Postcard from Macedonia

On this occasion, the Museum continues the series of study exhibitions related to its collection, with a museological and individually curatorial approach. The idea is to point out some references to the area ​​depicting the view, but also to the general environment in Macedonia. The beginning is clearly marked by the works of the founders of modernism in Macedonian art. The postcard as a constitutive content in these works of art in which it appears as a complex of sights, symbols, and meanings touch the multiple critical areas that carry out theoretical excursions through the history of contemporary art, respecting the regularly mandatory aesthetic categories, but also those which declaratively move away from them.

The date of the “birth of modern” in Macedonia in 1925 (late or provocative enough for our environment) marked the beginning of contemporary Macedonian art. Our history of art constantly tries to demarcate the moments of the somewhat earlier accepted profiling of profane or sacred painting, without any specifically defined artistic tendencies. We have accepted and mastered them, in this case only with signs that have an illustrative Beat worldview.

So through certain classical modalities, which leave behind or neglect the mimicry of literal meanings, this exhibition concept was started, stimulated, first of all, by the specific works from the collection of MSU, Skopje. The titles of the presented samples often initiate the theme of the exhibition, at the same time opening the possibility to add connotations derived from their visual impression, more or less tied to the concrete realization. We also treat the details used as key templates as benchmark inserts, especially when the status of the work is set to varying degrees in a role to distance itself from traditionalism, encompassed in a broad framework, with the intention of opening a relaxed attitude towards the world. D. Shumka’s amphorae, Svetieva’s cart, Stefanov’s packed ceramics have the clear purpose of demystifying the archeology of our environment. Such examples are frequent, but at least lacking in the almost clear remittances for associativeness of the subject entity, for example in Shijak’s musanders, Shumkovsky’s verandas, Anastasov’s gates, Mazev’s monastery landscape, Velkov’s bridal jewelry, Shemov’s Oov smoker, iconic challenges Kondovski’s, Lozanoski’s tobaccos, Risteski’s Nivjeto, Gegoski’s similar landscape vedutes, Beqiri’s Blace, B. Nikoloski’s dot, etc. Ornamental depictions, tied to ancient characteristics, mark the art of a generation that is not burdened by any time interval. The works of Tsapev, Kondovski, Grchev or Vrentsovska are united in the established….? visual conception.

The implementation of relatively “fresh” events on the art scene complements the thought tied to the real view of the “appearance” or representation of Macedonia. However, we often find him in the relation of regional events, as a kind of reaction to P. Nikoloski, B. Maneski, N. Prlja, Vangeli, etc., but also as individual examples that possess close visual reflections.

From there arose the dilemma of how to determine the title of the exhibition and how to follow the itinerary of the exhibition. In the collection we find examples that do not neglect the concrete, mostly landscape view and register the moments in a certain period tied to the past century. As an example, we were first served by the works of foreign authors who mostly only experienced the atmosphere in Macedonia in a moment: Hisleitner, Svechnjak, Stancic, Teleri, Augustincic, Gert… For each of them there is a story, an imaginary representation of our space. Around 1932 Emi Singer Hisleitner, a painter from Austria, traveled the Balkans, so in Skopje she painted them with a record passion, choosing the old Turkish core of Skopje, which she later gave away. The Croatian painter Vilim Svechnjak, who is known as a member of the Zemja group, had a similar trip after the war, in 1948. stayed in Skopje and routinely registered the old architecture of the city. Stancic was inspired by the earthquake and painted the destroyed center of Skopje. Telleri prefers the Yugoslavia-Macedonia relationship and through a symbolic representation determines the difference between these two locations. Augustincic, loved to ennoble the image of Tito. Tito was the president of SFRY, who for almost half a century, and even today, is a cult figure in our environment (by the way, the two documented interventions of Bužek: Tito-Bužek), so he donated this sculpture. Although with a manner of academic realism, he emphasizes the striking features