The East Remains Possible

International group exhibition of works from the collections of MG+MSUM, Ljubljana and MoCA-Skopje

Opening: 13 November 2025, at 8 pm

 The artistic practices originating not in the center of the Western art system, but on its margins—geographical, political, and symbolic—can offer an epistemic and aesthetic framework through which to reexamine the urgencies of our current moment. When these margins are not seen as spaces of inferiority, they can offer a distinctly Eastern European perspective shaped by the experience of socialism, collective utopias, transition, conflict and war, and the collapse of ideological systems in the 1990s. The prevalent artistic topics of the body, irony, ideology, evidence, and utopia respond to these historical experiences, while also engaging with the complexities of the present.

This exhibition, entitled The East Remains Possible, comprising a selection of works from Moderna galerija’s Arteast 2000+ and national collections from Ljubljana, in dialogue with the Solidarity Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, is precisely about the ever-evolving, omnipresent potentiality and vision for transformation and regeneration—and the constant pull back towards the tragedy of everyday life. It inclines towards the former, believing that there is still space for radically imagining the present. In this light, the exhibition frames artistic production not as passive reflection, but as a generative tool for engaging with the dialectic of disillusionment and possibility. Artistic strategies drawn from the region offer mechanisms for resistance, collective memory, and speculative imagination—tools essential for navigating the dissolution of political and social imaginaries in an era increasingly defined by precarity.

As early as the 1920s, the Group of Constructivists from Trieste envisioned artistic action as a form of aesthetic and sociopolitical revolution within the context of the historical avant-gardes, especially Russian Constructivism. For this reason, it is regarded as an authentic forerunner of the postwar neo-avant-garde tendencies in the region. 

Among other things, our exhibition calls attention to what remains of the idea of Eastern Europe today, and whether we can still speak of “East European art.” After the initial enthusiasm about the victory of liberalism over communism following the end of the Cold War in 1989, it became apparent that the ideal of liberal democracy, which the East had so enthusiastically embraced, had dissipated. In recent years, we have witnessed growing tensions in the region: the rise of new autocratic regimes, ongoing refugee crises, persistent nationalist tendencies in the Balkans, war in Ukraine, the unresolved “Palestinian question,” and genocide in Gaza.

In this context, the question arises: Did the future look better yesterday than it does today? How can we draw on historical experiences, artistic strategies, and alternative forms of knowledge rooted in East European contexts? The artworks in the exhibition may provide some answers, serving as tools for understanding the present—without, seemingly, a clear future—and for finding a path toward different, more inclusive possibilities and a fairer, more solidary world.

The exhibition The East Remains Possible unfolds in two interrelated segments, each of which retells a separate story.

The segment titled Show Me Your Wounds (Regeneration) encompasses the stories of The Body as a Space for Resistance, Ideologies and Subversions, and Irony and Absurdity as Strategies of Critical Distance. This section examines the body, language, and iconography as sites through which artists have performed, resisted, and subverted ideological and affective regimes.

The other segment, titled New Reality as an Artefact of Transformation, retells the stories of Documenting Reality and Utopia as a Space of Social Alternatives. It examines documentation, memory, and utopian speculation as methods of artistic engagement with both historical and possible futures.

In a time increasingly marked by the erosion of democratic forms, ecological catastrophe, and historical amnesia, the works presented here offer practices of remembering, resisting, and imagining—gestures that may help us think the world otherwise.

The Arteast 2000+ collection is the first museum collection focused on East European postwar avant-garde artistic practices within a broader international context. Since its inception in 2000, it has provided in-depth insight into the artistic production of the region, bringing to light the social and political challenges faced by artists in former socialist countries. The collection emerged within its own “space of utterance,” both in terms of the geopolitical territory of Eastern Europe and as a conceptual space shaped by power, identity, and discourse. From the very beginning, the collection has encouraged reflection on the processes of historicization: Who writes art history, for whom, and with what intention? At the same time, it creates the conditions for a critical redefinition of the existing artistic canon, opening space for diverse and often overlooked narratives.

The Solidarity Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje originated as a global response to a disaster—the earthquake that devastated the city in 1963. Responding to a call for artistic solidarity, artists from around the globe contributed their works, co-creating a collection based on international exchange, responsibility, and dialogue.

Artists: Marina Abramović | Maja Bajević | Joseph Beuys | Geta Brătescu | Violeta Chapovska | Chto Delat | Venko Cvetkov  | Braco Dimitrijević | Vlasta Delimar | Orsolya Drozdik | Stano Filko | Alla Georgieva | Tomislav Gotovac | Ion Grigorescu | Group of Constructivists from Trieste (Avgust Černigoj, Eduard Stepančič, Giorgio Carmelich) | Hristina Ivanoska | Gjorgje Jovanovik | Alexander Kosolapov | Ivan Kožarić | Katarzyna Kozyra | Andreja Kulunčić | Vladimir Kuprijanov | Laibach | Kazimir Malevich | Goranka Matić | Alex Mlynárčik | Petre Nikoloski | Ahmet Ogut | OHO | OPA | Irena Paskali | Dushan Percinkov | Géza Pernecky | Marko Pogacnik | Dmitry Prigov | Niho Pushija | Josef Robakowski | Driton Selmani | Nedko Solakov | Mladen Stilinović | Nebojša Šerić-Šoba | Raša Todosijević | Igor Toshevski | Endre Tót | Goran Trbuljak | Simon Uzunovski.

Curators: Bojana Piškur, Martina Vovk (MG+MSUM, Ljubljana); Ivana Vaseva, Blagoja Varоshanec, Iva Dimovski and Vladimir Janchevski (MoCA-Skopje).

Exhibition design: Jovan Ivanovski

Visual design: Iliana Petrushevska

The exhibition is a continuation of the collaboration between MoCA – Skopje and MG+MSUM, Ljubljana that began with the joint exhibition Weaving Worlds: Collections in Conversation, that opened in February 2025 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova.

This joint exhibition of the two collections underscores the collaborative efforts between the museums, which are anticipated to expand through further partnerships.

The exhibition is realized by the MoCA – Skopje, in collaboration with MG+MSUM, Ljubljana, with financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of North Macedonia, as a project of national significance for 2025.

Friends of MoCA – Skopje: Tikveš and Eurolink Insurance.

*Cover photo: Nedko Solakov, Yellow, installation, part of the 2000+ArtEast collection, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana