REAL PRESENCE by maximilianmauracher

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

”REAL PRESENCE”

Dobrila Denegri

Biljana Tomić Dobrila Denegri

Biljana Tomić

“WHEN MULTITUDES BECOME FORM” 26

Interview between Antonia Alampi and Dobrila Denegri

20 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 APPENDIX Summaries Colophon

64 142 174 204 236 274 302 334 388 416

482

REAL PRESENCE

FOREWORD

As a workshop, “Real Presence” always started in the same way: with an invitation to join, freely, with a contribution in any form, starting simply with the physical presence. Now, almost two decades later, when the possibility to make a book finally became plausible, it seemed natural to try to do the same. An invitation was launched to those, who in different moments in time and in different forms, made what “Real Presence” was: a choral form in which a singular voice could still emerge. This book started to take shape through the feedback that had arrived, either in the form of texts or images. Some of these contributions were about past, while others were about the present. This book is actually about both, the past and the present. It draws from a specific curatorial attitude from the 60s and 70s based on the notion of “artistic practice”. It was a kind of permanent state in which making art, showing art, debating about art, and sharing art and life were inseparable instances. It firstly emerged within the visual art program of the Belgrade’s International Theatre Festival - BITEF, and subsequently within the Student Cultural Centre’s initiatives: “April Meetings - Festival of Expanded Media”, performance and video festivals, workshops and exhibitions, where this specific format took shape fostering international encounters, direct dialogue, experiment, informality. Hundreds of artists, critics, theoreticians, curators, gallerists and activists took part in programs organised in Belgrade by Biljana Tomić and many other

co-curators. When we look at the documentary photos from this period, what dominates are - people. Faces. Persons. Events. What they transmit is the impression that art was lived. And it was lived indeed, because Belgrade was a city with a lively and progressive cultural scene, which thrived through the 70s and 80s, but got completely submerged in the beginning of the 90s when the war broke on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Numerous protagonists of the Belgrade art scene emigrated over the years, sanctions and cultural embargo undermined any form of international exchange, state institutions underwent through various forms of political pressures and economical difficulties. For almost a decade situation was getting worse, culminating in 1999 with NATO bombing. Only when the crisis is so long and profound becomes clear how vital is cultural life. How important is the existence of an art scene. Generally we tend to celebrate individuals, we focus on big names and affirmed artists. But what we don’t do so often is to look at the whole community that they’re drawing from. Usually there is a whole thriving scene around the artists themselves. And that thriving scene is actually what makes possible that exceptional art emerges. Brian Eno came up with a word for that special combination of talents and opportunities that can came together and raise the levels of creativity. He calls it “scenius”. “Genius is the talent of an individual, scenius is the talent of a whole community” he states. It is like an ecosystem, and as every ecosystem, it can collapse, if its balance is damaged. It

needs to be nurtured, or, like in the case of Belgrade, re-established. This awareness was always on the basis of Biljana’s curatorial work. It was the main motive for initiating “Real Presence” by launching an open invitation to young artists from different countries and cultures to come to Belgrade, just to be present. “Real Presence” set off in 2001 as an attempt to mark important beginnings: of a new millennium and of the democratic turn in Serbia. It then became a platform for young artists from all over the world. In its 10 editions, it involved up to 1790 ‘presences’: young artists and art students who participated on one or several occasions, along with guest lecturers: artists, curators, educators and theoreticians. Totalling thus 105 academies and universities from 37 countries, as well as many other hosting institutions, museums and galleries in Belgrade and other places. This book is an attempt to mark how these ‘presences’ were manifested: as artists and artworks, lectures and parties, exhibitions and events, art and life - all as a part of the same flow. Impossible to make full account of and show the entirety of what happened within and around “Real Presence”. The sequence of texts and images, the contributions of more than 200 artists and former participants can thus be seen primarily as possible orientation marks, a cardinal points. They are indicators for what had, for an extended period, animated this huge artistic gathering and what remains an urgency still today: a need for the space where creative and intellectual freedom can be exercised.

REAL PRESENCE

ACKNOWLE DGEMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book appears almost a decade after “Real Presence” ended and almost two decades after it began. We are profoundly grateful for the possibility to make this publication. It would not be possible without the support of dedicated patrons providing financial means for this print. We thank U10 Art Space for their organisational support and especially thank Isidora Krstić for her engagement, commitment and trust in finally realizing this project. We wish to thank Dragana Milivojević, who made Publikum once again a precious partner and important collaborator. Our gratitude goes also to the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, for their constant support of “Real Presence” manifestation, as well as for their contri-

bution for dissemination and promotion of this publication. The book about “Real Presence” could have had many different versions, but for what it is now, we deeply thank individually each contributor for their texts and images. For making “Real Presence” what it was, we wish to thank all the artists who took part over the years. We thank all institutions who supported, co-organised, hosted and promoted “Real Presence”, as well as all the academies and universities who partnered with nKA/Ica for realising it in Belgrade, Venice, Istanbul and Rivoli. For including “Real Presence” within important international manifestations, we wish to thank the following persons who were in charge: María de Corral, artistic director of the 51st Venice Biennial in 2005, Hou Hanru, artistic director of the 10th Istanbul Biennial in 2007 and

Vasif Kortun, director of the Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center in Istanbul. We also wish to thank Ida Gianelli, director of Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art and Ana Pironti, head of education at Castello di Rivoli, for the possibility to organise the workshop at the premises in 2008. Our profound gratitude also goes to all the national and international institutions, sponsors and organisations who financially and logistically supported the realisation of “Real Presence”. Particular thanks goes to all our collaborators, assistants and volunteers without whose help we would not have been able to handle all productions, events and exhibitions organised within the frame of “Real Presence”. Biljana Tomić Dobrila Denegri

REAL PRESENCE

REAL PRESENCE BILJANA TOMIĆ

“If you cannot move the mountain, you can come closer to it.”

The period between 1999 and 2001 was crucial for the organisation of “Real Presence”. In 1999, shortly before NATO forces began the bombing of Belgrade and Serbia, Barbara Hammann, who was then teaching at the Art University in Kassel, invited me to become a visiting professor. At the same time I also got an invitation from the Academy for Art & Design in Enschede to give lectures and meet students. So, for about a year, sometimes with Dobrila too, I visited several European art academies. These visits confronted us with various aspects of the European educational system and their different didactic approaches. Encounters, sometimes with professors, but mostly with young artists and students, triggered discussions about social, economic and educational questions which urgently needed addressing, and which had points in common, regardless of the country and the specific cultural context. With the situation in Serbia in mind, we understood that it was the right moment to try to organise an international meeting which would foster direct dialogue among the emerging generation of artists. Initially, neither I nor Dobrila fully realised the size and importance of the task we were about to undertake. Nor did the young artists realise that they were making history with their presence, from year to year, from

the first to the second decade of the new millennium. Thus, it is important to underline that “Real Presence” was the very first workshop to gather such a large number of young artists and students from major art academies in Europe and beyond. The goal was to connect the emerging generation from different cultural contexts. At the beginning of the 21st century, Serbia was struggling with the aftermath of a decade of deep crisis, isolation, cultural embargo and closed borders. It felt like there was an urgent need to overcome this sense of enclosure and do something to re-establish contacts, facilitate meetings and trigger encounters, friendships and exchanges of different artistic practices. Organising a workshop meant offering all participants the opportunity to work in open spaces in museums and galleries, as well as in the city’s public places; giving them a chance to choose freely, to be inspired, to move around and gain creative experience. Everything was possible… We offered the basics: hospitality and some production facilities at the beginning… the rest came along with Belgrade’s proverbial charm: its people, open to encounters with the other, to communicate… collaborations,

BILJANA TOMIĆ

friendships, night life, hanging out… all this contributed to the creation of an enormous number of projects, ideas and works, both realised and just imagined; but not only this… also relationships, love affairs, marriages and kids… the art of life. The program was open: none of the content was imposed. To realise a work or not wasn’t important. What mattered was to be present! The possibility of organising a manifestation like “Real Presence” lay in the political transformation that Serbia underwent in 2000: the democratisation process and the opening of new forms of cultural institutions. Positive impulses in the public domain introduced tolerance, understanding and support, which also enabled the realisation of this important cultural project over the entire decade from 2001 to 2010. “Real Presence”, conceived as an open, informal and non-profit form of workshop, took off in August 2001 with Harald Szeemann as a special guest. We stood together on the roof of the Museum of Yugoslavia (then called the 25th of May Museum, named after the “Day of Youth” on Tito’s birthday). It was incredibly exciting to watch hundreds of young people approaching the museum. The feeling that this was the beginning of

a new time, a new millennium pervaded everything and everybody. In his inaugural lecture, Harald Szeemann referred to his seminal exhibition “When Attitudes Become Form”, saying to this new generation of artists, “this is how it begins”… Every workshop would last ten or fifteen days and would end with a one-day exhibition. All the exhibition sites were always packed with an incredible number of interventions, installations, actions, performances and videos… Initially, we asked artists to send us their proposals so that logistics and materials could be organised in advance. Later, informality prevailed, and the desire to do something different, unusual, challenging, engaged, light and funny made everything seem like it was ready-made. Works were realised with found objects and inexpensive materials, whether they were installed in museums, galleries, off spaces or the urban surroundings. So, one might say that in that loose atmosphere everything appeared to be a masterpiece, and the excitement about some of the works was truly unique. It started in 2001 with “Boat to Belgrade”, when Alexander Döring, Henning Hennenkemper, Leopold Kessler and Werner Skvara arrived from the Vienna Academy on a “boat/ bicycle” after sailing/riding for

fifteen days on the Danube. What an adventure! They docked at “Stara Koliba” (the Old Shack) in New Belgrade, where we were waiting… Burned by the sun, tired but excited, they totally fascinated us all with their unexpected arrival! As a joke, someone said that they hadn’t crossed the border of Central Europe, that Belgrade and the Balkans began on the other bank of the Sava and Danube rivers… so as a follow-up, a few days later Annegret Luck made the performance “The Bridge”, swimming from one bank of the Sava river to the other, symbolically connecting Europe with the Balkans. Also great was the idea for “Real Presence Virus”, an action performed in front of the museum by Arend Roelink and Hannelore Houdijk, as was “Fountain”, by Lisa Jugert, who squirted a long line of water from the roof of the museum using a fireman’s hose… and Mihoko Ogaki’s “From Light to the Light”, a great light spiral designed using candles, which burned from dusk till dawn in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art… and an amazing installation by Alexander Wolf and Christian Mayer, which involved the artists demolishing and recomposing the furniture in the dormitory room where they were hosted… as well as Christiane Löhr’s sculptures made of dandelion seeds, which she released back into nature after the workshop

REAL PRESENCE

was over. It is impossible to mention all the works… hundreds and hundreds each year… and all very involving, provoking and perfect. Such projects, installations, interventions and performances can be imagined only once, in exceptional circumstances, with extraordinary ideas and an enormous release of artistic potential, inventiveness, spontaneity and emotion… Every day of the workshop, in the afternoon, talks were organised, in which all participants could present their practice and talk about it. There were many different approaches and world views, but there was never any conflict. The main theme was the individual artistic approaches to the work and the educational method practiced at each school or class involved. We really owe a deep gratitude to all those who helped make this project happen: numerous cultural institutions that hosted “Real Presence” over the years and their directors and staff, as well as all those assistants and helpers who invested a great deal of engagement, dedication and responsibility in our organisation and our international guests. We are also thankful to all the supporting institutions that offered financial or other forms of logistic sustenance to “Real

Presence”, both in Belgrade and in all the other locations: Frankfurt, Venice, Istanbul and Rivoli, where we interacted with important venues and biennial manifestations. Workshops are forms of collective work that have always existed in various forms throughout the history of art. The generation of artists that emerged in the second half of the 20th century craved change and introduced a new spirit and different ways of making and conceiving art as a reply to the crisis of consciousness brought by the destruction and human tragedy of World War Two. This post-war generation built on the legacy of the historical avant-garde, from the Secession movements up to the Bauhaus school, with their belief in the importance of the roles of the artist and intellectual in society, their exaltation of experimentation and innovation and their commitment to the emancipatory ideals and progressive ideas of the current “zeitgeist”. Collective research, workshops, creative practice and progressive non-academic forms of education through which new paradigmatic positions were shaped were seminal for both the historic and neo avant-gardes. For all of us who began in the 60s, these forms of art practice were ways of affirming freedom of

expression and new conceptions of what art is and could be. The 60s were certainly crucial years, due to their expansive spirit of opening and affirming new ideas in art and culture at large. This spirit also spread across the younger generation in Yugoslavia. In 1967, theatre Atelier 212 in Belgrade started the BITEF International Theatre Festival. The following year, in 1968, I started to organise BITEF’s art program, connecting alternative artistic groups from Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade with international artists who were the protagonists of some of the movements that emerged in the second half of the 60s: kinetic art, fluxus, conceptual art, land art, body art and performance, new media and others… The BITEF art program would run until 1973, involving a great number of artists, both international and from Yugoslavia. The artistic informality and conceptual rigour of these events was the basis on which future artistic workshops were built, which were part of the visual art program of a new institution that opened in Belgrade in 1971: the Student Cultural Centre. It was there that the first exhibition connected with BITEF’s art program presented six young artists acting as an informal group: Marina Abramović, Slobodan Milivojević - Era, Neša

BILJANA TOMIĆ

Paripović, Zoran Popović, Raša Todosijević and Gergelj Urkom. In 1972, the Student Cultural Centre initiated the “April Meetings – Expanded Media Festival”, which would run until 1977, organised and curated by me within a large team of art critics, artists and other collaborators, who brought some of the most prominent figures of the international art scene to Belgrade. BITEF’s art program and the Student Cultural Centre’s visual art program involved artists, activists, critics, theoreticians, curators and gallerists, among whom the following can be recalled: Joseph Beuys, Lucio Amelio, Katharina Sieverding, Klaus Mettig, Ulrike Rosenbach, Klaus Rinke, Grupa OHO (Marko Pogačnik, David Nez, Milenko Matanović, Andraž and Tomaž Šalamun), Tomaž Brejc, Ida Biard, Daniel Buren, Getulio Alviani, Ben Vautier, Giuseppe Chiari, Christo, Jochen Gerz, Franco Vaccari, Radomir Damnjanović, Braco and Nena Dimitrijević, Goran Trbuljak, Željko Koščević, Mladen Stilinović, Željko Jerman, Tomislav Gotovac, Gino de Dominicis, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Lo ZOO, John Baldessari, Gorgona, Ivan Picelj, Julije Knifer, Vlado Kristl, Eugen Feller, Boris Demur, Sanja Iveković, Mangelos (Dimitrije Bašičević), Dalibor

Martinis, Slobodan Šijan, BOSCH+BOSCH, Jiří Kolář, Gina Pane, Luigi Ontani, Francesco Clemente, Natalia LL, Iole de Freitas, Ursula Krinzinger, Charlemagne Palestine, Jürgen Klauke, Peter Weibel, Flatz, “Theatre of Mistakes”, Tom Marioni, Simone Forti, Hannes Priesch, Gillo Dorfles, Enzo Mari, Matko Meštrović, Filiberto Menna, Achille Bonito Oliva, Germano Celant, Tommaso Trini, Giancarlo Politi, Catherine Millet, Wulf Herzogenrath, Harald Szeemann, Kasper König, Rudi Fuchs, Donald Kuspit, Timothy Druckrey, Ida Panicelli, among many, many more. “Real Presence” is an example of the continuity of this tradition, grounded in the conviction that space should always be given to the new generations who grasp and mark epochal moments of change through their art. Many of the artists and curators we worked with in the 60s, 70s and 80s, when they were still young and emerging, became professors at some of the most prominent art academies and universities, and we contacted some of them when we started organising “Real Presence”, including Marina Abramović, Mrđan Bajić, Daniel Buren, Luciano Fabro, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Katharina Sieverding, Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Klaus Rinke, Heimo Zobernig and Ves-

na Victoria to name just a few of those with whom we collaborated over the years. Actually, this practice started as early as the 70s with Joseph Beuys, whose students came with him to the Student Cultural Centre. Then the students of those students came, and so the flow continued from one generation to another, leading to about two thousand “presences” over ten years! After the first edition, with all its intensity and excitement, it became clear that “Real Presence” should continue. We had the choice of moving it somewhere else or remaining in Belgrade, and the second option prevailed. But on the very last day of the workshop, with some artists from Frankfurt, we came up with the idea of trying something similar in 2002, when two big manifestations would take place in Germany: Manifesta and Documenta. The Städelschule – Frankfurt’s fine art academy – organised “Gasthof”, which was about hospitality, sharing food and creating new forms of art community. Following this collaboration with the Städelschule and its then dean Daniel Birnbaum, who co-curated the event together with Jochen Volz, Dirk Fleischmann and a team of collaborators from several other partner instituti-

REAL PRESENCE

ons, we decided to continue the workshops, which would also occasionally be organised outside of Belgrade. I am very thankful to Dirk Fleischmann and Daniel Birnbaum, as well as to the other people who enabled us to bring “Real Presence” to other places such as the Venice and Istanbul biennials and Castello di Rivoli: María de Corral (artistic director of the Venice Biennial in 2005), Hou Hanru (artistic director of the Istanbul Biennial in 2007), Vasif Kortun (director of the Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center), Ida Gianelli (director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art) and Ana Pironti (head of education at Castello di Rivoli). My deep gratitude also goes also to all the academies and universities who collaborated and made “Real Presence” possible, all the professors, students and young artists, as well as our guests and friends. A special thank you and a cherished place in my memory go to Harald Szeemann and Luciano Fabro, as well as to Ornella and Giorgio Dagnini, who gave their unlimited friendship and support on our many travels. Now, when we try to summarise “Real Presence”, the question that inevitably emerges is what its essence was. I think it was a sense of commitment and

an understanding that every generation has the right to its own time, its own stake in expressing the power of awareness about the world, and its own energy to make a difference and effect change. For each of these young individuals it was important to gain full self-awareness and confidence in his/her convictions and choices. The workshops represented informal creative anarchy and a domain of otherness; they fostered a sense of freedom, bypassing the rules of “being in” and “being out”, which dominate the art system; and most of all, they were a way of shaping singular, personal expressions which would become a part of greater wave, the revolution that every new generation brings with it. For me, to give support to the upcoming generation of young artists was a human and moral duty. In the present, when all domains are highly industrialised, whether politics, economics, culture, education or entertainment, it is important not to look at the new generation as just one more industrial product that has to generate easily-marketable clichés. Every new generation has its own language and identity, which has to

be recognised and affirmed in its own right. For these reasons, “Real Presence” is an example of a great exploratory adventure and the efficient fusion of youth spirit. Now, twenty years later, we can see that many “Real Presence” participants are accomplished and affirmed artists, all functioning in the art world’s various layers, with their specific and singular sensibilities, artistic languages and distinction-marks. Each of these artists creates work that presents an individual and unique view of the contemporary world and its complexities. When an artistic idea is good, it will emerge and find its way, in spite of the art-system and how it functions. Good ideas are those that offer alternatives and new solutions that conquer and expand the domains of personal and professional presence in the world in this time of civilisational change.

BILJANA TOMIĆ 1

“Objects and Projects”, 1971, group exhibition, SCC - Student Cultural Centre Gallery, within BITEF - Belgrade Theatre Festival (Marina Abramović, Neša Paripović, Zoran Popović, Slobodan Era Milivojević, Gergelj Urkom, Raša Todosijević)

“Objects and Projects”, 1971, group exhibition, SCC, within BITEF, (Marina Abramović, Neša Paripović)

REAL PRESENCE

16 1

Slobodan Era Milivojević, “Wrapping Marina Abramović”, 1971, performance, exhibition “October”, SCC Gallery

Resin Tucić, “Enraged Cow”, 1972, Festival of Expanded Media “April Meetings 1”, SCC

Gina Pane, “Life - Death - Dream”, 1972, performance within “April Meetings 1”, SCC

Acezentez and Katalin Ladik, 1972, sound performance, “April Meetings 1”, SCC

Biljana Tomić, Goran Trbuljak, Nuša and Srečo Dragan, 1972, “April Meetings 1”, SCC

Josip Stošić, “Or/But”, 1972, “April Meetings 1”, SCC

BILJANA TOMIÄ&#x2020;

17 4

REAL PRESENCE

18 1

Biljana Tomić and Luciano Giaccari, presentation of “Studio 9”, Varese, 1972, the first video screening in Belgrade, “April Meetings 1”, SCC

Discussion “Expanded Media”, 1972, “April Meetings 1”, SCC, (Biljana Tomić, Božidar Zečević, Dragan Kljajić, Paul Pignon, Ljuba Gligorijevć)

3 4

Rat Group, theatre play, 1973, Festival of Expanded Media “April Meetings 2”, SCC

Luigi Ontani, 1973, performance, “April Meetings 2”, SCC

Marina Abramović, “Proposal for the Acoustic Space”, 1973, sound intervention, “April Meetings 2”, SCC

Ilija Šoškić, Paolo Mussat Sartor, 1973, “April Meetings 2”, SCC

BILJANA TOMIÄ&#x2020;

19 5

REAL PRESENCE

20 1

“Architecture and Design”, 1973, panel, SCC (among participants: Biljana Tomić, Dunja Blažević, Rade Putar, Miša Perović, Filiberto Menna, Manfredo Tafuri, Enzo Mari, Matko Meštrović)

Marina Abramović, “Freeing the Range of Seeing”, 1973, within “Architecture and Design”, SCC

“Architecture and Design”, 1973, SCC (Stane Bernik, Gillo Dorfles, Marina Abramović)

4 5

TOK Group, 1973, public action, “Architecture and Design”, SCC

BILJANA TOMIÄ&#x2020;

REAL PRESENCE

22 1

3 1

Raša Todosijević, “Decision as Art”, 1973, performance, SCC

Luigi Ontani, “Simulacra” exhibition, 1974, Festival of Expanded Media “April Meetings 3”, SCC

Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan, “This Is the Work of Assured Artistic Value”, 1974, performance, “April Meetings 3”, SCC, (Francesco Clemente, Luigi Ontani, Marina Abramović),

Joseph Beuys, “About Spiritual History”, 1974, lecture, “April Meetings 3”, SCC

Joseph Beuys, “About Spiritual History”, 1974, lecture, “April Meetings 3”, SCC (audience)

BILJANA TOMIÄ&#x2020;

23 4

REAL PRESENCE

24 1

BILJANA TOMIĆ

25 4

“Expanded Media”, 1974, panel, “April Meetings 3”, SCC, (among participants and audience: Achille Bonito Oliva, Luigi Ontani, Francesco Clemente, Lucio Amelio, Marijan Susovski, Biljana Tomić, Barbara Reiss, Milana Bros, Tom Marioni, Dunja Blażević, Ješa Denegri, Miško Šuvaković)

Tom Marioni, 1974, concert, “April Meetings 3”, SCC

Marina Abramović, “Rhythm 5”, 1974, performance, “April Meetings 3”, SCC

Francesco Clemente, “At This Place”, intervention, 1974, Festival of Expanded Media “April Meetings 3”, SCC

Sanja Iveković, 1975, video presentation within Festival of Expanded Media “April Meetings 4”, SCC

“April Meetings 4”, 1975, SCC (Nicole Gravier, Fernando De Filippi, Katharina Sieverding, Iole de Freitas)

REAL PRESENCE

26 1

“Women in Art”, 1975, panel, “April Meetings 4”, SCC (Nicole Grevier, Zoran Popović, Dunja Blažević, Gislin Naboakowski, Biljana Tomić, Raśa Todosijević, Slobodan Šijan, and others)

Ulriche Rosenbach, 1975, video presentation, “April Meetings 4”, SCC

Antonio Dias, 1975, “April Meetings 4”, SCC

Natalia LL, “Consumer Art”, 1975, exhibition and performance with Katalin Ladik, “April Meetings 4”, SCC (Nada Seferović, Braco Dimitrijević, Branka Stipančić, Mladen Stilinović, Biljana Tomić, Žarana Papić, and others)

Marina Abramović, “Freeing the Voice”, 1976, performance, Festival of Expanded Media “April Meetings 5”, SCC

BILJANA TOMIÄ&#x2020;

REAL PRESENCE

WHEN MULTITUDES BECOME FORM Interview between Antonia Alampi and Dobrila Denegri

A A After visiting Belgrade in 2010, I asked Dobrila Denegri to talk about “Real Presence”, its origins, its motivations, its evolution over time and how it has become one of the most important international platforms for the emerging generation of artists, making its mark on them as they develop and take their first steps on the art scene. D D Actually, the beginning and end of “Real Presence” are closely related. The end came in 2010, when the visa regime was finally abolished and Serbian citizens were allowed to travel freely again. The cultural embargo and the visa regime were part of a wider set of measures introduced by the international community in the early 90s, during the civil war on the territory of former Yugoslavia. “Real Presence” had everything to do with the specific political and social circumstances of a cultural context that had been extremely international and open for decades, and then all of a sudden became closed and restricted, violent and torn by nationalist extremism and a deep crisis that was both moral and material. In 2000, a political change occurred. Milošević’s government lost power and the

democratisation process began. It was a moment of great collective euphoria and a renewed sense of hope. Biljana and I wanted to provide a symbolic sign of this new beginning. We believed it was time to overcome isolation, reconnect with the international art world and open up and rebuild the cultural spirit that had once characterised Belgrade. From the late 60s and early 70s, first with BITEF’s art program and then with the Student Cultural Centre, Belgrade acted as a real catalyst for new art. The protagonists of what is now established art history, movements like Post-Dada, Fluxus, happenings, conceptual and land art, Arte Povera, performance and body art and that whole big wave that shook the world in 68 passed through Belgrade. In that climate, artists like Marina Abramović took their first steps, leading to strong and updated correspondences between the emerging generations of Yugoslav and international artists. Thanks to the collective curatorial efforts of Biljana and other critics and artists, big festivals like the “April Meetings” that took off in the early 70s at the Student Cultural Centre brought to Belgrade leading figures of international art like Joseph Beuys and many others who were already or later became known and influential. This spirit

DOBRILA DENEGRI

took the core premises of the great cultural revolution of the 1960s and continued them through later decades. Young artists and students who were followers of Beuys later returned to Belgrade as professors with their own students. Through this constant generational renewal, the Student Cultural Centre built its program, always on the edge of what was fresh, new and upcoming. The last international guests to be sent from Frankfurt’s Städelschule by Kaspar Köening were Thomas Zipp and Philip Zaiser. This was 1996 – a moment between the two wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. In 2001, “Real Presence” was first and foremost an invitation to young artists and art students to come to Belgrade, to be present. This invitation was initially addressed to artists who had been part of international programs and manifestations held in Belgrade before the war: Marina Abramović, Jan Dibbets, Barbara Hammann, Jannis Kounellis, Kaspar Köening, Klaus Rinke and Heimo Zobernig to name just a few. We also invited lecturers at art academies in former Yugoslav republics and regions, as well as other European countries, to send their students to Belgrade. But after ten years of almost no international guests it was hard to have great expectations. Even our long lists

of participant names looked like abstractions. Only when we saw hundreds of young artists, started to meet them, know them, touch them, did everything become real. The collective energy of all those foreigners, who in two weeks became our friends, was something unique and unrepeatable. A A Did the presence of this large number of students and young artists mean that you had already reached your goal? D D In ordinary conditions this is something that can easily be taken for granted. But in our case, having this incredible international community of young artists really meant we were making a statement: the world was in Belgrade. What we wanted to point out were borders, which were physical, but also mental and symbolic. A A Your invitation was open, no pre-selections were made? D D It wouldn’t have made sense to introduce any kind of barrier. Our statement was against barriers, discrimination, hierar-

chies, and it made sense because we were dealing with young artists who were just about to step into the arena of the art world. It was necessary to articulate this sense of beginning. Everything was open and possible. A A But you invited a special guest to open the event, Harald Szeemann? D D Who could have embodied the spirit of openness more than Harald Szeemann? The legacy of “When Attitudes Become Form” resonated fully through the project. In fact, in his inaugural lecture he evoked this legendary exhibition, remembering that only when artists are very, very young can there be an authentic spirit of solidarity and collaboration. He spoke about collective energy as something powerful yet fleeting. In 1980, when alongside Achille Bonito Oliva he opened “Aperto” (“Open”), a section of the Venice Biennale dedicated to young artists, he had already noticed how relations among artists were changing: rather than cohabiting or coexisting in the same space, each artist wanted to be the “king” of his own room. We invited all the young artists to work together to create an exhibitive format which would emerge from their interactions, col-

REAL PRESENCE

laborations and shared interests. In retrospect, I can see that the final exhibition was really an open space, a plateau, even though it happened at many different sites and in many different moments. It took the shape of the initial and quite spontaneous collective performance we made as an homage to Szeemann, who at the time was directing the Venice Biennale. In 2001, at the beginning of the new millennium, he chose “Plateau of Humankind” as the theme. The main exhibition site for “Real Presence” was the former Tito museum, a monumental building with a flat roof that looks just like a plateau. We were there with Harald Szeemann on the top of the museum, looking at the flow of young artists arriving and climbing up, passing the soldiers guarding Milošević’s residence at the back of the museum and facing the city skyline which still bore the marks of the NATO bombing. We took the place over: this shallow museum became a place for new art to be created. A A When I visited the 10th edition of “Real Presence” I was particularly impressed by the very format of this workshop: there was a sense of self-organisation among the participants. The fact that there was no hie-

rarchy, no professor, tutor or curator who would impose a line, created particular group dynamic. D D As curators, we provided the structure of the workshop and exhibition spaces, the character of which varied over the years: from institutional spaces like museums and galleries to spaces that hadn’t been in use for a while and thus could be re-appropriated by artists. But all these spaces had their own density: from Tito’s museum, emptied of its collections and significance, but still strongly echoing a glorious past now embodied in tiny fragments, forgotten photos and archival materials, to the Military Museum’s cave-like store rooms where medieval cannonballs could be found next to parts of the “invisible” aircraft shot down by Serbian anti-aircraft fire during the 1999 bombing. We also had fully operational art institutions which opened their doors and collaborated with young artists, as well as public sites in the city, which would mostly be taken in quite a “guerrilla” way. Although we used a simple format based on lectures, daily presentations and a final exhibition, every edition was thematically different, because artists would act on/react to the given context and spaces and their common inter-

ests. Because we didn’t impose specific teaching methodologies or curatorial concepts, we were able to “read” a thematic line afterwards. Ten years of the workshop, corresponding to what is known as Serbia’s “normalisation” phase, is really a prism through which we can observe the transformations that took place on the political, social, urban and cultural level. A A “Real Presence” wasn’t restricted to Belgrade, though. You also organised workshops within important international manifestations and institutions? D D Our first collaboration was with the Städelschule in Frankfurt. In 2002, Daniel Birnbaum, the dean and artistic director of Portikus, organised “Gasthof” with Jochen Volz and Dirk Fleischmann. Germany hosted two big art events that year: “Documenta 11” in Kassel and “Manifesta 4” in Frankfurt. In the same way that we gathered young artists and art students in Belgrade, Städelschule relaunched with a project focused on the concept of hospitality. The academy was transformed into a “hostel”: classrooms and studios were emptied to provide space to host a large number of young artists and

DOBRILA DENEGRI

art students and a different kind of meal was prepared each day so that cooking and eating became moments of togetherness. Taking part in the lectures, panels and performances were John Armleder, Joseph Backstein, Thomas Bayrle, Ben van Berkel, Daniel Birnbaum, Jürgen Bock, Clementine Deliss, Ayse Erkmen, Charles Esche, Robert Fleck, Isabelle Graw, Carsten Höller, Ronald Jones, Sarat Maharaj, Stéphanie Moisdon-Trembley, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno, Tobias Rehberger, Superflex, Rirkrit Tiravanija and many others. In 2005, “Real Presence” was part of the Venice Biennial, where we collaborated with the IUAV Faculty of Design and Art’s dean Angela Vettese and vice-dean Giulio Alessandri. In 2007 “Real Presence” was one of collateral events connected to the Istanbul Biennial, and we collaborated with Venice Biennial again in 2009 thanks to their education department. In 2008 we organised a workshop at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art near Turin, one of the most important museums in Italy, where we made a connection with “Manifesta 7”, which was taking place in Trentino-Alto Adige, inviting Adam Budak, one of the curators, as a guest lecturer. Through “Real Presence” we were addressing the problem of the passage from the formative to the professional phase of

an artist’s life and work. On the one hand, “Real Presence” was helping students and young artists to identify their artistic language; on the other, it was confronting them with the art system and its power structures. It represented an incredible challenge for young artists to use the magnificent space of a Castello di Rivoli’s “manica lunga” as a studio and an exhibition site and interact with international venues and established artists and curators. It also stimulated their sense of responsibility, most of all towards themselves and their artistic vocation. A A When I attended the last edition of “Real Presence”, I was impressed by the lecture program, which involved professors, museum curators and directors equally, as well as young artists or students. Was it always organised this way? D D Yes, the main focus from the very beginning was on “meeting through work”, meaning that participants were invited to speak about their practice. These sessions would take place for several hours each day, so that everybody could show their work and communicate and collaborate on that ground. We also had guest lecturers, artists and cu-

rators like Thomas Bayrle (Städelschule, Frankfurt a. M.), Ido Bar-El (Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Tel Aviv), Jean-Sylvain Bieth (Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes Métropole), Luciano Fabro (Brera Academy, Milan), Rainer Fuchs (mumok – Museum of Modern Art, Vienna), Vasif Kortun (Salt, Istanbul), Joa Ljungberg (Moderna Museet, Malmö), Friedemann Malsch (Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz), Edi Muka (Tirana Biennial), Cecilia Parsberg (Umeå Art Academy), Milenko Prvački (Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore), Tobias Rehberger (Städelschule, Frankfurt a. M.), Seppo Salminen (Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki), Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Janos Sugar (Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest), Simon Thorogood (London College of Fashion), Victoria Vesna (UCLA, Los Angeles), Angela Vettese (Facoltà di Design e Arti, IUAV, Venice) and Måns Wrange (Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm), as well as important protagonists on the local art scene, among others: Branko Dimitrijević, Miško Šuvaković, Danica Jovanović Prodanović, Milena Dragićević Šešić, Stevan Vuković and Darka Radosavljević from Belgrade as well as Petar Ćuković and Svetlana Racanović from Montenegro.

REAL PRESENCE

A A Besides the productions and knowledge sharing that happened on site during each edition of “Real Presence”, were there some longer-term outcomes? D D It was remarkable for me to see collaborations between artists evolving over time, as well as the self-organisation initiatives that many of them started, founding residency programs, opening exhibition spaces and organising exchange projects. There are many examples, but the most valuable for me are those that effected change locally, thanks to the engagement of Belgrade-based artists and curators. The generation of young artists who attended the later editions of “Real Presence” formed the collective that runs the U10 art space, attends art fairs like “Liste” in Basel among others and does everything necessary to enable some Serbian artists to function internationally. The “art system” is still fragile, and the art market is a relatively new phenomenon, so young artists are forced to take on both creative and managerial work. “Real Presence” was instrumental in shaping this awareness and fostering a spirit of initiative to do things on your own.

