On April 20. 2023, Kunsthalle Vienna is opening the exhibition No Feeling is Final: The Skopje Solidarity Collection presenting a selection of works from the valuable art collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, North Macedonia. This exhibition comes as a result of the cooperation between the two art institutions. The project was conceived and curated by the artistic directors of Kunsthalle, the curatorial collective What, How & for Who/WHW (Ivet Ćurlin, Natasha Ilić, and Sabina Sabolović).
WHW’s (from l.to. r.) Sabina Sabolovic, Nataša Ilić and Ivet Ćurlin
The curators invited four international contemporary artists and an artistic duo, who were asked to make their own selection from the valuable collection of MSU and devise a setting that would establish a dialogue between the works of those artists and their original work. The idea is to see how today’s artists experience and relate to works in this collection, created through worldwide solidarity.
“The MoCA Skopje collection is like a time capsule that preserves international art from the heyday of modernism. We invited 6 artists: Brooke Andrew (Melbourne), Yane Chalovski and Hristina Ivanoska (Skopje), Siniša Ilić (Belgrade), Iman Isa (Berlin), and Gulsun Karamustafa (Istanbul). Each of them selected works from the Skopje collection and we encouraged them to exhibit their own works, making an intimate connection between the works of great artists and their art. What these artists have in common is their particular approach to rereading and reworking the histories of art and society. In addition to them, we also invited the photographer Elfi Semotan (Vienna), who is known for telling stories through photographs. She took photos of the cityscape of Skopje and MSU. In addition, we asked the writer Barbi Marković (Vienna), known for her sharp blend of fiction and social reality, to write a travelogue about her experience of facing the complex and layered histories of Skopje”, explains the curatorial team What, How & for Whom.
From the total collection of MoCA Skopje, which counts nearly 6,000 works, 94 works and about 50 works by contemporary artists, involved in this project, will be exhibited in Vienna.
The exhibition in Vienna will include works by: Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, Petar Lubarda, Nikola Martinoski, Dimitar Avramovski Pandilov, Victor Vasarelli, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Alberto Burri, Dushan Perchinkov, Aneta Svetieva, Aleksandar Calder, Gligor Stefanov, Pierre Aleshinski, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Tomo Vladimirski, Otto Logo, Dimo Todorovski, Vladimir Velicković, Sheila Hicks, Ion Grigorescu, Olga Jevrić, Enrico Baj, Olga Pechenko-Srzhenicka, Bogoja Popovski, Meret Oppenheim, Getulio Alviani, Ana-Eva Bergman, Roberto Matta, Zoltan Kemeny, and many others.
“The cooperation with the Kunsthalle Vienna is the most complex project for our museum so far. This presentation is not only a project of MoCA Skopje, but an event of national interest for our country. Not only because a large number of works from our collection will be exhibited, but also because of the fact that the works can be viewed in such a visited venue as the Kunsthalle, in the center of the museum district in tourist Vienna. This complex operation encourages us to plan even more ambitious projects and cooperation with other partner institutions across Europe. We are pleased that the exhibition in Vienna, which has not yet opened, is already arousing so much interest, that perhaps next year it will also visit Prague”, says Mira Gakjina, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje.
The curators closely connect the concept and title of the exhibition with how the MSU art collection was built. After the catastrophic earthquake in 1963 in Skopje, in addition to the great material damage and the many human victims, the United Nations and the International Association of Artists considered that culture is also a key link in raising the spirit of Skopje. Therefore, they initiated a call to world-famous artists to donate works. Numerous donations of works of art made MSU a symbol of solidarity, which today is a permanent value in the collective memory of the Macedonian public.
“For the title of the exhibition, we took a verse from the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke: ‘No feeling is final’, which emphasizes the dynamics of emotions and their relation to time and context and instills hope that the notion of ‘solidarity’ can be renewed and strengthen, even after a long time. The title evokes both a sense of ambivalence and uncertainty, as well as the question of what solidarity means in our contemporary world,” says the curatorial team.
Part of the exhibition will also contain a documentary section about Skopje, the transformation of the city, and the story of MSU and its collection, documents, and the model of Kenzo Tange, borrowed from the archives of the Museum of the City of Skopje and the archive of MSU. This means that in one of the European capitals and most famous art centers, the precious collection of MSU and the city of Skopje will be affirmed. The exhibition will also present five architectural models of post-earthquake Skopje, part of the collection of architects Jovan Ivanovski, Ana Ivanovska Deskova, and Vladimir Deskov.
The exhibition at the Kunsthalle Vienna will be open until January 28, 2024.
