[Oberlist] RS* DETAILS contemporary art exhibit from Prishtina closed in Belgrade

[oberlist mailing list]

-- 
Moldova Young Artists Association "Oberliht"
http://www.oberliht.org.md
.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .
http://idash.org/mailman/listinfo/oberlist
portal informational pentru arta si cultura din Moldova
information gateway for arts and culture from Moldova


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [RK] DETAILS contemporary art exhibit from Prishtina closed in
Belgrade
From:    "Matteo Pasquinelli" <matteopasquinelli la gmx.it>
Date:    Mon, February 11, 2008 21:16
To:      rekombinant la liste.rekombinant.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


From: "Marina Grzinic " <margrz la zrc-sazu.si>
Date: 11 February 2008 17:02:16 GMT+01:00
To: <nettime-l la kein.org>
Subject: <nettime> DETAILS contemporary art exhibit from Prishtina
closed in Belgrade

Dear all,

Here is a precise EYEWITNESS recount about the exhibition opening
EXCEPTION:
Contemporary art scene from Prishtina, scheduled to be open on the
7.02.2008
in Belgrade, Kontekst Gallery WAS FORCED TO CLOSE JUST BEFORE THE
OPENING:

"The situation was that there were massive protests going on outside the
gallery space, the protesters were violent nationalist, the Serbian
police
was closing the streets in order to prevent the hooligan mob from
reaching
the gallery (in the same time they also prevented the visitors to
attend the
exhibition opening so it was mainly media and police in the space).

The violation of the opening was tolerated by the police (the whole
gallery
was full of policemen but they didn't react for around 10min although
they
were asked to do so several times). The police was even a protagonist
in the
action of closing down the exhibition. They were in the gallery all
day long
when the exhibition was constructed and in informal talks, it turned out
that most of them were in Kosovo themselves (Kosovo war was mainly
fought by
Serbian police, not by army) and they made remarks like "I'll not defend
this exhibition". After the violation of the opening, some of them
went into
ideological discussions with the curators. Immediately after the
violation,
they asked the director of the space to sign an agreement not to use the
space in the next days and not to open the exhibition again.

So the police's plan was to prevent the mob from reaching the gallery
which
would have meant uncontrolled riots (happened at gay pride in 2001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_pride_parade#Belgrade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MTQm0jEfDw)

They wanted the opening to be stopped and the exhibition not to take
place.
This was a political decision, taken by high political representatives,
supported by almost all political parties and almost all media and
accomplished by ultra-radical forces (obraz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obraz)
with the help of the Serbian police.

before the exhibition was supposed to be opened in Belgrade a big
scandal
was produced because of the work you can see on page 40 of the catalogue
(http://www.kontekstgalerija.org/pdf_08/odstupanje.pdf), it shows adem
jashari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adem_Jashari), an UCK-leader
who is
considered as freedom fighter by Albanians and stylized to a national
icon
in Kosovo whereas Serbs consider him as a war criminal and terrorist.
the
work was destroyed at the opening. But of course all what is going on
is not
about the work itself - the work is replaceable. It is about the fact
that
nationalistic forces in Serbia cant stand that the exhibition shows
contemporary art from Kosovo in which the Kosovarian young generation is
perfectly capable to powerfully formulate their position."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRSzUSwcVcQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVC25afxpkU

Best, Marina Grzinic


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime la kein.org


---
Matteo Pasquinelli
http://www.rekombinant.org/mat


-------------------------------------------[  RK  ]
+ http://liste.rekombinant.org/wws/subrequest/rekombinant
+ http://www.rekombinant.org