A A Ten years of activity and involvement with art academies and other formative institutions from across the world gives you a quite particular insight on teaching methodologies and the work done with art students. What are your impressions? Have there been changes or developments? D D We have the general impression that we live in a global world, but in reality the context is still local and the specificities of the social, economic and cultural dimensions have the strongest imprint. Back in the early 2000s, it was even more so. Through the work, behaviour and attitude of these young people, it was often possible to detect where they came from, what academy or class they had attended, and sometimes even what kind of career they would have. At the beginning, our model of an “alternative form of education” was very rare, profoundly different from academic methodologies, which in some cases were extremely conservative and outdated. Our accent on discursiveness, conviviality, self-organisation, the pluralism of subjects and their cross-pollination, the founding characteristics of the “Real Presence” model, had to do a lot with the curatorial approach that

Biljana had been taking since the late 60s. Beuys and his idea of the academy was also an important reference for her generation. However, we can also say that the same values have been channelled through art and theory since the 90s, and are now commonly associated with the terms “relational aesthetic”, “radicant cultures” and the like. In my opinion, certain artistic practices which from the 90s began to pay attention to the processual and social dimensions of certain curatorial projects, their discursive aspects, were influential in establishing models of education similar in format to “Real Presence”. In the last two decades, rather than acting as “schools”, art academies have gradually started to function as platforms for creating networks, and even as “facilitators”, helping their students enter the professional art world. There is now much more interpenetration between the “formation” and the “professional” work phases. “Real Presence” took this line very early on, anticipating methodologies which will become common also for many art academies. A A You also mentioned the thematic differences between the ten editions, resulting from specific group dynamics and the transforma-

DOBRILA DENEGRI

tion of the given contexts where workshops would take place. D D In 2001, the very act of presence, of being in Belgrade, the feeling of a certain kind of cultural and moral mission, triggered a large number of very interesting works, interventions and performances. A group of students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna made an artistic statement of their own travel: they built a vehicle (something between pedalo and boat) on which they sailed down the Danube for two weeks. Their arrival in Belgrade was really a heroic piece. Hundreds of others immediately wanted to do something equally strong, so in two weeks we had a real crescendo of activities. Many of these had something to do with the healing potential of art. The atmosphere was electric also because the signs of ten years of war and the bombing were so palpable, and Belgrade had never seen almost three hundred artists working and exhibiting together. The next year, “Gasthof” left a deep mark, with the themes of conviviality, socialised space and daily actions like cooking, sharing food and physical wellbeing becoming arts forms. This was like getting back to basics, establishing common ground for new social formations. The editions that followed started to express

more interest in the city, its history and its population. So, instead of being bound by the exhibition space, artists reached out to the living tissue of the city, its urban structure, its inhabitants, re-marking on the gap between the virtual accessibility of the place offered by technology and the real touch, the intimate and singular view that only the inhabitants of a place can provide. Our 2005 workshop, part of the Venice Biennale, inevitably touched on the theme of the art world and its power structures, as well as the question of the inclusivity of art system that is so strongly dominated by the market, its promotional strategies and strong competition. A large group of artists came to Giardini in a boat, as “migrants”, as “illegals”, claiming their right to be part of this big international kermesse. The next two editions, in 2007 and 2008, also had their own “Floating Sites”, what we called workshops outside of Belgrade. It was especially interesting to observe the transformation of the stately space of the museum Castello di Rivoli, first into a “dirty” studio atmosphere, and then, for just one day, as the site of an exhibition featuring monumental works. Even if most of the productions that took place during “Real Presence” had connotations of impermanency and ephemerality, on this occasion the museum frame conditioned artists to

create works that could really “bear” their solemn context, interpret it or even mock it. In 2010, we organised several exhibitions in parallel, featuring artists who had taken part in previous editions, alongside workshops with new participants. The real pluralistic spirit of this manifestation emerged, also showing us how influential participation in “Real Presence” was for many students. It was truly a form of education through the direct art practice. What was roughly outlined in the interventions produced in the Belgrade workshop, matured and became the axis of autonomous language when most of this students became professional and affirmed artists. A A Was it fulfilling from a curatorial point of view to run this project for ten years? D D For me, this project exceeds the curatorial domain, and now, seen from a distance of time, it appears as a very unique cultural phenomenon. A A What about artists who have built their careers since their participation in “Real Presence”? Are there links between what they

REAL PRESENCE

did as students or very young artists and what they are doing now? D D That is probably the most interesting aspect, which clearly emerges through the book: the continuity in the development of concepts and approaches which were just starting to take shape during “Real Presence”. In the meantime they have become solid, coherent and widely affirmed artistic positions. Today, Tomas Saraceno’s work envisions the possibility of building “cloud cities” or using sun energy, which could bring about a revolution in mobility on a planetary scale. In Belgrade he was already working with the notion of mobility, “appropriating” public transport vehicles and transforming them into exhibition spaces. With the help of Mirjana Boba Stojadinović, one of the artists from Belgrade, he exhibited drawings in a public bus, since he was already inspired by the visionary ideas of Richard Buckminster Fuller about ways of dwelling in the air or renewable energy. Philipp Haager’s subject matter is the sky, and his current paintings are incredible renderings of that impalpable, ever-changing, yet universal horizon. “Sky” was a huge wall painting he realised in 2001 together with Jovana Popić. It emanated a sense of lightness and positivity, which only

blue, cloudless sky can do, as did his “shampoo-paintings”, which dripped and spread over the museum’s windows, acting as filters that coloured the view of the landscape outside with the most incredible shades of blue and green, as synthetic and acid as shampoo colours can be. Dirk Fleischmann, whose work today investigates the ambiguities of economics and “behind the wall” production processes, came to Belgrade loaded with “goods”, which he presumably sold to his fellow artists. Alexander Wolff’s latest paintings operate through the principle of deconstruction and reconstruction, as did the intervention he realised together with Christian Mayer in the student dormitory, when they decomposed and recomposed all of the room’s furniture. An epic and goliardic gesture, followed by a great party! Tue Greenfort worked with issues of nature and ecology, just as he is doing today. Some participants, although young, already had well defined lines of research. Many others found themselves at a good point in the articulation of their work and had a real burst during “Real Presence”. Many realised their first performances there, almost like initiation rituals. It was physically painful to watch Ruben Montini shaving off all his body-hair over the two day performance “Let Me Be Your Butterfly”. Herma Wittstock’s ‘dervis-

hian’ dance, in which she spun her heavy naked body and sang with her incredible voice, was truly elevating. Donna Kukama’s work was also touching: she realised one of her first performances, in which the ancestral seemed to echo through the current moment. Her piece, “Molatlhegi Nageng”, evoked the contradictions and traumas of her native South Africa and its black community. Another South African artist, Lerato Shadi, also realised some of her first performances, evoking the power of initiation, creation and birth, themes that have to do with femininity and the female voice, issues she is still exploring today. Johanna Bruckner gave her first performance in Belgrade in 2008, as did many others, like María León, Dionys Dammann, Iacopo Seri and Alejandro Tamagno, who later shifted their work to other expressive media. In his early piece, “Dance”, Alberto Gianfreda assembled various fragments and found objects in a circular form that could only be realised if several other people joined, creating a chain. This principle of “weaving” and unifying fragments is still the main feature of his sculptural approach. Marco Chiesa, who in the mid-1990s had already taken part in “Balkan/Orient”, a workshop that anticipated the spirit of “Real Presence”, shaped his artistic approach through the idea of a journey:

DOBRILA DENEGRI

a real voyage that led him to some of most remote points on the globe. He now renders his travels through his maps and constellations, but his journey began when he and his fellow artists from Brera came with us to a remote monastery on the border of Serbia and Macedonia: his first encounter with the “other” and the East. To be present, to make a body/place connection, to merge creatively with the other… these outcomes were triggered by the highly charged creative atmosphere of the workshop. The extraordinary collective energy challenged, provoked, pushed artists to do something outstanding, both for themselves and for others. Bodies were revealed in public for the first time, proper intimacy emerged as never before, interpersonal relations created unexpected new breaches in artists’ practices… and all was pervaded with a unique sense of authenticity, sincerity, freshness and candour. Performances, actions, ephemeral interventions and events: everything had an intense yet fleeting spirit. Exhibitions lasted only one day, they were a sort of happening in which any distinction between authors and audience would almost disappear, just as most of what was made disappeared, meaning hundreds and hundreds of artworks. If only a small part

of it could have been kept, Belgrade would have an amazing collection of the “early works” of so many international and Serbian artists. The documentation that remains is also fragmentary, but enough to restore what “the real thing” was. As many artists have written, “Real Presence” remains inscribed in their work; it exists in the form of awareness.

REAL PRESENCE

36 1

DOBRILA DENEGRI 5

“Real Presence Plateau”, 2001, collective performance, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

Central Comity Building damaged during the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999, photo by Lena Malm, 2001

Arend Roelink, Hannelore Houdijk, “Real Presence Virus”, 2001, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

Harald Szeemann, Biljana Tomić, 2001, opening of the “Real Presence”, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

“Real Presence - Generation 2001”, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

REAL PRESENCE

38 1

Alexander Döring, Henning Hennenkemper, Leopold Kessler, Werner Skvara, “Boat to Belgrade”, 2001, Danube, New Belgrade

Mihoko Ogaki, “The Light into the Light - Healing for Release”, 2001, Park of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

Herma Auguste Wittstock, “Turn Around”, 2001, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

“Utopia?”, 2002, panel, Gasthof tent, Frankfurt a. M. (Hans Ulrich Obrist, Florence Derieux, Carsten Höller, Philippe Parreno, Superflex, Rirkrit Tiravanija)

Christine Wolfe, Dorothee Albrecht, Karin Lock, Jole Wilcke, “Picnic”, 2002, collective action, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

Anders Widoff, Joa Ljungberg, lectures, 2002, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

REAL PRESENCE

40 1

“Real Presence 3”, 2003, presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

“Real Presence 4”, 2004, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

Donna Kukama, Gastón Ramírez Feltrin, 2004, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

Marco Chiesa, Andrea Cavarra, Serena Decarli, Camilla Marinoni, Camilla Cazziniga, Giuseppe Buffoli, Nadia Galbiati, Sergio Breviario, Solange Solini, Fabio Marini, Michele Mazzanti Pietro Renga, Ilde Vinciguerra, Federica Ferzoco, Cerese Muratori Claudia Canavesi, Chiara Camoni, “Illegals”, 2005, collective action, “Real Presence 5 - Floating Sites”, Giardini, 51st Venice Biennial, Venice

“Real Presence 5”, 2005, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

MaraM, “Abyss 2”, 2005, performance, Museum of Applied Art, Belgrade

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

REAL PRESENCE

42 1

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

Adrien Tirtiaux, “Prototype for Shoes for Walking on the Water”, 2005, performance, canal in front of the Iuav University, Venice

Julia Waldner, “It is a Men’s World”, 2006, video, Museum of Applied Art, Belgrade

Jacob Tonski, “Wakening”, 2007, interactive performance, MKM, Belgrade (Isidora Krstić)

“Real Presence 7”, 2007, opening of the exhibition, Kazamati Military Museum, Belgrade

“Real Presence 7 - Floating Sites”, 2007, Istanbul (Pinar Yoldas, Jihyun Kim, Dobrila Denegri, Alaattin Kirazci)

“Real Presence 7” at Platform Garanti, talk with Vasif Kortun, 2007, Istanbul

REAL PRESENCE

44 1

Francesco Fonassi, “Flow to Equity”, 2008, sound installation

“Real Presence 8”, 2008, presentations, Belgrade City Library, Belgrade

“Real Presence 8 - Floating Sites”, 2008, workshop, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli (TO)

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

Lerato Shadi, “Uncut”, 2008, performance, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli (TO)

Giulio del Ve’, “Untitled”, 2008, installation, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli (TO)

Adam Budak, “Manifesta 7@ Rovereto: Daydreaming the Region”, 2008, lecture, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli (TO)

Marko Marković, “Untitled”, outdoor intervention, park in front of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli (TO)

REAL PRESENCE

46 1

DOBRILA DENEGRI

Giulia Casula and Valentina Miorandi, “Homage to Pino Pascali”, 2008, Kazamati - Military Museum, Belgrade

Verdiana Zurita, “Gordons in the Garden”, 2009, performance, Kazamati - Military Museum, Belgrade

Camille Simony, Matthieu Crimersmois, “Untitled”, 2009, action and installation, Iuav Ligabue complex, Venice

“Real Presence 10”, 2010, Museum of Yugoslavia, Belgrade

REAL PRESENCE

48 1

Thomas Bayerle, “Anarchy in Construction (blue)”, 1971, Silkscreen on paper, 76 x 59.7 cm, Photo: Wolfgang Günzel

Marlene Haring, “Because Every Hair is Different”, (Weil jedes Haar anders ist!), 2005, billboard poster, 357 x 252 cm, (various installations)

3 4

Tomás Saraceno, “Poetic Cosmos of the Breath”, 2007, airshow in Gunpowder Park, Essex, UK

Alexander Wolff, “Ddétournement”, 2008, acrylic, spraypaint on curtain fabric, canvas, linen, buttons, 150x100 cm, 9 pieces variable dimensions

Pilvi Takala, “The Trainee / Working at Deloitte for a Month”, 2008, video still

DOBRILA DENEGRI 5

REAL PRESENCE

50 1

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

1 2 3

Dirk Fleischmann, “myfashionindustries”, 2008ongoing [myfashionindustries is a project about free-trade zones. It triggers issues of commodity fetishism by redefining the often-obscured relationship between labour and commodity. The project discloses the production process of the designs with an extensive documentation method and relates it to the wider trade perspective in a global context. Buyers of a shirt get access to the full length video material on the myfashionindsutries. com web-site, which contains an archive, that shows how their shirt was made, who fabricated the garments and where the production actually took place. The “Made in North Korea” shirts were manufactured in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the “Made in the Philippine” shirts was produced in the Cavite Economic Zone (Rosario).]

Martin Rille, “Coded Sensation”, 2008 suits completely made out of recorded cassette tapes Kinetic Art: Max Frey / Choreography: Amber Gabrielle / Philology/Literature: Michael Hammerschmid; / Design/ Clothes: Sarah Hyee / Digital Art: Hannes Köcher

Nikola Uzunovski, “My Sunshine”, 2008 - ongoing, video stills

Hans Rosenström, “In Our Hearts”, 2009, Video, 39’40” [A camera floats freely on the river Tigris. It portrays an area transformed through a long period of time where the natural, geographical and cultural formations are closely entwined within each other. The video also tells the story of a river about to change its pace and a historical landscape that is to be flooded underneath its surface.]

REAL PRESENCE

52 1

Mandla Reuter, “Untitled”, 2009, dimensions variable, installation view Boros Collection, Berlin

Iacopo Seri, “TI SERVE UN ARTISTA?”, 2009 - ongoing, Venice and Turin, performance [I work as an artist doing any kind of job, for 5€/hour.]

Annatina Caprez, “Von der Kunst, nicht dermaßen regiert zu werden” (On the art, not being governed to such an extent), 2010 - ongoing, in collaboration with Berni Doessegger, Sibylle Koch, Hansueli Nägeli et al, Residency, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin [Plenum and workshop based collective elaboration of a magazine discussing the relation between working conditions, community building and art practices.]

Aspramente Flower Salad: Aspra. mente, “Flower Salad”, 2009, “Quotidiana 09”, curated by Teresa Iannotta and Stefania Schiavon, Padova

Francesco Fonassi, “IR - Shoot for Isolation”, 2008, series of specific performative and sonic acts dvd video: 2’, 1’30”, shot bullets 2010

Mihoko Ogaki, “Milky Way - Breath 02”, 2010, FRP, LED with dimmer, wood, 190.5 x 107 x 108 cm

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

REAL PRESENCE

54 1

Lerato Shadi, “Mmitlwa”, 2010, HD-video projection with sound, 25’21”

Branko Milisković, “The Song of a Soldier on Watch (WW3 Lili Marlene)”, 2011, performance. Photo: Dominika Sobolewska

3 4

Nezaket Ekici, “Imagine”, 2012, performance, Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun. Photo: Joanna Sitko

Franz Kapfer, “Before the Law”, 2012, installation view Busan Biennial, lacquer on wood, 385 x 271 x 230 cm © VBK Vienna

Marinella Senatore, “The School of Narrative Dance - Ongoing Documentary”, 2013 – ∞, stills from video, single channel HD video, sound, variable length, courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin; MOTInternational, London & Brussels and the artist

DOBRILA DENEGRI 5

REAL PRESENCE

56 1

Irena Lagator Pejović, “Image Think”, 2013, polyethylene perforated by hand with a needle, neon, aluminium, wood, glass, mirror, eye of the beholder, 270 x 580 x 390 cm, exhibition view, Montenegrin pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Palazzo Malipiero, Venice, Photo: Dario Lasagni

Alek O., “Tetris (Cantu)”, 2014, Courtesy Frutta, Rome

Alek O., “Tangram Lying Cat”, 2015, Courtesy Frutta, Rome

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

Selman Trtovac, “Fuga”, 2015, performance in Gestratz within artist-in-residence program at the Museum of Contemporary Art H2, Augsburg, b/w photo, 100 x 70 cm

Aspramente - Strange Fruit, “Strange Fruit”, 2015, a project in collaboration with Luigi Greco & Mattia Paco Rizzi, Luigi Coppola, casa delle Agriculture di Castiglione d‘Otranto (LE), Slow Food Roma, Cooperativa Diaconia, curated by Giulia Ferracci, THE INDEPENDENT/ Food, MAXXI - Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Rome

Simon Mullan, “Indian Summer”, 2016, textile stretched on wooden frame, 60 x 50 x 4 cm

Simon Mullan, “Anti”, 2016, textile stretched on wooden frame, 182,9 x 137,2 x 4,5 cm

REAL PRESENCE

58 1

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

Charlotte Mumm , “Again Against I”, 2016, ceramic (glaze: black matt, white matt, chrome green, Üffing blue, ash glaze made of human excrements), hinged connection, metal, concrete, 60 x 80 x 308 cm. Photo: Helmut Claus

Christiane Löhr, “Great Concave Arched Shape”, sculpture, plant stems, 18 x 60 x 60 cm. Photo: Marino Colucci (Sfera)

Christiane Löhr, “Big Seed Cloud”, 2016, sculpture, seeds of thistles, retina, needles, 72 x 76 x 10 cm; “Big Dome”, 2016, sculpture, stalks of grass, 28 x 27 x 20 cm; “Small Cubicle”, 2018, sculpture, plant stems, 16 x 25 x 19 cm; exhibition view at the Foundation Pino Pascali, Polignano a Mare, Bari (I). Photo: Marino Colucci (Sfera)

Malin Ståhl, “In Landscape I Walk”, 2016, exhibition view at Detroit, Stockholm. Photo: Alex Kent

Narvika Bovcon, Aleš Vaupotič, “Women Writers: A 3-D Information Visualization on the Slovenian Women Writers”, 2017, 3-D printed silver sculpture. Photo: Tim Koprivšek

MaraM, “Falling in Drops”, 2017, performance, Courtesy Galleria Paola Verrengia. Photo: Silvio Acocella

REAL PRESENCE

60 1

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

Giusy Pirrotta, “Between the Glimpse and the Gaze”, 2017. Installation view at James Hockey Gallery, UCA University for the Creative Arts, Farnham. Ceramics glazed sculptures, plexiglass and wood banisters, wallpaper, LED changing colour lights. LED mini digital projectors, mirror sheets, monitor, wood structure. Moving image: video projection and video on monitor Botany HD video 6’10”, Botany 2’00” 16mm film transferred on HD, Astrid 6’27”, 16mm film transferred on HD.

Alberto Gianfreda, “Nothing As it Seems”, 2017, ceramic vases and aluminium strings, variable dimensions

Johannes Vogl, “Cyanometer-All colours of the sky”, 2017, Steel rope, textile, 12,5 x 12,5m Installation view: Schlossbergplatz Graz Austria. Photo: Gregor Titze

Adrien Tirtiaux, “Too Big to Fail - A Joint Venture”, 2017, Stained wood, screws, steel, MARTa Herford. Photo: Hans Schröder

Paola Anziché, “Touching and Changing Naranca”, 2017, installation, Kiosko Gallery, Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Donna Kukama, “Chapter B: I, Too”, 2016. Performance at Sao Paolo Biennale, ”Live Uncertainty”. Photo: Tiago Baccarin/Estúdio Garagem/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo. Courtesy of the artist and Blank Projects

REAL PRESENCE

62 1

1 2

Donna Kukama, “Chapter Q: Dem Short-Short-Falls”, (video still), 2017 - 2018. Documentation of performance at Bijlmerramp Monument, Amsterdam. Courtesy of the artist and Blank Projects

Donna Kukama, “Chapter D: When our doors got up and left”, performance, 2018, Belgrade City museum. Photo: Jovana Milovanović

Johanna Bruckner, “Terra X”, 2018, performance

Yaara Zach, “Untitled” (from the project “Unreasonable Doubt”), 2018, Photo: Liat Elbling

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

REAL PRESENCE

64 1

Lidija Delić, “Tropique Nord”, 2018, oil on canvas, 220 x 160 cm. Photo: Pavle Kaplanec

Lidija Delić, “Tropique Nord”, 2018, installation view, “Miracle of Cacophony”, October Salon, Belgrade

Cordula Ditz, “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness”, 2018, acrylic, spraypaint, oilstick and pencil on printed flag fabric, 200 x 180 cm

4 5 3

Giovanni Giaretta, “La casa (ostinato crescendo)”, 2018, 4K transferred to HD, duration: 5’35” [In horror movies, architecture is often a hidden main character, a frame around which and in which disparate situations weave together. “La casa (ostinato crescendo)” captures a series of stereotypical architectures used in mainstream horror cinema: from the abandoned house, to the imposing Victorian house, to the dollhouse. In the video, the outside images of houses seen from the outside, deprived of their direct filmic reference, are forced to show themselves as variations of the same element and reveal identical signs while the filmic element works towards the construction of a psychological tension and its unveiling. Formed by sequences of day/ night, the video interplays features major elements like the camera angle and position, the sound, and the evocative power of the setting. The architectures buildings are ‘performing‘ like actors, evoking an imaginative narration beyond the ordinary.] Mandla Reuter, “NEOMPALTAPINGYAOFOB”, 2018 Marble block, 180cm x 210cm x 230cm, submarine optical fibre cable 200cm x 200cm x 180cm, 20ft sea container 600cm x 243cm x 289cm Overall dimensions variable. Exhibition view “Sculpture as History”, Pingyao. China

DOBRILA DENEGRI 4

REAL PRESENCE

AUSTRIA

CZECH REPUBLIC

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

Academy of Fine Arts, Prague

PROFESSORS Bruno Gironcoli Renée Green Peter Kogler Eva Schlegel Heimo Zobernig

ARTIST Drena Virag Čvorović

ARTISTS Harald Anderle Gunter Anderlik Simone Bader Isabel Becker Eva Beierheimer Tina Bepperling Catrin Bolt Alexander Döring Eva Eggermann Andreas Fogarasi Marlene Haring Henning Hennenkemper Peter Hochpöchler Lisa Jugert Barbara Kaiser Franz Kapfer Leopold Kessler Roland Kollnitz Markus Krottendorfer Miriam Lausegger Diana Levin Marko Lulić Christian Mayer Claudia Mongini Barbara Philipp Richard Reisenberger Werner Skvara Achim Stiermann Alexander Wolff BULGARIA SELECTOR ON-CALL Iara Boubnova National Academy of Arts, Sofia PROFESSORS Andrej Daniel Pravdoliub Ivanov ARTISTS Nikolai Zanev Kamen Stoianov Jelko Terziev BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo PROFESSOR Radoslav Tadić ARTISTS Jasmin Duraković Irena Missoni

DENMARK The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Copenhagen PROFESSOR Frans Jacobi ARTIST Ismar Cirkinagic ESTONIA Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn PROFESSOR Mare Emmott Tralla E+Media Centre ARTISTS Dagmar Kase Kristel Sibul GERMANY Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) PROFESSOR Marina Abramović ARTISTS Sarah Braun Nezaket Ekici Franz Gerald Krumpl Daniel Müller-Friedrichsen Iris Selke Christian Sievers Viola Yeşiltaç Herma Auguste Wittstock Kunstakademie Düsseldorf PROFESSORS Jan Dibbets Helmut Federle Jannis Kounellis Georg Heoxl Klaus Rinke ARTISTS Brigite Dams Cristiane Löhr Ulrike Möschel Mihoko Ogaki The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main PROFESSORS Thomas Bayrle Peter Cook Ajse Erkmen Christa Naher Jason Rhoades

ARTISTS Björn Achilles Paola Anziché Beatrice Barrois Dragan Bursać Almas Čorović Dirk Fleischmann Tue Greenfort Philipp Haager Peter Lütje Siniša Macedonić Mandla Reuter Peyman Rahimi Tomas Saraceno Adrian Williams Art University Kassel PROFESSORS Horst Glesker Barbara Hammann Alf Schuler Dorothe von Windheim ARTISTS Aladin Čorović Marita Damkröger Silvia Götz Jutta Hermann Urs Klebe Tina Löhr Annegret Luck Elke Mark Charlotte Mumm Jule Peters Jorn Peters Andrea Schüll Oliver Scharfbier Vesselin Vasilev HUNGARY Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest PROFESSOR Eszter Lazar ARTISTS Andrea Huszár Marcell Esterházy Gábor Kerekes Zita Majoros Surányi Miklós Márta Rácz Rita Román Katarina Sević ITALY Accademia di Belle Arti, Venezia PROFESSOR Giulio Alessandri ARTISTS Michele Bazzana Alessandro Mancassola Peter Mignozzi

Brera Academy, Milan PROFESSOR Luciano Fabro and “Casa degli artisti” Claudio Citterio David Francesconi Arianna Giorgi Diego Morandini Luisa Protti Nicola Palumbo Luciana Trombetta Alessandra Tavola Leonardo Tepedino PROFESSORS Alberto Garutti Paolo Gallerani ARTISTS Sergio Breviario Andrea Carrara Stefano Cavarra Marco Chiesa Natasha Ferretti Francesca Fiorella Noemí Martínez Chico Michele Mazzanti Michela Petoletti Pietro Renga Ilde Vinciguerra DAMS - Drama, Art and Music Studies, University of Bologna ARTISTS Laura Biagiotti Irene Di Maggio Paola Ferrara Silvia Cantisani University of Calabria SELECTOR ON-CALL PROFESSOR Valentina Valentini ARTIST Alfredo Conticello REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje PROFESSOR Stanko Pavleski ARTISTS Metodij Angelov Marina Cvetanovska Vesna Dunimagloska Irena Paskali Nada Peševa Icko Petreski Biljana Popović

ROMANIA National University of Arts, Bucharest PROFESSORS Iosif Kiraly Roxana Trestioreanu ARTISTS Luminita Cochinescu Dana Cojbuc Nils Freundlieb Nicu Ilfoveanu SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO University of Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts DEAN Anđelka Bojović PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Marija Dragojlović Darija Kačić Dragan Jovanović Čedomir Vasić ARTISTS Svetlana Djordjević Isidora Fićović Branislav Jakić Aleksandar Jestrović Jelena Milan Slavica Panić Maja Rakočević Mirjana Stojadinović Ivana Smiljanić Pedja Terzić Nina Todorović Vladimir Todorović Svetlana Volic University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History of Art ARTIST Marijana Gobeljić University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture ARTIST Jelena Masnikosić Faculty of Music, University of Arts, Belgrade ARTIST Andrija Pavlović Academy of Fine Arts BK, Belgrade PROFESSORS Milan Aleksić Vesna Mićović Dragan Petrović

67 ARTISTS Jelena Baletić Marina Lesić Paula Miklošević Petar Mirosavljević Vukašin Nedeljković Ivan Petrović Petar Stojanović Mihailo Vasiljević Vesna Velković Nadica Vučković Academy of Arts, Novi Sad DEAN Nenad Ostojić PROFESSORS Milan Blanuša Branka Jovanović Abi Knežević Lidija Srebotnjak ARTISTS Milica Benić Zorica Čolić Branka Čurčić Nataša Dragišić Nebojša Djumić Jelena Gorički Jelena Janev Vladan Joler Svjetlana Jotanović Jovanka Katašić Nenad Lazić Milan Lekić Vladimir Mojsilović Bojan Ranković Dragana Stevanović Milena Stojanović Olga Ungar Faculty of Arts of Priština (in Varvarin) PROFESSOR Zoran Karalejić ARTISTS Radomir Đukanović Milan Nešić Dušan Stošic University of Montenegro Faculty of Fine Arts, Cetinje DEAN Pavle Pejović PROFESSOR Nataša Đurović ARTISTS Olivija Ivanović Biljana Janković Irena Lagator Tanja Milošević Suzana Pajović Milena Perović Božo Perović Natasa Škorić Jelena Tomašević Natalija Vujošević

SLOVENIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana PROFESSOR Matjaž Počivavšek ARTISTS Aneta Arizanović Martina Bastarda Angela Carlin Lada Cerar Polona Demšar Katja Majer Mateja Očepek Slavica Pešvska Nataša Skušek Zoran Srdić Metka Zupanič

SWEDEN

ARTISTS Verica Dimeska Rita Goslinga Sayaka Honsho Hannelore Houdijk Katerina Katsifaraki Dunstan Low Karen Migoni Inez Reichlhuber Arend Roelink Rob Van Oostenburgge GUESTS Harald Szeemann, Artistic Director, 49th International Art Exposition, Venice Biennial Lavinia Garulli, Tullio Pacifici, “Exibart” magazine, Milan Branislav Dimitrijević, curator, Belgrade

SELECTOR ON-CALL Joa Ljungberg Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Milena Dragičević Šešić, Dean, Art University, Belgrade

Umeå Art Academy

Danica Jovanović Prodanovic, Director, Belgrade Cultural Centre

PROFESSOR Cecilia Parsberg Joanna Sandel “NU” magazine ARTISTS Lena Malm Jonas Nobel SWITZERLAND Zurich University of the Arts PROFESSORS Peter Emch Cristoph Schenker Hildegard Spielhofer ARTISTS Eve Bhend Isabella Branč Andreas Helbling & Željka Marušić Sergej Nikokoshev Adrian Notz Saskia Rosset THE NETHERLANDS ArtEZ Academy for Art & Design, Enschede PROFESSORS Curtis Anderson Hendriekje Bosma Debra Solomon

Svjetlana Racanović, Montenegro Mobil Art, Podgorica Darka Radosavljević, Director, Remont, Belgrade Stevan Vuković, Curator, Belgrade Miško Šuvaković and “Walking Theory”, Belgrade ASSISTANTS Mirjana Dabović Ivana Smiljanić Jelena Masnikosić Maja Landratoške Mirjana Boba Stojadinović Ksenija Marinković Marija Konjikušić Marija Đorgović GUIDES Marija Đorgović Vladan Jeremić Jovana Komponić Marija Konjikušić Maja Landratoške Tanja Marčetić Jelena Martinović Ksenija Marinković Predrag Miladinović Jovana Popić Mirjana Boba Stojadinović Zorana Stojanović Igor Vila Svetlana Volic

REAL PRESENCE

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2001” BELGRADE, 20 AUGUST – 8 SEPTEMBER Venues: Museum of Yugoslavia, Student Cultural Centre Gallery, Faculty of Fine Arts (graphic, sculpture department and club), BK Academy, Cinema Rex, Sculpture Park of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Remont Gallery, Zvono Gallery and various public locations

20 1 01

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Real Presence Plateau - Homage to Harald Szeemannâ&#x20AC;?, Museum of Yugoslavia, photo: Lena Malm

REAL PRESENCE

1 2 3

Arend Roelink, Hannelore Houdijk, “Real Presence Virus”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

AREND ROELINK ‘Exchange’ is the word that for me describes the “Real Presence” experience. It started back in 2000 with a warm conversation in my small studio at the DAI in Enschede, where I exchanged views on many art-related topics with Biljana Tomić. What would come from this one hour encounter? While participating in “Real Presence” in 2001 and 2002, I made many friends, which led to new invitations to other projects, residencies or small gatherings, all related to the exchange of experiences. Through these experiences, I’ve come to understand what it means to exchange views. How do we look at each other? Why do we look at each other that way? Do we need to look at each other like that? Me = the other = me.

The ‘exchange’ continued with projects and shows all over Europe and Asia. I came back a year later to experience again the now renowned generous hospitality of the Serbian people and work on a smaller project in the 25th of May Museum. In 2010, among other Italian artists I had met in Belgrade who had become close friends, I participated in a special exhibition at the Italian Cultural Centre for the 10th edition of the “Real Presence” project. In the meantime, the “Real Presence” had grown into a very important event on the cultural agenda, and returning by night train from Milan brought back so many memories. This ‘exchange’ of cultures that had started here made me feel like a real European citizen.

Participating for first time, I remember driving through different countries to reach Belgrade. My homebuilt office, behind an old Volvo How do we look at each 340, moving closer to this other? Why do we look in part of Europe that I knew only from the news. Coming that way at each other? from Enschede, driving to Do we need to look at Munich, on to Vienna and each other like this? Budapest, driving over potholed roads, with drivers overtaking each other in dangerous manoeuvres, only reaching Belgrade after a twoday drive. At the border with Serbia I had to pay extra taxes for my trailer office… described as a caravan to local customs, or I would have had to leave it behind. What a joy, then, to see so many people at the 25th of May Museum, to be able to meet so many cultures participating in an event that showed the power of contemporary art. Standing on the museum roof, knowing that it would matter, it felt like we could take on the world.

I have moved on and I still produce art. I don’t know if it can take on the world but I still enjoy it very much. At the same time I’ve been teaching art/art history and holding workshops for many years now. I still look back on “Real Presence” as a clear realisation of “making art by participation”. You can teach all you want, but the experience of being there, the “real presence factor”, is irreplaceable. In smaller projects with university students and high school pupils in Italy and Holland I’ve tried to incorporate this “participation/experience” element as much as possible, because it binds people together. I become we, you become us… I thank Dobrila Denegri and Biljana Tomić for their generosity and the incredible amount of energy they have put into this life-shaping project.

REAL PRESENCE

HARALD SZEEMANN

I SAW THE NIGHT BEFORE THE OPENING WHAT THE INTELLIGENT AND THE STUPID BOMBS DID IN 1999 TO THE CITY.

Opening of the workshop, Museum of Yugoslavia (Mrdjan Bajić, Biljana Tomić, Harald Szeemann, Dobrila Denegri, Milan Aleksić)

Harald Szeemann, lecture, opening of the “Real Presence”, Museum of Yugoslavia (Biljana Tomić, Dobrila Denegri)

HARALD SZEEMANN

I remember, when I was preparing for Venice Biennale 99, the bombing of Belgrade stopped the evening before the opening. We all were relieved. It cannot be possible in Europe that a people is the most hated. As a counter movement, I invited two young Serbian women artists, both sad about what Serbia had done and that Serbia was being attacked. Vesna Vesić’s video was just about mourning, the artist crying silently, her tears covering her face. I remember, in 1983, when Biljana Tomić was already trying to give life to the Belgrade art scene, I was in admiration of the youth of Serbia and the adorable, cultivated Mayor of Belgrade, Bogdan Bogdanović. Now, assisting with the opening of “Real Presence” – another lucky initiative by Biljana and her meanwhile adult beautiful daughter Dobrila – I saw the night before the opening what the intelligent and stupid bombs had done to the city in 1999. What Biljana and Dobrila wanted and achieved wasn’t an addition to the already overloaded art agenda, it was a piece of life given to the capital of a defeated nation. It was fantastic to see how the students of 29 academies in about 20 countries approached the Tito Museum near his mausoleum with their bags and rucksacks, ready after their first meeting to spread out across the city, taking it over, in many locations, an ideal territory for their works, actions, performances, events. I was lucky to be there. The oldest Biennale in the world, the Venice Biennale is nowadays not only an art exhibition but an occasion and an opportunity for many new and old nations to show their interest in a complex and many layered Europe. But the Biennale cannot just passively wait for the others. It has to go where the “Real Presences” are, and be part of their energies. Thank you Biljana and Dobrila for what you gave to 300 young artists, showing them that Belgrade is alive.

REAL PRESENCE

74 1

LEOPOLD KESSLER When we heard about the workshop in Belgrade, we decided to travel there on the Danube, as we all lived in Vienna at the time. We started building a swimming hybrid, including a used rubber dinghy. The trip took about two weeks. In Belgrade we met students from all over Europe. It was an intense and interesting time. As we didn’t plan to go back to Vienna against the flow of the river, we let a group of Romanian students use our boat to travel home on the Danube. Unfortunately, they weren’t interested. I guess our fascination with this way of traveling was typically German, going back to romantic ideas about nature. On a site-visit to the former Tito Museum, where the final exhibition of the workshop would take place, we discovered a model of Tito’s ship, the “Partizanka”. We decided to build a model of our vehicle at the same scale as our contribution to the exhibition.

1 2 3

Alexander Döring, Henning Hennenkemper, Leopold Kessler, Werner Skvara, “Boat to Belgrade”, arrival at Baracuda dock, New Belgrade

Henning Hennenkemper, Leopold Kessler, “Boat to Belgrade”, departure, Vienna

Alexander Döring, Henning Hennenkemper, Leopold Kessler, Werner Skvara, “The Boat”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

20 4 01

SIMONE BADER How does one travel from Vienna to Belgrade? Recently a student asked an applicant at the public hearing for the professorship of sculpture and space strategies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna about her visions for the class. When she asked him about his vision as a student he answered that he would like to build a ship and just leave the Academy with the whole class. Back in 2001 when I started to work in the sculpture department this is what happened when Dobrila Denegri and Biljana Tomic invited us to come to the first meeting of “Real Presence” in Belgrade. Four students started to build their own boat to travel from Vienna to Belgrade on the Danube. Thirty others travelled by train and, with many other students from all over, welcomed them as they arrived close to the Museum of Contemporary Art. The building was still closed and empty after the three months of NATO bombings that started on 24th of March in 1999. Two years before this visit to Belgrade I helped to collect archival material related to the bombings for the film “The Punishment” by the Austrian filmmaker Goran Rebice. For this film Goran met people with different backgrounds in the bombed city and talked with them about their hopes for the new millennium and about their recent experiences. It was very strange for me to still see the same presence of the wounded buildings in 2001 shown in the film from 1999. The four students arriving by boat 2 weeks after they left Vienna told us that they had nearly capsized and lost the dinghy as they passed the bombed bridge in Novi Sad. Like real adventurers they were totally sunburnt and had long beards.

Because the weather became rainy and cold and most of us didn’t bring raincoats or umbrellas, I remember that we drank a lot of Slivovitz, the only drink available at the site where we met every day for the presentations of art works by all students. We thought that this drink would prevent us from catching a cold! This invitation to Belgrade was a great opportunity for all of us to face the still isolated situation of the city and meet and collaborate with artists on site. The everyday meetings and the final exhibition of all participants in the former Tito museum was the beginning of a new network that we continued at “GASTHOF” at Städelschule Frankfurt in 2002. Here the organisers Dirk Fleischmann and Jochen Volz focussed on food and cooking and followed the tradition that Peter Kubelka had started at Städelschule at the time when he was teaching there from 1978 till 2000 and established the class for film and cooking.

REAL PRESENCE

76 1

Annegret Luck, “The Bridge”, performance, river Sava, under the Branko’s Bridge

Iris Selke, “HHHHHHHH”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Luciano Fabro and “Casa degli Artisti”, lecture, Museum of Yugoslavia

Lectures and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia (participants and audience: Franz Gerald Krumpl, Charlotte Mumm, Andrea Schüll, and others)

5 6

Andrea Carrara, Marco Chiesa, Stefano Cavarra, Noemí Chico Martínez, presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia Workshop, construction site of the new building of Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade

20 5

6 01

Saskia Rosset, “Real Presence Portraits: Mare Emmott Tralla”, photo, Museum of Yugoslavia

Saskia Rosset, “Real Presence Portraits: Simone Bader”, photo, Museum of Yugoslavia

Saskia Rosset, “Real Presence Portraits”, photo by Dagmar Kase

REAL PRESENCE

78 1

20 3

5 01

8 1 2

Lisa Jugert, “Fountain”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Lisa Jugert, “Fountain”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia (Bjorn Achilles)

Lisa Jugert, Richard Reisenberger, Werner Skvara

Philipp Haager, Jovana Popić, workshop, Museum of Yugoslavia

Dirk Fleischmann, workshop, Museum of Yugoslavia

Mirjana Boba Stojadinović, “Original”, interventions, Museum of Yugoslavia

Dragan Bursać, workshop, studios at the Academy of Fine Arts

REAL PRESENCE

80 1

HEIMO ZOBERNIG

Aneta Arizanović, Martina Bastarda, Angela Carlin, Lada Cerar, Polona Demšar, Katja Majer, Mateja Očepek, Slavica Pešvska, Nataša Skušek, Zoran Srdić, Metka Zupanič, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Elke Mark, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Barbara Viktoria Kaiser and Peter Hochpöchler, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Christian Mayer, Alexander Wolff, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Eva Maria Eggermann, “Presentations“, photo, Museum of Yugoslavia

Mirjana Dabović, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Nada Peševa, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Miško Šuvaković and “Walking Theory”, lecture, Museum of Yugoslavia

In recent decades, sculpture has changed more significantly than almost any other art form. The historical foundations of sculpture form the basis for discussion of contemporary sculpture – the social and intellectual fields occupied by contemporary sculpture and the relevance this has to what art can be today. Discussion focuses on the difference between the development of ideas and their realisations, meaning that the development of reading and craftsmanship are equally supported. These skills are refined in workshop courses which consider the potential of materials as well as the economic conditions that influence the creation and installation of sculpture. I wrote this as a guideline when I started teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 2000. It is certainly valid, and over all these years it has been a fitting description of the “Real Presence” initiative, which offers invaluable experience in the field. Invitations to Belgrade, Frankfurt, etc. have created an open exchange of great density. Moreover, the atmosphere has encouraged a special, long lasting quality, starting discussions and building friendships that are now part of many artists’ biographies. All of these joint excursions over the years are an essential part of a successful concept for the Academy.

