Dear Spectres,
I am extremely happy to announce the upcoming opening of the exhibition
ABSOLUTELY NOW: DEATH, CONFUSION, SALE
(association APSOLUTNO 1993–2005)
at the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, in Novi Sad, on 15 January 2015 at
7 pm.
I am looking forward to see you (hoping you Belgrade people are attending
exhibition openings in Novi Sad ;-)!
All the best,
Inke
ABSOLUTELY NOW: DEATH, CONFUSION, SALE
(association APSOLUTNO 1993–2005)
The exhibition consists of three acts
DEATH 01/15–01/25/2015
CONFUSION 01/27–02/04/2015
SALE 02/06–02/15/2015
Curators: Inke Arns i Gordana Nikolić
Exhibition opening: 15 January at 7pm
Place: Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Dunavska 37, Novi Sad, Galerija N
Time: 15 January–15 February 2015
http://www.msuv.org/program/apsolutno-sada.php
Apsolutno’s work selected for this exhibition reflects on the respective
present of a state in transition and allows us to look at it like through a
magnifying glass. The exhibition consists of three consecutive exhibition
setups (or ‘chapters’ if you will) within a month. By focusing on the topics of
Death, Confusion and Sale, the exhibition puts an emphasis on Apsolutno’s
analysis of the present of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/Serbia and the
radical changes in the political, social and economic context formulated in
their artistic work over the past two decades. Death, Confusion and Sale follow
a chronological order in the development of Yugoslavia/Serbia in the
1990s/2000s. Very clearly, the exhibition is not conceived as a retrospective
presenting a comprehensive overview of Apsolutno’s work; rather, it intends to
highlight the most important works of the collective dealing with topics that
are still of importance for the present-day situation in Serbia (Arns).
The association Apsolutno describes for us the experience of a protracted end
of a utopia, a system and a society. From today’s perspective, their appearance
on the local and international scene in the 1990’s and at the beginning of the
21st century left a unique conceptual inventory as a kind of “guide for
beginners” through the extreme situations produced by (hyper)capitalism. The
imbalance in the recognition of the work (and the pioneering role) of this
collective in the international context and on the local scene constitutes a
good reason for intervening in the master narratives of art history and the
policy of visibility and presentation (Nikolić).
* * *
association APSOLUTNO
The association APSOLUTNO was founded in 1993 in Novi Sad. Its members were
Zoran Pantelić, Dragan Rakić (1957-2009), Bojana Petrić and Dragan Miletić
(from 1995 to 2001). Since 1995, the production of the association was signed
without referring to the members' personal names, and this collective developed
an interdisciplinary work process and a media pluralism. The association's
name, the word apsolutno [absolutely], was used as an adverb, not as a noun,
the flexibility of the use of this adverb is at the same time an important
characteristic of the work of the association APSOLUTNO. The adverb absolutely
frequently features in the titles of their works, whereby certain meanings are
emphasized.
The production of the association APSOLUTNO arose from visual arts, and over
time it expanded to include interdisciplinary investigation of facts from their
immediate surroundings, with a view to opening up new possibilities for reading
them. Such an investigative process was of an open character and focused on
very diverse phenomena in the association's surroundings. Their projects were
often realised in public places or in locations serving special purposes (for
example, a shipyard, a bridge, a cemetery, border crossings, etc.), and
depending on the idea of the project, they were realised in various formats:
video, printed materials, installations, actions, site specific projects,
audio, web projects, etc.
The association APSOLUTNO presented its production in numerous exhibitions,
festivals and symposia at home and abroad, including BITEF 96, Belgrade;
Kwangju Biennial '97, South Korea; OSTranenie festival, Dessau 1997; The 44th
Festival of Short and Documentary Film, Belgrade; Transmediale, Berlin 1998;
ISEA, Liverpool 1998; The Wroclaw New Media Festival 1999; The Media Festival
Oberhausen 2000; The VIPER Media Festival 2000, Basel; “Inside/Outside” 2000,
Warsaw; “Hiroshima Art Document 2000”, Hiroshima, Japan; Tribu' dell'arte,
2001, Rome; TELE[VISIONS], 2001, Vienna; EVIDENCE, DVC Gallery, San Francisco,
CA; Biennale Big Turin 2002, Turin; The European Biennial Manifesta 4,
Frankfurt; De Appel, Amsterdam; Artists’ Space, New York; etc.
During the period while the association was active, there was a parallel
development of its curatorial practice through the realisation of exhibitions
of other authors, group exhibitions, seminars and workshops. The association
received awards