DRAW, CHAT AND SHARE
On April 6 (Thursday) starting at 12 noon, the world-renown artists Dan Perjovschi and Lia Perjovschi will hold a workshop at the Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje.
All those interested can register at the following link:
The aim of the workshop is to create community and awareness through drawing. The drawing will be the medium, and the publication will be its result. There is no single or best drawing. We are equal, and we all have our own ideas and visions around which we meet, discuss, and draw together. But who are we, and what do we want to do, or what can we do? How do we deal with limited resources? What is plan B, or plan C? First we get to know who we are. We find a topic we agree on and draw, the topic can be one of the urgent global situations today, or something personal, yet everyday. Through conversation we will work on ideas, and through group discussion we will show each other what and why we have done. The drawings will be linked in a fanzine that will be copied in a number of copies for each of the participants.
In the end, each goes home, with the other’s vision.
Language of the workshop: English
Art medium: Drawing
Duration of the workshop: 2h x 2h
Workshop product: Fanzine
Lia Perjovschi is a researcher, editor, and a conceptual and installation artist working with mind-maps, timelines, and education as mediums. She founded several platforms and institutions: Contemporary Art Archive Bucharest, The Knowledge Museum or The Telescopic Space of Knowledge. Lia Perjovschi had a large number of solo shows, such as at Nasher Museum at Duke University, Ivan Gallery Bucharest, ESPAI Castellon, and participated in numerous group exhibitions at Pompidou Center in Paris, Tate Modern in London, MACBA Barcelona, and at the Sao Paolo and Sydney Biennials. TSK is permanently installed at Astra Library in Sibiu Romania
Dan Perjovschi is an artist and journalist. He uses drawing in a multitude of forms, wall drawing, drawing performances, activist drawings, artist books, public space projects, printed media, and independent publishing. He had solo shows at Moma New York, Tate Modern, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, Macro Roma, Kiasma Helsinki and Ludwig Museum Cologne to name a few. He participated in numerous group exhibitions such as Documenta 15, Venice, Istanbul, Lyon, Jakarta, Sao Paolo, and Sydney biennials.
The Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje received a large donation – a collection of 55 drawings, collages and paintings, works by the Macedonian artist Simon Uzunovski, which is the result of donations from his sons Nikola and Marko Uzunovski.
This is one of the largest and most significant donations to MSU since the period of art in the seventies and eighties.
Last year, a large retrospective exhibition with works by Uzunovski “Road to Volcoders – Retrospective” was realized in our museum.
More than 100 works were exhibited, which included objects, figurines, collages, drawings and assemblages and applications made with adhesive tape or tape on glass or paper, the material by which Uzunovski’s work is most often recognizable. The unique, ephemeral installations, performances and actions with which Uzunovski involved a wide circle of friends, colleagues, acquaintances and the public in the creation or performance of several of his works were presented with extensive photo documentation, which simultaneously showed the time of the 70s and the enthusiasm and energy with which Uzunovski managed to contagiously spread the idea of democratization of art and its approximation with the manifestations of everyday life.
The British artist Delaine Le Bas and the Roma Jam-Session Art Collective (Mustafa Asan, Mo Diner, Milena Petrovic), whose works are part of the international exhibition “Everything We Have In Common”, donated works to the Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje.
Delaine Le Bas will be represented in the collection of MSU Skopje with a photo from her current project entitled “Roma Embassy”. Conceived according to the idea of a Roma Revolution, the project “Roma Embassy” was performed for the first time as a performance for the project “When the Fuel Runs Out, People Will Look for Horses” in London, in June 2015.
Delaney Le Bass’s statement: “We as a community do not have ‘one homeland’, nor a state, nor a nation-state. We are not in many countries, but we are never fully accepted, and we can be wiped out as a population at any time. We are the embodiment of an international population, we have many religions, we speak many languages and there are many versions of our language. We have little political representation and no embassy to turn to in times of trouble.”
The “Roma Embassy” is an information point, a living archive, an embodiment of the return of the stolen artifact we have become. The work can be variable in size and scope, change appearance, appear and disappear, it is a mobile, flexible structure. It consists of a cardboard sign created in motion. The same exists in real and virtual space and time. It can be made up of one person, or more. The same is a distribution point through which the opinion of the majority in society and systemic violence against the Roma are questioned. The work is a silent act of resistance. The Roma Embassy is a photograph, a performance in process, a work of art, activism.