20 3

4 01

REAL PRESENCE

82 1

20 5 01

Viola Yeşiltaç, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Gunter Anderlik, “Fikusa Production”, sound session, Club FLU

Simone Bader, Andreas Fogarasi, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Franz Gerald Krumpl, “Toti & Monki”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Braunschweig University of Art (HBK), Professor Marina Abramović: Sarah Braun, Nezaket Eckici, Franz Gerald Krumpl, Daniel Müller-Friedrichsen, Iris Selke, Christian Sievers, Viola Yeşiltaç, Herma Auguste Wittstock

REAL PRESENCE

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ At one point in my life, teaching was extremely important. I came to some conclusions, and I have some experience now. I think it is crucial to give that experience away, so that other people can benefit from it or try to see it. I never force people one way or the other. I just say, within this period of time let’s try that; then see for yourself whether you can deal with it or not. It’s a very open structure. Usually the only people who criticise the “Cleaning the House” workshop are people who haven’t been in the workshop. They criticise me for being a tyrant, a dictator; for telling people what to do. But it’s not the case. In every relationship there has to be a certain amount of trust. You have to trust that I have experience. If experience doesn’t have any value for you, then fine. But let’s try. How can we know if we don’t try? All through my life, whatever I talk about I have experienced. If I haven’t, then I can’t deal with it. For me knowledge doesn’t come from books. It comes from experience. I call this experience “liquid knowledge”. It is liquid. It is something that runs through your system. There is no separation. It goes through the body.

Viola Yeşiltaç: The first time you were asked to become a professor, were you afraid?

Yingmei Duan: How did you create your study programme?

No, I was not afraid. I have a feeling for teaching. Actually, I really love teaching. I think that at one point in your life, within your career as an artist and when you collect enough experience, you have to transmit this knowledge to the next generation of artists. This never happened to me when I was a student; only one of my professors told me what I really wanted to know. I was almost at the end of my studies when this professor told me two truths that I still believe in today. The first was that if you make a drawing with your right hand and become better and better at it to the point of virtuosity and to the point where you can make the drawing with your eyes closed, you should immediately switch to your left hand. The second truth was that, in your whole life as an artist, if you are very lucky, you will have one good idea. If you are a genius, you may have even two! All the rest is merely a variation on that one good idea, but you must be careful with it.

When I decided to become a professor I collected lots of material and gathered all the experiences I had been through, all of which enabled me to design a programme that is very flexible and adaptable to the many different personalities of my students. The programme is based completely on my own personal experiences. During my work with my students, I also go through a process of learning every day; they lead me to add and subtract from my methods constantly.

Till Steinbrenner: Should the professor be able to do all he expects from his student?

*** Relations between professor and students are very fragile. The professor should have enough experience, feeling and intuition to understand how much he can demand from his students without damaging their relationship. The professor has to know how to avoid the power game of pushing the students too far and expecting too much. If you do this, it will actually create the opposite effect.

Anna Berndtson: What do you expect your students to get out of the workshops and what do you get out of them? I expect the participants to benefit from the workshop as regards the concerns of their own work. What I have seen up to now is that after the workshops, most participants get a flow of new ideas and their work becomes clearer. They undergo a form of self-transformation. The participants and I get a burst of energy and become positive after the workshop. The general feeling is that the hardship was worth it. For me, a strong sense of unity is created between those who have taken part in the workshop. Declan Rooney: What are the key lessons of experience, which you can now relate to your students? - Lesson No. 1: The worst is the best. (Sufi saying) - Lesson No. 2: More and more of less and less. - Lesson No. 3: What you’re doing is not important, what is important is the state of mind in which you are doing it. (Brancusi) - Lesson No. 4: Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

2 01

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ

FOR ME KNOWLEDGE DOESN’T COME FROM BOOKS. IT COMES FROM EXPERIENCE. I CALL THIS EXPERIENCE “LIQUID KNOWLEDGE”.

Marina Abramović, “Cleaning the House”, 1984, workshop, Maastricht, Holland. Courtesy of Marina Abramović Archives.

Marina Abramović, “Cleaning the House”, 1989, workshop, Academie d’Beaux Arts, Paris. Courtesy of Marina Abramović Archives.

3 4

Marina Abramović, “Cleaning the House”, 1992, workshop, Falster, Denmark. Courtesy of Marina Abramović Archives.

REAL PRESENCE

86 1

Herma Auguste Wittstock, “Drink Ambrosia”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Sarah Braun, “Euphorie”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

3 4 5

6 7 8

Iris Selke, “Untitled”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia Daniel Müller-Friedrichsen, “Righting”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Nataša Skusek, Martina Bastarda, Mateja Očepek, “Feet Washing”, perfomance, Museum of Yugoslavia

20 5 01

REAL PRESENCE

1 2

Mihoko Ogaki, “The Light into the Light, Healing for Release”, Park of the Museum of Contemporary Art

IVANA SMILJANIĆ I participated in “Real Presence” from the very beginning. In fact, I felt so strongly that I belonged to this program and everything about it that I felt part of it even in the years I couldn‘t physically attend, even today. I value what I learnt in those magical weeks more than what I gained from years of formal art education. Not only did it bring a huge number of art academies and professionals to Belgrade, but it enabled me and my fellow art students from Serbia to visit “Manifesta”, “Dokumenta” and the Venice Biennale for the first time, which otherwise would not have been possible for many years to come. I remember the year 2001 as the most intense, engaging and exciting of all. Maybe because I didn‘t have a clue what to expect, how it would feel to get up on the roof of the 25th of May Museum, all two hundred or so of us at the same time and for the same reason, or not to sleep more than 3-4 hours a day and still not want to go to bed, fearing I would miss something. Maybe because I was involved in organising it, witnessing how it became “real” and “present”, how it grew out of one utopian idea in the two beautiful minds of Biljana and Dobrila, how passionately they nursed it, how much they cared and how willingly they shared it. So it was already a big deal for me, long before all these wonderful people started “invading” Belgrade from (initially) all around Europe. My responsibility was to communicate with the artists about the production of their final works, making their ideas possible in terms of providing materials and an available location, if it had to be away from the 25th of May Museum complex.

The most memorable performance/installation was the one by Japanese-born Mihoko Ogaki from Düsseldorf Art Academy. She needed to sink 500 short fat candles into the ground, one by one, forming an enormous spiral-galaxy-like shape that she lit up (again one by one!) as a performative act on the “Real Presence 1” closing night. She was thinking of the simplest grave candles sold in red jars, as found in most supermarkets and drugstores in Germany, but these were uncommon and impossible to find in Belgrade in 2001. I contacted several specialist candle shops, small family businesses, with no success. Finally I got in touch with a larger manufacturer that was supplying the Serbian Orthodox Church at the time. They had a large number of long fat candles, and offered to cut them to the preferred length for a reasonable price. When I came to pick up the order, the woman I spoke to asked me what such an unusually large order of candles was for. I briefly described the performance and the light installation that was about to take place on a meadow in front of Belgrade’s Museum of Contemporary Art. - And what happens after the candles burn? she asked. - Then the work is over. It was obvious that she was not comfortable, that she had never heard of such artworks and didn‘t know how to react. When the heavy packages were ready and I took them, instead of saying goodbye the woman said in a patronising voice, although trying to stay polite: - Dear girl, when you work on something and invest your time and money in it, make sure that it lasts!

I vividly remember this remark. “The Light into the Light” (the title Mihoko gave to the performance) is one of the strongest impressions I’ve had of an artwork; not only did it last, it is for all time! I also remember I didn’t reply. I wanted to so badly and I should have... But the conflict in me was too strong. In the moment I couldn‘t decide between Mona Hatoum (“So Much I Want to Say“) and Joseph Beuys (“How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare”).

REAL PRESENCE

CHRISTIAN MAYER & ALEXANDER WOLF Memory is a tricky thing. It tends to alter real experiences over time and imbue events with a fictional aspect that later becomes inseparable from the real happening. This is especially true of experiences that are extraordinary and are thus retold again and again over the years. This definitely applies to the events we experienced in Belgrade back in 2001. That said, this is an attempt to remember the events that led to the site-specific installation “Studentski Grad”. We came to Belgrade with a group of art students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna to attend the first edition of “Real Presence”. Along with art students from other parts of Europe, we were housed in a huge dormitory in a part of Novi Beograd called Studentski Grad (“Student City”). These dormitories, housing more than 5000 students, were originally built in the 1940s and 1950s and gained their present appearance after a long period of reconstruction between 1985 and 1997. The rooms are small and are all shared by two students and furnished with the same prefab furniture. Students are not allowed to bring any additional furniture into the rooms, which leads to them all looking alike. The only way students were allowed to express their individuality was by pinning posters to the walls above their beds. How, we wondered, would it be possible to turn one of these rooms, the one we were living in, into something completely different, a room that would be easily distinguishable from all the other rooms, using only the things that were already in the room?

We then decided to dismantle all the built-in furniture in the room by pulling out every screw and nail and taking apart everything that could be taken apart entirely, liberating the materials of their forms and designated functions. Alexander bought spray paints, hoping to match the colours of the bedroom furnishings, as well as a can of black enamel paint. We sprayed or painted on the backs or edges of the boards, at the same time using them as stencils that would reflect their own sizes on other boards or surfaces. We then freely re-arranged all the materials in the room, aiming to achieve a dynamic, explosive, de-constructive and dysfunctional environment. We constructed various sculptural elements by using screws and nails in the pre-existing holes as well as transparent scotch tapes. For another part of the installation, Christian installed a TV monitor that had been part of the interior, connecting it to a video camera that was placed on top of it. The camera was set to demo mode, displaying its various effect modes, such as “Sepia” and “Solarisation”, while recording live what was happening in the room. The work took two or three days, and at night we slept in our construction site. We made a drawing in which the room’s furniture elements were individually numbered. We took twelve pieces of furniture apart altogether. We used the drawing for the invitation flyer to the opening party and invited all the other students who had come to the “Real Presence”. A LOT of people came, bringing beer

and vodka and turning the opening into a wild party. At one point in the night, security came upstairs. They were shocked at what they saw and closed the party down. At this point, the installation was pretty trashed and we went to sleep in our friends’ room. We were woken up in the morning by loud voices and found the director of Studentski Grad in our room with other people, including a camera team from Student TV. They were completely freaked out by the sight of the room in this altered state. The director saw this as a dangerous example of students who had gone mad, and subsequently issued us with a huge fine, took away the keys and ordered us to stay away from the dormitory forever. We reacted deeply apologetically and said we would return the space to its original state if he gave us a chance. After they left, we cleaned up the mess from the party and re-installed the artwork so that Markus Krottendorfer could take photos of it. We then took the artwork apart and restored the room to its original state. A few boards were damaged, but we exchanged them with pieces from other rooms – it was the same stuff in all the rooms anyway. In the afternoon the director came back to look at the room. He was in total disbelief that everything now looked as it was before our intervention. Our fine was subsequently cancelled, but nevertheless we were no longer allowed to live in Studentski Grad. So we sneaked in at night in disguise past the watchman to sleep in our friends’ room.

20 1

2 01

1 2 3 4

Christian Mayer, Alexander Wolf, “Deconstruction”, Student’s City, Student’s House, Wing F, Block III, room 425 Photos by Markus Krottendorfer

REAL PRESENCE

92 1

20 7

8 01

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Christian Mayer, Alexander Wolf, “Deconstruction”, Student’s City, Student’s House, Wing F, Block III, room 425 Photos by Markus Krottendorfer

REAL PRESENCE

Paola Anziché, “Democracy”, installation, Kalemegdan park and SCC

Paola Anziché, “Democracy”, installation (collaboration with Ljubica Stojić, Kalemegdan park)

Paola Anziché, “Democracy” (Joanna Sandell)

PAOLA ANZICHÉ

The word “Demokratija” left a tiny presence in Kalemegdan Park in Belgrade during the summer of 2001. I asked a lady selling crocheted objects to tourists in Kalemegdan Park to include the word “Demokratija” in her works. After my departure from Belgrade, some souvenirs with the word “Demokratija” were sold by the woman to unknown visitors. “TO SEE WITH YOUR/MY HAND” is an expression of my art practice seen as a hybrid medium between action and communication. Through different media and materials, I investigate art’s ability to cross and connect distant disciplinary fields: from folk traditions to anthropology to scientific research. I developed my practice around the relationship between sculpture, architecture and the public, i.e. between object, space and body. Every aspect of my art practice is based on its relationship with the user. This means that the work takes shape just when the public and private spheres come together.

REAL PRESENCE

96 1

FRANZ KAPFER “The Victor” monument personifies the problematic subject of the Kosovo myth and moreover stands as a typical 20th century monument, presenting heroic rituals according to the nationalistic definitions that have ruled and still rule in Europe. With the displacement of the Victor to an uncompleted room, and with reference to the letters of the nationalistic graffiti from Belgrade written above, I question this heroic cult in the form of a photo performance. My participation in “Real Presence” and my visits to Belgrade were part of a thrilling and important period in which, after the breakup of Yugoslavia, I appropriated to myself a guiding figure of the political and social failure in a setting of absolute absurdity and bitter earnestness. A drama that even today hasn’t absolved me.

1 2 3

Franz Kapfer, “The Victor,” framed BW-photograph © VBK Vienna

Irena Paskali, “For Our Own Good - Made in Macedonia”, photo, Museum of Yugoslavia

20 2 01

IRENA PASKALI I intended to depict the “Macedonian Artist” brand as a superior good, which the state should foster and protect as it does its economic output. The brand shown on my body is a slogan we have to listen to every day in the Macedonian Economy Ministry’s campaign meant to make our economy thrive. These campaigns are intended to be for our own good – “Made in Macedonia”. One can easily recognise this brand on virtually everything: billboards, city lights, advertisements, newspapers and on every Macedonian product one buys. Naturally this is for our own good... but I feel that more protection of art and artists is the best output of all for every culture and every country.

REAL PRESENCE

Markus Krottendorfer “Belgrad, Sava Center”, photo

Andreas Helbling and Željka Marušić, “TV Balkan”, installation and research project, Museum of Yugoslavia

Andreas Fogarasi, “Genex, Genex Towers (‘Western Gate’), Mihajlo Mitrović 1970-80”, photo and research project

REAL PRESENCE

100

Halt+Boring (Marlene Haring, Catrin Bolt) “Sitting”, video loop [We seem to be just sitting on a bench. It takes a while to see that we are “sitting” in the air, on nothing.] Halt+Boring (Marlene Haring, Catrin Bolt) “Dirt-storm”, temporary outdoor installation [On a busy road, inside an unused kiosk with glass windows all around, a windmachine produced a “storm of dirt” with dirt collected in the surroundings.] Halt+Boring (Marlene Haring, Catrin Bolt “Pride of Dogs”, action, Belgrade [On an evening with many openings of exhibitions in various places in Belgrade, equipped with meat and dog food we tried to get together a lot of street dogs to bring them into the exhibitions.]

101

MARLENE HARING Others have better memories, but invitation to write a contribution for this publication prompted more than I thought I had. 2001, living in Studentski Grad (“Students City”), hardly ever at home when hot water for showers was available, we got up around 8am after four hours of sleep, during which we had recovered from being out most of the night socialising, strolling, partying. We took a cold shower and went to the presentations, which continued into the afternoon, by which time the beer sold by the housekeepers on site was very welcome. What an intense time: immersed in the spirit of a future that seemed bright in the heads of our hosts. Strong images of a beautiful city: naïve pleasure in the derelict and often anachronistic sights and objects of consumption. Public transport vehicles from all over the world. In our early twenties: our euphoria and the excitement of making new work, of soaking up presence, seemed to drown any profound engagement with the tragedies of the preceding years, though we could see and smell them everywhere. Coming together, sharing time, doubting, criticising, making, generating situations, art: that is complex enough. No prescribed pedagogy other than listening and looking, How to be together? prompting thoughts Learning from experience, and possibly commulearning from each other nicating, what a retrospective relief! To make is not easy to do in it possible there and a society used to then, what an achieveprefabricated power ment!

relations of institutional Some of the images I have found are as blurin a company, red as my memories, which, like the images, university or a family. I hold very fondly, like the fresh cold showers. Having no flash on my camera or any great photography skills did not deter me from taking pictures our photographer friend Krotti (Markus Krot-

hierarchy, whether

tendorfer) could only shake his head when we picked them up from a local photo shop. Friends surprised us: Andreas Fogarasi dancing! At the time I was working with Catrin Bolt as Halt+Boring. We shared a room. We spent our days and nights with fellow artists, producing many pictures and ideas. There were speakers mounted on posts all over Studentski Grad, through which Radio Studentski Grad aired its daily programme and announcements, so everyone would hear it while walking through the park grounds or when still in bed. I believe it functioned as our alarm clock. We organised a small intervention at Radio Studentski Grad, airing A-Ha’s “Crying in the Rain”, which starts with the sound of thunderstorms and rain, as well as Falco’s “Vienna Calling“. One night we passed a place where some young men were producing a radio programme. Some of our young men joined in. To us anything we saw had potential: our friends unscrewed the furniture in their room, turning it into sculpture, while our room had a layer of its inhabitants’ belongings and life. We enjoyed the company of our guides and Vukašin, who I think was one of them. Though I might not have seemed shy, today I would try to make more connections with local people, to be more receptive and less inward. How to be together? Learning from experience, learning from each other eye to eye, is not easy to do in a society used to prefabricated power relations of institutional hierarchy, whether in a company, a university or a family. But it is perhaps the only way to work towards making social and political relations sustainable. Being a guest often teaches you something about being a good host. Thanks for being good hosts.

REAL PRESENCE

102 1

Tomas Saraceno

Tomas Saraceno, “Autotravel”, map, Bus Line 83

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Zoran Srdič, “Posters”, public action, city streets

Diana Levin, “Title”, public action, city streets Drena Čvorović Virag, “Cultural Cultural Clensing”, public action, in front of SCC

103

20 3

4 01

REAL PRESENCE

104

ADRIAN NOTZ “The Importance of Art for Human Civilisation”

in some Native American rituals, I thought Serbia could be a good antidote. So I went to Belgrade as a naïve lovesick tourist. I met Dragana Žarevac, who I knew from Bremen, where I’d had the opportunity to assist her in editing her video “Most”. Dragana told me to meet Biljana at the Studentski kulturni centar (SKC). Strangely enough, when I got there I saw a lot of familiar faces. Some of my art student colleagues from the Zurich University of the Arts were part of “Real Presence”.

In 2010, I was invited to speak at the last “Real Presence”, on a pretext similar to how I have now been invited to write here. I was one of the first participants, and I now seem to be a “successful curator”. In 2010, I was also the director of an art school in a small town in Switzerland. It is of course impossible to show how “Real Presence” was the initial key for my “great success” without creating a tsunami of nostalgic sentiment, Triggered by my dark curls, Biljana told me overwhelming pathos and flowery compliabout a song featuring a girl with her name. ments. In 2001, “Real Presence” helped me I understood that the song was set close not just to understand intellectually and to Skadarsko Jezero, the philosophically, but actulake on the border between ally to see and experience When I took the train Montenegro and Albania. A “the importance of art for to Belgrade in 2001, handsome prince wants to human civilisation”. To cross a river, but the beausupport this rather ideait was not my intention tiful girl Biljana refuses to listic notion, I use Harald to participate in let him cross unless he leaSzeemann’s quote from the “Real Presence”. ves one of his black curls for “Real Presence” website. her. So I left a curl for Biljana Referring to the “intelligent and “Real Presence” so I could cross the riand stupid bombs” of 1999, the short text ver and become, as Szeemann wrote, one of says “what Biljana and Dobrila wanted and the “hundreds of students and young artists achieved […] was a piece of life given to the from all over the world […] spread out across capital of an impoverished nation.” the city, taking it over, in many locations, an ideal territory for their works, actions, perLike Szeemann, I was lucky to be there. And formances, events”. Biljana’s lovely song led as we know, luck isn’t something we can me to spread out even to Montenegro to see earn, achieve or plan. It happens magically, Skadarsko Jezero. Arriving by train in the by coincidence. city of Bar, I was locked into a small “soba” by an old “sobe” woman. She ordered me to When I took the train to Belgrade in 2001, it eat and kicked me out next morning at six was not my intention to participate in “Real o’clock. I saw nothing of Bar but that small Presence”. I didn’t even know about it, it was room, so I left her telephone number at the just luck that I went there. After I was dumSKC reception with a note to call her and ped by my millionaire Liechtensteiner girlshout: “matora veštice!” (old witch!). friend, who had just discovered her new self

Driving back, I could see Biljana’s Skadarsko Jezero from the train, and I travelled there several times in the following years. As a lucky naïve tourist, I also visited the Sveta Petka chapel in Kalemegdan. Biljana told me there was a fountain for women, with magical fertility water. Standing in this holy place I could only see a tap, from which women were filling plastic bottles with water. So I installed a sign by an ordinary tap beneath a sink in the women’s toilet at SKC, inviting women to get some fertility water. The morning I arrived in Belgrade I was served a Turkish coffee on the train, which I accidentally spilt on my shoes. With all the coffee grounds on my shoes, it looked like they were starting to rust. I was able to present a re-enactment of that moment at the Tito Museum, the iconic location for “Real Presence”. I was lucky, because “Real Presence” took me as a naïve tourist, a lovesick art theory student, not only treating me like an artist like the hundreds of other art students and young artists, but by doing so with generosity, openness and curiosity, implanted the real “importance of art for human civilisation” into my consciousness. As I noticed this summer on a hermit residency in Mexico, I’m still searching for that in the most naïve way possible. The last time I was in Belgrade, I was told: “Don’t be polite!” Therefore, I say most impolitely: “Real Presence” is a crucial calibration value for my understanding of art.

105

ADRIAN NOTZ

“REAL PRESENCE” IMPLANTED THE REAL “IMPORTANCE OF ART FOR HUMAN CIVILISATION” INTO MY CONSCIOUSNESS. 1

1 2

Adrian Christopher Notz, “Signs”, interventions, SCC

REAL PRESENCE

106 1

1 2 3

Adrian Williams, “Washing the Ceiling Pendant”, action, SCC Philipp Haager, Jovana Popić, “Sky”, wall painting, Museum of Yugoslavia

107

PHILIPP HAAGER In the cityscape in the immediate neighbourhood of the Belgrade museum there were many conspicuous traces of the destruction wrought by the 1999 NATO air raids and bombings. In this hotly contested city, with its once grand history, this spot seemed like an emblematic culmination of all those tragic, brutal and – in a peculiar way – also absurd moments experienced by a Europe in the throes of upheaval. The past decade of civil war in the Balkans had been tragically and unspeakably horrific, with genocide in Kosovo and the participation of the German Labour/Green government in the US-led act of NATO aggression, which could only be seen as absurd – at least by contemporaries. The mood among many of the students participating in the workshop was accordingly charged and volatile. A karma of despair left over by recent events lay in the air – as well as a feeling of aggression. This was already noticeable in the first days of the two-week workshop in the many performances by students from Marina Abramović’s class at Braunschweig University of Art, as well as in the paintings, prints and photographs that gradually filled the walls of the museum, some of them depicting fighter jets, rockets, then US President Bush and Pope John Paul II. In the entrance hall on the upper floor of the May 25 Museum (also formerly known as the Tito Museum), opposite a wall relief de-

picting a world map (but omitting the southern tip of Africa), was a large white canvas screen with a portal in its centre. The canvas was stretched in front of the wall to conceal older murals and reliefs behind it. Through the portal, one could catch a glimpse of windows onto a terrace, in front of which armed soldiers in camouflage uniforms paraded back and forth on patrol. Here, adjacent to the museum grounds – so it was said – was the office of former president Milošević, where his wife could still be found, while he himself was at the time already appearing before a war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

humans, what gives us hope and motivates us to make a fresh start, is perhaps connected with the view up into that sky. I returned from Belgrade with these two weeks of encounters and experiences on my mind – some of them not the best due to personal circumstances – on 11 September 2001. Upon my arrival at Frankfurt Central Station, an airplane crashed into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on the huge video monitors above the platforms and exploded on camera before the eyes of nearly the whole world.

From today’s viewpoint, this sequence of images seems both tragic and exemplary of the dilemma of that time, within our own Jovana Popić, a painter from Croatia who generation, whose members included the was studying painting in Belgrade, painted majority of the students from all over Euroa mural alongside me. We used white and ulpe who were participating tramarine pigments, mixed in the workshop. In this terdirectly into the still damp What gives us hope and rorist attack, which chanbut rapidly drying emulsion motivates us to make a ged the world profoundly paint on the wall, similar to with effects that can still be the procedure used in the fresh start, is perhaps felt keenly today, even the fresco paintings that we connected with the view view of the sky was besieged both so loved and admired. up into that sky. and used for terror, horror and death – a different “Real With our painting, which Presence” than what was meant by the title could be read as a sky above the world visible of the workshop – and the world suddenly opposite, we wanted to come up with a kind seemed very far away from the mission of of symbol for a belief and perhaps also a sigexchange, understanding and peace that we nal. What unites us all – among many other had tried to launch in our very modest way. things, of course – might include our gaze into the sky that arches above all of us, blue, white, cloudy, flooded with light or overcast for everyone – and much of what moves us

REAL PRESENCE

108 1

Barbara Philipp, “Eingetrichtert / Without Filter”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Charlotte Mumm, “Untitled” (detail of the installation), painting, Museum of Yugoslavia

Charlotte Mumm

109

CHARLOTTE MUMM I discovered the invitation to “Real Presence” 2001 on my desk in the middle of a chaotic studio at the academy. As first year students we didn’t immediately know what to do with this information, but we managed to unravel this mysterious invitation and decided to go to Belgrade. We took matters into our own hands with a certain openness and trust. Maybe this trust was also naivety, but it was affirmative for sure. We were curious, so we took the train south, covering the distance “physically”. How close and/or how far away from us was this war actually? Where were we going? My friends and I kept ourselves occupied during the train ride. We spent a lot of time together: pondering, discussing and looking out of the window. I learned a lot just spending time with my friends, approaching the unknown. Looking back, I can say that there was no “hierarchical” learning, and I believe that going to art school implies that you remain an autodidact. In Belgrade we stayed in student housing that had been left empty for the summer. From there we explored the city, confronted by bomb-damaged buildings like the Ušće

Tower and the Ministry of Defence, while at the same time we enjoyed the vibrancy of the city, the Sava, the Danube, the flea markets. The 25th May Museum was the central meeting place for “Real Presence”, and we went there on a daily basis. On the one hand we worked on our exhibition, while on the other hand we hung around with ‘kafa’ (coffee). Most important during that time were the presentations by all the different participants. The auditorium where the presentations were held was packed, and it might have been intimidating to get up and talk about your work on stage, but strangely enough it was not. The atmosphere was great: dynamic and respectful. For me as a student who was only just starting out, this was the best seminar I could have imagined. The art market was far away, and somehow it felt like art in the purest form. What else could you wish for than to listen to young artists talking about their personal motifs, idealistic visions and individual approaches, showing and giving insight into their work? The heterogeneity of “Real Presence” 2001 was the linking element in this international group. Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri were perfect hosts, probably working hard in the background, but everything looked easy on

the outside. Then Harald Szeemann suddenly showed up at one of the seminars and was talking to us, appreciating and affirming what we were all doing as artists, saying that this gathering, in this extraordinary setting, shortly after the war, was important for staying open minded and independent in all layers of life. All this has stayed with me throughout my studies, and continues to do so today. Since 2001 I have managed to find my own peculiar way of looking at things and transforming them through my practice, dealing simultaneously with my own existence and the art hocus-pocus around me, always accompanied by the artists I befriended, with whom I have grown over time. This has led me to very different places through my personal network, my exhibitions and my residencies in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, Malaysia and Finland, meeting interesting people, bonding, making friends, spending time. Some places and situations have more impact than others, but I always question the status quo, and the best scenarios fuel my energy (aka personal drive) and my openness to experimentation. 3

REAL PRESENCE

110 1

Ismar Cirkinagic, “Untitled” (detail of the photo installation), Museum of Yugoslavia

Saskia Rosset, “Real Presence Portraits”, photo, Kamen Stojanov, “Graffiti”, wall intervention, Museum of Yugoslavia

Dragan Rajšić, “Untitled”, photographs, Museum of Yugoslavia

Ulrike Möschel, “A Light Bulb in the Floor…”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

111

20 4 01

ULRIKE MÖSCHEL I took part in “Real Presence” in 2001, immediately after I graduated from Düsseldorf Art Academy. For me, travelling to Belgrade was a big challenge and it really changed the way I saw the art world. First I was confronted with the history of former Yugoslavia, and I could see the marks of war in front of my eyes. From an artistic point of view, focused on “Real Presence”, the project widened my horizons. Young artists from all over Europe gathered together and exhibited their works in short lectures. In talks and discussions I was personally confronted with a wide range of artistic approaches. I realised how small my “academic” world in the Düsseldorf Art Academy had been. The atmosphere was incredibly open there, everybody talking and discussing together. It was just like looking at the young upcoming art scene of parts of Europe under a magnifying glass.

REAL PRESENCE

112 1

Slavica Panić, “Untitled”, photo, Museum of Yugoslavia

Peter Lütje, “Moby Dick”, poster, Museum of Yugoslavia

3 4 5

Mandla Reuter, “Untitled (Corner Socket)”, Museum of Yugoslavia

113

20 3

4 01

REAL PRESENCE

114 1

Dirk Fleischmann, “Trip to Belgrade”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Peter Hochpöchler, “Perzelle Weiss” , slide projection, Museum of Yugoslavia

Jorn Peters, “Getting Into Some Points of View”, outdoor intervention, Museum of Yugoslavia

Beatrice Barrois, “Mein sich wandelndes, wanderndes Haus / Tree House”, outdoor intervention, Museum of Yugoslavia

115

20 3 01

REAL PRESENCE

116 1

MICHELE BAZZANA I often think of how the temporal distance between events creates relationships: the World Cup final, the diploma, the girlfriend, the degree, the holidays. Through a memory you can manage to place others, identify the year when a certain thing happened. Among all my memories, “Real Presence” is one of those milestone events, constituting ae point of reference to remember what I did in those years. I think this is because my trip to Belgrade in 2001 coincided with the beginning of my “other” life – in art – and all that followed.

It was my first year at the academy, of my first slightly more important exhibitions, residencies, prizes. Looking at photos (on paper) of those days, rediscovering my enthusiasm, perhaps a certain ingenuity, I recognise the places, I see what I was and I know what I am. I dwell on the work done: a hundred compasses made in a manner of how “giovani marmotte” would make them: magnetised nails inserted into corks floating on the surface of a pool of water inside a 25 sqm tar paper basin, all the needles obviously pointing north. Every now and then a drop falls from above and ripples across the pool, causing the compasses to lose their orientation and then reposition themselves in the right direction. I think the project came about because the direction I was going was still not clear to me at the time – a direction I have still not found. But now I see that work as an explanation of what “Real Presence” was for me: a reference point. And I find it more important to lose my orientation than to find it again.

Peter Mignozzi, “Untitled” (detail), installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Michele Bazzana, “Broken Organic Attraction”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

117

GIULIO ALESSANDRI When I came to Belgrade for the first time, I think it was 2001, I found a city wounded and still bleeding. There were many students, I should say artists, and some professors, myself and a few others. I came as soon as I was invited. It was my duty to participate in the process of reopening dialogue between Serbia and the world. “Real Presence” was an opportunity for us to be involved in this healing process. I remember the warm, gentle, competent attitude of Biljana and Dobrila in helping everybody to achieve the most interesting results and the highest goals. I remember the atmosphere of friendship and solidarity, the true cipher of “Real Presence”, together with professionalism and support. The Tito Museum was a perfect location, a It was the place to true museum with the higbe for me at the time, hest Western standards in term of spaces and interior somewhere to act design. The talk program as a “Real Presence” was perfect, a model on its in real terms. own terms, where students and professors from many countries could confront and interact at different levels, institutional, artistic, poetic, philosophical, social and political, in a comfortable museum theatre-hall. It was the place to be for me at the time, somewhere to act as a “Real Presence” in real terms.

I remember the intense and appropriate work of three students I came with from the Venice Art Academy: Michele Bazzana, Peter Mignozzi and Alessandro Mancassola. The first piece, by Bazzana, was based on large pool of water made of tarpaper, in which hundreds of floating corks, each carrying a magnetised nail, were all pointing north, as compasses usually do. The result was so interesting because the corks floated differently depending on the level of magnetism. The result was a sort of military assembly of elements, involving irregular and anarchic behaviour, simply marvellous, echoing Pino Pascali’s “Mare”, in a dramatic dark atmosphere. The second piece, by Peter Mignozzi and Alessandro Mancassola, made from glass fragments from the bombed telecommunications tower, carried all the despair and destruction of those days. I remember all its details very clearly, again a mimetic military surface, but still transparent and reactive with the outside. Outside, soldiers kept Tito’s museum, grave and monument safe. Both works were excellent, carrying the proper amount of darkness and destruction, but full of life, hope and beauty. I came a few more times. I consider myself a friend of “Real Presence” since the very beginning, but as time passed the circumstances became less and less dramatic, and the feeling of urgency faded away year after year. The program based on artistic education remained top quality and the participants were always eager to be part of the “Real Presence” community. For these and many more reasons, I want to thank Biljana and Dobrila for their passionate involvement and for their precious friendship.

REAL PRESENCE

118 1

119

20 4 01

Isabela Branč, “Untitled”, sound installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Sascha Pohle, “Viewpoint”, outdoor intervention, Museum of Yugoslavia

Peyman Rahimi, “Ca-aba”, sculpture, entrance of the Museum of Yugoslavia

Slavica Peševska, “Untitled”, outdoor intervention, Museum of Yugoslavia

Tue Greenfort, “Untitled”, Museum of Yugoslavia

REAL PRESENCE

120 1

Jonas Nobel, “Untitled”, outdoor intervention, Museum of Yugoslavia

Jonas Nobel “Real Presence”, 2018, drawing

Cecilia Parsberg, Joa Ljungberg, Jonas Nobel

Ulrike Möschel, Jonas Nobel, Lena Malm, Diana Levin

121

20 3 01

JONAS NOBEL

When I got the request to participate in this book, I went down to the basement to see if I could find some photos or documentation from my visit in Belgrade in 2001. Opening a box of old photos it turned out that a mouse had chewed through all the documentation. The lack of memory in the form of photos helped trigger the memory in my brain. Two memories are the strongest when I think of the ten days I spent in Belgrade in 2001, two situations when physical or sculptural alterations affected a group of people. There was a hole in the pavement on the way from the bus stop to the 25th of May Museum. All the foreign students passed this hole every day on their way to the museum. Foreigners tend to look up at their unfamiliar surroundings, and they don’t pay attention to where they put their feet. The hole in the pavement was therefore an accident waiting to happen, especially in the evening when it was dark and people were walking and talking after spending the evening drinking beer in the museum bar. Everyone mentioned the hole and joked about avoiding falling into it. But no one did anything to cover it until one morning someone had put a cardboard box over the hole, and in the box a wooden stick. This simple act of compassion and care is memorable, and I often think of it when confronted by large or small collapses of society. The solution to problems does not always need to be so complicated. You don‘t need a shovel and a lot of dirt to cover a hole, a cardboard box and a stick will do the job.

One evening when I was leaving the museum a sudden rainstorm came. No one was prepared for this storm, and we needed some sort of shelter. Outside the museum we found a big piece of plastic under which we could all fit. But under the plastic we couldn’t see which way to go, so someone came up with the idea of cutting holes in the plastic for everyone’s heads — like a gigantic collective poncho. Under this big piece of collective raincoat we started walking towards town. It worked well and the plastic kept us dry. But the plastic made small puddles in between our heads, and the shorter ones in the group got all the water down their necks. So while we walked, a game to prevent the water running down someone’s neck evolved, a sort of collective dance with the purpose of keeping everyone in the group dry and warm under the plastic sheet.

REAL PRESENCE

122 1

123

20 5 01

NOEMÍ MARTÍNEZ CHICO When I was a student at Brera Academy in Milan, I had the opportunity to take part in the 2001 and 2002 editions of “Real Presence” in Belgrade. The real contact and exchange with artists and future artists from so many countries was such an intense and valuable experience for me in that moment that my artistic view was expanded extraordinarily. Not all artistic sensibilities reach galleries or museums. The world of art can also exclude some artistic tendencies that don’t follow the mainstream. The opportunity for contact with so many ways of creating, expressing, being art was a gift for which I will always be grateful to “Real Presence”. Many of the performances I create involve a prior social and psychological investigation process that is the key to the development of the work. This is the fruit of some of the seeds I brought from Belgrade. 1

Vesna Dunimaglovska and Petar Mirosavljević, “Untitled”, performance and photos, Museum of Yugoslavia

Achim Stiermann, “Beog-Rad”, Museum of Yugoslavia

3 4

Richard Reisenberger, “Ede Menge Arbait, Unhacken, ausvei den anframmen, anfgraben, zu anfbocken sammen hampeln”, outdoor action and installation, Academy of Fine Arts Natasha Ferretti, Noemí Martínez Chico, Ilde Vinciguerra. “Nest”, performance, Academy of Fine Arts

I took part in some performances at “Real Presence”, and I would like to talk about one in particular, “El Nido” (the nest). We arrived in a wounded country after the war. I remember the impression I had seeing the devastated buildings and hearing Serbian artists share their own experiences. Biljana and Dobrila invited me along with the Quasar group, an artist collective I was part of at Brera academy. But not everybody in Belgrade was happy with strangers, and our access to the workshops was blocked.

This was the moment that we rethought our work. We created a big nest as a metaphor for a building, a place to inhabit with the materials life offers us. At the same time, we were aware of the fragility of such structures over time. From then, for fourteen years, I kept all the old nests I discovered on my travels. I also interviewed various people about their feelings about nests and nesting. The questions were: What is a nest for you? With what materials would you build your nest? With whom or in which situation do you feel like you are in your nest? In which part of your body is your nest? I created a video installation from all these pieces, as well as some performances and finally a long scenic piece, “The Nest” (by Xagua Co, a dance performance company I founded in 2010). Among all the life lessons I learned at “Real Presence”, the one that has had the strongest effect on me is the need to acknowledge art’s power to help life without denying any part or particular form. This is very important for us as human beings. Art can denounce without making us enemies. Meetings like “Real Presence” are so important because they build bridges between different people, strengthen respect and compromise with art and show us that, in spite of nationalities, gender, ethnic origin or religion, what brings us closer is more than what separates us.

