I Will Never Talk About the War Again (Maribor)

I Will Never Talk About the War Again

Opening: Friday, June 8, 2012, 8 pm

This exhibition is open until August 30, 2012.

Venues: KIBLA at Narodni dom Maribor and KIT at Glavni trg 14, Maribor, Slovenija

Performance during the opening of the exhibition

Alma Suljević, Holy Warrioress – Interference

Artists: Lana Čmajčanin, Chto Delat, Igor Grubić, Adela Jušić, Nikolay Oleynikov, Shadow Museum/Jaroslav Supek, Alma Suljević

Curator: Vladan Jeremić

The exhibition I Will Never Talk about the War Again will be presented for the first time in Slovenia as a part of the programme created by KIBLA for the manifestation Maribor 2012: European Capital of Culture. The exhibition has been produced by KIBLA and Biro Beograd, with the support of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia, Maribor 2012 Institute – European Capital of Culture, and the City Council of the Municipality of Maribor.

The exhibition I Will Never Talk about the War Again presents the works of artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Russia focused on critical social analysis and testimonies of violence and trauma connected with recent wars in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

Under a heavy burden of wars, ethnic nationalisms and socioeconomic stratification processes, generated by neoliberal capitalism’s ideology, almost all states formed after the destruction of Yugoslavia suffer from neocolonial dependency imposed by global capital and permanent crisis at the European economic periphery. In such a constantly antagonistic social and political context there are certain popular positions in which testimonies of war trauma are represented, manifested and interpreted. That is why many representations in the field of cultural production and contemporary art don’t succeed in escaping from stereotypes.

The exhibition I Will Never Talk about the War Again deals with the question of whether contemporary artistic practice can find a language with which it would be possible to speak politically about individual and collective war and post-war experiences, without slipping into exoticization. Is it possible to find an adequate artistic formula, and is it always necessary to create empathy in the process of understanding? Silence and amnesia are the most common reactions to trauma; does art in this sense actually also remain silent by using only the symbolic language of images and sounds, staying in the field of mediation and symbolism?

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the video performance I Will Never Talk about the War Again, by two artists from Sarajevo, Adela Jušić and Lana Čmajčanin.

I Will Never Talk About the War Again is a modified version of the initial exhibition presented in 2011, as a collaborative effort of Biro Beograd and Center for Art and Architecture from Stockholm Färgfabriken, under the title Psychosis 1 – I will Never Talk About the War Again.

Artwork (above) by Nikolay Oleynikov

Download the exhibition booklet here.

I Will Never Talk about the War Again (Stockholm)

Chto Delat, Partisan Songspiel

I Will Never Talk About the War Again
Psychosis, Part 1
September 17 – November 19, 2011

Färgfabriken (Stockholm) • www.fargfabriken.se

The show is part of Färgfabriken’s global project Psychosis.

Artists: Marina Abramović, Lana Čmajčanin, Chto Delat, Igor Grubić, Živko Grozdanić Gera, Adela Jušić, Nikolay Oleynikov, Shadow Museum, Alma Suljević, Jaroslav Supek
Curator: Vladan Jeremić

I Will Never Talk About the War Again* relates the condition of society with personal experience. Presented artists are related to the Balkans and deal with testimonies of trauma or collective psychosis of the traumatic post-war society, yet try to avoid stereotypes or to exoticize.

Based on the situation in the Balkans today, we want to illustrate the relationship between individual and society. Many people in the former Yugoslavia suffer from traumatic experiences from the war in the 90s. Nationalism, homophobia, xenophobia or non-tolerance toward any different social group can be seen as complex post-war syndromes and are the hard-core reality of such societies. The situation in the Balkans also reflects what is happening in many other places in the world today.

This fall’s major exhibition at Färgfabriken is the first part of a long-term commitment called Psychosis. A global project intended to illuminate the human psyche, both from an individual and collective perspective. In a series of events, we will deal with aspects of the project theme. It touches on areas such as political extremism, alternative social structures or  human perception. We are interested in how these phenomena are expressed and interpreted in art, literature and science.

Subsequent events and themes within the Psychosis project will take place over a long period, through exhibitions, publications, screenings, seminars, or combinations thereof.

*The exhibition title is taken from a video performance of the same name by two of the participating artists, Lana Čmajčanin and Adela Jušić.

Färgfabriken
Lövholmsbrinken 1
SE 117 43 Stockholm
Subway: Liljeholmen
Tram: Trekanten

Partisan Songspiel: A Belgrade Story

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more about “Partisan Songspiel: A Belgrade Story“, posted with vodpod

 

A video film by Chto Delat 
Music by Mikhail Krutik

Director: Olga Egorova (Tsaplya)

Assistant Directors: Vladan Jeremić, Rena Rädle, Dmitry Vilensky

Script and Stage Design: Vladan Jeremić, Tsaplya, Rena Rädle, Dmitry Vilensky

Costume Design: Natalya Pershina (Gluklya)

Choreography: Nina Gasteva

Editing and Post-Production: Olga Egorova (Tsaplya) and Dmitry Vilensky

Production was done in Belgrade in July 2009 by Biro Beograd za Kulturu i Komunikaciju.

  

The film presents an analysis of a concrete situation: Partisan Songspiel begins with a representation of the political oppression (forced evictions) the government of the city of Belgrade visited on the Roma people inhabiting the settlement of Belleville, on the occasion of the summer Universiade Belgrade 2009. It also addresses a more universal political message about the existence of the oppressors and the oppressed: in this case, the city government, war profiteers and business tycoons versus groups of disadvantaged people − factory workers, NGO/minoritarian activists, disabled war veterans, and ethnic minorities. At the same time the film establishes something that we can call the “horizon of historical consciousness,” which is represented through the choir of “dead partisans” who comment on the political dialogue between the oppressors and the oppressed.