Delaine Le Bass is an artist who works in multiple artistic media and creates installations, performances, photographs and films. She is one of the sixteen artists who are part of “Paradise Lost”, the First Roma Pavilion at the Venice Biennale since 2007. She has exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2007), Prague Biennale (2005 and 2007), Gwangju Biennale (2012), Zaketa National Art Gallery (2013), MWW Museum of Contemporary Art Wroclaw (2014), D-O Contemporary Art Biennale Ark Underground, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2015), Biennale Of, Budapest (2015), Gothenburg Extended International Biennale of Contemporary Art and others.
Delaine Le Bas, Roma Embassy Macedonia, photography
The gift of the Art Collective Roma Jam-Session, “Open Roma Culture” consists of 8 graphic posters (each 70 x 99 cm.)
Open Roma Culture work was created for the Anniversary of 50 Years of the World Roma Congress shown in London and Berlin at the exhibition World Roma Congress Art in 2021. The 1971 World Roma Congress was a milestone of the International Romani Movement. Art and culture have been a strong inspiration for the political movement of Roma and Sinti since then and continue to play an essential role as a form of civic expression, as well as an emancipation and cultural resistance strategy. The Roma community from Skopje, North Macedonia is a part of the European Roma Society. Its founders Shaip Jusuf (North Macedonia), Jan Cibula (Switzerland), Grattan Puxon (England), Eva Davidova (Czechoslovakia), Vanko Rouda (France), Žarko Jovanović (Yugoslavia), Juan de Dios Ramirez Heredia (Spain), and Ladislav Demeter (Yugoslavia) had a vision. Inspired by the 50th anniversary of the International Romani Movement in Europe, the artists’ vision is to demand again and forever to be seen in all states and societies with equal rights and equal chances.
The Roma Jam Session Art Collective (RJSaK), (Mustafa Asan, Mo Diener, Milena Petrovic) perform in public spaces and art institutions in order to make the current issues of the Roma visible. The Zurich based artist group works transdisciplinary with members engaged in art, theater, music and design. Since their first intervention in 2013, RJSaK has shown their work in Zurich at Shedhalle, Corner College, Maxim Theater, Toni Areal, ZHdK, Kunsthaus, Johann Jacobs Museum, and Helmhaus, as well as at the Kunstmuseum in Basel. In addition to their public appearances, the collective is also actively involved in campaigns with other Roma organizations and NGOs. Between 2014 and 2016, RJSaK was active in a working group of the Federal Office for Culture (BAK), in which the rights and recognition of the Roma, Sinti and Jenisch minorities in Switzerland were discussed and worked on. Among other things, it brought the CHROMA – Sudden Presences intervention in April 2018 to the 1st Roma Biennale and the Romaparade to Berlin. Since then, the collective has developed both transnationally and intersectionally, and has established cooperation with die grosse umordnung (the great disorder), a queer-feminist art project with manyfold alliances. In 2019, RJSaK will actively participate in the launch of the RomArchive, the first digital archive on the history, culture, politics and art of the Roma in Europe.
Mo Diener (Switzerland) works transdisciplinary and conceptually in the field of critical art and theory in Switzerland. Mo Diener designs performative interventions, public performances and assemblages. In 2009/2010, she started a research of her maternal (Roma/Sinti) ancestors, which she continued in the context of her Science, Fiction & Politics artistic research project at The Bern School of Arts (HKB). She pursued her artistic research at the MA program of Fine Arts at ZHdK. In the context of her thesis and together with RR Marki and Milena Petrovic, she founded the Roma Jam Session art Kollektiv.
Mustafa Asan (RR Marki, North Macedonia) is a Roma artist and activist who investigates and exposes historical and socio-political topics of visibility of the Roma art and culture in Europe. He was born in Skopje, where he graduated at the Technical University. In Zurich, he attended the F+F Art School and was active as a radio presenter in the Romani language for Radio Lora Romanes. In 2013, he co-founded the Roma Jam Session art Kollektiv with the artist Mo Diener and the actress Milena Petrovic.
Milena Petrovic (1967, Serbia) is an Austrian and Swiss citizen. She was studying acting in Zurich. She has worked on diverse projects for film and theater stage, among others in the Schauspielhaus Zurich and Maxim Theater Zurich. She was also engaged in Swiss Television SF1 and in independent film projects. She was an active member of the Maxim Theater company. With their socio-critical pieces the theater was touring on the Swiss German theater stages. She is one of the founding members of the Roma Jam Session art Kollektiv.