REAL PRESENCE

124 1

Noemí Martínez Chico, “Senseless”, performance, Club FLU

Andrea Carrara, Stefano Cavarra, Marco Chiesa, “The Path”, Club FLU

Isabela Branč, Philipp Haager

Michele Bazzana, Alessandro Mancassola, Peter Mignozzi, Noemí Martínez Chico, Michele Mazzanti, Jelena Martinović

Marija Đorgović, Marija Konjikušić, Ksenija Marinković, Nada Peševa

125

20 5 01

KSENIJA MARINKOVIĆ In 2001, as an art history student, I participated in “Real Presence” with my colleagues Marija Đorgović and Marija Konjikušić. The event came just after we had started cooperation with Biljana Tomić on the “Permanent Happenings” project at the Student Cultural Centre gallery. I remember Biljana introducing us to the other artists participating in the project, saying – “you should get under each other’s skin and create an art scene.” This was key advice for me, and I still keep to this organic approach to my work today, running my own gallery – X Vitamin in Belgrade. We built that art scene with our everyday You should get under presence, not always knoeach other’s skin and wing exactly what we were doing. I think that the art create an art scene. scene was still being created at the time the first “Real Presence” was organised, which was just as exciting for our colleagues from all around the world as their stories and their presence was exciting for us. Moreover, running this type of event was exactly what I later chose to do, with great joy, organising international advertising festivals from 2006 to 2010. “Real Presence” gave me an insight into the peculiarity and size of the international contemporary art community, permanently determining me in this field.

REAL PRESENCE

126 1

Kristel Sibul, Dagmar Kase

Dagmar Kase, “Out of Order”, video projection, Zvono Gallery

Jelena Milo, “Let Me In”, sound installation, Zvono Gallery

Irena Lagator

Irena Lagator, “Tell Why”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

127

20 4

IRENA LAGATOR PEJOVIĆ My installations, objects, videos, photographs and drawings reflect on topics like the perception and understanding of reality, individual and collective identity and the responsibility of society and its individual members. Embedded in criticality and the poetic reconstruction of reality, my practice focuses on relations that evidence the transformation of society, life, art and culture, promoting new horizons. While addressing global issues, my exhibitions should be understood as universal propositions aiming to investigate the limits of both art and society.

For the exhibition “If you cannot move the mountain, you can come closer to it” at “Real Presence”, curated by Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri, I showed the work “Tell Why”. Due to the wars in Yugoslavia during the 1990s, we witnessed the interruption of knowledge exchange and the almost complete closure of the publication and translation industry. This object is composed of books published in the 1970s and 1980s in Yugoslavia whose titles form a sentence: “The Earth of The People, From This Cradle, Generation Shift, Deep Crevices, Unused Resources, The Lost Homeland, Time of Death, Tell Why”... Using titles and book forms as the material for this object, I wanted to make visible the question of content as such. Paradoxically, in the profit oriented society of neoliberal global capitalism, content has become one of the issues that is often abused or misinterpreted, which has led to deep crevices in society’s structures, unused resources or indeed – as the migration crisis is still proving today – to a lost homeland, as indicated in the sentence. On the other hand, in the age of the 4th industrial-digital revolution and the generation shift we are witnessing a lack of dialogue, thought provocation and sentence formation. Can we tell why?

REAL PRESENCE

128 1

Christian Sievers, “At the Beautiful Blue Danube”, intervention on the Student Cultural Centre‘s multi-purpose van, Museum of Yugoslavia

Christian Sievers, “At the Beautiful Blue Danube”, proposal for the Museum of Yugoslavia

Franz Gerald Krumpl, “Partisan”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Nezaket Ekici, “Catch a Turkish Kiss”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

129

20 4 01

NEZAKET EKICI In 2001, I was part of Marina Abramović’s class in the first generation of “Real Presence”, performing at Belgrade’s 25th May Museum. There was a lot of energy in the room. Many students joined the exhibition, all from different countries. The art students supported each other and helped me as well. On site, I helped to organise props, like costumes and furniture. At the National Theatre, we were shown all the costumes in the theatre’s storerooms. It was a fantastic experience. I was so glad that the theatre gave me the costume and chaise longue for free for the duration of my performance. I remember how excited I was when I gave my performance “Catch a Turkish Kiss” for the first time. My performance went beyond the boundaries of approximation.

In the entrance of the 25th May Museum in Belgrade I performed an extravagant figure in a ball-gown, my eyes masked, reclining on a chaise longue. A sign urged the public to “Catch a Turkish Kiss” from the artist, but I evaded anyone who tried. An hour of flurried agitation between artist and public ensued. This permanent interplay between opening (the offer of a kiss) and masking (preventing eye contact) makes the performance exciting. What looks like a game at first glance becomes a problem between different cultures. In her own way, the artist mediates between German and Turkish culture, interacting with Belgrade culture in an international setting. There is an hour of excitement between the artist and the audience.

REAL PRESENCE

130 1

NICU ILFOEVANU Taken from a wide-spread type of a printed T-shirt, at the turn of the millennium, saying YES on the front and NO on the back-side, a sort of black or white answer to a proposal, I‘ve imagined a football game with a changing winner. The players were dressed in ART and NONART sportswear, switching the front with the rear. Those were the most discussed terms in those first years of “Real Presence” when students coming from schools with different backgrounds, West and East, clashed during afternoon to evening presentations and debates. After all the prize came out from ‘the beauty of the game’ with disputes, polemics, information, wonders, amazement and, of course, a great deal of lough.

131

20 2 01

2 3 4

Nicu Ilfoveanu, “Art Wűrtl”, perfromance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Nicu Ilfoveanu, “Art Wűrtl”, perfromance, Museum of Yugoslavia. Photos by Nicu Ilfoveanu

REAL PRESENCE

132

Opening of the exhibition, Museum of Yugoslavia (performance “Real Presence” by Drena Virag Čvorović in the occasion of the opening speech with Biljana Tomić, Ljiljana Cetinić, Director of Museum of Yugoslavia, Branislav Lečić Minister of Culture)

Iris Selke, “Narziss”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia (opening ceremony of the exhibition with Biljana Tomić, Ljiljana Cetinić, Director of Museum of Yugoslavia, Branislav Lečić, Minister of Culture)

Iris Selke, “Narziss”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

133

REAL PRESENCE

134 1

Andrea Schüll, “Honey”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Auguste Herma Wittstock, Katerina Katsifaraki, Noemí Martínez Chico, Ivana Smiljanić, “1+1+1+1=1”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Polona Demšar, “Real Presence”, interactive installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Biljana Janković, “Twins - Tue Greenfort, Denmark / Igor Stojanović, Serbia”, foto series, Museum of Yugoslavia

Biljana Janković, “Twins - Zoran Srdić, Slovenia / Predrag Miladinović, Serbia”, foto series, Museum of Yugoslavia

Biljana Janković, “Twins - Luminita Cochinescu, Romania / Zorica Obradović, Serbia”, foto series, Museum of Yugoslavia

Biljana Janković, “Twins - Nikolai Zanev, Bulgaria / Pietro Renga, Italy”, foto series, Museum of Yugoslavia

135

20 4

5 01

REAL PRESENCE

136 1

Tine Löhr, Elke Mark, “Real Participation / Real Situation”, interactive installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Irena Misoni, “Untitled”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Jasmin Duraković, “Lion Is Not a Big Cat I&II”, video performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Jelena Masnikosić, “Šolska Pot”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Marijana Gobeljić and Andrija Pavlović, “Untitled”, guitar and voice performance, Museum of Yugoslavia (in the background Rob Van Oostenbrugge, “Shared Number”, wall painting)

137

20 4 01

REAL PRESENCE

138 1

CECILIA PARSBERG Social points of contact are sensual, that is where the political is founded: In people’s affectivities and reactions. That is also where images are put in play and generated. “Real Presence” searches for performative methods to reformulate images and actions, and in so doing necessitates a sensual physicality. I arrived in Belgrade convinced that to make the art I wanted it was necessary to meet people from different spheres and fields of knowledge. I searched for what we had in common, for what we can share despite our differences. “Performance implicates the real through the presence of living bodies.”i I had spent periods of time making art in South Africa, and in my classes students made ethically challenging artworks, aimed at visualising and activating various social gaps as spaces for political action.ii The point of departure is always: “if I want to see you I also need to see myself, and for the artist it seems the unconscious in that action can teach her/him more about seeing”. My students and I had discovered beauty and ugliness in creativity between people, and in failure; “without failure, no ethics”, as Simone de Beauvoir once said. Art derives from common human relations in society, in various ways art visualises boundaries and border-spaces and demonstrates how the not-yet-visualised can look or be viewed. It was with this mindset that I fully engaged in inventing methods for perceiving inter-human space in Biljana and Dobrila’s project. What is not yet spoken can become a powerful drama; a society without art becomes like a pressure cooker without a valve. Art is necessary for society, and the idea of free speech is a democratic idea. Societies are more than an assembly of bodies linked in mutual dependencies, they are also cultural systems, this is what the point of departure must be and how complex the political situ-

ation is. And if a mental wall is manifested as loss – and experienced as an abyss – then where can knowledge be found? How can one think about what learning is, around, past, over, under the wall, in order to make art? Chantal Mouffe’s concept of “agonism” emphasises the importance of disagreement and disparity as democratically productive forms of social commitment: “If we want people to be free we must always allow for the possibility that conflict may appear and provide an arena where differences can be confronted.”iii This requires that we think for ourselves, do not let preconceived notions override our agency and find ways to generate new images and actions. Art activists react to the increasing collapse of the modern social state, forged in the relationship between the ethical, the aesthetic and the political, thus creating points of contact with theoretical fields relevant to their work, such as political philosophy, sociology, cultural geography, the history of ideas and anthropology. Like religion and science, art is a construction. I like the foundation of the academy as a conversation about and a critical reflection on the search for knowing, examining and investigating. It suits my practice because I claim that I participate in my artworks; they are not entirely mine, they do not come from my idea, they are products of a body of knowledge. The academy is a road next to the art market, for art’s development of content, acting as a balance of power in a global economy where artworks are increasingly managed as investment objects. The fact that artistic practitioners can have a PhD in Fine Arts has also opened the door for tacit knowledge to be conveyed. Through human relations, the possibilities of the past and future were traced in “Real Presence”, and new images were generated in co-presence.

As performance theorist Peggy Phelan puts it. The Politics of Performance. London: Routledge, 1993, 148.

I was appointed Guest Professor at Witwatersrand University, 1999-2002 (15%).

iii

Mouffe, Chantal. The Democratic Paradox. London, New York: Verso, 2000.

139

20 3

4 01

1 2

Cecilia Parsberg, lecture, SCC Student Cultural Centre

Katja Majer, Biljana Tomić, Angela Carlin, Vladan Jeremić, Andrija Pavlović, Annegret Luck, Franz Gerald Krumpl, Vukašin Nedeljković, Jutta Hermann

Andrija Pavlović, “Serbian Dinner”, SCC

Andrija Pavlović, “Serbian Dinner”, SCC (Vladan Jeremić, Andrija Pavlović, Vukašin Nedeljković, Ivan Petrović)

“Real Presence”, 8.09.2001, photo by Mirjana Boba Stojadinović (Peyman Rahimi, Philipp Hagger, Beatrice Barrois, Jovana Popić, Vukašin Nedeljković, Marija Konjikušić, Siniša Macedonić, Claudia Mongini, Franz Gerald, Krumpl, Tomas Saraceno, Andrija Pavlović, Mladen Kuzmanović)

Vukašin Nedeljković, “Animals”, exhibition, Belgrade ZOO (Barbara Philipp, Peyman Rahimi, Siniša Macedonić, Ksenija Marinković)

REAL PRESENCE

140 1

Christiane Löhr, “Untitled”, installation, Zvono Gallery

Christiane Löhr, “Untitled”, outdoor action, Kalemegdan

141

20 2 01

REAL PRESENCE

142

JOANNA SANDELL Travelling to Belgrade with a slight fear of flying, I am heading towards “Real Presence” the first meeting of artists, art students and art professors since the transition into democracy in former Yugoslavia. Next to me a man is drawing. He is using Alberti‘s classical geometric system and he tells me he is sketching a house, constructing it in perfection as he dreams of future projects, an extended home. He also tells me he is a pilot, and that I should not fear neither flying nor travelling in Serbia. It is my first image of place I am going to, and it seems a fitting symbol for the structure of “Real Presence”. During a period of more than two weeks a fine net of support is provided to young artists in order to give them a chance to present their work in an international context, as well as discuss future projects with colleagues from 16 different countries. In the chaotic, cheerful gloominess that is the city of Belgrade such a non hierarchical and open event as “Real Presence” still becomes a steady ground to move from. It is also a much welcomed starting point for young artists based in an area that for years has been excluded from international exchange due to war and cultural embargo. The anticipation comes as no surprise, when more than 300 participants are invited to create shows in the museums, galleries, and public spaces, and also given a forum to show, discuss, and plan intensive art projects, performances, workshops and seminars. Interesting collisions and meetings are created when academies such as Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Vienna and Braunschweig meet Skopje, Montenegro, Sarajevo and Belgrade. As when Christian Mayer and Alexander Wolff from the Academy of Vienna deconstruct their whole apartment in the dull student complex Studentski Grad where all “Real Presence” participants have been put up in almost romantically uncozy dormitories. Mayer and Wolff unscrew and rearrange the separated parts of walls, beds, tables and chairs into new furniture, sculptures and image areas. Later, an invitation is given to a vodka par-

ty in a “Real Presence’s” feel, so raging and wild that the new furnitures fall apart in yet new constellations and formations. Maybe not so surprisingly the two young artists are thrown out of their hostel in front of the disbelieving awe (and anger) of dorm management, student directors, and cleaning ladies. However, Mayer and Wolff challenge the managements sense of composure by once more attacking the apartment, now by screwing everything back together to its original position, although this time more neatly and with paintings incorporated within the walls. The construction of new forms are surely on the agenda in a postwar Belgrade with a torn infrastructure and a people looking for direction. Sometimes, structures are so desirable that they may not be called for, or even strongly frowned upon among artists and art professionals in the city. Many of the invited academies also choose to work with art that tries to create new mappings of Belgrade, not seldom in an occult or a spiritual approach. As when Katja Majer from the Academy of Ljubljana, Slovenia, draws a personal pattern through the city-areas in a genuine effort to make a subtle input of energy into the streets of Belgrade and create a gesture of appreciation of the kind people she has met. Or Slavica Peševska, a Macedonian also from the Ljubljana Academy, that with a pendulum lowered from the top of the Beograd Palace wants to move into the hurt channels of the earth by feeling its vibrations in the performance “Gravitation”. Others, like the Venice Academy, choose a more direct way of closing in on the shreds and pieces that are left of the NATO – bombed buildings, in this specific case pieces of broken glass from the TV tower in the hill Avala near Belgrade. With an almost sacral tone Peter Mignozzi from Slovenia and Michele Barina from Italy let the glass become a mosaic on the windows of Museum 25th May (ex Tito’s Museum) and strangely enough, the mosaic borrows color and patterns of the classic camouflage color, and

acquires yet another dimension as armed soldiers patrol the park right outside the camouflaged windows. A more adventurous plight is done by Leopold Kessler, Henning Hennenkemper, Werner Skvara and Alexander Döring, when leaving Vienna on the 15th of August and arriving to Belgrade on the 29th, almost two weeks later, in a self-made flotation devise ailing the river Danube and conquering the difficulty of reaching the city with its altered communication system and bombed bridges. In this experiment to reach the people of Belgrade (who still need visa when travelling) through the meeting point of east and west the river of Sava and Danube Kessler, Hennenkemkper, Skvara and Döring are able to slide in through the backdoors of Serbia, as well as create a kind of symbol of their own “Robinson Crusoe-like” rites of passage. The remains of the war become clear to them during the journey, as when they loose part of their pedal-driven raft while trying to pass one of the narrow pontoons that replace the destroyed bridges between Novi Sad and Belgrade. When approaching the subject of identity the artists from Serbia and former Yugoslavia at large more often tend to deal with the question of personal identity rather than a broader interpretation of the subject, often with a pitch-black humor that creates a certain tingle of confusion among the foreign guests. A full lecture-hall laughing at the pictures of Serbian soldiers wearing Kosovo/ Albanian uniforms is not easy to take part in or understand, the participating artists Lena Malm, Jonas Nobel and Cecilia Parsberg (curated by Joa Ljungberg from Moderna Museet) will surely tell you, even though absurdity often seems to be the strongest element in contemporary Belgrade life. The picture becomes clearer when Ivan Petrović, a student of Photography at BK Academy, who’s photographs created the intense amusement, presents a series of images on the same theme. The work consists of a series of photographs found in an album that had long laid in the ground during the Kosovo war where Petrović himself

143

1 served. In a need to move closer to the enemy and his own hatred of the Other, Ivan Petrović chose to work with the sun wind, rain and dirt-ridden photos that looked as though they could have come from his own personal album. The images, haunting in their patina of actual decay, yet so close and almost tender, evidently caused a shockwave emotions in Petrović as he blew up the photos to greater dimensions, it is a shockwave of emotions that is transplanted into the body of the spectator as well. Annegret Luck, the youngest student of the Kassel Academy, might be the clearest example of aligning identity with up-to-date-politics. The performance “Bridge” was created to complete the Viennese boat ride to the Balkans, since Kessler, Hennenkemkper, Skvara and Döring never actually made it to Old Belgrade, the part of the city that can be said to geographically be situated on the Balkan Peninsula. Luck uses her own body to cross the river Sava, swimming close to the body of the bridge from new Belgrade (Europe), to the old part of town (Balkan), with her thick braid in a sharp line across her back. The Branko’s Bridge became a strong symbol of resistance for the city’s inhabitants as many of them used their own bodies to protect the bridge from NATO bombings. During my last night in Belgrade I ride a bus through town on my way to Sava Center where my next meeting is to take place. I ask a young girl for directions of where to get off, she watches me with curiosity and soon starts up a conversation. The girl listens intently to my recounts of “Real Presence” and shows me photographs of her student ball, ghostly images of my own American prom. We close in on the Branko’s Bridge. The girl moves her finger to her lips and smiles. She closes her eyes. “Make a wish!”, she whispers still smiling, “crossing bridges always grants you a wish”, I see a greyish blue twilight of images. People travelling underneath, above, along bridges. I close my eyes and smile, as she does.

Christiane Löhr, Joanna Sandell, SCC

REAL PRESENCE ALBANIA Academy of Arts, Tirana PROFESSOR Edi Muka ARTISTS Benet Broja Violeta Çarku Ilir Dupi Rudina Hyka AUSTRIA Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna PROFESSORS Renée Green Peter Kogler Eva Schlegel Hubert Schmalix Heimo Zobernig ARTISTS Markus Dressler Rüdiger Reisenberger Gabriele Sturm Ronja Vogl BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo PROFESSOR Radoslav Tadić ARTISTS Jasmin Duraković Demis Sinančević GERMANY Humboldt University of Berlin PROFESSOR Sarat Maharaj ARTISTS Dorothee Albrecht Katrin Lock Jole Wilcke Christine Wolfe Kunstakademie Düsseldorf PROFESSORS Helmut Federle Jannis Kounellis Klaus Rinke Georg Heoxl ARTISTS Danijela Ljubobratović Jelena Milo The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main PROFESSOR Thomas Bayrle ARTISTS Tunay Alp Pili Madriaga

144 University of the Arts, Bremen

SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO

PROFESSOR Jean-Francois Guiton

University of Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts

ARTIST Matthias Bösche

PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Marija Dragojlović Darija Kačić Dragan Jovanović Čedomir Vasić

ICELAND Living Art Museum and Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavik SELECTOR Ósk Vilhjálmsdóttir ARTISTS Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir Baldur Björnsson Elín Hansdóttir Þorbjörg Jónsdóttir Malin Ståhl Anna Rún Tryggvadottir ITALY Brera Academy, Milan PROFESSORS Paolo Gallerani Alberto Garutti ARTISTS Andrea Carrara Stefano Cavarra Marco Chiesa Natasha Ferretti Francesco Marini Noemí Martínez Chico Bridge Project, Cosenza ARTIST Alfredo Conticello LITHUANIA Vilnius Academy of Arts SELECTOR-ON CALL Deimantas Narkevicius PROFESSOR Mindaugas Navakas ARTIST Žilvinas Landzbergas POLAND Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw ARTISTS Iwona Gołębiewska Kamila Szejnoch Malwina Ziemkiewicz ROMANIA Art and Design University, Cluj-Napoca ARTISTS Nicoleta Mocanu Dan Piersinaru

ARTISTS Jelena Martinović Marijana Oro Sara Oblišar Dragana Pešić Biljana Popović Voislav Radovanović Maja Rakočević Sara Žugić Milica Živadinović University of Belgrade, Faculty of Applied Arts ARTISTS Jelena Crnčević Iva Delić Nataša Delić Ivan Grančer Ljubinka Mitrović Desimir Tanović Milica Živadinović Marijana Škoda University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History of Art ARTISTS Marijana Gobeljić Olivera Marković Ivana Ranković Marko Stamenković Tijana Stojadinović University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture ARTISTS Maja Penić Aleksandra Živković Art University, Belgrade ARTISTS Dušan Jeftović Nenad Jeremić Vladan Jeremić Pedrag Miladinović “Walking Theory” (Tanja Marković, Ana Vujanović) Academy of Arts BK, Belgrade PROFESSORS Milan Aleksić Dragan Petrović Vesna Mićović ARTISTS Paula Miklošević Miloš Nenković

High School of Design, Belgrade ARTIST Ivana Perić

SWEDEN SELECTOR-ON CALL Joa Ljungberg, Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Academy of Arts, Novi Sad

Konstfack - University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm

DEAN Nenad Ostojić

PROFESSOR Anders Widoff

PROFESSORS Milan Blanuša Branka Jovanović Abi Knežević Lidija Srebotnjak

ARTISTS Dejan Antonijević Karin Dahl Andreas Mangioni

ARTISTS Zorica Čolić Nataša Dragišić Merima Fetahović Vukašin Gikić Ivanka Ivetić Jelena Janev Jelana Kovačević Nikola Macura Jelena Stojaković Milena Stojanović Dušan Stošić Vukašin Vikić

KTH School of Architecture, Stockholm PROFESSOR Mikael Askergren The Drama Institute, Stockholm PROFESSOR Maria Rydbrink

Academy of Fine Arts, Priština

ARTISTS Mia Alnervik Jennifer Hagberg Susanna Jacobsson Maria Rydbrink

ARTIST Radomir Đukanović

THE NETHERLANDS

SINGAPORE

ArtEZ University of the Arts, Enschede

LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

ARTIST Arend Roelink

PROFESSORS S. Chandrasekaran Ian Woo

FLASHBACK GASTHOF DOCUMENTARY VIDEO

ARTISTS Aaron Jiun Feng Kao Dovan Ong Teng Chey Aleksandar Obradović SLOVENIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana PROFESSOR Matjaž Počivavšek ARTIST Luiza Margan

AUSTRIA Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna PROFESSOR Heimo Zobernig ARTISTS Eva Beierheimer Miriam Lausegger Rüdiger Reisenberger FRANCE École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Art, Paris ARTISTS Renato Ercoli Tabore Rector Institut supérieur des arts de Toulouse PROFESSOR Martin Gielen ARTIST Quentin Jouer

145 PORTUGAL Maumaus - School of Visual Arts, Lisbon PROFESSOR Jürgen Bock ARTIST Alejandro Campos García

20 The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main ARTISTS Reiko Ishihara Anny Ozturk & Sibel Ozturk Barak Raiser Gigi Scaria IRELAND

ROMANIA Art and Design University, Cluj-Napoca ARTIST Nicoleta Mocanu SLOVENIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana ARTIST Metka Županič

FLASHBACK GASTHOF POSTCARDS

University of Ulster, School of Art and Design, Belfast PROFESSOR Hilary Robinson ARTIST Dobz o‘Brien LITHUANIA Vilnius Academy of Arts ARTISTS Raimondas Dicius Zilvinas Landzbergas Rokas Petruskevicius Edita Valaite NORWAY

ARMENIA Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts ARTIST Varsenik Khatlamajyan AUSTRIA Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna ARTISTS Eva Beierheimer Markus Dressler Leopold Kessler Miriam Lausegger Rüdiger Reisenberger Gabriele Sturm Alexandar Wolf FRANCE Institut supérieur des arts de Toulouse ARTIST Michel Métayer GERMANY Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) PROFESSOR John R. Armleder ARTIST Vadim Schäffler

Academy of Fine Art, OSLO ARTIST Mathias Øygard RUSSIA Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow ARTIST Luda Konstantinova SLOVENIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana ARTISTS Zoran Srdić Metka Županič SWEDEN Konstfack - University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm ARTISTS Camilla Agdler Erik Jeorg Michael Johansson Christoffer Paues Alexander Vaindorf

GUEST Edi Muka, Artistic Director of Tirana Biennial ASSISTANTS Andrea Carrara Marco Chiesa Marijana Gobeljić Olivera Marković Jelena Martinović Predrag Miladinović Ivana Perić Vojislav Radovanović Marko Stamenković Slavica Zarić

REAL PRESENCE

146

“GASTHOF 2002” FRANKFURT A.M., 24 JULY – 31 JULY Venues: Städelschule and various public locations

“Gasthof Official”, photo: Miriam Bäckström, Carsten Höller

147

DIRK FLEISCHMANN In 2001 it took almost 24 hours to travel by train from Frankfurt to Belgrade. The waiting time for the rare connecting trains in Vienna and Budapest was endless. The wait made it feel like a journey to another world. Belgrade seemed very far. However, “Real Presence” created closeness, and for a few weeks the togetherness of the participants formed a small world beyond borders that most of us had never crossed before. It felt magnetic, and hundreds of young artists from all over felt the same urgency not to miss this opportunity to meet peers beyond their own art school bubbles. I guess everybody had a different experience. “Real Presence” was not a unified event. It was up to individuals what they made of it. There was no pressure to meet any expectations. I think this created a spirit of engagement that was unique to “Real Presence”. “Real Presence” showed the necessity of unconditional encounters that go beyond regular exchange programs between art schools. “Real Presence” was an event of people, not institutions. “Real Presence” started with an act of hospitality: an open call and a promise of free food and accommodation – the strength of “Real Presence” was its simplicity. This focus on hospitality also gave us at Städelschule great inspiration to initiate “GASTHOF 2002”, which took place a year later in Frankfurt a. M. “Real Presence” proved the need for mutual exchange between art students and art academies from all over Europe. With the xenophobic political tendencies we faced then and still face now in various European

countries, including Germany, international dialogue is a necessity, and hospitality as an approach and a method needs its place in the arts. “Real Presence” and “GASTHOF” were fortunate moments providing the luxury to create structures for hospitality; but what made the experience extraordinary was the contribution and enthusiasm of all the participants: living, eating, talking, listening, drinking, dancing, sleeping. For me as an art student in Belgrade in 2001, my priority was to spend as much time as possible hanging out with new people. So I decided to make the endless time on the train productive. I wanted to avoid pressure to be creative and make an artwork while in Belgrade. For my project, I took two suitcases full of drinks and snacks with me on the train. My idea was to sell the commodities to the other passengers in a subversive way, for prices much lower than those in the shop on the train. I managed to sell: 18 beers, 8 Coca Colas, 2 Coca Cola Lights, 4 Pepsi Colas, 2 Karamalz, 10 Volvics, 2 Hohes C Orange Juices, 1 Hohes C Apple Juice, 2 Fanta Fresh Lemons, 2 Fanta Oranges, 2 Tonic Waters, 2 Ginger Ales, 3 Red Bulls, 3 Vodkas, 4 Corny Muesli Bars and 6 Ültje Peanuts. I collected the empty packages of the products I sold after my customers on the train had finished consuming them. In the exhibition, I placed the full packages and cans besides the empty ones in two long lines. They looked like two trains passing each other, travelling in opposite directions. During the exhibition, the train with the full packages and cans was depleted by the exhibition visitors. Actually, that was not my intention, because I hoped to sell them on the train ride home. As a result, I had nothing left to do on the long train journey back home except delve into my “Real Presence” memories. I returned to Frankfurt on the morning of 11 September 2001, a day that symbolises the forces that divide the world. “Real Presence” symbolises the opposite.

REAL PRESENCE

148 1

149

20 4

Ben Jourdan, Lisa Jugert, Anna K. Otto, “Portfolio”, Städelschule

Søren Grammel, Maria Lind, “Criticality. A Reading Workshop”, Städelschule

Hans Ulrich Obrist, Florence Derieux, Carsten Höller, Philippe Parreno, Superflex, Rirkrit Tiravanija , “UTOPIA ?”, Gasthof Tent, south bank of the river Main

Charles Esche, Linnea Jacobsen, “MAU” (Arend Roelink, Hannelore Houdijk), Städelschule

Arend Roelink, “Off Gasthof”, installation, Städelschule

Lisa Jugert, “Coccer”, installation, south bank of the river Main

REAL PRESENCE

150 1

Marko Stamenković, Andrea Carrara, Maja Rakočević, Olivera Marković, Marco Chiesa, Jelana Martinović, Marijana Gobeljić, Nenad Andrić, “Belgrade Soup”, Holbeinsteg footbridge, Frankfurt a. M.

“~ 2 rmpm” Kohl Consume, a roving bar moving at 2 meters per hour on the south bank of the river Main (Daniel Birnbaum, Thomas Bayrle)

151

DANIEL BIRNBAUM On the first and most practical level, “Gasthof” was a meeting of young artists and art students from various parts of Europe to whom we wanted to give an opportunity to see art events like “Manifesta 4” and “Documenta 11”, which were taking place in the same part of Germany in 2002. For that reason, we decided to open the doors of our school and provide hospitality to a large number of people. We actually transformed the academy into a very unusual and specific “hotel” for a week, turning artists’ studios into rooms specially designed by some of our students, such as Sascha Pohle among others. We opened up our kitchen and organised large cooking sessions, giving our guests from very different cultural contexts a chance to prepare and serve traditional or “artistic” meals and enjoy music, art presentations, discussions, art projects and parties. So, as the title “Gasthof” itself indicates, we wanted to underline the idea of hospitality, of openness and sharing in a practical sense. But there are other levels we should be concerned with that are at the conceptual basis

of our project, especially at a time when wen face the growth of right wing movements in countries like Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and many others and the rise of a sort of closed petit-bourgeois egocentric mentality. Regarding this political situation, we felt that emphasising hospitality could be a strong statement on a symbolic level, pointing out the necessity of art being involved in actual political and social reality. And then, of course, we should mention some of the very important reference points for this project in contemporary philosophy, in particular Jean Derrida’s writings about “ultimate hospitality” and his general reflections about the political and social situation in Europe today. “Gasthof” actually continued the old tradition of holding big music and cooking events, started by one of our professors, the famous Fluxus artist Peter Kubelka. Hospitality, communication, staying together, trying different meals and making art was the main point, 2002 as it was years ago, revealing the

increasing necessity for young artists to get to know each other and develop their networks, exchange ideas and interests, create collective works and meet well-known artists and curators involved with the most important art events like “Manifesta 4”, “Documenta 11”, or for some members of the team the next Venice Biennale. This was also part of the “Gasthof” offer, since we organised discussions in a picturesque circus tent on the banks of the River Main. Hans Ulrich Obrist, Sarat Maharaj, Stéphanie Moisdon-Trembley, Charles Esche and artists like Rirkrit Tiravanija, Philippe Parreno, Tobias Rehberger, Carsten Höller, Superflex and others talked about utopian themes and the possibility of developing alternative institutional and academic solutions for art education and art making and presenting. For us, “Gasthof” was a big experiment, a successful one we might add, now that it’s over, and one that has to be repeated in new forms and in different places in order to keep artistic discussion fresh and propositive.

REAL PRESENCE

152 1

1 2 3

Dragan Djordjević, Marijana Gobeljić, Tijana Knežević, Olivera Marković, Tanja Marković, Jelana Martinović, Srdjan Nedeljković, Maja Rakočević, Marija Skoko, Bojan Slacala, Milan Stošić, Marko Stamenković, Ivana Smiljanić, Dobrila Denegri, Biljana Tomić, “Serbian Lunch”, Gasthof Tent, south bank of the river Main

Eva Baierheimer, Leopold Kessler, Städelschule

Eva Baierheimer, “Pixel”, postcards “Flashback Gasthof”

Tobias Rehberger, Christian Zickler, “Von Hinten Durch Die Brust Ins Auge / Musikvortrag 1981-83 – Was Wirklich War”, Club Robert Johnson, Offenbach am Main

153

20 4

REAL PRESENCE

154 1

Carsten Höller, “Gasthof” workshop, Städelschule

Clementine Deliss, John M. Armleder, Joseph Backstein, Thomas Bayrle, Jürgen Bock, Dobrila Denegri, Charles Esche, Robert Fleck, Dr. Ludger Hünnekens, Ronald Jones, Laurie Makela, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Tobias Rehberger, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Biljana Tomic, Heimo Zobernig, “Utopian Academy”, Städelschule

Iwona Golebiewska, Kamila Szejnoch, Malwina Ziemkiewicz, “Bread”, photo by Vadim Schäffler, for “Flashback Gasthof”

Simon D. Møller, “PIZZA! PIZZA! PIZZA!”, photo by Vadim Schäffler, for “Flashback Gasthof”

5 6

Adrian Williams, “Boat Race”, photo by Vadim Schäffler, for “Flashback Gasthof” “Gasthof 2002”, photo by Vadim Schäffler, for “Flashback Gasthof”

155

REAL PRESENCE

156

“REAL PRESENCE & FLASHBACK GASTHOF” BELGRADE, 20/25 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST Venues: Museum of Yugoslavia, Student Cultural Centre Gallery and various public locations

“Real Presence Official”, photo: Miloš Nenković

157

MRDJAN BAJIĆ Through its work, “Real Presence” has provided Belgrade’s art students with a unique platform, introducing to a relatively self-referential milieu an opportunity for international collaboration, friendship, reconsideration and unexpected comparisons, and most of all enabling a vivid exchange of experience and an irresistible field for experimentation and providing their first, or almost their first, exhibition experiences. In fact, this opportunity, initiates the field of work and the transition period we become aware of at the time we switch from our period of art study to the field of professional art practice; in other words, when our focus gradually …I had in mind a personal transfers from our persoexperience that had been nal inner artistic considerations to the matter of very important to me… reception, of communiworkshops and lectures, cating ourselves and our as well as exhibitions at work to others. Moving away in order to the Student Cultural Centre grasp the functioning entin the 80s, where we had irety of your own work: not seen a similar priceless just your work but yourself as well – how and why you field of exchange create your own work; not between academic and just yourself and how and professional life… why you create your own work, but also how other people see and understand your work; not just how other people in your immediate and wider community see and understand your work, but also how you yourself are able to see a wider picture, from a distance, in which you see people perceiving your work and yourself making that work. Able to see the work itself, which ultimately remains alone, wrenched completely from this chain. And that’s how it all functions together. I believe that it is these channels that allow our further development once we step outside the protected area of art academies.

This was the field of work of “Real Presence”. I was as present as “Real Presence” needed me to be, first of all encouraging the students I was in contact with to join various happenings in order to open up their personal horizons. I had absolute conviction, mostly because I had in mind a personal experience that had been very important to me, my communication with Biljana Tomić, workshops and lectures, as well as exploration platforms provided by exhibitions at the Student Cultural Centre in the eighties, where we had seen a similar priceless field of the above-mentioned transitional exchange between academic and professional life.

REAL PRESENCE

158 1

159

20 5

1 2

Christine Wolfe, Dorothee Albrecht, Karin Lock, Jole Wilcke, “Picnic”, collective action, Museum of Yugoslavia

Rüdiger Reisenberger, “Permanent Breakfast”, collective action, Museum of Yugoslavia

“Un-Weather”, project realised within “Documenta 11” by Sarat Maharaj and his students at the Humbolt University: Christine Wolfe, Dorothee Albrecht, Karin Lock, Jole Wilcke

Marko Stamenković, “The Flag”, intervention on the facade of the Museum of Yugoslavia

REAL PRESENCE

160 1

KAMILA SZEJNOCH “Real Presence” – one of the first international art events I took part in – wasn’t just another adventurous holiday with friends and new foreign companions... At the time, I was studying with Iwona and Malwina at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Although our Audio-Visual Space section at the Sculpture Department was a rather unconventional place, open to experiments, the workshop in Belgrade – outside “school guidelines” – was a liberating and out of the box experience. It created an area abstracted from the academic routine where we were given carte blanche. We could focus on the social and urban context rather than a ‘white cube’. And it worked! In 2002 we felt a sense of a post-war stagnation in Belgrade, but at the same time the transformation process was visible – the 25th of May Museum had already been taken over by artists. We had a feeling of touching history – the empty building of Josip

Broz Tito‘s former mausoleum tempted one to imagine the past, to recreate it symbolically or make it more tangible. “The Red Carpet” was my first large-scale outdoor idea and installation. It was simple, but it made me think about context and what we often call site-specific art. We bought 30 metres of red fabric and started attaching it, step by step. “The Red Carpet”, usually associated with a VIP area, ideology or politics, was intended to recall the pompous communist past, while at the same time it was inscribed in the new situation of the international art meeting. All the participants could step on it and feel invited. It created a ceremonial atmosphere in a new democratic way. In a word, that was the first time I discovered public space as a natural environment for art and it was the starting point for my future adventure with art in public space.

1 2 3

Kamila Szejnoch, Iwona Gołębiewska, Malwina Ziemkiewicz, ”The Installation (Red Carpet)”, outdoor intervention, Museum of Yugoslavia Marijana Gobeljić, Milan Krljun, Dragan Đorđević, “Interactive Voice Control”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

161

20 3

REAL PRESENCE

162 1

ÓSK VILHJÁLMSDÓTTIR It was at the breakfast table in Stockholm one morning, somewhere around the beginning of a new century, when I met Biljana and Dobrila – mother and daughter. They told me about “Real Presence”, a project they had just started in Belgrade, and I could feel something really big and beautiful was happening. Something else. After years of destruction and suffering in their country, infrastructure had to be rebuilt, and art should function as a one of the sharpest tools. Dobrila and Biljana had built a venue for young creative minds from around the world to meet and work together in Belgrade. And even little Iceland could and should contribute. In 2002, six students from the Icelandic Academy of the Arts travelled to Belgrade to contribute and extend their knowledge.

