organic wholeness.”

The question is why does local production in North Macedonia, especially when selected and combined works such as tapestries, ceramics and works made of natural materials, dominate as a type of production, as well as a theme? And do such works perhaps also shape (political) discourse, especially if we look at them through the prism of their former secondary, subordinate treatment and modest presentation? Is it a local modernist variant or the creation of an entirely new narrative with a specific epistemological potential?

The exhibition presents works by 87 authors , mostly from North Macedonia, but also from almost all former Yugoslav republics, mainly from the field of naive art.

They are complemented by works by artists from Brazil, Poland, Bolivia, Sudan, Uruguay, Albania, Japan, South Africa, Iran, Cuba, Spain and Romania. With this wide selection, the exhibition opens up space for a different perspective, different from the Western-centric one and offers a starting point for understanding local artistic traditions. This is placed in dialogue with works that are closely connected to the environment in which they were created and to the continuity of their production. Many are works of naive art and made from natural materials (earth, hay, grass), but documentary photographs of actions in nature and installations that critically address the exploitation and destruction of nature are also exhibited.

The exhibition is based on a constructive dialogue between specific collections – the solidarity collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje and the Arteast 2000+ collection and the national collections of the Moderna galerija in Ljubljana . It focuses on works made from natural materials and works that reflect the artists’ commitment to nature. Weaving Worlds: Collections in Dialogue (the first of two complementary exhibitions that reveal the potential for weaving new worlds and present a critical-philosophical approach to collections) is dedicated to the emancipation of media and explores the relationship between culture and nature, while critically addressing environmental problems in the era of capital appreciation.

In Ljubljana, the exhibition is divided into three sections:

1. The central part of the exhibition is the Forgotten World section – works made from natural materials – earth, water, waste wood, wool, living things – or works that refer to them in their design. This section includes: Done Miljanovski, Stojanovski, Jolanta Ovidska, Patricia Velasco Wallin, Dimche Koco, Mira Spirovska, Petar Hadži Boškov, Jordan Grabul, Simon Uzunovski, Petre Nikoloski, Gligor Stefanov, Borka Avramova, Simon Šemov. A series of ceramic works is presented as part of a tradition that was very widespread in this context, most often with floral or zoomorphic depictions: Rade Perčuklievski, Dragoslava  Janeva, Vladimir Avramčev, Miho Lazarov, Mohammed Ahmed Abdalla Abbaro, Marija Tuša Iljovska, Dushko Miševski, Makedonka Andonova, Vojko Janevski, Tome Andreevski, Hanibal Salvaro, Józef Sarnovski, Goce Josifovski – Rombo.

3. The return to the relationship with nature is the theme of the World in the Making set , which consists of naive art and works that attempt to return to the relationship with nature and critically address industrialization and its relationship with nature. The artists presented here are: Maja Smrekar, Igor Toševski, Ilija Prokopiev, Kristina Pulejkova, Max Aruqiipa Chiambi, Adzem Nihat, Maria Bonomi, Peter Clark, Manollo Millares, Družina v Šempasu, Wifredo Lam, Ion Grigorescu, Jernej Vilfan, Vadim Fiškin, as well as Gjorgje Šijakovik, Ivan Kuzmiak, Stjepan Kičin, Milosav Jovanović, Julije Papić, Matija Skurjeni, Janko Brašić, Geraldo Trindade Leal, Bogosav Živković, Josip Horvat, Jano Knjazović, Vilma Ramos, Lúcia Khan, Stjepan Stolnik, unknown artist, Franjo Vujčec, Jano Venjarski, Ondrej Venjarski, Ivan Rabuzin, Antun Bahunek, Borivoje Maksimović, Pedro Soares Fogasa, Juçara Pimenta de Pádua, Maria Auxiliadora da Silva, Lourdes Guanabara, Ladyr Harris Domschke-Pulu, Stjepan Bastalec, Petar Smajić, Krste Slavkovski, Silvia de Leon Charleo, Maria Auxilliadora Silva, Waldemar de Andrade e Silva, Ivan Lacković Croata, Vangel Naumovski.

Curators: Ivana Vaseva, Blagoja Varoshanec, Iva Dimovski, Vladimir Janchevski and Bojana Piškur