Roma Jam Session Art Collective (Mustafa Asan, Mo Diener, Milena Petrovič), Series of 8 graphic posters, 70×99 cm each
The increased international presence of the Museum of Contemporary Art, that intensified in the past several years with exhibition projects, guest appearances within the various discursive programs, inter-museum and professional networking, as well as the presence of museum projects in the most prestigious world magazines, such as Artforum, Frieze, e-flux and etc., opened space for greater visibility of MoCA Skopje and incentive for new contributions in its international collection, created on the principle of solidarity. After the donations of the Russian collective “Chto Delat”, the Dutch artist Jonas Stahl and the German artists Jana Dettmer and Monika von Eschenbach, the museum recently received ten new gifts – drawings and collages – from the renowned Polish artists Artur Zmijewski and Pavel Altamer, works created as a result of their “open studio” concept; a collaborative process of creating “live” collages realized in one of the galleries of the museum in the period from July 1 to 15, 2022.
During two weeks of joint work, the artists created collages on cardboard using acrylic paints and visuals from old history books, geographical atlases, maps, posters, photographs, educational charts, anatomy illustrations, etc. Visitors were invited to bring some of these materials, and thereby contribute to the creation of the works. The resulting collages are dense layers of expressive and surreal imagery. The collages are devoid of direct political activism or social criticism characteristic of the art of these artists, and instead, they represent the spontaneous and improvising painting activity of two friends. The friendship between the two artists dates from their studies in Grzegorz Kowalski’s studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. They have realized numerous joint projects, residencies and workshops worldwide.
Pawel Althamer&Artur Zmijewski, Untitled, 2022
Pawel Althamer&Artur Zmijewski, Untitled, 2022
Pawel Althamer&Artur Zmijewski, Untitled (Portrait of Macedonia), 2022
Gianfranco Barruccello, the Italian painter, sculptor, performer, writer, politician, and farmer, who after the earthquake donated his work “Virtue in Need” to Skopje and MSU, died at the age of 98 in Rome on January 10, 2023. His idiosyncratic work, which in many ways precedes post-modernism and relational aesthetics, does not belong to any of the aesthetic canons or contemporary mainstreams, developing his interdisciplinary approach in the complex mapping of the gap between verbal and visual language. Friendship with Marcel Duchamp, whom he considered his true heir, as well as his collaboration and creative and conceptual closeness with Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, J.F. Lyotard and Nani Belestrini, and his participation in the tumultuous political events of the 1960s alongside the philosophers Guattari, Alain Joffre, and J.J. Lebel, up to his rural eco-farm in the 1970s near Rome, make the rich and exciting life path of Gianfranco Barrucello. For a more detailed biography of the artist visit the link: fondazionebaruchello.com
Gianfranco Baruchello, Virtue in Need, 1963, mixed media on canvas, 190×200 cm. Paintings collection of MSU Skopje
The Large Glass Journal 33/34, published by the Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje in its new issue offers insights into diverse aspects of Romani-related themes and contributes to the contemporary debate and visual articulations regarding the social (in)visibility of Roma people. The (in)visibility of the Roma is positioned in diverse social contexts, including modes of agency, strategies of recognition, and forms of artistic and cultural representations. In many cases the representations strengthen the otherness of a particular people, resulting in a situation whereby these groups become increasingly isolated, shrinking at the societal edges. This shrinking visibility is important in understanding how certain groups might be considered as being excluded from their surroundings, detained in the betweenness of (in)visibility, conditions that can be defined as organized and systematic violence. Thus, this special issue offers various aspects and approaches to Romani culture for scholars and artists in the field of Romani Studies and recognizes the urgent need to readdress the position of Roma people when most projects for their integration have failed and much remains to be done in terms of the humanitarian response and ethical human commitments. The set of topics presented in this volume through texts and artistic projects related to a wide range of important themes, such as the Romani history, different cultural contexts, traditions and customs rooted in the past, and crucially engaged art projects that reflect on the complex connotations and contest the existing paradigm.
The contributors to this issue are Daniel Baker, Kimmo Granqvist, Joanna Warsza, Eszter György, Joost Vandebrug, Suzana Milevska, Ivana Hadjievska, Monika Weychert, Mihail Stojanoski, Amanda Boetzkes, Mira Gakjina.
Editor: Tihomir Topuzovski
Graphic design: PrivatePrint
The publication of the journal is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia
MSU- Skopje received the prestigious “Special Recognition for Creativity”, as a candidate from the Republic of North Macedonia, which is awarded by the International Foundation “Forum of Slavic Cultures” based in Ljubljana, Republic of Slovenia.
A record number of museums applied for the “ŽIVA” award this year, as many as 34 from 10 Slavic countries.