They were my students and I was their teacher. An artist teaching how to become an artist. What is that? What is the role of an art teacher? What kind of knowledge can be transmitted? A question related to the question of what art is all about. All and nothing? Does art have a role? I don’t have answers, but I think it is important to ask questions, to extend limits, to analyse and even step outside of patterns and structures. To redefine what has already been defined put your head upside down. The Icelandic artist and inspirational teacher Magnús Pálsson defines art teaching as the maddest art form. And “Real Presence” is an art form in a similar way. It has become a fertiliser for art and society. It includes all of this.

Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir, Baldur Björnsson, Elín Hansdóttir, Þorbjörg Jónsdóttir, Malin Ståhl, Anna Rún Tryggvadottir, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Prof. Ian Woo, LASALLE College of the Arts – Faculty of Fine Arts, Singapore, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Prof. Andres Widoff, Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Prof. Mikael Askergren, KTH – Royal Institute of Technology School of Architecture, Stockholm, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Vladan Jeremić, “Kunst „n‘ Brega”, performance (with Andrea Carrara, Andres Widoff, Olivera Marković in the audience), talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Vladan Jeremić, “Kunst „n‘ Brega”, queer art performance (Marko Stamenković) [I got dressed as famous Yugoslav folk singer Lepa Brena and sang her song “Sheikh”, bonded with banknotes from the time of former Yugoslavia. I interacted with other participants of the workshop and with a performer from Sweden, Malin Ståhl.]

Malin Ståhl as Marilyn and Vladan Jeremić as Lepa Brena backstage

163

20 2

REAL PRESENCE

164 1

Dobrila Denegri, Ronja Vogl, Rüdiger Reisenberger, Joa Ljungberg

Edi Muka, Andres Widoff, Rüdiger Reisenberger

Pili Madriaga, Rüdiger Reisenberger, Biljana Tomić, Gabriele Sturm, Francesco Marini, Noemi Chico Martinez, Marco Chiesa, Kamila Szejnoch, Iwona Gołębiewska

Marco Chiesa

165

MARCO CHIESA Venice 1997, the Biennale opening: I am with Andrea and Stefano at the information office, looking for the event programme. We find ourselves in the wrong queue, for catalogues, so we ask for one. “It‘s just for the artists.” “We are artists!” No catalogue for us, but an intrigued lady approaches us. “Are you artists?” This was how we met Biljana Tomić. Reflecting on what happened in Belgrade in the early 2000s is a very important experience because it involves being aware not only of Belgrade was an the meaning of everything unknown city, but that happened at the time, but also of what was geneafter twenty years rated there. Friendships it has become and collaborations develoa second home. ped from those meetings, but above all a great energy emanated from the sharing of experience and the intertwining of ideas among the majority of the boys and girls who took part. I learned a lot from “Real Presence”, especially from Biljana and Dobrila: energy comes from people and their ability to confront obstacles, as well as from the targets set. And we, who were we? We were students, friends, artists, curious people about twenty years old, who have become thirty in the meantime, who by chance, or perhaps on purpose, found ourselves in this kaleidoscope of cultures that has permeated us for a decade and forever. We were changing, Belgrade was changing, media were changing. Personally I was lucky enough to participate in several editions, but the first edition was the strongest from the emotional point of view because it cametwo years after bombing.

NATO had destroyed entire buildings in the centre of Belgrade and killed civilians: we had bombed them! Meeting the students of Belgrade was incredible: the desire for openness was stronger than rancour, indeed there was no rancour, there was a desire to recount those moments and go beyond. I remember that at that time Serbia’s borders were closed: it was difficult for Serbian students and artists to get visas. For us “Europeans” it was completely different: those were the most exciting years of free borders and the single currency. The event was a great opening, a big welcome: the students and young artists of Belgrade accompanied us through the city’s streets: they helped us realise our projects, and in many cases real artistic collaborations were born. It was certainly a very important social, cultural and professional experience, in part because it allowed comparison with students and artists from other European art schools. About twenty years since it began, “Real Presence” is a real presence in my production. Every time I approach an artistic experience I try to maintain the attitude of that experience: to see the research as a hidden land to be discovered. Belgrade was an unknown city, but after twenty years it has become a second home. Each edition was incredibly rich in innovation, and Belgrade has always been the protagonist, with its places, its people and its rivers... what unforgettable parties on the Sava! Also incredible were the “Real Presence” experiences I participated in far from Belgrade, in Frankfurt in 2002 and in Venice in 2005: different realities always lived in a clandestine way.

REAL PRESENCE

166 1

Arend Roelink

Aaron Kao, Luiza Margan

Dovan Ong Teng Chey, Luiza Margan, Marko Stamenković, Žilvinas Landzbergas, Tunay Alp

Kamila Szejnoch, Iwona Gołębiewska, Malwina Ziemkiewicz

Alfredo Conticello, “Notturno no. 4. Window”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Anna Rún Tryggvadóttir

167

20 6

ÓSK VILHJÁLMSDÓTTIR

THE ICELANDIC ARTIST AND INSPIRATIONAL TEACHER MAGNÚS PÁLSSON DEFINES ART TEACHING AS THE MADDEST ART FORM. AND “REAL PRESENCE” IS AN ART FORM IN A SIMILAR WAY.

REAL PRESENCE

168

169

Dorothee Albrecht, Katrin Lock, Jole Wilcke, Christine Wolfe, “Unwetter Tour”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Desimir Tanović, Marijana Škoda, Ljubinka Mitrović, “Smoke in the Water”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Dušan Jevtović

Dovan Ong, Aaron Kao, Ian Woo, “Air Utopia”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

“Walking Theory” (Tanja Marković, Ana Vujanović), “Artist Have to Walk Trough the Theory”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

REAL PRESENCE

170 1

GABRIELE STURM gement with this situation of adaptation to In the light-flooded atmosphere of the new circumstances, to something unpredicempty Tito museum, with the charm of the table. fallen, were transcripts of interviews I had I recorded the interviews by hand and got conducted with various people, especially the people to read them out. artists from Belgrade and local soldiers at I stapled the notes together and stuck them the museum, as well as in the city. on the museum wall, so that the vibrations Being in Belgrade, experiencing the city, of the city I had felt became even clearer, as talking to people, fascinated by the packs if through an amplifier. of stray dogs who soon became acquainted The interviews speak in the void of the Tito with me as a visitor, the diverse and compleMuseum, in a beautiful atmosphere, and tely different vibrations of the city and some their physiognomy makes the museum still of their people were transformed into a senpart of the Tito era. se of positive tension. My interviews are from a This tension and these My interviews are from much later time, letting us vibrations interested me. feel like our most personal I tried to relate these difa much later time, experiences and perspecferences on the basis of letting us feel like our tives are part of a collectiinterviews with people of personal experiences ve history and geography. completely different backgrounds about Titoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and perspectives are The open discourse in the and the changes happepart of a collective group, which continued ning today, and undershistory and geography. each time we met, often on tand them in their own the square in front of the situation. museum where we often ate together, was The soldiers at the museum and in the city an integral part of our confrontation with were committed to an attitude, or had inhistory and the present, with the group and ternalised it, but they also allowed space for the City of Belgrade, with people. This open their own private, subjective perspective. discourse in the group was another context The artists focused on the opportunities, for my stay, actually a protected and faminew dawns and uncertainties of the times. liar space where disputes could take place. The people I met were very open, and every conversation was a valuable and important source of further understanding and enga-

171

20 2

1 2 3 4

Gabriele Sturm, “Untitled”, photo series, Museum of Yugoslavia

REAL PRESENCE

172 1

Arend Roelink, “Partizan”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Elín Hansdóttir, “The Most Important Thing”, installation (detail), Museum of Yugoslavia

Malin Ståhl, “Wish Piece”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia [I performed Yoko Ono’s “Wish Piece”, 1966. Make a wish. Write it down on a piece of paper. Fold it and tie it around a branch of a Wish Tree. Ask your friends to do the same. Keep wishing until the branches are covered with wishes. Yoko Ono scores (“Grapefruit” and “Imagine Yoko”)]

Malin Ståhl, “Cut Piece”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia [ I performed Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece”, 1964. “Cut.” Yoko Ono scores (“Grapefruit” and “Imagine Yoko”)]

Malin Ståhl, “Still Life”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

173

20 5

MALIN STÅHL In 2002, as a student at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, I travelled with professor Ósk Viljhálmsdóttir to take part in the second edition of “Real Presence” at the Museum 25th May (ex Tito’s Museum). I remember the museum as a big grand space to work in, and it was exciting to meet other art students from all over the world. I was just starting my second year at art school, and I was very interested in surface and how to connect surface and content. As a student I was also exploring the history of performance art and the scores of the Fluxus movement. When I discovered that Yoko Ono and Marilyn Monroe were contemporaries, I decided to bring these two very different icons together through content and surface. Creating a Marilyn Monroe copy, I performed some of Yoko Ono’s scores. One evening I danced in the museum garden’s rotunda in “Dance Piece for Stage Performance”; I performed “Cut Piece” in the museum auditorium; and on a small tree outside the museum I set up “Wish Piece”. A few years later, Marko Stamenković, a fellow student in 2002, invited me for a solo show at Belgrade’s SKC (Studentski kulturni centar), where I performed Méret Oppenheim’s acceptance speech for the 1975 City of Basel Art Prize.

Eight years later I was invited to return to Belgrade for the 10th edition of “Real Presence”. I participated by performing the piece “Walking Cinema” at the openings at the Belgrade City Museum and the Cervantes Institute. The performance developed from my interest in hats or headgear as sites for performance and was inspired by the body as spectacle, looking back at “Rhythm 0” by Marina Abramović and “Tap and Touch Cinema” by VALIE EXPORT. In “Walking Cinema”, the object of the female body is turned into an architectural structure carrying a cinema as an extension of its body. With screens placed in front of the eyes, the act of looking is diffused. Spectators view the cinema, spectators view the body-structure and the cinema itself returns the gaze. I also gave a talk at the Belgrade City Library exploring “The Power of Costume: Costume as a Metaphor for Inner Landscape” through my practice. In 2012, Dobrila invited me, along with several other previous “Real Presence” participants, to be part of the large group show “Theatre of Life: One and Many Actions” at the Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun, where I showed the performance piece “Fi-

nishing School: Caryatid”. It was an important experience for me to be part of “Real Presence”, meeting and getting to know other students who are now my colleagues, some of whom I am still in contact with. This is exactly what I think is at the core of this initiative by Biljana and Dobrila, fuelling a continuing process of international exchange. In 2013 I began a new body of work, performing choreographed acts to the landscape with no audience present. This body of work resulted in the silent video and plexiglass reflections installation “In Landscape I Walk”. I am currently developing the next part of this work, where instead of creating pieces to perform to the landscape, I physically touch the landscape in different ways. These bodies of work link to ideas I explore in the recent performance “Forest Collections”, in which I bring forth the archiving, organising and control of the Western academic tradition in a performance that meticulously reassembles sliced up tree trunks.

REAL PRESENCE

174 1

175

20 5

Malin Ståhl, “Dance Piece for Stage Performance”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Malin Ståhl, “Dance Piece for Stage Performance”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia [I performed “Dance Piece for Stage Performance”, 1961. “Dance in Pitch Dark: Ask audience to light a match if they want to see. A person may not light more than one match.” Yoko Ono scores (“Grapefruit” and “Imagine Yoko”)]

Nataša Dragišić, Jelena Stojković, Milena Stojanović, “Hairdresser Salon”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Hildigunnur Birgisdottir, “Working Girl”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Predrag Miladinović, Ivana Ranković, “Table Cloth”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia (Natasha Feretti, Dovan Ong Teng Chey)

Dobrila Denegri, Pili Madriaga, opening of the exhibition “Real Presence - Generation 2002”, Museum of Yugoslavia

Noemí Martínez Chico, Sandra Pocceschi, Marijana Gobeljić, “Dance”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

REAL PRESENCE

176

ALBANIA

DENMARK

Academy of Arts, Tirana

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts - Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Copenhagen

ARTIST Heldi Pema ARMENIA Academy of Fine Arts, Gyumri

PROFESSOR Torben Christensen

ARTIST Tsolak Topchyan

ARTISTS Tijana Mišković Nina Wengel

AUSTRIA

FINLAND

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki

PROFESSORS Peter Kogler Eva Schlegel

PROFESSOR Seppo Salminen

ARTISTS Franz Kapfer and Heidi Kapfer son:DA (Miha Horvat) Katharina Stiglitz

ARTISTS Tuulia Susiaho Pilvi Takala GERMANY

The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main PROFESSOR Tobias Rehberger ARTISTS Hanna Hildebrand Barak Reiser Francesca D. Shaw ITALY Accademia di Belle Arti, Venezia PROFESSOR Giulio Alessandri ARTISTS Michele Bazzana Primož Bizjak Giorgia Boller Filippo Bordignon Riccardo Fabiani Alessandro Mancassola Alberto Tadiello Thanos Zakopoulos

Mozarteum University, Salzburg

Academy of Arts, Berlin

PROFESSORS Ruedi Arnold Dieter Kleinpeter Tommy Schneider

PROFESSOR Katharina Sieverding

Brera Academy, Milan

ARTIST Christine Woditschka

ARTIST Ivana Falconi

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich

Università Iuav di Venezia

PROFESSOR Asta Göting

ARTIST Anna Paola Passerini

ARTIST Heike Bollig

ROMANIA

ARTISTS Eva Heitzinger Melanie Schiefer Severin Weiser University of Applied Arts, Vienna PROFESSOR Peter Weibel ARTISTS Miroslav Ničić Boryana Vencislavova Vienna Art School PROFESSORS Daniela Schmeiser Romano Hagyo ARTIST Martin Nimmervoll CZECH REPUBLIC Academy of Fine Arts, Prague ARTIST Daniel Vlcek Faculty of Architecture, Prague ARTIST Petra Osovska

Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg PROFESSOR Rolf-Gunter Diense ARTIST Markus Freidl Kunstakademie Düsseldorf PROFESSORS Daniel Buren Rita Mcbride Albert Oehlen A. R. Penk David Rabinowich Rosemarie Trockel Didier Vermeiren ARTISTS Ellen Hutzenlaub Valerie Krause Christiane Rasch Julia Ruther Marietta Schwarz Lena Willikens

Faculty of History and Philosophy, Cluj-Napoca PROFESSOR Nicolae Bocsan ARTIST Augusta Costiuc Radosav National University of Arts, Bucharest PROFESSOR Roxana Trestioreanu

ARTISTS Silvia Costiuc Alexandra Demetriu Alexandra Basa Raluca Davidel Mirona Craciun Alehandru Ion Retegan Alex Retegan SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Marija Dragojlović Dragan Jovanović Darija Kačić Slobodan Roksandić Čedomir Vasić ARTISTS Voislav Đorđević Jelena Martinović Marija Milinković Bojana Romić Vojislav Radovanović Ivana Smiljanić Mirjana Stojadinović Veljko Zojak University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Applied Arts

Academy of Arts, Novi Sad PROFESSORS Milan Blanuša Dušan Todorović Zoran Todović ARTISTS Milica Benić Vladimir Čkonjović Zorica Čolić Nataša Dragišić Cecilija Haizler Luka Kulić Milan Nešić Ivan Sabo Monika Sigeti Milena Stojanović Dušan Stošić Bojana Stojanović Jelena Stojković

PROFESSORS Slobodan Đuričković Zorica Janković Jadranka Simonović

Faculty of Arts of Priština (in Zvečan)

ARTISTS Vojislava Čitaković Tijana Đorđević Marija Ivošević Aleksandra Momaković Jelena Pantović Ana Truinić Marija Vukosavljević Marijana Škoda Tijana Šćekić

ARTISTS Andrej Čikala Zoran Vranešević Vesna Zarev

Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History of Art, University of Arts in Belgrade

ARTISTS Eduard Costantin Mihaela Kavdanska Marialuiza Mihordescu Simona Nastac Raluca Voinea

ARTISTS Marijana Gobeljić Jelena Milošević Ema Pajić Ivana Ranković Marko Stamenković Davor Džalto

University of Architecture, Bucharest

Academy of Arts BK, Belgrade

PROFESSORS Emil Barbu Popescu Victor Ivanes Dan Lepadtu

ARTISTS Aleksandrija Ajduković Zoran Berbatović Adrijana Brujić Bojana Domazetović Tatjana Luković Mihajlo Momčilović Miljana Pakić Aleksandra Popović Mihajlo Vasiljević Vesna Veljković Ana Zore

PROFESSORS Milan Aleksić Vesna Mićović Dragan Petrović

PROFESSOR Peko Nikčević

School of Applied Arts in Šabac ARTISTS Mate Časni Jasna Damnjanović Mladen Pantelić Tamara Stepandić Suzana Zlatarić University of Montenegro Faculty of Fine Arts, Cetinje PROFESSORS Nataša Đurović Pavle Pejović ARTISTS Anka Gardašević Marko Milin Zoran Živković

177

SINGAPORE

GUESTS

LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

Terry Buchholz and Markus Mussinghoff

PROFESSOR Milenko Prvački

Jiri Ptacek, Lucie Sokolová, “Umelec” art magazine, Prague

ARTISTS Sia Joo Hiang Urich Lau Wai-Yuen

Walter Andersons, Claire Corey, Michelle Grabner, “Ten in One Gallery”, New York

SLOVAKIA Technical University of Kosice, Design department, Kosice ARTIST Iveta Siromova SLOVENIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana PROFESSOR Srečo Dragan ARTISTS Jana Baraga Narvika Bovcon and Aleš Vaupotič Katja Majer Arthouse College for Visual Art, Ljubljana ARTIST Antea Arizanović SOUTH AFRICA Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria ARTIST Johan Thom UK Chelsea College of Art and Design London ARTIST Matti Blind Metropolitan University, London PROFESSOR Yossi Balanescu ARTIST Sepp R. Brudermann

Mima Orlović Selman Trtovac Veljko Vujačić ASSISTANTS Marijana Gobeljić Jelena Martinović Jelena Pantović Vojislav Radovanović Ivana Smiljanić Mirjana Stojadinović Marko Stamenković Vesna Zarev

REAL PRESENCE

178

“REAL PRESENCE – GENERATION 2003” BELGRADE, 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST Venues: Museum of Yugoslavia and various public locations

Opening of the exhibition “Real Presence - Generation 2003”, Museum of Yugoslavia, photo: Srdjan Veljović

179

ROXANA TRESTIOREANU When I was contacted by Dobrila Denegri, who asked me if I would be so kind as to write a few lines about “Real Presence” – I was quick to reply YES! YES, because I’ve known Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri for a good few years. YES, because I very much value their “Real Presence” project.

Some time later I met Dobrila, who was traveling to Bucharest with a team of international curators, and she told me about their intention to organise an international event open to all art schools. I soon got an invitation to take part in “Real Presence” with our students.

Dana Cojbuc, Nicu Ilfoveanu and Luminita Cochinescu (Liboutet) in 2001; Mihaela I met Biljana in 1994 at “Naturally”, an exKvdanska, Raluca Voinea and Simona Nastac hibition in Hungary where I was one of the in 2003; Madalina Zaharia in 2008; Andra Romanian artists and Biljana was curator of Chitimus and Alexandra Soldanescu in the Serbian section. We talked and exchan2009; Dan Angelescu in 2010: these are ged cards. I looked forward to meeting Bilsome of the students of the National Univerjana again, and the occasion was offered in sity of Arts Bucharest who were beneficia1999 by the symposium “Gender and ageing ries of the workshops and lectures offered presented in media and art”. I was the orin the frame of “Real Presence”. They all ganiser, and I was very happy that Biljana have flourishing careers, could travel to Bucharest. and now, eight years after It was not an easy journey, Through “Real Presence” “Real Presence” ended, and I was afraid she might two women overcame we can find links between give up. In the end Biljana their artistic or curatorial overcame all the problems the barriers created careers and the cross-culand took part with a very by Serbia’s crisis and tural dialogue of “Real powerful presentation of cultural isolation. Presence”, the open comvideos made by a selection munication and artistic of women artists from Serexchange, experiences openly shared and bia, Croatia, Slovenia etc. Biljana also chose culture’s ability to overcome linguistic, relia selection of films that were presented the gious and geographical differences. same year at the Medeja Video Festival in Novi Sad. Through “Real Presence”, two women overcame the barriers created by Serbia’s crisis Through the powerful films selected, Biljana and cultural isolation. The extraordinary addressed issues of disintegration, women human and professional quality of those and war, death and gender identity. I reinvolved in “Real Presence” – artists, art member Biljana’s voice suddenly disappeawriters, curators, professors and students – red just before the end of her talk, and the created an open and dynamic platform that audience was in tears. reconnected Belgrade to the Europe cultural network.

REAL PRESENCE

180 1

2 3

Matti Blint, “aaaaaeerhhh”, intervention, facade of the Museum of Yugoslavia

Vojislav Radovanović, “Mysterious Performance in Munich”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

181

20 4

RALUCA IULIA DAVIDEL Arriving in Belgrade for the first time in 2003, and returning in 2006, had a strong sense of the unseen wounds left by the war. However, stronger than that I felt our hosts’ joy in meeting us – young students from all over the world in search of open platforms where we could learn from each other and from well-established artists, as well as exploring our ideas in an intense exchange process. For me, these were some of the most inspiring summers of my studies, moments of introspection and strong connection in a context of new (although partly familiar) surroundings. Absorbing stories and experiences and rendering them through an artistic perspective, I felt connected with the multitude of my generation’s realities. But perhaps the most important thing I learned during “Real Presence” was how to meet the other. To listen to stories about how different life is in other countries, to understand other perspectives and artistic approaches. As an architect working in the stimulating

Raluca Davidel, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

building of the former Tito Museum, I felt the urge to address the pro-war rhetoric present in the museum’s murals by opposing it with a symbol of passion: red roses stood for the passion you feed by taking daring decisions. At that moment it felt like a new beginning was necessary, one centred on what we have in common, on fostering real presence and genuine human contact. Looking back after fifteen years, I see my participation in “Real Presence” as a defining milestone for the path I chose in my career. I became an urban planner and explorer because I felt that beyond looking for meaningful architecture, our societies have an even greater need to search for a more sustainable way to live and be together. It’s definitely a challenge to deal with social and environmental problems and ask questions about how we can use our resources better. Trying to make decisions that are both innovative and risk-taking is what ignites my passion for my work.

REAL PRESENCE

182 1

2 3 4

Raluca Voinea, Eduard Costantin, Simona Nastac, presentation of “e-cart” online art magazine from Bucharest, Museum of Yugoslavia

Marija Ivošević, Ana Truinić, “5 Minutes of Glory”, performance and photo edition, Museum of Yugoslavia

Talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Franz Kapfer, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

7 8

Primož Bizjak, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

183

20 5

03 6

REAL PRESENCE

184

Lau Wai Yuen Urlich, Sia Joo Hiang, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Christine Woditschka, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Barak Reiser, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Barak Raiser, “U (2Us)”, intervention on the roof of the Museum of Yugoslavia

Barak Raiser, “U (2Us)”, wall painting, Museum of Yugoslavia [Two white forms, in the shape of the letter U – one letter was clearly to be seen, but on the Museum‘s 25th of May roof. It was less clear to see the second letter in the exhibitions space, down stairs, painted white on the white wall.]

185

BARAK RAISER Thinking back on “Real Presence” brings thoughts about the idea of hospitality – of being present as a “guest” (in my case), interacting with other participants, other guests. It also generates thoughts about being present as a “host”.

I am privileged and very grateful to have had the chance to visit Belgrade twice, once in the summer of 2003 and again in the summer of 2010. Lasting friendships evolved from this platform, as did long term collaborations.

There is no specific format for how meetings between artists should be conducted. Each platform is dependent on its specific time and location. There are different circumstances involving local language and other cultural gaps.

The city of Belgrade played a major role in “Real Presence”. One cannot separate the two. Belgrade, with its specific political situation during the 2000s, made “Real Presence” a unique experience. The hot summers and the inexpensive beer acted as a catalyst for openness and direct contact between many of us: the guests and the hosts. There were unforgettable moments during these two stays.

Keeping the aforementioned in mind, thoughts about what hosts should provide and how much they should interfere with the scheduled programs and events, play a role in creating a platform for people / artists to meet. In a foreign place, the “guest” will be more dependent on the “host” to find their way around the new location and help them to realise a new work during their stay. “Real Presence” was a generous platform, offering a large number of young artists, mostly from European art schools, the chance to meet in a more open atmosphere.

Retrospectively, “Real Presence” would still be a model for how to create an exchange between participants. The daily presentations held in the auditorium and conference room stood in the foreground. Although people were busy with their work for the approaching exhibition, they found time to interact in discussions in smaller circles over long dinners and during long walks through the city of Belgrade.

REAL PRESENCE

186

Jiri Ptacek, presentation of the “Umelec” art magazine from Prague, Museum of Yugoslavia

Jiri Ptacek, editor-in-chief of “Umelec”

Tsolak Topchyan

Narvika Bovcon and Aleš Vaupotič, “Friedhof Laguna”

187

NARVIKA BOVCON & ALEŠ VAUPOTIČ The “Real Presence” meeting came when we were still studying at Ljubljana Academy, following our summer school and exhibition—part of the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. As ex-Yugoslavs we were familiar with Belgrade as a place for state ceremonies. Around the corner from the museum where the workshops, presentations and our final exhibition took place was the House of Flowers, with Tito’s marble tombstone. In contrast to the packed crowds that surrounded it in 1980s media images, it was now deserted, waiting in limbo for its destiny to unfold. A quarter of a century past, and yet here was an aspect of the idea we were working on as artists around 2003. Our focus in the “Friedhof Laguna Racing Team” installation in the “Vivere Venezia 2” exhibition was to emphasise the layered reality of Venice, and also to show that personal involvement with one’s immediate surroundings involves considering every moment a unique problem that leads to an unambiguous response—we cannot live ambiguously, although we can change. The most decisive thing that happened at the 2003 “Real Presence” event in Belgrade (we also participated in the “Real Presence” events in 2004 and 2005) was meeting our future collaborator and friend Barak Reiser.

Let’s risk saying that he works on spaces and people’s places in them. We were interested then in new media art: computer-generated and manipulated “hyperspaces” which, like hypertext, involve meaningful units and the links between them. Looking back from 2018, it is clear that the division between new media art and contemporary art has gone. Techno-optimism is a thing of the past. The globalised part of the world is connected to social media, in a bad sense, and all of culture is digitised—there is no nonnew-media anymore. Between 2000 and 2016 we were active as coordinators (artists, curators) of the ArtNetLab Society for Connecting Art and Science, which was born from Prof. Srečo Dragan’s seminar at the art academy and Prof. Franc Solina’s seminar at the computer science faculty in Ljubljana. Organising exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad with our school friends and other colleagues, we probed the range of artistic possibilities provided by the computer art, video and traditional art disciplines. New media art festivals in Maribor, Ljubljana, Nova Gorica and Trbovlje constituted a particular arena for artistic research and research on the arts.

In 2003 we started to teach computer graphic design at what is now the Faculty of Design in Ljubljana, where Narvika developed the graphic design programme. After 2010, our professional paths diverged, although we still work together to create art projects and write reflections on art. Aleš has focussed on developing digital humanities research at the University of Nova Gorica, which offers the first university study programme in digital humanities on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia. The programme, which is based on artistic and theoretical research that was presented at the “Real Presence” events, postulates that since cultural reality has undergone digitisation, approaches to the humanities need to integrate so-called digital humanities. Knowledge of the multimedia language of the new media can provide a keystone for the reconstructed humanities paradigm. Narvika works with engineering students at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Computer and Information Science. These students are and will be building apps, user interfaces, virtual and mixed reality worlds etc., expanding their scope in the interdisciplinary field of “new” information technologies from a visual language and humanities methodological point of view.

REAL PRESENCE

188 1

189

20 5

Hanna Hildebrand

Francesca D. Shaw, Martin Nimmwevoll, Katharina Stiglitz

Nina Wengel and Tijana Mišković

Sepp R. Brudermann, “Bar”, intervention, Museum of Yugoslavia (Heldi Pema)

Ivana Falconi, “Untitled”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Jelena Pantović, “Plum Tree”, outdoor installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Valerie Krause and Julia Ruther, “Trade”, performance, “Zeleni Venac” market

REAL PRESENCE

190

ZORICA ČOLIĆ I still remember my first encounter with Biljana Tomić. I was in the third year of my studies at the Art Academy in Novi Sad. Biljana’s infectious energy, compelling love and passion for art gave me encouragement and optimism to continue to make art in the midst of the existentially difficult time in Serbia. It was the year 2000 just after the war—after bombing, years of cultural, political and economic crises, and the isolation of Serbia. To my delight, this is when Biljana and I started our collaboration and friendship, which continued over the years. In summer 2001, Biljana invited me to the residency in Belgrade that she organised with Dobrila, called “Real Presence”. I had no idea what to expect, but as I joined dozens of fellow artists, students, professors and curators Encounters based on an from all over the world in open invitation involve the the Museum of History of Yugoslavia, I immediapossibility of refusal as tely recognised the same much as the possibility of passion and appreciation revolutionary engagement. of art that Biljana always had. What I experienced was a very new sense of openness, friendliness, understanding, acceptance, belonging; freedom from boundaries, borders and biases; not feeling like ‘the other’, excluded and distanced from the artistic currents. I remember wondering how was it possible to gather such a diverse group of people that would in short time manage to function so fluidly and achieve so much? As an artist, always struggling with restrictions, I realised it was possible because Biljana and Dobrila created a unique model of profound openness and hospitality that allowed artists to thrive in total freedom.

We spent days meeting each other, talking about art, politics, our histories, our presumptions, our ideologies and ideas for the future. During “Real Presence”, I felt like a visitor, exploring Belgrade for the first time, as it was infused with new dynamics of nonrestrictive artistic energy and spontaneity. I was happy to participate over the years, and realised several installations that were deeply informed by the new possibilities explored during the residency. In 2002 I exhibited an installation titled “Slip Away”, consisting of a glass vitrine found in the Museum with a surgical fabric inside, and photographs of sheets on an empty, unmade bed. The year after, I collaborated with my friends Monika Sigeti and Cecilija Hajzler on an eclectic installation made up of many personal objects we loved collecting. In 2009, I again joined “Real Presence” for a project in the educational program of Venice Biennial. At IUAV studios, I exhibited colourful ostrich feathers (that are ubiquitous in Venice) in a little glass bottle, inviting visitors to tickle each other and “generate flowing sensations of pleasure”. The text refers to Wilhelm Reich’s “The Bioelectrical Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety”, in which he states that tickling, especially with feathers, produces great pleasure. Indeed, “Real Presence” was an experience of great pleasure. Writing about participatory performance, Griselda Pollock states: “Encounters based on an open invitation involve the possibility of refusal as much as the possibility of revolutionary engagement”. This can be applied to “Real Presence”, as it achieved the latter. It was the realisation of an artistic utopia where life and art blend along with leisure and commitment, in between engaging dialogues, genuine camaraderie and fierce agency for the importance of art.

191

Zorica Čolić, Monika Sigeti, Cecilija Hajzler, “Untitled”, performance and installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

REAL PRESENCE

192 1

1 2 3

Christiane Rasch, “Untitled”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Andrej Čikala, “Untitled”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Vesna Zarev, “Untitled”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Lau Wai Yuen Urlich, “Untitled”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Sia Joo Hiang, “Untitled”, installation (detail), Museum of Yugoslavia

193

20 4

REAL PRESENCE

194 1

195

20 3

Veljko Vujačić, “Untitled”, mixed media on paper

Selman Trtovac, “Untitled”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Exhibition view, with works of Ellen Hutzenlaub “Repetition” wall painting, Lena Willikens, “Untitled”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Lena Willikens, “Untitled”, installation (detail), Museum of Yugoslavia

Katharina Stiglitz, “Belgrade Postcards”, installation (detail), Museum of Yugoslavia

Mima Orlović, “Lend Me Your Ear”, performance and installation (detail), Museum of Yugoslavia

REAL PRESENCE

196

THANOS ZAKOPOULOS For me, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Real Presenceâ&#x20AC;? is what the name itself states: a moment in spacetime where I was really present and which accompanies me still as an experience lived wholeheartedly. The space itself was suggestive enough, carrying a memory of its own that made me want to represent it in the work I made for the workshop. Furthermore, the space took on a different meaning through the connections I established with the people I met, some of whom I still consider friends. A unique occasion, without unnecessary pretexts, bringing together young creatives to create anew a constant real presence.

197

20 3

ALESSANDRO MANCASSOLA A note: “Real Presence” was a truly important event in my artistic and personal life. The following text is based on a dialogue with Riccardo Fabiani, one of the artists with whom I shared participation in one edition.

sent; an empty museum that had once been a ‘Wunderkammer’ but now lingered empty, waiting for ideas and research. The event’s curators, Biljana and Dobrila, established a unique atmosphere, joyful but somehow full of commitment to the world in which we were living. The space was intended to be like a museum, a city, a continent. It was meant to be a very specific point, where people gathered to generate a positive debate. To enter Belgrade in 2001 was an oxymoron: an enormous joy and an infinite sadness at the same time.

Time: The first edition of “Real Presence”, in 2001, was also my first participation. Then 2003. In 2006, at the turning point, I was back in Belgrade again for an exhibition that summarised the energies and ideas of the previous 5 years. I created my first email address specifically for that event. Speed: Back then I was a student. Today the The Balkan mountains were so close that roles are reversed, and I’m a teacher at Fine they felt distant, so at 21 you think to take Arts Academies. I know that the “Real Presomething there, ignoring that it is what sence” platform would have a fundamental you bring back home that matters. In 2001 role for my students today. we left from Trieste, travelling by train duMany things change, but ring the night. The next day the chance to meet peopwe arrived in a wonderful, Belgrade in 2001 le and encounter energies wounded, yet alive city. A was an oxymoron: from all over the world reproud city full of extraordimains a pivotal cornerstonary people. an enormous joy ne of every young artist’s The buildings bore tremenand an infinite sadness education. dous scars, but that was at the same time. Sure, we were young in a time of rebirth, and the Belgrade, but what I saw buzzing energy filled us, its there was so professional and energetic that spark lives on in me even today. Many of it could have been a major European art caus – artists, curators, teachers and students pital. – answered the call, and it was a crucial opThe city itself was a determinant, but this portunity for us. We were just waiting for a workshop for young artists generated such chance like that, and it was in Belgrade, at a positive attitude that it deserves to exist the Tito Museum. everywhere. What I learned there I bring to all my lessons today, hoping to transfer at Space: When we got there we found ‘real least a little, because in front of me I have presences’ that engaged us each day with real presences, to whom I try to give a ‘real presentations, talks and performances. But present’. most of all, you found yourself in a real pre-

Thanos Zakopoulos, talks and presentations

Thanos Zakopoulos, “Invisible Projection”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

3 4

Alessandro Mancassola, “Museum Opening”, performance of invisible architecture, Belgrade city streets

REAL PRESENCE 1

198 2

Pilvi Takala, “Untitled”, flyer for interactive action

Severin Weiser, “Untitled”, performance and intervention on the facade of the Museum of Yugoslavia

Opening of the exhibition “Real Presence - Generation 2003”, with Giulio Alessandri, vice-dean of Faculty of Design and Arts, IUAV, Venice

4 5

Giorgia Boller, “Fertilization 3; circle, square, menstrual blood, earth”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

199

20 4

REAL PRESENCE

200 1

Raluca Davidel, “100 Roses”, outdoor intervention, Museum of Yugoslavia

Antea Arizanović, “Elixir of Transition”, performance and installation, Museum of Yugoslavia (Alessandro Mancassola)

Tuulia Susiaho, “Finnish Karaoke”, collective performance, Museum of Yugoslavia (Pilvi Takala, Giulio Alessandri)

Nina Wengel and Tijana Mišković, “Be a Guest of a Guest”, interactive project, Museum of Yugoslavia (Katja Majer, Ješa Denegri, Giulio Alessandri)

Nina Wengel and Tijana Mišković, “Be a Guest of a Guest”, interactive project, Museum of Yugoslavia

201

20 4

REAL PRESENCE

202 1

MIHA HORVAT

“REAL PRESENCE” CONNECTED PEOPLE, ART SCENES, ENERGIES. A PLATFORM FOR AN INDIVIDUAL AND FOR GROUPS. 1

Son:DA, “Untitled”, digital print

203

MIHA HORVAT Letter to “Real Presence”, 2018

Dear Biljana, dear Dobrila, dear Belgrade and dear diary, It is July 1st in Maribor, Slovenia, and I, a perfectly lazy and last-minute-studying student, am late. Clearly. And again, much, too much. 24 hours. Maybe I am already too late, so this is only “pro forma”, but I know it is not and has never been only “pro forma”, because I know that someone, everybody, and most certainly the right people will read the next lines, words, sentences. It was a rainy day in Vienna when we took the photo with Raša. Biljana, Metka, Raša and I. And …if I look from another that is how it started. In some moment, intuitiveside, “Real Presence” ly. Not this letter, but our was always here. friendship, our “real preIn my life. Now. sence”. And then, with Dobrila More than a memory, and Zdenka to Rome, later more than a friendship. with Dobrila to Benevento, and twice more to Belgrade. Then there were some e-mails, letters, a couple of coffees here and there… And then again. Three more days happened. Rehearsals, work, some situations, and again. “Real Presence” on a foreign road. This writing on a foreign road. And maybe, if I look from another side, “Real Presence” was always here. In my life. Now. More than a memory, more than

a friendship. As a “real presence”. Like now, jetzt, sad, zdaj. Here and present. Now and really present. And again, in the next, this, some sentence. And again, here, yes. Today is July 4th in Ljubljana. I am already three or four days late. More than 72 hours. And what would I like to say anyway, my dear diary? Yes? That “Real Presence” connected people, art scenes, energies. That it defined and articulated problems, protocol in me, and actually what I am now and what I have become since then. That it has opened borders for others. That it has opened borders for us. That it has connected, united, made us. A platform for an individual and for groups. Not only for other others and not only for our us. Other others and our us. Meaning: for us. Yes, all the garages in which we have worked on developing discourses and scenes, in all off places where we have built new and alternative communities, at all independent sites and at all transnational guerrilla art schools where we live art. Where we develop the culture of art and artistic dialogue, where we learn, teach, decode and then code everything. Us. The art. The dialogue. And “real presence”. Biljana and Dobrila, thank you for one of the most beautiful lectures in my life. Yours, I. The end.

