Milky Way

Group exhibition

The exhibition presents examples of unstable and emancipatory artistic practice, from avant-garde to contemporary, media and post-media art.

The MILKY WAY exhibition encompasses the works of over 50 artists and art groups from Novi Sad, Serbia and the international art scene throughout history, but also including the relevant contemporary artistic practices. The open form of the exhibition implies the integration of various media, procedural and interdisciplinary research, performance and collective action, real and digital space intervention, debate and exchange, all with utopian and socially critical attitudes.

Some of the pioneers of media art and activism will be presented for the first time in Serbia. Among them is the American artist Bill Viola, a pioneer of video art, who influenced the global development of video in art and pop culture with his forty-year artistic practice of creating ambient installations. Then, the works of Hermann Nitsch, who was a leading figure of Viennese Actionism, and the works of the radical performer Pyotr Pavlensky. The audience will have the opportunity to become more familiar with the life and artistic work of Ulay, one of the first creators of Polaroid photographs, as well as performances realized through collaboration with former partner and artist Marina Abramović.

The need for mutual networking and connecting, evident in the laws of nature, exists also in art scenes throughout history and in different, often distant geographical places. The avant-garde processes, as the initiators of artistic experiment, innovation and freedom of artistic expression, have marked the artistic and social history of Novi Sad, hence the question arises of preservation of the achieved values in the local environment, its visibility, as well as its connection with similar, important regional and international research, as well as their closeness to contemporary media and post-media practices.

The exhibition presents examples of unstable and emancipatory artistic practice, from avant-garde to contemporary, media and post-media art. For its starting point, it refers to the results of The Continuous Art Class project of Centar za nove medije_kuda.org focused on mapping the social and artistic history of Novi Sad all through the presentation of a network of protagonists and references, through artistic, social and political theory and practice, which all influenced the Novi Sad neo-avant-garde in the 1960s and 1970s. For this reason, the central part of the exhibition is the “Media Ontologies” map, as the key segment of The Continuous Art Class project, which presents the project’s research methodology and covers the field of historical avant-gardes from the beginning of the twentieth century, through the post-war neo-avant-garde, all the way to contemporary artistic media production. The exhibition continues to develop by broader perception of local and international practices, by presenting other projects of specific mapping of the art scene, such as the East Art Map by IRWIN group, social and interdisciplinary positioning visible in the work Sociaty Portraits by Uroš Đurić, the radio podcast Femkanje by Bojana Knežević and Katarina Petrović, psychogeographical mappings of the diSTRUCTURA, and network mappings present in Vladan Joler & Kate Crawford’s projects.

How can we establish a dialogue today and connect the values of the complex phenomena of historical avant-gardes, neo-avant-gardes and possible post-avant-gardes? How important is resistance to the existing systems in art, society and technology for the development of critical artistic practice and how present is it as a reflection of dissatisfaction with imposed, default and established dogmas, prejudices and taboos? Also, do conservatism, nationalism and xenophobia, contrary to the avant-garde cosmopolitan and supranational spirit of connection, strengthen in the conditions of the current closed and isolated society?

The project MILKY WAY was conceived as a public segment of the work of the Centre for Intermedia and Digital Art MSUV, focused on mapping, affirmation and presentation of intermedia, interdisciplinary and hybrid approaches to art, as well as the continuation of the introduction of new functions of the Museum in relation to various processes in contemporary culture. Professional associates on the project: Zoran Pantelić, Centre for new media _kuda.org. In addition to works from the MSUV Collection, the exhibition will present works owned by other institutions, organizations, artists and their families (Centre for new media _kuda.org, Museum in Smederevo, NITSCH FOUNDATION, Vienna, LIMA, Amsterdam, BILL VIOLA Studio, New York…). As part of the exhibition, there will be several side programs, film screenings, audio and video performances, and guided tours through the exhibition.

The exhibition is organized within the program Other Europe, Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture in 2022. MSUV is patroned by the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities. The exhibition is supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia and the EU-Japan Fest from Tokyo. We thank the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade for the technical support.

KATARINA ALLFA, APSOLUTNO, MoCAV ARCHIVE – PROJECTS IN CHINATOWN / THE CREATIVE DISTRICT, ATELJE DT20, DIMITRIJE BAŠIČEVIĆ MANGELOS, ILIA BELORUKOV, DANICA BIĆANIĆ, CENTAR ZA NOVE MEDIJE_KUDA.ORG, CHRISTO AND JEANNE-CLAUDE, VUK ĆOSIĆ, ATILLA CSERNIK, TIBOR BADA (BADA DADA), ALEKSANDAR DAVIĆ, diSTRUKTURA, DOPLGENGER, ČEDOMIR DRČA / SLOBODAN TIŠMA, UROŠ ĐURIĆ, IRWIN, VLADAN JOLER / KATE CRAWFORD, NOVI_SAD / ISAAC NIEMAND, LÁSZLÓ KEREKES, BOJANA S. KNEŽEVIĆ / KATARINA PETROVIĆ, KATALIN LADIK, SANJA LATINOVIĆ, MIRKO LAZOVIĆ, HERMANN NITSCH, NOVOSADSKA GRADSKA KOMUNA / BOŽIDAR MANDIĆ, PYOTR PAVLENSKY, DAN PERJOVSCHI, ZORAN POPOVIĆ, BOGDANKA POZNANOVIĆ, DARIJA S. RADAKOVIĆ, MILICA RAKIĆ, SAŠA STOJANOVIĆ, BÁLINT SZOMBATHY, JUDITA ŠALGO, PREDRAG ŠIĐANIN, RASTISLAV ŠKULEC, TOKI ART SPACE, VUJICA REŠIN TUCIĆ, ULAY, VERBUMPROGRAM (RATOMIR KULIĆ, VLADIMIR MATTIONI), BILL VIOLA, DRAGAN VOJVODIĆ, ŽELIMIR ŽILNIK, WORKSHOP − ACADEMY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF NOVI SAD / NEW MEDIA ART.

November 25 — December 30, 2022

MSUV Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina
Dunavska 37
21101 Novi Sad
Serbia
msuv.org