International Group Exhibition and Public Program
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?: On the Non-Aligned Decolonial Constellation
Curated by Bojana Piškur and Ivana Vaseva
Exhibition
24 November–16 December 2022
Foyer | National Opera and Ballet, Skopje, North Macedonia
Public Program
25 November 2022
SCS Centar-Jadro
Exhibition participants:
Dan Acostioaei | NAM Archival Materials | Đorđe Balmazović | Džuverović (she/her)| Emilia Epštajn and Ana Knežević, Museum of African Art, Belgrade | Jovan Ivanovski, Ana Ivanovska Deskova, Vladimir Deskov | Siniša Ilić | “Cartography of SFR Yugoslavia’s International Collaborations in Culture with Developing Countries” (Teja Merhar) | KURS | The Non-Aligned Art Collection Laboratory (Marina Čelebić, Anita Ćulafić, Nada Baković, Natalija Vujošević), Podgorica | Borko Lazeski | Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago | Darinka Pop Mitić | Dubravka Sekulić | Ivana Sidjimovska | Hyun Suk Seo | World Gallery of Cartoons, Skopje | Mila Turajlić
Exhibition design:
Ivana Vaseva, Filip Jovanovski in collaboration with Dimitar Milev, Tamara Djerkov, Sandra Nikolovska
Public Program participants:
Daniela Berger Prado | Nick Aikens | Grace Samboh | Ljubica Spaskovska | Lina Džuverović | The Non-Aligned Art Collection Laboratory (Marina Čelebić, Anita Ćulafić, Nada Baković, Natalija Vujošević) | Đorđe Balmazović | Siniša Ilić | Jovan Ivanovski, Ana Ivanovska Deskova, Vladimir Deskov | Emilia Epštajn, Ana Knežević | KURS | Darinka Pop Mitić | Ivana Sidjimovska | World Gallery of Cartoons, Skopje | Bojana Piškur | Ivana Vaseva
The exhibition WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON: On the Non-Aligned Decolonial Constellation plans to make a leap in time. It connects the current global geopolitical restructuring caused by the war in Ukraine with the legacy of the Non-Aligned Movement in its foundational principles – anti-colonialism and (trans)national solidarity, and calls anew for a radical reinvention of the world and art within it. In paraphrasing Frantz Fanon’s thinking made by Homi K. Bhabha, Which side are you on?, actually one of the burning issues before decolonial countries in the context of the Cold War, this exhibition wants now to pose the question - Which side are we taking, in fact, when we decide to take a side and make a stand, politically and culturally? Moreover, how is it manifested today on the lives of peoples? And what can we learn from these decisions in the past?
The exhibition WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON: On the Non-Aligned Decolonial Constellation broadly talks about the presence of anticolonial ideas and actions in non-aligned Yugoslavia in the very processes of decolonization, and how that legacy and knowledge of (anti)colonialism and anticolonial solidarity is neglected or even erased from today’s memory. Furthermore, through the included artworks and public program, it wishes to create a vibrant and imaginative space for speculation of what would the new anticolonial and anti-imperialist non-aligned be, politically and artistically, and how would that lay out a different prospect for the future. It is also a space for joint effort in reinventing transnational solidarity in the current line of political events through rediscovering NAM’s paradigm of solidarity.
The exhibition and public program open this topic for the first time in North Macedonia. Also, it is a rare endeavor of presenting several works from several foreign institutions such as the Centre for Contemporary Art of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro, the Museum of African Art – the Veda and Dr. Zdravko Pеčаr Collection, Belgrade, Serbia and the Museo dela Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago, Chile. It shows works by contemporary artists and researchers who try to connect memories from the past with the present-day situation and recall NAM’s decolonial strength, works by artists created in the active days of the NAM’s cultural relations program, as well as extensive researches of cultural programs and collaborations of SFR Yugoslavia’s International Collaborations in Culture with Developing Countries and archival materials related to the NAM.
(Excerpt from the exhibition text)
Organizers: Faculty of things that can’t be learned – FRU, Skopje as part of 17th AKTO Festival for Contemporary Arts
Partners: Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, Centre for Contemporary Art of Montenegro, Podgorica.
Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia (as part of 17th AKTO Festival for Contemporary Arts), European project ISLOKIN co-financed by EU
Exhibition collaborators: Denis Saraginovski, Nenad Tonkin, Boris Vasileski, Martina Petreska
Graphic design: Koma design studio
Original illustrations and photographs of the cover page by Đorđe Simić for the book Kolonije nekad i sad by Vera Nikolova, published by RAD, Belgrade in 1954 are used for the poster design.