REAL PRESENCE

204

KATJA MAJER but in the loving and passionate Balkan kind The manifestations of “Real Presence” have of way. There was this incredible pure and the most influential and inspirational place enormously strong spirit in the skies above in my creative experience. I felt like the skies all that, and a manifestation was happening had opened to me when I first came to Belat the 25th May Museum, just below Dedinje, grade. It was the end of summer 2001, still as where an enormous number of us young hot as hell, and I was just about to finish my artists were working with energy stronger studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljublthan all the bombs that had been dropped jana. A large group of us came from Sloveon the city. I was encounia, believing we knew wheraged to follow what I felt re we were going, but really It felt incredible, it was and saw in my visions. I having no idea of the power, like Europe and the needed to ground the spiinspiration and pure, raw Balkans joining into one. rit I felt above the city. So truth of art/life that was my project, my contributiabout to meet us there in on to the first “Real Presence“, was a drawing Belgrade. I feel like now, finally, about a full made in the city streets by a group of people adult life number of years later, I can begin walking. With this walk we dragged the powto understand the depth and truthfulness er of this pure spirit down to the ground and of the title of the manifestation; it was truly seeded it in the space of the city. a “Real Presence”. And not only that, in so many ways it was also a “Real Initiation”. The following April (2002) I was invited At that stage in my life I felt that I knew again by Biljana Tomić to take part at “Aprilexactly what the purpose and essence of ski susreti” (April Meetings). This time I felt my art was. But I also felt like there was althe city slowly moving forward from the old most no space for its manifestation and no pain and rising to a new life. I had a vision possibility of being understood or accepted. of a new sun awakening in the depths under It was here at the first “Real Presence” and the old city centre, so my project was a mediin conversations with Biljana Tomić that I tation to help this sun rise. A large group of gained the courage and power to manifest it people volunteered to participate. It felt like completely, there and later. I cannot be grawe had succeeded. teful enough for this precious milestone in my life. For “Real Presence” 2003 we took a really long trip. I came to Belgrade with Jana My project at the first RP in 2001 was a draBaraga, with whom I had been working on wing made by walking in the city space. a large group projecti in Slovenia dedicated Over long days I felt the space of Belgrade. I felt the confusion, fascination and pain of to the River Sava. This river is a kind of spimy reactions to it. The city was still extremene for Slovenia. The source of the Sava is in ly damaged by the bombing. Everything felt Slovenia, and it joins the Danube in Belgrachaotic, transformative, ultimative, painful, de. The Sava is historically considered to be

a border between Europe and the Balkans, so what Jana and I did was to create a ritual with water and stones from the source of the Sava at the place where she meets her mate, the Danube. It felt incredible, it was like Europe and the Balkans joining into one. In 2005 I was invited to collaborate in an “Real Presence” satellite event, the Illy Words project. I was working with human consciousness and its transformation from linear to holistic. The tool for this was a motion drawing in the magazine’s margin. I felt honoured to be invited to contribute to the final “Real Presence” in 2010. I presented my vision of meditation spaces which help the visitor to go within and transform. The object I presented was a meditation chair that had to be felt and observed from the inside, rather than from the perspective of the viewer. Looking back, I believe that my projects at “Real Presence” offered a full spectrum of different metamorphoses, through several aspects of space to the depths of one’s self. I do not know if what Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri have done in realising the manifestations and satellite projects of “Real Presence” is understood and appreciated, but they have made an extremely large change in space and cultural awareness that will have a positive impact for many more decades. In Belgrade in that time, lives have been changed, energies transformed, information shared and inspirations revealed… It should be known that Belgrade and the world are better because of that.

205

20 1

A project by Marko Pogačnik and the Vitaaa association.

Katja Majer and Jana Braga, “Ritual”, performance at “Ušće”, junction point of rivers Sava and Danube, (Miha Horvat, Biljana Tomić, Selman Trtovac)

Visit to the “Monument to the Unknown Hero” by Ivan Meštrović, Avala

REAL PRESENCE PRESENCE REAL

206 206

AUSTRIA ALBANIA Academy of Fine Vienna Arts, Arts, Tirana

CZECH REPUBLIC CROATIA Academy Academy of of Fine Fine Arts, Arts, Zagreb

PROFESSORS ARTIST Bruno Gironcoli Heldi Pema Renée Green Peter Kogler AUSTRIA Eva Schlegel Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna Heimo Zobernig

ARTIST ARTIST Andrej Mirčev

PROFESSORS ARTISTS MonicaAnderle Bonavicini Harald Peter Kogler Gunter Anderlik Eva Schlegel Simone Bader Walter Becker Obholzer Isabel Eva Beierheimer ARTISTS Tina Bepperling SherineBolt Anis Catrin MalgorzataDöring Bujnicka Alexander Maria Cervicek Eva Eggermann Simon Häfele Andreas Fogarasi SusanneHaring Lehrner Marlene CatherineHennenkemper Ludwig Henning Karin Hochpöchler Passarnegg-Denissov Peter Johanna Tinzl Elisabeth Jugert Hannes Zebedin Barbara Kaiser Daniela Zeilinger Franz Kapfer Leopold Kessler University of Applied Arts, Roland Kollnitz Vienna Krottendorfer Markus Miriam Lausegger PROFESSORS Diana Levin Bernhard Leitner Marko Lulić Greg LynnMayer Christian BarabaraMongini Putz-Plecko Claudia Barbara Philipp ARTISTSReisenberger Richard Oliver Gingrich Werner Skvara MarliesStiermann Maria Elisabeth Fuchs Achim Laura Højring Alexander Wolff Michaela Koller Maja Ozvaldič Martin Rille BULGARIA Gordan Savičić National Academy of Arts, Sofia University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna SELECTOR ON-CALL Iara Boubnova PROFESSOR Romano Hagyo PROFESSORS Andrej Daniel ARTIST Pravdoljub Ivanov Tamara Wilhelm ARTISTS Vienna Zanev Art School Nikolai Kamen Stoianov ARTIST Jelko Terziev Cornelia Hauer BULGARIA BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA National Academy of Art, Sofia Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo PPROFESSOR PROFESSOR Pravdoliub Ivanov Radoslav Tadić ARTISTS ARTISTS Yana Kostova Jasmin Durakovi Vassel Tannev Irena Missoni Spartak Yordanov

GERMANY Arts and Design Department at DENMARK Bielefeld of Applied The Royal University Danish Academy of Sciences Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, PROFESSORS Copenhagen Anja Wiese Andrea Sunder-Plassmann PROFESSOR Frans Jacobi ARTIST Dragan Topalović ARTIST

Ismar Cirkinagic Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) PROFESSORS ESTONIA Marina Abramović Estonian Academy of Arts, Birgit Hein Tallinn E+Media Centre Raimund Kummer Mara Mattuschka PROFESSOR Francis ScholzTralla Mare Emmott ARTISTS ARTISTS YingmeiKase Duan Dagmar Gilta Jansen Kristel Sibul Mareike Poehling Franziska Wicke Mirko Winkel GERMANY The Faculty of Art and Design Braunschweig University of Art at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar PROFESSOR Marina Abramović ARTISTS Alex Gerbaulet ARTISTS Ayumi Matsuzaka Sarah Braun Nezaket Eckici The Städelschule - Academy of Franz Gerald Krumpl Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main Daniel Müller-Friedrichsen Iris Selke, Christian Sievers ARTIST Viola Yeşiltaç Matthias Scholten Herma Auguste Wittstock Kunstakademie Düsseldorf ITALY Academy of Fine Arts, Naples PROFESSORS Jan Dibbets ARTIST Helmut Federle Teresa Capasso Jannis Kounellis Mara Maglione Georg Heoxl Ania Puntari Klaus Rinke Polytechnic University of Milan ARTISTS Brigite ARTISTDams Cristiane Alek O. Löhr Ulrike Möschel Mihoko Ogaki Università Iuav di Venezia The Städelschule - Academy of PROFESSORS Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main Cesare Pietroiusti Rirkrit Tiravanija PROFESSORS Angela Vettese Thomas Bayrele Peter Cook ARTISTS Ajse Erkmen Gastón Ramírez Feltrín Christa Naher Nikola Uzunovski Jason Rhoades

REPUBLIC OF Björn Achilles NORTH MACEDONIA Paola Anziché Beatrice Barrois Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje Dragan Bursać Almas Čorović PROFESSOR Dirk VeloFleischmann Tasovski Tue Greenfort Philipp Hagger ARTISTS Peter Lütje Ana Androska Siniša Macedonić Tatjana Jasmakovska Mandla GjorgjeReuter Jovanovik Peyman Rahimi Aleksandra Petrusevska Tomas SlavicaSaraceno Toshevska Adrian Williams SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO Kunsthochschule Kassel | Art University University of Kassel Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts PROFESSORS Horst Glesker PROFESSORS Barbara Hammann, Mrđan Bajić Alf Schuler Marija Dragojlović Dorothe von Windheim Darija Kačić

Slobodan Roksandić ARTISTS Zoran Todorović Aladin Čorović Čedomir Vasić Marita Damkröger Silvia Götz ARTISTS Jutta MajaHermann Beganović Urs Klebe Sanja Crnjanski Tina Löhr Sanja Jovanović Annegret Luck Maja Radanović Elke Mark Ivan Šuletić Charlotte Mumm Jule Peters of Arts in Belgrade, University Jorn Peters Faculty of Applied Arts Andrea Schüll Oliver Scharfbier PROFESSORS Vesselin Vasilev Slobodan Đuričković

Zorica Janković Jadranka Simonović HUNGARY

Hungarian ARTISTS University of Fine Arts, Budapest Tamara Banović Marija Labudović PROFESSOR Miloš Milanović Eszter Lazar Izabela Matoš Ivana Milojević ARTISTS Maja Milojević Andrea Huszár Snežana Milošević Marcell Jelena Esterházy Pantović Gábor JelenaKerekes Petrović Zita Majoros Biljana Roman Surányi Miklós Márta Rácz of Arts in Belgrade, University Rita Román Faculty of Philosophy, DepartKatarina ment ofSević History of Art ARTISTS Časlav Knežević ITALY Jelena Milošević Brera Academy, Milan Lara Mitić Sanja Jovanović PROFESSOR Luciano Fabro Academy of Arts BK, Belgrade AND “CASA DEGLI ARTISTI” PROFESSORS Claudio Citterio Milan Aleksić David Francesconi Vesna Mićović Arianna Giorgi Dragan Petrović Diego Morandini Luisa Protti Nicola Palumbo Luciana Trombetta Alessandra Tavola Leonardo Tepedino

PROFESSORS ARTISTS Alberto Damir Garutti Dervišagić Paolo Gallerani Jadranka Ilić Jelena Jokić ARTISTS Ivana Marković Sergio Miloš Breviario Nenković Andrea Carrara Lidija Petrov Stefano Milena Cavarra Rakočević Marco Chiesa Stefana Savić Natasha Ferretti Ivana Tmušin Francesca Fiorella Mihailo Vasiljević Noemi Chico Martinez Petar Vukadinović Michele Mazzanti Michela Petoletti Academy of Arts, Novi Sad Pietro Regna Ilde Vinciguerra PROFESSORS Borislav Suputa DAMS Art and Music Dušan- Drama, Todorović Studies, University of Bologna ARTISTS Vladimir Ivaz ARTISTS VojinBiagiotti Ivkov Laura Biljana Jankoski Irene Di Maggio MajaFerrara Jovanović Paola Željko Katanić Silvia Cantisani Jasmina Milenković Dragana Nikolić Accademia di Belle Arti, Timotije Odadžić Venezia Danilo Prnjat Nikola Pršendić PROFESSOR TijanaAlessandri Titin Giulio Nataša Vujkov ARTISTS “Art klinika”, Novi Sad Michele Bazzana Alessandro Mancassola ARTISTS Peter Mignozzi Ljubica Čvorić Aleksandar Dimitrijević University of Calabria Tadija Janičić Nikola Macura SELECTOR ON-CALL PROFESSOR Faculty of Arts of Priština Valentina Valentini (in Zvečan)

ARTIST ARTISTS Alfredo Conticello Andrej Čikala Zoran Vranešević Vesna Zarev SLOVENIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of SERB REPUBLIC Ljubljana University of Eastern Sarajevo, Academy of Fine Arts, Trebinje PROFESSOR Matjaž Počivavšek ARTIST Vojislav Kilibarda ARTISTS Aneta Arizanović SINGAPORE Martina Bastarda Angela Carlin LASALLE College of the Arts, Lada Cerar Singapore Polona Demšar Katja Majer ARTIST Mateja Očepek Nooraidah Binte Dolrahim Slavica Pešvska Ajeet Prem Mansukhani Nataša Skušek Zoran Srdić, Metka Zupanič

SWEDEN SLOVENIA SELECTOR University ON-CALL of Ljubljana Joa Ljungberg Academy of Fine Arts and Design Moderna Museet Stocholm Umeå Art Academy PROFESSORS Stane Bernik PROFESSOR Srečo Dragan Cecilia Parsberg ARTISTS ARTISTS Narvika Bovcon and Lena AlešMalm Vaupotič Jonas Nobel Joanna Sandel SOUTH AFRICA Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria SWITZERLAND Hochschule ARTISTS für Gestaltung Kunst Zurich Donna Kukama Andrew J. Milne Professors Peter Emch Cristoph Schenker SWITZERLAND Hildegard Spielhofer Zurich University of Arts ARTISTS PROFESSOR Eve Bhend Peter Emch Isabella Branč Andreas Helbling & ARTISTS Željka Marušić Annatina Caprez Sergej Nikokoshev Magda Stanová Adrian Notz Saskia Rosset UK Nottingham Trent University, School of OF Art MACEDONIA and Design REPUBLIC Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje PROFESSOR Professor Frank Abott PROFESSOR Stanko Pavleski ARTISTS Ziggy Slingsby ARTISTS Elaine Sleight Metodij Angelov Marina Cvetanovska Vesna Dunimagloska Irena Paskali Nada Peševa Icko Petreski Biljana Popović

REPUBLIC OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Belgrade DEAN Anđelka Bojović PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Marija Dragojlović Darija Kačić Dragan Jovanović Čedomir Vasić ARTISTS Svetlana Djordjević Isidora Fićović Branislav Jakić Aleksandar Jestrović Jelena Milan Slavica Panić

207 207

20 20

GUESTS Slavica Panić Maja Rakočević Nenad Andrić, artist Mirjana Stojadinović Ivana Smiljanić Dr. Dorothée Bauerle-Willert, Pedja Terzić and theoretician art historian Nina Todorović Vladimir Todorovićindependent Bożidar Bošković, Svetlana curator Volic

Faculty of Arts of Priština, Varvarin

University of Belgrade Petar Ćuković, DirectorFaculty of of Department thePhilosophy, National Museum of of History of Artin Cetinje Montenegro

University of Montenegro Faculty of Fine Arts, Cetinje

ARTIST Jovan Čekić, Artistic director Marijana of BELEFGobeljić - Belgrade Summer Festival University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture Milena Dragićević Šešić, President of University of Arts, ARTIST Belgrade Jelena Masnikosić Slobodan Maldini, architect Faculty of Music, Belgrade Svebor Midžić, curator of the ARTIST Biennial of Young Artists in Andrija Vršac Pavlović Academy of Fine Arts BK, Marko Stamenković, Belgrade independent curator PROFESSORS ASSISTANTS Milan Aleksić Maja Beganović Vesna Mićović Ljubica Petrović Čvorić Dragan Pantović Jelena Baletić Maja Radanović Marina Lesić VesnaMiklošević Zarev Paula Petar Mirosavljević Vukašin Nedeljković Ivan Petrović Petar Stojanović Mihailo Vasiljević Vesna Velković Nadica Vučković Academy of Arts, Novi Sad DEAN Nenad Ostojić PROFESSORS Milan Blanuša Branka Jovanović Abi Knežević Lidija Srebotnjak ARTISTS Milica Benić Zorica Čolić Branka Čurčić Nataša Dragišić Nebojša Djumić Jelena Gorički Jelena Janev Vladan Joler Svjetlana Jotanović Jovanka Katašić Nenad Lazić Milan Lekić Vladimir Mojsilović Bojan Ranković Dragana Stevanović Milena Stojanović Olga Ungar

PROFESSOR Zoran Karalejić Radomir Đukanović, Milan Nešić, Dušan Stošic

DEAN Pavle Pejović PROFESSOR Nataša Đurović ARTISTS Olivija Ivanović Biljana Janković Irena Lagator Tanja Milošević Suzana Pajović Milena Perović Božo Perović Natasa Škorić Jelena Tomašević Natalija Vujošević

ROMANIA National University of Arts, Bucharest Professors Iosif Kiraly Roxana Trestioreanu ARTISTS Luminita Cochinescu Dana Cojbuc Nils Freundlieb Nicu Ilfoveanu

GUESTS Harald Szeemann, Artistic Director, 49th International Art Exposition, Venice Biennial

Lavinia Garulli, Tullio Pacifici, Exibart, Milano Svjetlana Racanović, Montenegro Mobil Art, Podgorica Miško Šuvaković and Walking Theory, Belgrade

ASSISTANTS Mirjana Dabović Ivana Smiljanić Jelena Masnikosić Maja Landratoške Mirjana Boba Stojadinović Ksenija Marinković Marija Konjikušić Marija Đorgović

04 GUIDES Mirjana Boba Stojadinović Ksenija Marinković Marija Konjikušić Marija Đorgović Svetlana Volic Jelena Martinović Jovana Popić Maja Landratoške Zorana Stojanović Vladan Jeremić Jovana Komponić Igor Vila Tanja Marčetić Jelena Martinović Predrag Miladinović

THE NETHERLANDS ArtEZ Academy for Art & Design, Enschede

PROFESSORS Curtis Anderson Hendriekje Bosma Debra Solomon ARTISTS Verica Dimeska Rita Goslinga Sayaka Honsho Hannelore Houdijk Katerina Katsifaraki Dunstan Low Karen Migoni Inez Reichlhuber Arend Roelink Rob Van Oostenburgge

REAL PRESENCE

208

“REAL PRESENCE – GENERATION 2004” BELGRADE, 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST Venues: Museum of Yugoslavia, House of Youth, Remont Gallery and various public locations

1 4

2 3 5

Karin Passarnegg-Denissov and Johanna Tinzl, “Naturally, Not Even a Perfect Book Can Replace Personal Experience”, site specific installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Workshop, Museum of Yugoslavia Workshop, Museum of Yugoslavia (Michaela Koller, Tamara Wilhelm, Daniela Zeilinger, Franziska Wicke, Alex Gerbaulet, Dobrila Denegri)

209

20 3

KARIN PASSARNEGGDENISSOV & JOHANNA TINZL

Naturally, not even a perfect book can replace personal experience. This sentence, which we put on the cladding under the 25th May Museum roof, was taken from a tourist guide we bought when we visited Belgrade for the first time in April 2004. Seeing the museum as an architectural indication of Belgrade’s and ex-Yugoslavia’s past (because it was Tito’s museum) we thought that this sentence can start an intellectual debate on a historical, political or even humorous level, because the point

REAL PRESENCE

210 1

Ajeet Prem Mansukhani, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Mirko Winkel, Franziska Wicke, Gilta Jansen, Alex Gerbaulet, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Annatina Caprez, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Marko Stamenković, “Towards a New Logic of Drifting: The Production of Cultural MicroSystems and The New Mapping of Vision in Contemporary Art Space”, lecture, Museum of Yugoslavia

Milena Dragićević Šešić, “ELIA conference in Luzern”, lecture, Museum of Yugoslavia

Heldi Pema, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Narvika Bovcon and Aleš Vaupotič, talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Andrej Mirčev, “Aspects of Croatian Art”, lecture and video screening, Museum of Yugoslavia

211

20 5

REAL PRESENCE

212 1

Talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Workshop, Museum of Yugoslavia (Vladimir Ivaz, Ania Puntari, Magda Stanová, Mara Maglione, Matthias Scholten)

Workshop, Museum of Yugoslavia (Gastón Ramírez Feltrin and Sherine Anis)

Maja Ozvaldič

Donna Kukama

Ayumi Matsuzaka

Božidar Bošković, “Curatorial Project – Marina Abramović”, lecture, Museum of Yugoslavia

213

20 4

04 6

REAL PRESENCE

214 1

Petar Ćuković, “Orchid”, presentation of the exhibition held in the National Museum in Cetinje, Montenegro, Museum of Yugoslavia

Jovan Čekić, “Young artists from Serbia and Montenegro”, presentation of BELEF video production, Museum of Yugoslavia

Marlies Maria Elisabeth Fuchs

Heldi Pema

Nikola Uzunovski

Tamara Wilhelm

Slobodan Maldini, “Mapping New Belgrade”, lecture, Museum of Yugoslavia

Andrew J. Milne

Ivana Milojević, “This Is Our Time”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

215

20 6

04 7

REAL PRESENCE

216

Marija Labudović and Miloš Milanović

Talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia (Tamara Wilhelm, Simon Häfele, Annatina Caprez, Narvika Bovcon, Aleš Vaupotič, Magda Stanová, Vladimir Ivaz, Daniela Zeilinger)

Talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia

Opening of the exhibition of Yana Kostova, Vassel Tannev, Spartak Yordanov, Gallery Remont

Vassel Tannev, Yana Kostova, Spartak Yordanov

Exhibition of Vassel Tannev, Spartak Yordanov, Gallery Remont

217

PRAVDOLIUB IVANOV I am sure that “Real Presence” is an important part of the memories and experience of all the young artists and students who took part in it. Despite being a professor at the academy, I openly believe that art cannot be taught. The only thing we can do is to provide the ground for experience and encourage freedom. This is what “Real Presence” did on a large scale and on international level, better than any art academy.

REAL PRESENCE

218 1

Tadija Janičić

Johann Zebedin

Nooraidah Binte Dolrahim

Alek O.

Workshop (Martin Rille, Gaston Ramirez Feltrin and Ania Puntari)

219

20 4

ALEK O. It’s the summer of 2004. I’m 23 years old, and I have a couple of months of free time. I should finish my studies in Milan soon. I feel that the world is a nice place to be. I know little of Belgrade, as I know little of everything. During my residency I meet other young artists, in more or less the same condition as me, full of curiosity, tenderly proud of being artists: Michela, Maja, Gaston. And I meet two special women. 19 agosto 2004 hello biljana e dobrila. i should arrive to belgrado‘s train station on friday 20 at 6.30 in the morning. see you soon. alek.

MARTIN RILLE “Real Presence” grounded a whole new community of artists from different nations and cultures, giving them an inspiring start in the world of art and communication, networking and collaboration. I contributed to the 2005 edition with my early work “Vocal A”, a single channel video installation in the exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade.

REAL PRESENCE

220 1

Gastón Ramírez Feltrin, “Mexican Dinner”, collective action, Museum of Yugoslavia

Gastón Ramírez Feltrin, “Mexican Dinner”, collective action, Museum of Yugoslavia (Martin Rille, Dobrila Denegri, Sherine Anis, Maria Cerviček, Ana Androska)

Maria Cerviček, Susanne Lehrner, Cornelia Hauer, “Watermelon”, photography, Museum of Yugoslavia

Simon Häfele, “Terranian Free Life Insurance co.ltd.”, interactive action, Museum of Yugoslavia

221

20 5

Simon Häfele, “Terranian Free Life Insurance co.ltd.”, interactive action, Museum of Yugoslavia

Simon Häfele, “Terranian Free Life Insurance co.ltd.”, interactive action, Museum of Yugoslavia (Nikola Uzunovski)

Simon Häfele, “Terranian Free Life Insurance co.ltd.”, interactive action, Museum of Yugoslavia (Nina Simonović)

Nikola Uzunovski, “You Have No Power”

REAL PRESENCE

222 1

GASTÓN RAMIREZ FELTRÍN Travelling through Europe as a Mexican in 1997, I tried to visit the Balkans, a region that for many years had lived in my mind as the “Non-Aligned” happy place in the black and white images of the 1984 Olympic Winter Games. Later, terrible atrocities and a U2 concert had followed. At the time, the territory was still undergoing turmoil, and my visa was denied. The happy images in my memory became those of crowds dancing on bridges to protect them from “intelligent” weapons. I waited. In 2004, I learned from a friend that something amazing was happening in Belgrade, an attempt to re-connect my mind’s “happy place” with the world through art and sharing. I contacted the organisers and travelled there. This time, as an Italian, I was finally able to set foot in that wonderful place. Just being there, surrounded by layers and layers of history, already changed me, but finding myself in the context created by Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri was more than I could ever imagine. All the intellectuals and art professionals, the fantastic talented young artists and the melting pot of art and culture, really

ces produced in Belgrade during my various had a tremendous impact on my consciousparticipations. I keep in mind great memoness and artistic development. I recall many ries of meetings, dinners, talks and discusintense evenings on the roof of the 25th May sions with a new generation of ex-Yugoslav Museum that began collaborations, discusartists, curators and intellectuals. And for sions, plans and projects that eventually sure, I’ll never forget the closing evenings on became Real. The Presence moved forward, the boat on the Danube, when we celebraalong with great colleagues (who became ted art, friendship and life with the idea that great friends). We pushed those plans and “Real Presence” would last perspectives into colleca long time. Since then, tive projects, exhibitions, There’s a saying I’ve fallen in love with the research workshops and so in Spanish that goes Balkans. I’ve travelled all on. I can remember many “Utopia is there around at various times, of these, like when Nikola meeting many great peoUzunosvki and I brought toto keep us walking”. ple, somehow always feegether “MaybeMay”, a group ling at home. I cannot say how the experienof international artists based in Venice and ce of being part of that generation changed Vienna, to develop projects and ideas. A the careers of other artists, but I’m sure it collaboration with Simon Häfele (may his changed mine. More importantly, it really soul rest in peace) gave us a chance to move changed my life and opened up new horiforward into multimedia research, while my zons that I didn’t expect back then. There’s interactive media projects with Ajeet Mana saying in Spanish that goes “Utopia is thesukhani eventually led me to participate in re to keep us walking.” I believe that Biljana the 52nd International Art Exhibition – La and Dobrila’s contribution to thousands of Biennale di Venezia. I remember exhibitions young artists gave us a chance to change our like “Progressive Hopes” and invitations to vision and keep walking. exhibitions around the world to present pie-

223

20 2

GASTÓN RAMIREZ FELTRÍN

“REAL PRESENCE” – MORE THAN A GENERATION. 3

Gastón Ramírez Feltrin, “September”, video

Photo by Gastón Ramírez Feltrin

Cornelia Hauer, “Belgrade Street”, urban interventions

REAL PRESENCE

224 1

Maja Ozvaldič, Michaela Koller, Laura Højring, “Mapping Belgrade”, urban research, interactive actions, drawings and photos (drawing by Maja Ozvaldič), Museum of Yugoslavia

Maja Ozvaldič, Michaela Koller, Laura Højring, “Mapping Belgrade”, urban research, interactive actions, drawings and photos (with citizens of Belgrade)

Maja Ozvaldič, Michaela Koller, Laura Højring, “Mapping Belgrade”, urban research, interactive actions

225

MAJA OZVALDIČ Where to enter the realm of the architectural through the notion of real presence? Today this notion might be twofold: in times of bits and digits it might on the one hand appear more urgent than ever, on the other it might remain a nostalgic conception about the relationship between body and place. Back in 2004, when the “Mapping Beograd” project was taking place, it was trying to gain access to the city of Belgrade through its dwellers. Rather than surveying the city with the usual architectural eye, focusing primarily on built edifices and infrastructure, we chose a form of the “Derive” approach developed in the late 1950’s by Guy Debord as a critique of urban geography. In the fashion of the Situationists we were interested in atmospheres, investigating how this kind of information can be stored and shared. Instead of looking at the city as a whole, built up from binaries like figure/ground, mass/void, public/private, we went for maps, which supersede the dominion of these oppositions. By collecting subjective fragments of the city manifested in the minds of its inhabitants we were interested in compiling non-standard narratives. The result was a collection of personalised maps that overcome geography as an organising principle and create a distorted yet real interpretation of urban conditions in the context of psycho-geography. In order to perform this kind of investigation, the technique required real presence. The method of random encounter and the format of two-dimensional notation developed into an exci-

ting journey through personal images of and narratives about the city of Belgrade. Today, fourteen years later, the technique for retrieving (this kind of) information or applying “Derive” as a tool would be to use all the technological advantages of the “global village” – using Google’s geo-tagged information, social media like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or even the Derive App. Digital mass media and its platforms like Google Earth or Google Maps have created an instantly accessible high-resolution portrait of the world and almost every city in its physical form, as well any storing a constantly evolving collective documentation of life within those cities. A recent project, “Multiplicity”, commissioned by the EDF Foundation in Paris on the occasion of the exhibition “123 data”, showcases this in a wonderful way. Yet, digital platforms structure personal impressions into a homogenised format, or even dictate the media where impressions like photographs, movie clips and text comments are stored. Abstraction has no place in a daily snapshot, which is incredibly easy to make today, since it only requires a click on the ever-present minicomputer in our pockets. The assessment of “reality” in its audio-visual manifestation is processed as a high definition consumer good, and the manipulation of these visual data-sets often happens at the level of aesthetics and politics. Hence, those impressions end up as a copy of a stylised reality, normally without personal reflection.

Texts and drawings used to be a primary place for reflection, since they are created only once an idea (or the real) is processed and restructured by the human mind. Leaving marks on a sheet of blank A4 paper allowed participants to impose their own abstractions or reflections on the paper’s surface, conforming only to a minimum of pre-given aesthetic formatting. “Mapping Beograd” is a collection of 180 drawings and encounters reflecting moments in the urban environment and together creating a timeless, discontinuously pixelated and fragmented image of the city. They convey iconic details, abstracted connections, atmospheric interpretations, natural conditions, historic impacts and personal memories, not only from the standpoint of an observing outsider but also from the inside-out. *** I have never been to Belgrade since. Thirteen years later I randomly bumped into Biljana and Dobrila at an event in Vienna. Rather surprisingly they instantly remembered my name, despite all the names and faces that had passed through their project. In the end, the workshop kept to its aim. It was about being present and part of something bigger. It brought together strangers, and over two weeks we became fellows and in some cases even friends, stranded in a city that welcomed us with unexpected warmth. I guess that is why the memories are still so vividly present today.

REAL PRESENCE

226 1

227

20 5

Ajeet Prem Mansukhani, “Information Overflow”, interactive installation

Dorothee Willert, “Performance in Germany”, lecture, Museum of Yugoslavia

Svebor Midžić, “Biennial of Young Artists in Vršac”, lecture and presentation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Zoran Vranešević, Vesna Zarev, Andrej Čikala

Slavica Toševska, “Biljardana”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Slavica Toševska, “Biljardana”, installation (detail)

REAL PRESENCE

228 1

1 2

Ljubica Čvoric and Yingmei Duan, “Sleep”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Alek O. “Urban Mama”, intervention in a public space and installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

Heldi Pema and Simon Häfele, “Square Museum”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

229

20 5

Aidah Dolrahim, “i don’t want to remember”, photography, Museum of Yugoslavia

Narvika Bovcon and Aleš Vaupotič, “Untitled”, wall-drawing (detail), Museum of Yugoslavia

Biljana Roman, Tamara Banović, Maja Milojević, “Try”, installation, Museum of Yugoslavia

REAL PRESENCE

230 1

CATHERINE LUDWIG The video clip is a ritual, a modern “water dance” of Serbian boys, an endless motion and behaviour pattern. “Each generation has his own sociocultural relationships of the body, of sexuality and of the lust of physical nature, out of which conventions, morality and inter-speaker attitudes have developed. The experience on the beach and in the water as a recreational activity is according to the time-space and culturally specific acoustical, visual and sensitive impressions. A recreation time on a seaside and an experience for the whole body.” (Excerpts of: “Bade und Schwimmkultur in Wien” by Gerhard Eder)

1 2 3

Catherine Ludwig, Ayumi Matsuzaka, “Summer Beach in Belgrade”, installation (detail), Museum of Yugoslavia

231

20 2

REAL PRESENCE

232

MAGDA STANOVÁ While some cities grew organically and challenged cartographers, other cities were first drawn and then built. Maps of New Belgrade look like geometric-abstraction paintings (paintings that people have to live in). Architects and urban designers have power in that what they draw becomes reality. I enlarged a map of New Belgrade and made stamps the same shape and size as the most common ground plans of the buildings on the map. Visitors to the exhibition could play the urban designer and change the map of the city they live in. This work later led to the video “Small Scale, Big Scale”.

233

MAGDA STANOVÁ

ARCHITECTS AND URBAN DESIGNERS HAVE POWER IN THAT WHAT THEY DRAW BECOMES REALITY. 4

Magda Stanová, “New Belgrade”, interactive installation, Museum of Yugoslavia, (Ziggy Slingsby)

Elaine Sleight and Ziggy Slingsby, “Museum Audio Guide”, interactive sound installation, Museum of Yugoslavia (Magda Stanová)

Ivana Perić

Spartak Yordanov, “Connection”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Yingmei Duan, “Dream”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

REAL PRESENCE

234

1 2

Andrew Maline, “Dumela”, performance and installation, Museum of Yugoslavia Donna Kukama, “Molatlhegi Nageng”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

235

REAL PRESENCE

236 1

Opening of the exhibition (Dobrila Denegri and Gastón Ramírez Feltrín)

Opening of the exhibition, Museum of Yugoslavia

Ljubica Čvorić, “Tread Softly Because You Tread on My Dreams”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Annatina Caprez, “Untitled (Gipsy Band)”, action, Museum of Yugoslavia

Annatina Caprez, “Untitled (Gipsy Band)”, action, Museum of Yugoslavia (Biljana Tomić)

Party at the boat “Arizona”

237

20 3

REAL PRESENCE PRESENCE REAL AUSTRIA VENICE Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna AUSTRIA Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna PROFESSORS Bruno Gironcoli PROFESSORS Renée Green Monica Bonvicini Peter Kogler Marina Gržinić Eva Schlegel Peter Kogler Heimo Zobernig Manfred Pernice Heimo Zobernig ARTISTS Harald Anderle ARTISTSAnderlik Gunter Philippe Bader Batka Simone Cordula Ditz Isabel Becker Alexandra Haselwanter Eva Beierheimer Markus Heinz Tina Bepperling Eleni Kampuridis Catrin Bolt Andrea Klement Alexander Döring Johanna Rille Eva Eggermann Hansel Sato Andreas Fogarasi JohannesHaring Vogl Marlene Henning Hennenkemper Peter Hochpöchler CROATIA Elisabeth Jugert Barbara Kaiserof the University Arts Academy Franz of SplitKapfer Leopold Kessler Roland ARTISTSKollnitz Markus SunčicaKrottendorfer Fradelić Miriam Lausegger Olga Andonović Diana Levin Marko Lulić FINLAND Christian Mayer Claudia AcademyMongini of Fine Arts, Helsinki Barbara Philipp Richard ARTIST Reisenberger Werner Skvara Anja Puntari Achim Stiermann Alexander Wolff GERMANY Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (AdBK) BULGARIA National ARTISTS Academy of Arts, Sofia Petra Gregorović SELECTOR ON-CALL Motoko Dobashi Iara AnnaBoubnova Friedel Franka Kassner PROFESSORS Jans Kabisch Andrej Daniel Reinhard Korting Pravdoljub Bo Kristian Ivanov Larsson Maekus Merkle ARTISTS Daniel Man Nikolai Zanev Kamen Stoianov ITALY Jelko Terziev Academy of Fine Arts, Naples PROFESSORS BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA Francesca Romana Morelli Nini Sgambati Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo ARTIST PROFESSOR Mara Maglione Radoslav Tadić Brera Academy, Milan ARTISTS Jasmin Durakovi PROFESSOR Irena Missoni Paolo Gallerani ARTISTS Sergio Breviario Giuseppe Buffoli Chiara Camoni

238 238 CZECH ClaudiaREPUBLIC Canavesi Andrea Carrara Academy of Fine Arts, Camilla Cazzaniga Marco Chiesa ARTIST Serena Decarli Federica Ferzoco Nadia Galbiati Fabio Marini Camilla Marinoni DENMARK Michele The RoyalMazzanti Danish Academy of Cerese Muratori Fine Arts, Schools of ArchitecPietro Rengaand Conservation, ture, Design Solange Solini Copenhagen Ilde Vinciguerra PROFESSOR Università Iuav di Venezia Frans Jacobi PROFESSORS ARTIST GiulioCirkinagic Alessandri Ismar Joseph Kosuth Cesare Pietroiusti Angela Vettese ESTONIA ARTISTS Estonian Academy of Arts, Gastón Ramírez Feltrín Tallinn E+Media Centre Nikola Uzunovski Thanos Zakopulos PROFESSOR Mare Emmott Tralla REPUBLIC OF ARTISTS NORTH MACEDONIA Dagmar Kase Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje Kristel Sibul PROFESSOR Antoni Maznevski GERMANY ARTISTS Braunschweig University of Art Ana Androska Slavica Toshevska PROFESSOR Marina Abramović SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO ARTISTS University Sarah Braunof Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts Nezaket Eckici Franz Gerald Krumpl PROFESSORS Daniel Müller-Friedrichsen Mrđan Bajić Iris Selke, Christian Sievers Marija Dragojlović Viola Yeşiltaç Herma Auguste Wittstock ARTISTS Maja BeganovićDüsseldorf Kunstakademie Maja Radanović Maja Rakočević PROFESSORS Mirjana Boba Stojadinović Jan Dibbets Helmut Federle University of Arts in Belgrade, Jannis Kounellis FacultyHeoxl of Applied Arts Georg Klaus Rinke ARTISTS Jelena Pantović ARTISTS Brigite Dams UniversityLöhr of Arts in Belgrade, Cristiane Faculty of Philosophy, DepartUlrike Möschel ment ofOgaki History of Art Mihoko ARTIST The Städelschule - Academy of Marijana Gobeljić am Main Fine Arts, Frankfurt Academy of Fine Arts BK, PROFESSORS Belgrade Thomas Bayrele Peter Cook ARTISTS Ajse Erkmen Katarina Radović Christa Naher Stefana Savić Jason Rhoades