In its explanation for the award, the jury commission emphasized:
“In recent years this is the leading museum and the first in the area dedicated to modern and contemporary art. It has become an influential institution, fostering creativity and collaboration in intercultural dialogue both at home and abroad.” The new impetus that the Museum gives to the wide dissemination of art collections and to the importance of contemporary artistic expression, demonstrates progress and a competitive spirit. The Museum grew on the foundations of solidarity, marked by regional and international donations of important works of art that prompted the beginnings of the Museum’s establishment in the sixties. MSU Skopje managed to create a cultural platform for artistic contemporary production – national and international, promotion and research of the present and identities that serve to mark changes in time.
The Živa Prize is awarded for the promotion of protection, preservation, education and information about museum collections and natural and cultural monuments, their diversity, content and social role, emphasizing their creative and progressive approaches, openness and accessibility to the public, their impact on society and their contribution to the development of museological principles and ideas.
The awards ceremony, which took place for the eighth time, from November 16 to 19, 2022, was organized by the “Forum of Slavic Cultures”, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Posavia Museum from Brežice.
The Foundation “Forum of Slavic Cultures” is an international organization founded in 2004 on the initiative of the Republic of Slovenia. The goals of the organization are bringing together and stimulating cultural cooperation between the Slavic countries, as well as joint affirmation of their culture in the world. The Republic of North Macedonia, as one of the founding countries of the Forum of Slavic Cultures (FSK), through the Ministry of Culture, has been actively involved from the very beginning in almost all the initiatives and activities of this eminent organization whose goal is to preserve the cultural traditions of the Slavic peoples and their promotion as permanent and universal values in global frameworks.
On behalf of MSU, the recognition was received by the country’s national representative in the “Forum of Slavic Cultures”, Gordan Nikolov.
The educational program within the Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje expands the educational discourse with a series of lectures and workshops under the title “MSU School” under the mentorship of the artist Nikola Uzunovski.
The program starts on November 22 and will end on December 20, 2022. The lectures are organized twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday starting at 19:30 at MSU.
Lectures are free.
Interested students can register by November 21, 2022 at the e-mail address: info@msu.mk, with first and last name, profession, and announcement of whether they will follow the whole course or only individual lectures.
The program aims to affirm general education, knowledge, and interest in the visual, especially in contemporary art.
The program of “MSU School” is designed primarily for the students of the Faculty of Fine Art, students of History of Art and Archaeology, Faculty of Architecture, and further the students who study design, and fashion…, but also to all those who show interest in contemporary art.
For the detailed program please visit our Education page: msu.mk/scholl-programs/
The slag from Topilnica (Smelter Factory) in Veles is another of the most serious problems for the environment
The Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje started with the implementation of the project “Landscape of anxiety” (culture and art for the future coexistence with environmental crises and climate change).
Part of the museum team, together with local activists, visited Veles, namely the Lake of Youth, the Melting Pot, and the City Park, and then held a workshop, where they summarized their impressions.
The slag dump (waste from ore smelting) at the Smelter in Veles is still one of the most serious problems for the environment, not only in Veles, but also in the entire country and region. The local Veles organization “Vila Zora” has been appealing for years about the importance of solving the issue with Black Hill, but the issue still remains unresolved. The Black Hill, which is estimated to contain over 1.8 million tons of waste, is still standing and covers an area of 33,000 cubic meters and is estimated to contain about 10 percent zinc, one percent lead as well as other hazardous metals such as cadmium, copper, arsenic, indium, thallium.
The museum team, together with local activists, were convinced of the seriousness of the consequences of the Veles Smelter, which are not resolved by its closure. Tihomir Topuzovski (project manager) Ivana Vaseva (curator) Kiril Arsovski (biologist and ecologist) Denis Saraginovski and Slobodanka Stevchevska (OPA, art collective) Ivana Mirchevska (artist) Darko Aleksovski (artist), Zorica Zafirovska (artist) as well as members of Ecological society from Veles “Vila Zora”, discussed possible collaborations, use of artistic approaches and methodologies through which the concerned institutions will be influenced for an immediate solution to this urgent problem.
This activity is part of the project “Landscape of Anxiety” (culture and art for the future coexistence with environmental crises and climate change) which addresses climate conditions and environmental challenges, which generate urgent conditions through extreme weather conditions, loss of biodiversity, devastated wildlife environment, uncontrolled trajectories of exploitation of basic resources, such as water and air, global growth and unwanted migrations.
The main goal of the project is to create conditions for a quality exchange of knowledge, collaborations, education, and artistic production, through which artists, researchers, ecologists, activists, and citizens in Macedonia will engage in relation to the environment and climate change. The project is fully financed by FOOM (Open Society Foundation – Macedonia).
In the coming period, the project continues with a series of workshops in Skopje, Bitola, and Prespa.