Björn Achilles Academy of Arts, Novi Sad Paola Anziché Beatrice ARTISTSBarrois Dragan Bursać Jadranka Ilić Almas Čorović Vladimir Ilić Dirk Fleischmann Ksenija Nađ Tue Greenfort Snježena Torbica Philipp Hagger Peter Lütje SLOVENIA Siniša Macedonić Academy of Fine Arts and Mandla Reuter Design of the University of Peyman Rahimi Ljubljana Tomas Saraceno Adrian Williams ARTISTS Miljana Babić Kassel | Kunsthochschule Narvika Bovcon and Aleš Art University Kassel Vaupotič Boštjan Kavčič PROFESSORS Mark Glesker Požlep Horst Nina Slejko Barbara Hammann, Alf Schuler Dorothe von Windheim SOUTH AFRICA Tshwane University of ARTISTS Technology, Pretoria Aladin Čorović Marita Damkröger PROFESSORS Silvia Götz AbrieHermann Fourie Jutta Johan Thom Urs Klebe Tina Löhr ARTISTS Luck Annegret Mariska Elke MarkLe Roux Andrew Millne Charlotte Mumm Seretse Moletsane Jule Peters Nthabiseng Jorn Peters Rachel Montshiwa NocoleSchüll Vinicour Andrea Oliver Scharfbier Vesselin Vasilev

HUNGARY BELGRADE Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest ALBANIA Academy of Arts, Tirana PROFESSOR Eszter Lazar PROFESSOR Edi Muka ARTISTS Andrea Huszár ARTISTEsterházy Marcell Heldi Kerekes Pema Gábor Zita Majoros Surányi Miklós AUSTRIA Márta Rácz Academy Rita Románof Fine Arts, Vienna Katarina Sević PROFESSORS Monica Bonvicini Marina Gržinić ITALY Peter Kogler Brera Academy, Milan Manfred Pernice Eva Schlegel PROFESSOR Heimo Zobernig Luciano Fabro ARTISTS AND “CASA DEGLI ARTISTI” Roman Achitz Claudio Citterio Maja Bačer David Francesconi Wolfgang Bitter Arianna Giorgi Nicola Brunnhuber Diego Morandini Cordula Ditz Luisa CarlaProtti Ehrlich Nicola Palumbo Katharina Fiegl Luciana Helmut Trombetta Heiss Alessandra Moira HilleTavola Leonardo Eva HöflerTepedino

PROFESSORS Jenny Kneis Alberto AndreaGarutti Lange Paolo Gallerani Moritz Majce Claudia Mongini ARTISTS Katharina Morawek Sergio Breviario Valentina Pini Andrea HanselCarrara Sato Stefano PamelaCavarra Scharrer Marco Susa Chiesa Schintler-Zuerner Natasha Kathrin Ferretti Schaller Francesca Fiorella Isabella Schmidlehner Noemi Chico Martinez Michaela Schmidlechner Michele Mazzanti Guro Sollid Michela Adrien Petoletti Tirtiaux Pietro Regna Nadim Vardag Ilde Vinciguerra Johannes Vogl Majda Turkić DAMS - Drama, Art and Music Edin Vejselović Studies, DanielaUniversity Zeilinger of Bologna ARTISTS University of Applied Arts, Laura Biagiotti Vienna Irene Di Maggio Paola Ferrara PROFESSORS Silvia Cantisani Christian Attersee Bernhard Kleber Accademia di Belle Arti, Brigitte Kowanz Venezia Barbara Putz-Plecko Erich Wonder PROFESSOR Giulio Alessandri ARTISTS Franziska Bruckner ARTISTS Laura Gaetano Michele GabrielBazzana Hadler Alessandro Mancassola Noemi Hermanns Peter Mignozzi Christoph Meier Simon Mullan University Vera Mairof Calabria Martin Rille SELECTOR ON-CALL Karla Spiluttini PROFESSOR Valentina Valentini University of Vienna ARTIST ARTIST Alfredo Conticello Maria Männig CZECH REPUBLIC SLOVENIA AcademyofofFine Fine,Arts Prague Academy and Design of the University of PROFESSOR Ljubljana Michael Bielický PROFESSOR ARTIST Matjaž Počivavšek Eva Jiřička ARTISTS Aneta Arizanović FINLAND Martina Bastarda Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki Angela Carlin Lada Cerar ARTISTS Polona Demšar AnjaMajer Puntari Katja Hans Rosenström Mateja Očepek Emilia Pešvska Ukkonen Slavica

Nataša Skušek Zoran Srdić, Metka Zupanič FRANCE National School of Fine Arts at the Villa Arson, Nice ARTISTS Laurence De Leersnyder Jonathan Jolles

SWEDEN GERMANY SELECTOR ON-CALL Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig Joa Ljungberg PROFESSORS Moderna Museet Stocholm Tina Bara Umeå Art Haller Academy Michael PROFESSOR ARTISTS Cecilia Parsberg Eduard Klein Anna Vovan ARTISTS Lena Malm of Fine Arts, University Jonas Nobel Hamburg Joanna Sandel ARTIST Anabela Angelovska SWITZERLAND Hochschule GREECE für Gestaltung Kunst Zurich of Fine Arts and Department

Arts Sciences of the University Professors of Ioannina Peter Emch Cristoph Schenker PROFESSOR Hildegard Xenofon Spielhofer Bitsikas ARTISTS ARTIST Eve Bhend Alexia Karavela Isabella Branč Andreas Helbling & ITALYMarušić Željka Sergej Nikokoshev Academy of Fine Arts, Naples Adrian Notz Saskia Rosset PROFESSORS Francesca Romana Morelli Nini Sgambati REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA ARTISTS Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje Cristiana Arena Fijodor Benzo PROFESSOR Tommaso Bernardini Stanko Pavleski Matteo Bologna Silvia Celeste Calcagno ARTISTS Antonio De Luca Metodij Angelov Luciano Di Rosa Marina Cvetanovska Mara Maglione Vesna Dunimagloska Valentina Mozzillo Irena Paskali Nada Peševa Academy of Fine Arts, Rome Icko Petreski Biljana Popović ARTIST Silvia Sbordoni REPUBLIC OF SERBIA Brera Academy, Milan AND MONTENEGRO PROFESSORS Faculty of Fine Arts, University ofMaurizio BelgradeBottarelli Alberto Garutti Paolo Gallerani DEAN Anđelka Bojović ARTISTS Luciana Andreani PROFESSORS MarkoBajić Antić Mrđan Giuseppe Buffoli Marija Dragojlović Claudia Canavesi Darija Kačić AndreaJovanović Cararra Dragan CamillaVasić Cazzainga Čedomir Marco Chiesa Serena Decarli ARTISTS SimonaDjordjević Ferrucci Svetlana NadiaFićović Galbiati Isidora Camilla Jakić Marinoni Branislav Matteo Prestini Aleksandar Jestrović Edi Sanna Jelena Milan Claudia Sinigaglia Slavica Panić Andrea Veneziani

239 239

20 20

Slavica Panić Università Iuav di Venezia Maja Rakočević Mirjana Stojadinović PROFESSORS Ivana Smiljanić Giulio Alessandri Pedja Gabri Terzić Rene Nina Todorović Joseph Kosuth VladimirPietroiusti Todorović Cesare SvetlanaVettese Volic Angela

SERBIAofAND Faculty ArtsMONTENEGRO of Priština, Varvarin University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts PROFESSOR Zoran Karalejić PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Radomir Đukanović, Milan Marija Dragojlović Nešić, Dušan Stošic Darija Kačić

University of Belgrade Faculty ARTISTS of Philosophy, Department of Raffaella Crispino History ofGiaretta Art Giovanni Gastón Ramírez Feltrín ARTIST Rubbi Matteo Marijana Gobeljić Emiliana Sabiu Nikola Uzunovski University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture Università Ca‘ Foscari, Venice

University of Montenegro ARTISTS Faculty of Fine Arts, Cetinje Maja Beganović Jelena Ćirić DEAN Olga Dimitrijević Pavle Pejović Vladimir Ilić Nemanja Lađić PROFESSOR Maja Radanović Nataša Đurović Maja Rakočević Milena Rakočević ARTISTS Nina Simonović Olivija Ivanović Mirjana Boba Stojadinović Biljana Janković Irena Lagator University of Arts in Belgrade, Tanja Milošević Faculty of Applied Arts Suzana Pajović Milena Perović PROFESSORS Božo Perović Slobodan Đuričković Natasa Škorić Zorica Janković Jelena Tomašević Jadranka Simonović Natalija Vujošević

ARTIST ARTISTS Jelena Masnikosić(Alessandro “progettozero(+)” Bertoncello and Paolo Dusi) Faculty of Music, Belgrade NORWAY ARTIST The National Academy of Fine Andrija Pavlović Art, Oslo Academy of Fine Arts BK, PROFESSOR Belgrade Michael O`Donnell PROFESSORS ARTISTAleksić Milan SteinarMićović Haga Kristensen Vesna Dragan Petrović Jelena Baletić POLAND Marina Lesić Academy of Fine Arts in Paula Miklošević Warsaw Petar Mirosavljević Vukašin Nedeljković PROFESSORS Ivan Petrović Grzegorz Kowalski Petar Stojanović Jarosław Modzelewski Mihailo Vasiljević Krzysztof Wachowiak Vesna Velković Nadica ARTISTSVučković

Jan Biberstein Academy of Arts, Novi Sad Kamila Dąbrowska Michal Dudek DEAN Iwona Golebiewska Nenad OstojićLasocki Pawel Janusz Karol Slowik PROFESSORS Kamila Szejnoch Milan Blanuša Irek Wojaczek Branka Jovanović Anna Żukowska Abi Knežević Lidija Srebotnjak REPUBLIC OF NORTH ARTISTSMACEDONIA

Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje Milica Benić Zorica Čolić PROFESSOR Branka Čurčić Antoni Maznevski Nataša Dragišić Nebojša Djumić ARTISTS Jelena Gorički Ana Androska Jelena Janev Jovan Blazevski Vladan Joler Kristina Bozurska Svjetlana Jotanović Neda Firfova Jovanka Katašić KristinaLazić Hadzieva Nenad Esad Hajdarpasic Milan Lekić Gjorgje Jovanovik Vladimir Mojsilović Elena Ranković Petkovska Bojan Aleksandra Petrusevska Dragana Stevanović Marija Sotirovska Milena Stojanović ElenaUngar Stojanova Olga Hristina Zafirovska Zorica Zafirovska

ARTIST Jelena Pantović ROMANIA Academy of Arts BK, Belgrade National University of Arts, Bucharest PROFESSORS Milan Aleksić Professors Vesna Mićović Iosif Kiraly Dragan Petrović Roxana Trestioreanu

ARTISTS ARTISTS Jadranka Ilić Luminita Katarina Cochinescu Radović Dana Cojbuc Stefana Savić Nils Freundlieb Nicu Ilfoveanu University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History of Art

THE NETHERLANDS ARTIST ArtEZ Academy for Art & Marijana Gobeljić Design, Enschede Academy of Arts, Novi Sad PROFESSORS Curtis Anderson ARTISTS Hendriekje Bosma Ljubica Čvorić Debra Solomon Vladimir Ivaz Marina Tomić ARTISTS Ivana Tmušin Verica Dimeska Snježena Torbica Rita Goslinga Sayaka FacultyHonsho of Arts of Priština Hannelore (in Zvečan)Houdijk Katerina Katsifaraki Dunstan Low PROFESSOR Karen Migoni Peko Nikčević Inez Reichlhuber Arend Roelink ARTISTS Rob VanČikala Oostenburgge Andrej Zoran Vranešević Vesna Zarev

GUESTS SINGAPORE Harald Szeemann, LASALLE College Artistic of the Arts, Director, 49th International Art Singapore Exposition, Venice Biennial PROFESSOR Lavinia Tullio Pacifici, MilenkoGarulli, Prvački Exibart, Milano ARTIST Svjetlana Racanović, MonteneAjeet Mansukhani gro Mobil Art, Podgorica SLOVENIA Miško Šuvaković and Walking Theory, Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana ASSISTANTS ARTISTDabović Mirjana Jaka Smiljanić Ajdišek Žumer Ivana Jelena Masnikosić Maja UK Landratoške Mirjana Boba Stojadinović Glasgow School of Art Ksenija Marinković Marija Konjikušić ARTIST Marija Đorgović Vanessa Bartlett

GUIDES Mirjana Boba Stojadinović VENICE Ksenija Marinković Marija Konjikušić Marija Đorgović AUSTRIA Svetlana AcademyVolic of Fine Arts, Vienna Jelena Martinović Jovana Popić PROFESSORS Maja Landratoške Monica Bonvicini Zorana MarinaStojanović Gržinić Vladan Jeremić Peter Kogler Jovana Komponić Manfred Pernice Igor VilaZobernig Heimo Tanja Marčetić Jelena Martinović ARTISTSMiladinović Predrag Philippe Batka Cordula Ditz Laura Gaetano Vasilena Gankovska Alexandra Haslwanter Eleni Kampuridis Maria Männig Anna Nidzgorska-Buhr Johann Neumeister Susann Rezniczek Martin Rille Barbara Rüdiger Susa Schintler-Zuerner Kamen Stoyanov Adrien Tirtiaux GERMANY The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main PROFESSORS Tobias Rehberger Wolfgang Tillmans ARTISTS Lia Anna Hennig Lisa Jugert Jonas Leihener Dennis Loesch Katharina Schücke

ITALY Academy of Fine Arts, Naples PROFESSORS Francesca Romana Morelli ARTISTS Luciano Di Rosa Mara Maglione Academy of Fine Arts, Rome ARTIST Silvia Sbordoni

Academy of Arts, Novi Sad ARTISTS Ljubica Čvorić Jadranka Ilić Vladimir Ivaz Tijana Jurišić Uroš Mitrović Dragana Nikolić Lidija Petrov Ivana Tmušin Snježena Torbica Milena Veljković Ivana Uskoković

Brera Academy, Milan PROFESSORS Alberto Garutti Paolo Gallerani

SINGAPORE

ARTISTS Luciana Andreani Claudia Canavesi Andrea Cavarra Camilla Cazzainga Marco Chiesa Serena Decarli Nadia Galbiati Camilla Marinoni

PROFESSORS Khiew Huey Chian Milenko Prvački

Università Iuav di Venezia PROFESSORS Giulio Alessandri Angela Vettese ARTISTS Gastón Ramírez Feltrín Nikola Uzunovski “progettozero(+)” REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

ARTISTS Khairuddin Hori Jeremy Sharma

GUESTS Marco de Michelis, Dean IUAV University, Venice Giulio Alessandri, Vice Dean 05 Faculty of Arts and Design, IUAV University, Venice Johan Thom, Tshwane University of Technology Abrie Fourie, Tshwane University of Technology 06

Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje

Mrdjan Bajić, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade

PROFESSOR Antoni Maznevski

Marija Dragojlović, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade

ARTISTS Kristina Bożurska Aleksandra Zafirovska Zorica Zafirovska

Khiew Huey Chian, Lasalle-Sia College of the Arts Singapore

SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Marija Dragojlović Darija Kačić ARTISTS Jelena Ćirić Nemanja Lađić Maja Radanović Branko Radulović Milena Rakočević Nina Simonović

ASSISTANTS Maja Beganović Marijana Gobeljić Jelena Pantović Maja Radanović Maja Rakočević Nina Simonović Mirjana Boba Stojadinović Vesna Zarev

REAL PRESENCE

240

“REAL PRESENCE & FLOATING SITES” Part of official collateral events program of 51. Venice Biennial

VENICE, 9 JUNE – 12 JUNE Venues: Iuav University, Faculty of Arts and Design - Convento delle Terese, SS. Cosima e Damiano, Giardini of the Venice Biennial, Mars Pavilion and various public locations

BELGRADE, 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST Venues: Museum of Applied Arts, Gallery 063 - BK Academy, House of Youth, Kazamati - Military Museum, Remont Gallery and various public locations

VENICE, 5 SEPTEMBER – 11 SEPTEMBER Venues: Iuav University, Faculty of Arts and Design - Convento delle Terese, Ligabue Complex and various public locations

“Real Presence Official”, photo: Srdjan Veljović

241

ANGELA VETTESE Art has always been learned, although this learning is based on talent or an initial predisposition, and it cannot necessarily be taught. Whether they are artists, art historians or even curators, teachers do their best, but they do not know what the result will be. This seems to be especially true since academies and universities started using the short workshop method, in which teaching no longer resembles a kind of extended plagiarism of a teacher. Teachers no longer perpetuate their own methods, as they did when artisan workshops were the norm, but are limited to providing stimuli which may not result in anything. While the symbiotic but hierarchical relationship between young and old artists has been lost, something has been gained in the process: it seems evident that another type of ent“Real Presence” overcame irely horizontal formative the banality of the virtual, relationship between olasserting that there are der artists and art students is crystallising. What stumoments – particularly dents and professors bring during one’s formative year – with them from school when real physical causes them to engage in debate among themselves, presence is necessary. often clashing over theory as much as petty personal jealousies. But these emotions also serve to fix their vocations, motivations and orientations in a stronger and more conscious way.

The great merit of “Real Presence”, the project devised by Biljana Tomić after the Balkan wars, was that it enabled largely international meetings of great emotional intensity, with a dose of that economic emergency that often both stimulates and binds: a story of meetings between young people from various art schools that served the rebirth of both Belgrade and European artistic identity. On the tabula rasa of a city both wounded and accused of wounding, the old continent was conceived as a place of transits, dialects and large regions that wanted to leave feuds and wars behind. From Belgrade to Frankfurt to Venice, “Real Presence” overcame the banality of the virtual, asserting that there are moments – particularly during one’s formative year – when real physical presence is necessary if passion, love and dialogue are to emerge, as well as fleeting hate and true peace.

REAL PRESENCE

242

243

1 2 3

Philippe Batka, “Floating Inside”, intervention, entrance to the Giardini, Venice Biennial

Bostijan Kavčić, “I Poet”, intervention, St. Marco Square, Venice

Aleš Vaupotič and Narvika Bovcon, “Biennale Sites”, intervention, entrance to the Giardini, Venice Biennial

REAL PRESENCE

244

Ania Puntari, “CV on Sale”, performance, Giardini, 51st Venice Biennial

Nikola Uzunovski, “Untitled”, performance, Giardini, 51st Venice Biennial

Seretse Moletsane,”Mud”, interventions, Giardini, 51st Venice Biennial

4 5

Rachel Montshiwa, “Fertility”, performance, SS. Cosima e Damiano, Venice Abrie Fourie, Johan Thom, Seretse Moletsane

245

JOHAN THOM I first approached Biljana Tomić by email roundabout the year 2004 after receiving news of “Real Presence” by way of a digital invitation. I sent a friendly, positive email to her, and although I could not attend that year, this communication would establish a long-term friendship and professional collaboration between myself, the various institutions where I lecture and studied and “Real Presence”. It suffices to say that Biljana wrote back in good spirits too, and we have continued to communicate mostly in this disembodied but optimistic way over the many years since. I begin here because I think the spirit of “Real Presence” was always open to possibilities, about creating opportunities, communicating in good faith and collaborating with artists by any means possible. This, I think, is becoming rare today in the over-institutionalised, over-corporatised and overcompetitive world of contemporary artistic practice. But I should like to add that exactly the fact that projects like “Real Presence” made it possible for a young artist from South Africa such as myself to live in a slightly less complicated global world had an indelible impact upon my own thoughts about art, its place in the world and the way in which art could make a real difference. Today, the open-minded, friendly attitude that formed the basis of “Real Presence” as an art project lives on in my own role as an artist/curator and academic. A few highlights of my years of collaboration with “Real Presence” include participating in the Venice Biennale in 2005 and being able to bring young African students, including Rachel Montshiwa and Seretse Moletsane, to Venice. Unbeknownst to me, for his art project as part of “Real Presence” that year, Moletsane smuggled a kilogram of soil from his hometown of Soweto into Italy to donate it to a sinking Venice. The

sheer cheek of it still amuses me. But there is much in a work such as this – aesthetically, politically and critically – that makes it of real importance for our understanding of the ever-changing relationship between the global South and North, Africa and the West. In 2008, while I was studying for my PhD at the UCL Slade School of Fine Art , I had the opportunity to go to Belgrade, where some students and I made Molotov cocktails from Champagne on the street, a celebration indeed.

side the box and work as collectives that can sustain themselves beyond the commercial imperatives of the art world. As we enter a new phase of global conflict and economic conservatism, artists will be hard-pressed to survive if they do not claim their own spaces and build viable alternatives where they can continue to engage creatively, critically, freely and ultimately in peace.

On a final note, one of the more interesting insights gained by visiting Belgrade through “Real Presence” is that Africa is not the only place to have been marginalised through past western imperialism A few years later, my then co-supervisor at and global capitalism. During my lectures the Slade, the British artist Gary Stevens, in Belgrade, as well as in my interactions would attend “Real Presence” and present with the curators, artists, journalists, mema lecture about his work as part of the probers of the public and students involved gramme. I also sent a fairly political text in “Real Presence”, I came to a more careabout the history of gold, colonialism and ful understanding of the South Africa, along with complex history of the some chocolate coins that Africa is not the only Balkan states. In this way, could be consumed by the place to have been it was good to be reminaudience while it was read. ded that one is both unimarginalised through past que and not as unique as Sadly, I have no images of western imperialism and one would like to be. For any of these works today, global capitalism. all its failures, our global but I think this really does world contains the possinot matter. The artist Abrie bility that like-minded communities can be Fourie, my then fellow lecturer at TUT who forged over vast distances, if one is open to accompanied me to “Real Presence” in 2005, such sharing. Here exists a real possibility as well as Seretse Moletsane and myself, all that we may construct a place for ourselves continue to work with other artists and variin the world, even and especially when the ous non-profit arts organisations. For examplace where we find ourselves physically is ple, Map ZAR, the organisation that helped deeply traumatised and even alienating. to fund the students’ participation in “Real In Heidegger’s terms, “Real Presence” was Presence” in 2005, is still very busy with its exactly such a momentary dwelling space. ongoing project of community involvement, artist-led talks, publications and so on, now with spaces all across South Africa. Today I am a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Pretoria, an artist and curator who regularly works with large groups of artists to create exhibitions and projects. My students benefit from my experiences, and I do my best to motivate them to think out-

REAL PRESENCE

246

247

Abrie Fourie, “The King is Home”, interventions, public space, Venice

Seretse Moletsane

Narvika Bovcon, “Marking Sites”, action, Giardini, 51st Venice Biennial

Olga Andonović, “Real Presence”, photo (Sunčica Fradelić)

Mirjana Boba Stojadinović, “Real Presence”, photo (Marijana Gobeljić), Arsenale, 51st Venice Biennial

REAL PRESENCE

248

249

Malgorzata Bujnicka, photocollage, contribution for “New Consciousness”, issue of Illy Magazine edited in collaboration with “Real Presence” for 51st Venice Biennial

Workshop, IUAV University, Venice

Mrdjan Bajić, Biljana Tomić, Marija Dragojlović

4 5

Talks and presentations, Iuav University, Convento delle Terese

Talks and presentations, SS. Cosima e Damiano

Nikola Uzunovski and progettozero(+), “Pool Party”, Iuav University, Convento delle Terese

8 9

Ivana Smiljanić, “Three Hours Dancing”, performance, Club Round Midnight, Venice

REAL PRESENCE

250

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2005” BELGRADE, 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST Venues: Museum of Applied Arts, Gallery 063 - BK Academy, House of Youth, Kazamati - Military Museum, Remont Gallery and various public locations

Workshop, Museum of Yugoslavia

Dobrila Denegri, Biljana Tomić, talks and presentations, Gallery 063 - BK Academy

Talks and presentations, Gallery 063 - BK Academy

251

REAL PRESENCE

252

CORDULA DITZ Thinking about what participating in “Real Presence” meant for me all those years ago, the first thing that comes to mind are the days filled with presentations. Coming together and getting insight into the practice of the different participants really made a difference for me. On the one side was each person’s individual work, but there were also the different thought systems, connected to certain schools and areas, that I wasn’t aware of before. The second thing I have to think about is Biljana and Dobrila’s commitment to the project, which created an atmosphere that was open for discussion and exchange within a very diverse group, which isn’t self-evident and which made it all possible.

Cordula Ditz, “Untitled”, mixed media

Johannes Vogl, “Three Moons”, project for the outdoor installation

Helmut Heiss, “The First Kiss”, mixed media

253

REAL PRESENCE

254

4 1

Helmut Heiss, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Talks and presentations, Gallery 063 (Franziska Bruckner, Emilia Ukkonen, Raffaella Crispino, Andrej Čikala)

Nadim Vardag, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Matteo Rubbi, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Matteo Rubbi, “Menu”, intervention, “Orao” fast-food restaurant

255

REAL PRESENCE

256

Luciana Andreani, “Sensational Tourist Info Point”, intervention, Kalemegdan park

Jan Biberstein, Karol Slowik, “Total Sail”, Cvetko’s Market (Claudia Sinigaglia)

Jan Biberstein, Karol Slowik, “Total Sail”, Cvetko’s Market

Esad Hajdar-Pašić, “One for No One”, collective action, Republic Square

Hans Rosenström

Karla Spiluttini, Roman Achitz, Heldi Pema, Gastón Ramírez Feltrín

257

6 05

REAL PRESENCE

258

1 2 3

Simon Mullan, photo by Hans Rosenström

Katharina Fiegl, “Kralja Petra Prvog 10A”, outdoor intervention in the King Peter Street, Belgrade

Anna Dickreiter, Eduard Klein, Jenni Kneis, “Untitled”, intervention, public places

Johannes Vogl, “Parking Lot”, intervention, Kralja Petra Prvog St.

259

REAL PRESENCE

260

HANS ROSENSTRÖM It both surprises and saddens me that now, thirteen years after I had the opportunity to spend time in Belgrade, isolationist and nationalistic views are gathering momentum in Europe. It seems as if all the benefits of closer collaboration between states has been lost in an unexplainable mist of amnesia, and that the only solution to any of our current struggles would be to take back control of our borders. Surprising and sad times indeed. “Real Presence” was born out of an urgency, a need to create a dialogue at a time when travelling across the border was difficult for the locals in Belgrade. For me, coming from Finland, a peripheral country in its own way, the workshop also offered a stimulating setting and exciting days of meeting new people. During those days, “Real Presence” became I believe it is important for a platform for all of us to us to have the freedom spend time together. The programmed exhibition to address any issue of at the end of the workshop concern, however close or generated not just a collecdistant to the subject tive aim to work towards, but a natural starting we might be. point for discussion. Not long after I first arrived in Belgrade in 2005 I was struck how visible the marks of the war still were. Facades were left scarred by the violence, and some buildings still lay in ruins. This was the first time in my life that I was confronted so directly with the traces of a recent conflict. I sensed something still lingering in the atmosphere, as well as a past I knew very little about.

A concern for me during the workshop was whether I was allowed to touch this issue as a visitor. Can it be meaningful for an outsider to approach such a serious and complicated subject, especially when I had no direct connection to it? But how could I not be affected by it on a human scale? In hindsight I believe it is important for us to have the freedom to address any issue of concern, however close or distant to the subject we might be. In my opinion, it is more a question of one’s sensibility to the subject matter and of recognising the angle one speaks from than a question of who is allowed to have a voice. “Real Presence” encouraged mobility. It offered us the opportunity to engage with people from different cultures, to encounter narratives different to those we had grown up with. For me, mobility equals awareness. This does not mean that being mobile is not to be critical, but it helps us to reflect on the nuances. The essence of mobility is the movement of information, ideas and understanding shared between us. In these unfortunate times, when countries are staring at their own navels once more, the idea of mobility again seems crucial. Because without mobility it is impossible to find forms of mutual collaboration, and going forward from now I see that as the only possible way.

261

Hans Rosenström, “AirConnection”, photo

Hans Rosenström, “Carica Milica”, video

REAL PRESENCE

262

1 2 3 4 5 6

Franziska Bruckner, Gabriel Hadler, “GRANICA –GRENZE – BORDER”, outdoor actions and photo edition

263

FRANZISKA BRUCKNER & GABRIEL HADLER and the German “Grenze”. One border post “Granica” was a “border-crossing” project, would be occupied by a Serb, the other by created at the 2005 edition of “Real Preus Austrians. Over time, rather than keesence”, a multicultural artist workshop in ping people apart “Granica” turned out to Belgrade. The initiator and curator of “Real be a place of engagement. Although we esPresence”, Biljana Tomić, gave an opening tablished “borders” in the city, establishing lecture in which she mentioned the obstcontact with the urban residents of Belgrade acles faced by Serbian citizens when trying overcame inner borders. Encouraging peopto cross the border. Getting visas, e.g. for le to join in and give long or short talks about the European Union, was difficult. We met Serbia and Austria gave us foreigners a little art students who had never left the country bit more insight into the host country for before, not because they didn’t want to, but “Real Presence”. because they were not allowed to. Although borders are sometimes based on In the years that followed the project, it seegeographical landmarks like the sea, rivers med that European borders would become and mountains, they are often determined less relevant. Who would have guessed that by humans, set arbitrarily in the landscain 2018 the issue would still be so evident? pe and changed over the course of history. The unifying idea of the The current state of Serbia, European Union has not for example, lies in a histoWe decided to set up our reached Serbia yet, and rically contested area, on a own temporary borders , with the rise of right-wing territory that has existed as populism, the immigraits own kingdom and been marked by two signs with tion and border policies of part of foreign empires and text in two languages, both most countries are getting the former Yugoslav state, deriving from the same more and more restricall with shifting borders and tive. Travelling between very different ideas of iden13th century word base: the “Real Presence” host tity. In 2005, “Granica” play- the Serbian “граница” and country and our home ed with the arbitrariness of the German “Grenze”. country today, we are still those boundary lines. We confronted by the EU’s exdecided to set up our own ternal border between Serbia and Croatia, temporary borders in downtown Belgrade, the Schengen border between Croatia and marked by two signs with text in two lanSlovenia, and in the aftermath of the “refuguages, both deriving from the same 13th gee crisis”, a newly reinforced border patrol century word base: the Serbian “граница”

between Slovenia and Austria. Looking back at “space” and our “Real Presence” experience after so many years not only brings back memories but also provides new perspectives. From today’s perspective, it would be interesting to see the names, ages and professions of some of the “Granica” participants in the photos. It would be fascinating to read some memory minutes or statements about the conversations we had with Belgrade residents in 2005. What were they thinking, and what would their opinion be today? But “Granica” was obviously not the only border-crossing project inspired by Biljana Tomić’s talk. In our photos of “Real Presence” 2005, we rediscovered work on this topic by other participants: an intervention dividing a sidewalk into an artist and non-artist zone; a suitcase packed with local products; and doors within the exhibition space duct-taped so no one could enter a certain room. In hindsight, the strongest impact was made by a group project that printed the names of all the 2005 participants on t-shirts, which were then swapped between artists from different countries. And after all these years we still remember the names of our swap-partners. In this sense, greetings to Ivana Perić and Nemanja Lađić, and thank you to Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri for this border-crossing experience!

REAL PRESENCE

264

“Art for Life”, collective action, Museum of Applied Arts

Raffaella Crispino, “Learning Freedom”, performance, Museum of Applied Arts [Dragan Djordjević, a Serbian musician I never met before, tried to teach me to play a part of Aretha Franklin’s “Think”, when she sings “Freedom” in about 15 minutes. I have never played any instrument before and, during the performance, I was speaking only in Italian and he only in Serbian.]

Opening of the exhibition, Museum of Applied Arts

4 5

Elena Stojanova, “Names”, installation and collective action, Museum of Applied Arts

Elena Stojanova, “Names”, installation and collective action, Museum of Applied Arts (Martin Rille)

Emilia Ukkonen, “Homesick”, performance, Museum of Applied Arts

Katharina Fiegl, “I Am Resilient”, performance, Museum of Applied Arts

265

7 05

REAL PRESENCE

266

Laurence de Leersnyder, Jonathan Jolles, “Untitled”, installation, Museum of Applied Arts

Ljubica Čvorić, Marina Tomić, “Invulnerable”, performance, Museum of Applied Arts

Eva Jiřička, “Artist | No Artist”, outdoors intervention, Museum of Applied Arts

MaraM, “Abyss 2”, performance, Museum of Applied Arts

Andrea Cararra, “Untitled”, intervention, Kazamati Military Museum

267

REAL PRESENCE

268

Giuseppe Buffoli, “Untitled”, Kazamati - Military Museum

Nemanja Ladjić, “Untitled”, installation, Kazamati - Military Museum

269

NEMANJA LAĐIĆ At the beginning of 2005, a lecture focusing on the 1970s Belgrade art scene was held at the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade, featuring a list of the most relevant artists and art historians of that period, like Raša Todosijević, Era Milivojević, Irina Subotić, Ješa Denegri and Biljana Tomić. This kind of event would interest any artist, but for those who were art students at the time, like myself, it was a chance to gain a better insight into the subject. My colleague Branko Milisković and I were in the audience. Branko filmed the whole discussion, and even though she was a lecturer, Biljana Tomić noticed our attention and approached us after the lecture. She wanted to know what had brought us to the lecture, and after a couple of minutes of conversation she offered us the chance to participate in a workshop she was organising. In a matter of months we joined the “Real Presence” workshop, and a bit later we found ourselves traveling to Venice as a group to take part in the second international workshop that year. Ever since that lecture, we have continued to meet frequently. Biljana has shown a huge amount of patience, dedicating her energy to young artists and sharing with us her immense experience and stories Although the pieces looked of generations of arrushed and sometimes tists growing up and finding their paths, unfinished, they were exploring and expefresh and original, often rimenting. This was representing a possible incredibly important, since at that time our new direction for the education at the art authors – something they academy was mainly could keep on exploring for based on the traditional approach, encouraging development through a number of figurative studies. Biljana had found a way to show us that the art field was much wider and richer than we had been told. The practice at our academy

reflected the then isolation of our country – this was four years before Serbia was added to the Schengen White List, so for many of us this was our only opportunity not just to see a big international exhibition, but also to travel abroad. The second part of that year’s “Real Presence” workshop took place in Belgrade, one month before the trip to Venice. There were around 150 participants from all around the world, mainly students, some participating for the second time. Everyone was expected to produce a work for the final exhibition and present their practice to the other artists as part of sessions that took place every afternoon. This was the first time I had to present my work to a wider audience, and I wasn’t sure how to prepare properly given that most of my work at the time consisted of student figurative studies along with one unfinished video piece. Anyway, thanks to these presentations we had a chance to gain a broad insight into art practice at academies around the world, which helped us understand current tendencies, find our own positions and set some goals for ourselves. The works created in the workshops were actually immediate reactions to our surroundings: the spaces and the people. The materials available were modest, so everyone had to work with what was available, meaning that we had to leave the comfort zone of our old solutions and proven methods and get back to deeper motives. Although the pieces looked rushed and sometimes unfinished, they were fresh and original, often representing a possible new direction for the authors – something they could keep on exploring for some time afterwards. I continued participating in “Real Presence” for a couple of years, but my experience the first year was the most eye-opening. Once you reach a new level of freedom as a mode of thinking it becomes yours, and you can recall it easily when you need it later.

REAL PRESENCE

270

1 “REAL PRESENCE & FLOATING SITES” VENICE, 5 SEPTEMBER – 11 SEPTEMBER Venues: Iuav University, Faculty of Arts and Design - Convento delle Terese, Ligabue Complex and various public locations

271

ADRIEN TIRTIAUX In 2009 I founded “Hotel Charleroi” with Hannes Zebedin and Antoine Turillon. We were fascinated by this run-down Belgian city desperately trying to face its industrial past and the oversized infrastructure it had left behind. We rented a house for the summer in Charleroi. We wanted to live and work there, an exchange with the local institutions and population. Our first attempts to make artistic works in Charleroi failed. It seemed that failure was part of the city’s ecosystem; there had been a kind of curse sticking to any vision for the city since the end of its time of glory, fifty years before. Then we started to invite other artists to visit us. We had no budget, but there was a lot of space available, and the context inspired everybody who joined us. We came back every summer, always finding new places to stay. As a group we became more confident and more visible, and we managed to achie-

ve more and more ambitious projects in the city’s public spaces. “Hotel Charleroi” became an informal residency platform, ending up as a yearly exhibition or event followed by the national art audience and the local inhabitants, cultural scene and politicians. “Hotel Charleroi” was also a family that welcomed over 100 artists from all over Europe in its five years of existence. Some were our friends and some were famous; some came back every year. We were there for ourselves, but also for the city, and we believed that our regular presence could really change things there. Charleroi has nothing to do with Belgrade, but without Belgrade, without Biljana and Dobrila’s admirable engagement, without all the deep discussions we’d had with the artists of “Real Presence” a few years before, “Hotel Charleroi” would probably not have existed.

1 2 3

Iuav University, Faculty of Arts and Design - Ligabue Complex

Adrien Tirtiaux, “Prototype for Shoes for Walking on the Water”, performance, canal in front of IUAV University, Venice

REAL PRESENCE

272

273

Adrien Tirtiaux, talks and presentations, Iuav University

Maria Männing, talks and presentations, Iuav University

Susa Schintler-Zuerner, talks and presentations, Iuav University

Khiew Huey Chian, Khairuddin Hori, Jeremy Sharma, talks and presentations, Iuav University

Dennis Loesch, “Wardrobe”, installation

Dennis Loesch

REAL PRESENCE

274

275

Lisa Jugert

Lisa Jugert, Katharina Schücke, “Untitled”, photo

Branko Milisković, “Walking on Continual Lines”, performance, IUAV University, Venice

4 5 6

Timotije Odadžić, “Freeing”, performance, S. Marco Square, Venice Progettozero(+), “Walking With Trees”, collective action, Giardini, 51st Venice Biennial (Andjelika Bulaić)

REAL PRESENCE

276

AUSTRIA

GERMANY

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

Academy of Arts, Berlin

Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo

PROFESSORS Marina Gržinić Judith Huemer Elke Krystufek Manfred Pernice

ARTIST Carolina Hellsgård

ARTIST Anna Maria Fazio

The Weißensee Academy of Art, Berlin

Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma

ARTISTS Branko Andrić Paul DeFlorian-Schmitting Gudrun Gruber Silke Manz Dayan Ozan Özoglu Heikki Sakari Ryynänen Florian Schmidt Björn Segschneider Silvester Stöger

ARTIST Raul Walch

PROFESSOR Bruno Liberatore

The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main

ARTIST Carmen Colibazzi

PROFESSORS Willem De Rooij Mark Leckey Simon Starling

Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia

University of Applied Arts, Vienna

ARTISTS Agassi F. Bangura Carolina Boettner Izabela Brzozowska Ronald Martin

PROFESSORS Brigitte Kowanz Gabriele Rothemann Peter Weibel Erwin Wurm ARTISTS Eva Engelbert Rudi Fink Nora Friedel Karl Kühn Leo Moringer Stefanie Pichler Patrick Topitschnig Lisa Truttmann Anna Zwingl Julia Weidner BULGARIA University of Sofia„ St. Kliment Ohridski PROFESSOR Alexander Kiossev ARTIST Bozhana Nesheva CZECH REPUBLIC Academy of Fine Arts, Prague ARTIST Petra Valtrova FINLAND

University of Applied Sciences, Potsdam ARTIST Mattias Ljungström GREECE Department of Fine Arts and Arts Sciences of the University of Ioannina ARTISTS Chrisanthi Koumianaki Michail Roditis Ioanna Karouzaki Themeli Melekou Anastasia Grigoris Grigoris Markatos Dafni Lassithiotaki Kosmas Nikolaou Nana Papageorgiou Myrto Crystali Trumble ITALY Accademia di Belle Arti di Catania PROFESSOR Rosario Genovese ARTIST Lunia Vaccarella

Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki

Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli

ARTISTS Hanako Geierhos Aino Setala

PROFESSORS Ciriaco Campus Loredana D‘Argenio Sergio Lombardo

FRANCE École supérieure d‘art et de design, Marseille-Méditerranée ARTIST Mezli Vega Osorno

ARTISTS Cristiana Arena Riccardo Attanasio Teresa Capasso Flora Schiavone

PROFESSORS Carlo Di Raco Gaetano Mainenti ARTISTS Veronika Ban Macarena Reydet

PROFESSORS Jaroslaw Modzelewski Robert Mroziewicz ARTISTS Kamila Dąbrowska Dominika Leonowicz Anna Żukowska

REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje PROFESSORS Bedi Ibrahim Antoni Maznevski Simon Shemov Jovan Shumkovski

ARTISTS Alessandro Ambrosini Valerio Anceschi Luciana Andreani Claudia Canavesi Elena De Prezzo Alberto Gianfreda Camilla Marinoni Concetta Modica Veronique Pozzi Lisa Rampilli Susanna Roda Claudia Sinigaglia Attilio Tono Daniela Vito Mattia I. R. Zarini Università Iuav di Venezia PROFESSORS Giulio Alessandri Carlos Basualdo Francesca Castellani Jorge Orta Adrian Paci ARTISTS Valerio Del Baglivo Elisa Ferrari Osvaldo Galletti Elisabetta Scalvini Diego Tonus Maria Zanchi “progettozero(+)” (Alessandro Bertoncello and Paolo Dusi) POLAND Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw

University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Applied Arts PROFESSORS Jadranka Simonović Miroljub Stamenković ARTISTS Milan Damljanović Sandra Đukić Marko Kresoja Jelena Pantović University of Arts, Belgrade

SERBIA

ARTISTS Marija Bogdanović Bogdan Đurić Ivana Ilić Branislav Jovančević Katarina Kalaba Marina Knežević Marija Labudović Jelena Lazarević Goran Marinić Bojana Nikolić Maja Radnović Dušan Radosavljević Bojana Rajević Jelena Stojković Jelena Stojanović Saša Stojanović Milena Štikovac Ana Vuković

Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade

Academy of Arts BK, Belgrade

ARTISTS Vesna Arangelović Daniel Kocev Hristina Zafirovska Zorica Zafirovska

Brera Academy, Milan PROFESSORS Andrea Del Guercio Alberto Garutti Nicola Salvatore

Veljko Zejak Nina Zeljković Sanja Ždrnja Marija Šević

ROMANIA National University of Arts, Bucharest PROFESSOR Zeno Bogdanescu ARTIST Raluca Iulia Davidel

PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Marija Dragojlović Velizar Krstić Gordan Nikolić Mileta Prodanović Čedomir Vasić

PROFESSORS Milan Aleksić Vesna Mićović Dragan Petrović

ARTISTS Jelena Banjac Ivana Bašić Maja Beganović Lidija Delić Bogdan Đorić Nina Ivanović Bojan Jovanović Jovan Jović Ksenija Kostić Isidora Krstić Nemanja Lađić Marko Marković Branko Milisković Nemanja Nikolić Nemanja Petrović Jasmina Prodanović Maja Radanović Aleksandra Rasulić Nina Simonović Mića Stajčić Boris Stanić Nataša Stojanović Snježana Torbica Ana Zdravković

Academy of Arts, Novi Sad

ARTIST Stefana Savić

PROFESSOR Branka Janković Knežević ARTISTS Ljubica Čvorić Vladimir Ivaz Miroslav Prvulj Marina Tomić SERB REPUBLIC Academy of Fine Arts, Trebinje ARTIST Igor Bošnjak Academy of Arts, Banja Luka PROFESSOR Veso Sovilj ARTIST Mladen Miljanović

277

SINGAPORE

GUEST

LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore

Victoria Vesna, Director Art | Science center, Nano Institute, Los Angeles / Professor, Media Arts, UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles

PROFESSOR Ye Shufang ARTIST Arthur Wong Laing Ming SLOVAKIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava ARTISTS Magda Stanovà Radana Valuchova SLOVENIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana

ASSISTANTS Maja Beganović Ljubica Čvorić Lidija Delić Nina Ivanović Vladimir Ivaz Bojan Jovanović Isidora Krstić Nemanja Lađić Marko Marković Branko Milisković Nemanja Nikolić Maja Radanović Nina Simonović Mića Stajčić Boris Stanić Marina Tomić

PROFESSOR Herman Gvardijančič ARTISTS Boštjan Simon Neja Tomšič SOUTH AFRICA The Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg ARTIST Nina Barnett THE NETHERLANDS Royal Academy of Art, The Hague PROFESSOR Corrinne Noordenbos ARTIST Magdalena Pilko TURKEY ARTIST Deniz Aygün Benba

REAL PRESENCE

278

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2006” BELGRADE, 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST Venues: Heritage House, Gallery 063 - BK Academy, House of Youth, Kazamati - Military Museum, Remont Gallery and various public locations

“Real Presence Official”, photo: Dobrila Denegri

279

VICTORIA VESNA

WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A MAJOR PARADIGM SHIFT AND ARE BOUND TO LAND IN A WHOLE DIFFERENT WORLD SOONER THAN WE THINK.

REAL PRESENCE

280

VICTORIA VESNA Things have sped up, everything is moving the urinal as sculpture. Those works to this ever faster and what we would have deemed day resonate and inform the art world. On impossible even 20 years ago is happening the other side, Einstein rocked the world now. We are in the midst of a major parawith the theory of relativity and later wrote digm shift and are bound to land in a whole his famous paper that predicted stimulate different world sooner than we think. At this emissions (beam of a laser) and we know the particular juncture, there is an urgency that massive applications in all walks of life. The is collectively shared as reductionist moscience world is still grappling with quandels of science collapse, the established art tum mechanics and non-linear equations. world caters to the wealthy few and we are at Around this time, Freud came up with his a brink of ecological disaster. 20 years ago, ideas of the unconscious – think of the subBiljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri presensequent advances in brain / consciousness ted hundreds of young artists from around research. War technology was making fast the world as a counter statement to all the progress through use of airplanes and even negativity that was generated by those afgas attacks – now we have drone attacks raid of change. They wanted to show to the and much more. Meanwhile, women were (art)world that there is hope and that the falfighting for the right to vote; few had higher se separation of nations and cultures is not degrees than high school and now we find the presence of the future. Real presence is ourselves arguing whether artists should do consciousness of the inter-connected world, a PhD. Ford Motor co. was in full speed with the one planet we all share that is our home. the newly introduced idea of mass assembly But, one thing is for sure – no one could have line production ushering in the car as transpredicted how the world changed and the diportation available to the middle classes. rection we collectively took over the course Today electrical cars are finally hitting the of the last hundred years. road in large numbers. We We first saw our planet from had 1,9 billion people on There is an urgency that a distance in 1969 – that the planet, today it is 7,9 is collectively shared as is not that long ago. That billion. It took three gruelreductionist models of same year the first network ling months of travel from connection was made from London to NY, now we science collapse, the UCLA to UCSB and Stanford complain when the plane established art world with the first message “LO” is an hour late. caters to the wealthy few starting the process of communication across the globe We are now in the midst and we are at a brink of and slowly becoming world of a paradigm shift hapcitizens. The world today’s pening in these first two youth is inheriting will be as non-recognizadecades of the 21st century and feel sometble as it today’s world would be to someone hing brewing. Icebergs are melting and living in 1919. many are ignoring the alarm sounds of the scientific community predicting environIf we rewind our film back a hundred years mental disasters upon us or the potential to the first two decades of the 20th century, it dangers of artificial intelligence. All of us is pretty incredible how much the world has are anticipating a new era with CRISPR/ changed in such a short amount of time. At Cas9 gene editing technology promising to that point, literacy in the currently develoreprogram life as we know it. New developped world was at about 20% - today it is 80%; ments in artificial intelligence, artificial life, WW1 was raging, the Russian revolution was robotics, sensors, networks, synthetic bioloin full swing, Kazimir Malevich presented gy, materials science, space exploration and the controversial white on white painting, more knowledge about our brain, mind and Marcel Duchamp shook the art world with consciousness appear every day. However,

281

20 1

2 every great proposition has an equally great opposition and the world is polarized more than ever on a global level. As Anticipatory Design / Art Scientists, we can put up what John Cage calls our “antennae’s to the future” and present to the world alternate visions, counter to what is being fed through our media daily. It is an exciting time, it is a dangerous time, certainly unpredictable but we can anticipate and prepare ourselves. As we witnessed with Belgrade twenty years ago, dramatic shifts can happen very quickly but regardless of how dark it can get, there are those who are brave enough to hold up the light and show that the majority are hopeful of making this world a better place for all sentient beings and especially the youth who will inherit this planet. Young artists: hope for the future

Victoria Vesna in collaboration with nanoscience pioneer James Gimzewski; “Zero@wavefunction”, 2002, within “Nano”, lecture, Princes Ljubica Palace

Victoria Vesna, “Nano”, lecture, Princes Ljubica Palace

Growing up with a father who was a diplomat for Ex-Yugoslavia, I was bounced around from Washington D.C. to Belgrade, to Jakarta to New York city by the time I was twelve. At each location I was taught a different version of World War II history and quickly realised that these were stories told from different global and political perspectives. Having had awful math and science teachers, I became an artist and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade quite young (17). After three years of beaux arts style schooling while being surrounded by a class of all men much older than me, I decided to go back to NY and form a band. For a period of five years, I rejected the traditional art world and embarked on a DIY education in technology, collaboration and audience

interaction although there was not much support for the uncharted path I was taking. When I returned to Belgrade to finish my degree, I met Biljana Tomić who helped me understand that I never stopped doing art and quickly became my mentor, outside of academic boundaries. The Student Cultural Centre in the late 1980’s was booming with artists from around the world visiting and what was particular about the curation of Biljana Tomić was her insistence of promoting work of young artists like myself at the time, and inviting established artists to help support this effort. The excitement of the new era was so high that no one would have ever predicted the carnage that would come and put a full stop on the amazing creative energy. Even when the dark curtain fell on Belgrade and the border walls came up, Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri decided to light the candle of hope and bring young artists together to shine a light into the future. I was eager and honoured to participate in this initiative and brought to Belgrade my colleague Erkki Huhtamo along with students in the UCLA department of Design Media Arts - Jihyun Kim, Christopher Leary and Jacob Tonski in 2007; Gil Kuno in 2008, Johanna Reed and Megan Daalder in 2010. All are now mature active artists and this experience meant a lot to them – it opened up a whole new world that is not possible without the experience and direct contact with their peers from around the world. Nothing can take place of “Real Presence” gathering of many young artists from around the world – this gives us all hope for the future now.

REAL PRESENCE

282 1

283

20 5

Victoria Vesna, “Nano”, lecture, Princes Ljubica Palace

Talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Agassi F. Bangura, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Mezli Vega Osorno, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Heikki Sakari Ryynänen, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Welcome party organised by “DRM Theatre”, Club FLU (Mića Stajčić)

Welcome party organised by “DRM Theatre”, Club FLU (Jovan Jović)

REAL PRESENCE

284 1

Diego Tonus, “On the Trail of a Hidden Symbol”, intervention, “Novosti” daily newspaper, Belgrade

Diego Tonus, “On the Trail of a Hidden Symbol” 2013, Exhibition view, 9th Edition of Furla Award - “Add Fire”, Bologna , Photo: Dario Lasagni, Courtesy Furla Foundation

Diego Tonus, “On the Trail of a Hidden Symbol”, Dvd, passport photo, passport, tickets, money, newspapers, notes, modified books and documentation

Diego Tonus and other participants of “Real Presence”, photo by Elisabetta Scalvini

285

20 4

DIEGO TONUS “Real Presence” was my first artist residency, and it meant an important opportunity for me to travel outside my own country to develop an artistic project. I didn’t plan anything in particular before arriving in Belgrade in 2006, but during my partecipation at “Real Presence” I had the experience of moving throughout the city and exploring it, from its streets to its underground tunnels. This gave me the opportunity to relate to a completely different context to what I was accustomed to, and to actually share thoughts with an international community of artists. I realised for the first time that my artist-studio was the city itself, the urban context, and the materials for my work were provided by the results of the encounters and relationships that happened within it. Luckily, the intervention I made during “Real Presence” has stayed with me over time, defining an artwork that I’m still presenting as one of the first works I ever made, entitled “On the Trail of a Hidden Symbol”. In 2013, I presented it in a selection of works for the 9th Edition of the Furla Award in Italy (patron artist: Jimmie Durham), since it was a seminal work that defined my artistic practice. During my stay in Belgrade, I found a peculiar symbol in Kalemegdan Park (the Military

Museum), both engraved on the museum’s external walls and in the city’s underground tunnels. After asking several experts, including the museum director, about its possible meaning, to no avail, I decided to invent a fake news item to be published in a newspaper in order to share this unknown symbol with the public. Pretending to be an Italian speleologist, I went to the head offices of some local daily newspapers and showed them fake documents, such as certification from Kalemegdan, altered books about the history of Belgrade and some photomontages of myself as a speleologist in the depths of the city. The newspaper Novosti approved publication of the article, which was published on the same day I left Belgrade. Before leaving, I bought a few copies of the daily newspaper at the train station, which became proof of the artwork itself. I remember opening the newspaper during my trip back to Italy and looking at my portrait, in which I was presented as a speleologist. I realised that the article itself was a self-portrait in a way, which later defined my interest in analysing the balance between the mode and content of narratives, seeing ‘editing’ as a form of power to re-tell an individual experience and show how far narrative structure is above all an instrument for influencing and manipulating both the public and the object.

ON THE TRAIL OF A HIDDEN SYMBOL A SECRET SYMBOL HIDES A MYSTERY WHICH HAS BEEN BOUND TO BELGRADE FOR YEARS Cartouches, torch, rope, compass and pen; these were the tools which Diego Tonus relied on for his work. Essential elements accompanying him on a journey to discover the underground tunnels of Belgrade. A hidden city which, after years of darkness, returns to light thanks to the discovery of a symbol that links Belgrade to history. The hazards of some of the tunnel accesses do not put off Tonus who has managed to penetrate the Belgrade underground, losing his tracks and adapting to the deepest darkness, and to undertake a journey which allows us to link the city to Kalemegdan Park. Tonus says: “… and yet it’s right under everyone’s nose. A symbol which unveils a secret which has been enveloped by time. It’s time for Belgrade to know.” Novosti Newspaper 29th August 2006, Belgrade

REAL PRESENCE

286 1

1 2 3 4

Mezli Vega Osorno [This photos are part of my research in Belgrade. I was trying to find some information about how people occupy the public space and how could we see some changes in the way of life with “New/Belgrade”. A city that has to deal with its past, war memories and how to construct with the capitalistic way of life such as Coca-cola or graffiti signs on the streets.] Mezli Vega Osorno, “New / Belgrade”, photo, Heritage House

287

MEZLI VEGA OSORNO I was living in Rotterdam as an art student on exchange at the Willem de Kooning Academie when I heard about “Real Presence”. With my friend, art student Aino el Solh (Setala), I went to discover the artistic scene in Belgrade. I didn’t know anything about the city, and I was surprised at the international art students and artists gathering every day in a formal working atmosphere. At the time I was making photos of urban landscapes, and it was interesting to see how other art students/artists were dealing with their own personal work and how they were presenting it. There were some art collectives that year, so it was another way of thinking about the creative process and how artists work in duos or larger groups. As I am Mexican and migrated to study in France, all my references regarding art institutions were from France (or The Netherlands where I was living in 2006). My experience at “Real Presence” was of an environment of exchange and openness about conceptions of geographical territory, how artists deal with historical charge and understanding that there are many more ways of learning about and showing art than the conventional European way I knew. This was more about a practical way. My participation in “Real Presence” helped me to ask questions about the validity of my judgment about what I was doing. This was one of my first professional participations in which I could speak in front of the public and talk about my process for making art. I think this was an important point in my development as an art student. I presented some of the work I made during those days at the Belgrade Museum. To produce these pictures, I travelled around the city and looked for distinctive architectural spaces. I also took some portraits.

What interested me was to see links between history and architecture, as Belgrade is one of the oldest European cities. The exhibition consisted of three pictures hung on the wall – one portrait of a tourist officer and two of recent buildings. It was challenging to produce an art piece in three days, but I got help to print my work from local artist-students who were participating in “Real Presence”. This was a productive and fast way of getting things done. From that experience, I kept in touch with two other artists (at that time also students) who participated in that edition: Florian Schmidt and Hanako Geiheros. A few months later they came to Rotterdam from Vienna, where they were living at the time, to take part in a collaborative project with Aino el Solh and myself over the course of a week. The four of us are still in touch twelve years after “Real Presence”. The network we created during “Real Presence” is a useful way for artists to find inspiration for further projects and exchanges. I think this should be a way to overcome barriers between cultures, through real encounters and art. I currently live in Marseille, doing a PhD in photography between the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles and the Université Aix-Marseille. I would like to develop my experience as a teacher at an art academy in the near future.

REAL PRESENCE

288 1

1 2

3 4

Elisa Ferrari, “What Would You Trade For a Gypsy’s Clothes?”, project with Roma community in Belgrade

Julia Weidner, “This Is a Man’s World”, video

289

20 5

5 6 7 8

Dayan Ozan Özoglu, Silvester Stöger, “Haven’t Seen it, Maybe Forgot”, intervention (detail), Heritage House and public places

REAL PRESENCE

290 1

291

20 5

Mladen Miljanović, “Untitled”, installation, Heritage House

Maja Beganović, “Who Is on the Way, Is Already There”, outdoor intervention

3 4

5 6

Deniz Aygün Benba, “Green for Meirav”, performance, Kalemegdan Park

Concetta Modica, “Teamhat”, performance, Kalemegdan Park

REAL PRESENCE 1

292 2

ALBERTO GIANFREDA

IF WE UNDERSTOOD OUR IDENTITY AS AN “OUTCOME” OF OUR CREATIVITY, WE WOULD LAY DOWN THE FOUNDATIONS FOR POSSIBLE ENCOUNTERS.

Alberto Gianfreda, “Dance”, installation, Heritage House, (Susanna Roda, Camilla Marinoni, Claudia Canavesi, Lisa Rampilli, Mattia I. R. Zarini, Valerio Anceschi, Alberto Gianfreda, Concetta Modica)

Alberto Gianfreda, “Dance”, installation, Heritage House

293

ALBERTO GIANFREDA “I arrived in Belgrade with no specific project to work on and without any equipment to make a sculpture. I looked for direction from the place, its history, and from encounters with students from all over the world. I was ready to just get lost walking around the city. I found some fragmented materials: boxes, vacuum cleaner tubes, insulation panels, among the litter at the sides of the roads, in the markets, in the abandoned areas. Each fragment told the story and the identity of an imagined person. I could merely make the simple gesture of collecting and moving the fragments into a display space. An action that felt powerfully creative to me in its simplicity and precariousness. Something magic and constructive at the same time took place, that brought a memory to life. I didn’t know anything about those pieces, I could only invent a story, give them an identity in relation to the thing next to them. And so I linked them together in a dance!” Notes, Summer 2006 After twelve years the experience of “Real Presence” not only maintains a clear space in my memory but keeps shaping a way of being. I often re-read the days spent in Belgrade, then Istanbul and Rivoli, for the educational aspect that they have had in my development as an artist, and I try to transfer them in a practical way into the practice of teaching at the Accademia. Thinking about the experience in Serbia makes me reflect on the value of self-directed learning alongside frontal and laboratory learning. “Real Presence” was a real discovery, a voyage in search of differences, a way to look at oneself and train oneself in relation to others, an opening towards different realities than I was experiencing in Milan. I built part of my expressive language on the theme of the relationship with the other, setting up a reflection on the power of artistic

pedagogy in the development of uniqueness and of the differences of the individual, during these years of teaching. For me, uniqueness and difference in art hold a different meaning than the common definition. From massification to globalisation, the word uniqueness always has more to do with the possession of objects that distinguish us from one another, and the word difference marks the beginning of the exclusion. Years later, in the context of Europe in transformation, I think it’s more necessary than ever to consider our identity as a creative fact, which defines itself as malleable in relation to the encounters we experience, rather than as the fruit of a linear descendance that forms within the cultural and physical context of a progeny to which we merely respond. If we understood our identity as an “outcome” of our creativity, we would lay down the foundations for possible encounters. The need to encounter difference rather than rejecting it would arise spontaneously, anchoring our existence as artists and Humans on what I consider to be one of the foundations of artistic practice: encountering the other and basing ourselves on him or her. The process of self-directed learning would thus be driven by the deep need for reciprocity and difference, for the construction and constant renovation of one’s own identity. Self-led learning means determining uniqueness in a process of including differences. I wonder then, if artistic education needs these pathways more than ever today, and if the teaching of “our disciplines,” which attracts more and more students all the time (there are 5,000 signed up at Brera), is not the clearest occasion to show that the construction of one’s identity is primarily a creative act, composed of studies, research, and above all, adherence to the other.

REAL PRESENCE

294 1

Alberto Gianfreda, Valerio Anceschi

Valerio Anceschi, “Binary Suspension”, sculpture

Valerio Anceschi, “Binary Suspension”, sculpture, Knez Mihajlova Street

Raluca Iulia Davidel, “Untitled”, intervention, facade of the Heritage House

5 6

Vladimir Ivaz, “I Found My Perfect Line, but How Should I Follow it?”, performance, Heritage House Lisa Rampilli, “Untitled”, concert of renaissance music, Heritage House

295

20 5

REAL PRESENCE

296

297

Opening of the exhibition, Belgrade City Museum Heritage House

Concetta Modica

3 4

5 6 7

Attilio Tono and Veronique Pozzi, “Real Preference”, collective action and installation, Heritage House Susanna Roda, “The Cure”, sculture (detail), Heritage House

Florian Schmidt, Hanako Geierhos, “Untitled”, performance and wall painting, Heritage House (Claudia Canavesi)

REAL PRESENCE

298 1

Luania Vaccarella, “Leave a Trace”, action and installation, Heritage House

Biljana Tomić, Olga Jevrić

Claudia Canavesi, “Where Spaces are in Communication, Voices are in Communication, too”, installation, Heritage House

Ljubica Čvorić and Marina Tomić, “Dream Destination”, performance, Heritage House

Maja Beganović, “Untitled”, installation, Kazamati Military Museum

Teresa Capasso, “Untitled”, photo, Remont Gallery (Carmen Colibazzi)

7 8

Izabela Brzozowska, Carolina Boettner, “I am a Good Artist”, video projection, Kazamati Military Museum

299

20 4

REAL PRESENCE

300 1

SANJA ŽDRNJA As a participant in “Real Presence” in 2006, I made some work representing my reaction to my own art-work and the events and exhibitions that took place during our workshop. Entitled “Tear Objects”, the idea was to use sculpture objects I had made for a photo-performance in a live-performance situation. Four of us stood at the main entrance of the Sava Centre, Belgrade’s international cultural and business congress centre, during the closing ceremony of the Belgrade International Theatre Festival. We stood in the middle of the entrance, blocking the public from entering the building. On our faces we wore shiny aluminium objects. The intent was to do a kind of remake of the performance by Marina Abramović and Ulay, “Imponderabilia”, in which they also blocked an entrance door with their bodies. The public, who were in a hurry to go inside to see the festival ceremony, reacted in various ways. As in the Abramović/Ulay performance, some people were very curious to see what we were wearing. They watched us and found another way to enter. Some of them wanted to pass through our life-wall, although they could see that we weren’t making way to allow them to go in. Some of them were annoyed, some enjoyed it very much. Standing there communicating with the public like that was very special for me as an artist who doesn‘t have performance as an art-practice.

The sculptures I used for this performance, “Tear Objects”, include seven forms made from polished aluminium, modelled on my own face. I made casts of my face, choosing a curved fluid form which followed my facial contours. I cast them in aluminium and polished them so they would reflect the space. I then returned them to their place of foundation, on the part the face from which they sprouted, creating a form that by its nature is the opposite of dentures – this is a “nice addition” – an unnecessary decoration of natural organic flesh. This work was represented in a series of photos. In the sphere of self-representations, my self-portraits follow the tradition of women’s self-portraits that instrumentalise the category of beauty, a turn that allows women to be present in beauty, not as the objectification of female attributes. With this work I explored the link between my own identity and the representation of its appearance. This performance at “Real Presence” 2006 was the multiplication of this representation, placed in another context and situation.

Sanja Ždrnja, “Standing, Crying, Shining”, closing ceremony of the Belgrade International Theatre Festival - BITEF

Sanja Ždrnja, “Tear Objects”, sculpture and photo

Mića Stajičić, “Street-Car”, outdoor intervention (re-enactment, “Inbetweeness” exhibition, 2007, Complesso S. Michele, Rome)

301

20 2

SANJA ŽDRNJA

STANDING THERE COMMUNICATING WITH THE PUBLIC LIKE THAT WAS VERY SPECIAL FOR ME AS AN ARTIST WHO DOESN‘T HAVE PERFORMANCE AS AN ART-PRACTICE.

REAL PRESENCE

302

303

Party at the restaurant “Sava” (Maja Beganović, Raluca Davidel, Nemanja Ladjić, Valerio Del Baglivo, Boris Stanić, Nina Ivanović, Attilio Tono, Veronique Pozzi, Biljana Tomić)

Nina Ivanović, Veronique Pozzi, Biljana Tomić, Claudia Sinigaglia, Alessandro Ambrosini

Florian Schmidt, Biljana Tomić

Heikki Sakari Ryynänen, Lunia Vaccarella, Izabela Brzozowska, Ronald Martin

Branko Milisković, Claudia Canavesi

Party at the restaurant “Sava”

REAL PRESENCE AUSTRIA Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna PROFESSORS Ruth Schnell Heimo Zobernig ARTISTS Martina Greimel Carla Ehrlich University of Applied Arts, Vienna PROFESSORS Brigitte Kowanz Barbara Putz-Plecko Gabriele Rothemann Peter Weibel Eich Wonder ARTISTS Magdalena Barthofer Waltraud Brauner Gottfried Haider Matthias Kendler Stefanie Pichler Antonia Rahofer Susi M. Scheucher Magdalena Steinleitner GREECE University of Ioannina, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ARTISTS Ioanna Papageorgiou Efrosyni Spartine Panagiutu Paravela ISRAEL Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem ARTIST Itamar Rose ITALY

304

ARTIST Federica Bruni

ARTISTS Kristina Bitakova Daniel Kocev Aleksandra Petkova Elena Petkovska

Accademia di Belle Arti di Catania

SERBIA

Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna

ARTISTS /barbaragurrieri/group (Barbara Gurrieri, Emanuele Tumminelli) Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli PROFESSOR Ciriaco Campus ARTISTS Elda Oreto Francesco Pellegrini Francesca Pirillo Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia PROFESSOR Luigi Viola ARTISTS Giorgio Andreotta Calò Veronika Ban Francesco Fonassi Brera Academy, Milan PROFESSOR Alberto Garutti ARTISTS Alessandro Ambrosini Stefania Migliorati NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan PROFESSOR Marco Scotini

Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, Torino

ARTIST Raul Martinez

ARTISTS Debora Fede Enrico Mazzone Cosimo Veneziano

Università Iuav di Venezia

Accademia di Belle Arti dell‘Aquila PROFESSOR Teresa Macrì ARTIST Andrea Pezza

ARTIST Katia Meneghini Università Ca Foscari, Venice ARTIST Claudia Miotti REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje PROFESSORS Bedi Ibrahim Simon Semov Mirko Vujisik

University of Arts, Faculty of Music, Belgrade PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Marija Dragojlović Darija Kačić Velizar Krstić Dušan Petrović Mileta Prodanović Slavoljub Radojčić Jovan Sivački Čedomir Vasić Nikola Vukosavljević ARTISTS Jelena Banjac Maja Beganović Marija Bogdanović Milan Damljanović Lidija Delić Bogdan Đorić Ivana Ilić Nina Ivanović Jovan Jović Bojan Jovanović Isidora Krstić Marko Kresoja Nemanja Lađić Goran Marinić Nemanja Nikolić Jasmina Prodanović Maja Radnović Bojana Rajević Aleksandra Rasulić Nina Simonović Bojana Stamenković Boris Stanić Vladimir Stojanović Nataša Stojanović Snježana Torbica Marija Šević Ana Zdravković Veljko Zejak Nina Zeljković

Academy of Arts, Novi Sad PROFESSOR Branka Janković Knežević ARTISTS Ljubica Čvorić Jelena Stojković Miroslav Prvulj Marina Tomić University of Arts, Faculty of Music, Belgrade ARTIST Branislav Jovančević

Academy of Fine Arts Trebinje ARTISTS Igor Bošnjak Ivana Sudar SINGAPORE LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore PROFESSOR Ye Shufang ARTIST Ajeet Mansukhani SLOVAKIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava ARTISTS Hana Kalivodová Magda Stanová SLOVENIA

ARTISTS Aleksander Blažica Vanja Mervič

ARTIST Kateryna Svirgunenko UK Goldsmiths, University of London ARTIST Riccardo Attanasio USA UCLA Design Media Arts, Los Angeles PROFESSORS Erkki Huhtamo Victoria Vesna ARTISTS Jihyun Kim Christopher O‘Leary Jacob Tonski University of the Arts, Philadelphia ARTIST Diane Huebner Mountain School of Arts, Los Angeles PROFESSORS Piero Golia Eric Wesley ARTIST Corrado Folinea

ISTANBUL AUSTRIA

PROFESSORS Jadranka Simonović Miroljub Stamenković

PROFESSOR Franziska Koch

ARTIST Ivana Bašić

PROFESSOR Vasyl Yakovych Chebanyk

Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana

SWITZERLAND

University of Arts, School of Art and Design, Belgrade

National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture, Kiev

SERB REPUBLIC

University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Applied Arts

ARTISTS Marija Labudović Saša Tkačenko Milena Štikovac

UKRAINE

Zurich University of Arts

ARTISTS Suzana Richle Rahel Müller TURKEY Faculty of Fine Arts, Marmara University, Istanbul ARTISTS Evrim Kavcar Çiğdem Kaya Alaattin Kirazci

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna PROFESSOR Marina Gržanić ARTISTS Stefan Flunger Can Gülcü & Ivan Jurica Anna Haidegger Eva Jiřička Elvedin Klačar Aron Itai Margula Ani Mezaduryan & Mizzi Schnyder Dorian Monelli Simona Obholzer Dayan Ozan Özoğlu Ritusangam Sharma Cornelia Silli

305 Daniela Tagger Johanna Tinzl Adrien Tirtiaux GERMANY The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main ARTIST Agassi F. Bangura ITALY Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli ARTISTS Cristiana Arena Francesca Boenzi Luigi Giovinazzo Mara Maglione Telemachos Pateris Anja Puntari Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma ARTISTS Carmen Colibazzi Romela Crnogorac Alessandro Pierattini Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia

20 University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Applied Arts PROFESSORS Jadranka Simonović Miroljub Stamenković ARTIST Saša Tkačenko SINGAPORE

Università Iuav di Venezia ARTIST Fabrizio Sartori SERBIA University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Marija Dragojlović ARTISTS Maja Beganović Lidija Delić Isidora Krstić Boris Stanić Sanja Ždrnja

Vasif Kortun, director, Platform Garanti, Istanbul

USA

Bjørn Melhus, professor, Kunsthochschule Kassel

UCLA Design Media Arts, Los Angeles

ARTISTS Jihyun Kim Christopher O‘Leary Jacob Tonski

ARTISTS Ajeet Mansukhani Hafiz Osman Mohammed Zulkarnaen Bin Othman SLOVENIA Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana

Milenko Prvački, dean, Lasalle College of the Arts Singapore Victoria Vesna, professor, Design and Media Arts, UCLA ASSISTANTS Maja Beganović Lidija Delić Nina Ivanović Isidora Krstić Nemanja Lađić Nina Simonović Bojana Stamenković Marija Šević Saša Tkačenko

PROFESSOR Srečo Dragan

TURKEY

ARTIST Raul Martinez

ARTIST Riccardo Attanasio

DEAN Milenko Prvački

NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan PROFESSOR Marco Scotini

GUESTS Marina Gržinić, professor, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

PROFESSOR Victoria Vesna

ARTIST Alessandro Ambrosini

Brera Academy, Milan

Goldsmiths, University of London

LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

ARTISTS Gordana Bakić Igor Bravničar Vana Gacina Marko Glavač Iztok Holc Vanja Mervič Luka Umek Dražen Vitolović Tilen Žbona

ARTIST Elisabetta Scalvini

Faculty of Fine Arts, Marmara University, Istanbul ARTISTS Zeynep Ceren Erdinç Özgür Demirci Gürbey Hiz Evrim Kavcar Çiğdem Kaya Servet Sergin Keyder Faculty of Architecture, Yıldız University, Istanbul ARTIST Alaattin Kirazci

REAL PRESENCE

306

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2007” BELGRADE, 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST Venues: Heritage House, Gallery 063 - BK Academy, MKM, Kazamati - Military Museum and various public locations

Workshop, MKM

Jakob Tonski, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Jacob Tonski, “Machine for Dropping Feathers”, interactive installation

307

20 2

JACOB TONSKI I attended “Real Presence” with a small group of fellow graduate students from UCLA. Our education had emphasised the importance of presentation skills, and after we gave our well rehearsed talks to the group, several artists teased us that we took this practice way too seriously! I had a good laugh, and something told me they might be right. Perhaps behind that comment is a clue to what made “Real Presence” so memorable for me. Our time provided plenty of opportunities for “professional development” but they always took the shape of good living, rather than “serious” work. Dobrila and Biljana emphasised the importance to them that we build relationships during our time there. This was clearly more important than completing new artworks. I came to understand the mission as casting seeds on the wind, cross-pollinating ideas and building networks. The tools for this were exhibitions, food, outings, parties - all catalysts to promote growth of social bonds to facilitate the easy exchange of ideas through those. In hindsight I see just how wise that was.

With such a diverse international group, there are plenty of obstacles rooted in unfamiliarity which can quietly inhibit open exchange. Finding comfort with a group dramatically increases ones sense of connectedness and safety, and that in turn opens the doors to open the mind. Then others’ ways of seeing things begin to bridge the gaps between each of us. Among those ideas and people I encountered individuals who I might have never otherwise. Even in our connected world it remains almost impossible to discover things you didn’t know to look for. To this day in my teaching I share work with my students by fellow “Real Presence” artists. Thank you Biljana and Dobrila. I will never forget those outstanding weeks.

REAL PRESENCE

308

Talks and presentations, MKM

Victoria Vesna, Professor at the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts and Director of the Art|Sci Center at the School of the Arts and California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), Los Angeles

Talks and presentations, MKM

Christopher O’Leary, “Future Time”, installation

309

20 4

JACOB TONSKI

FINDING COMFORT WITH A GROUP DRAMATICALLY INCREASES ONES SENSE OF CONNECTEDNESS AND SAFETY, AND THAT IN TURN OPENS THE DOORS TO OPEN THE MIND.

REAL PRESENCE

310 1

311

20 5

Itamar Rose, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Stefanie Pichler, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Igor BoĹĄnjak, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Francesco Fonassi, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Evrim Kavcar, talks and presentations, Gallery 063

Corrado Folinea, Elda Oreto, Riccardo Attanasio, Biljana TomiÄ&#x2021;

Talks and presentations, Gallery 063

REAL PRESENCE

312

Jihyun Kim, “Untitled”, digital prints, Kazamati - Military Museum

Enrico Mazzone and Cosimo Veneziano, “Untitled”, outdoor installation, Kazamati - Military Museum

Enrico Mazzone and Cosimo Veneziano, “Untitled”, outdoor installation, Kazamati - Military Museum (Debora Fede)

313

20 2

COSIMO VENEZIANO When I took part in “Real Presence” in 2007, I had no idea what it meant to be an artist in residence. During “Real Presence” I designed the logo for the “Diogene” residency program, and later I started “Progetto Diogene” with other artists. This project began in 2007 as an informal group of artists working to build a place for reacting and listening, whose reference point was the historical figure of Diogenes of Sinope. We saw in this philosopher an ideal relationship with reality, linked to a reduction of the superfluous to the strictly necessary, freedom of thought, painstaking observation of the world around him, cosmopolitanism, the building of an ever vigilant awareness and existential independence. Nevertheless, we recognised in our way of working a characteristic that belonged to Diogenes’ philosophy: namely the interweaving of theory and practice. The group is guided by the need to discuss the work and the role of the artist; to this is added a fascination with the urban environment that has produced a

need to explore unproductive city gaps, with the goal of finding new uses for them. From a settlement in an urban gap, we’ve built two types of dwelling modules. The third, the current one, is the shell of an abandoned tram placed on a roundabout, a large functionless green area: this is where the “Bivaccourbano” takes place, an international artist’s residency. The original drive that led to the birth of the group was the need to ensure independence of thought and action; for some time we had noticed in the artistic environment, and not only locally, the presence of numerous individual personalities who were almost isolated, as well as the almost total absence of associations or groups of artists. The project is still evolving today, as are its members.

REAL PRESENCE

314 1

FRANCESCO FONASSI In 2007 I was studying in Venice, barely aware of what was happening at the time in contemporary culture and the arts. That summer I took a long trip, visiting several places in Europe, travelling by myself, speaking not even one word of English. At the end of the month a friend of mine suggested that we took a train together to Belgrade, where a big meeting between young artists from all over the world was taking place. I followed her advice, and took part. “Real Presence” was my very first encounter with art as I understand it today – an extended family, a choral institution which has no name, but is made of friendships and international contacts, collaboration and permanent activity on the scene. Over the years I went back to Belgrade and met people elsewhere, hosting and exchanging, always keeping to that way of belonging to something, learning how a legacy can eventually be forged from any system, whether artistic or geopolitical.

315

20 3

Francesco Fonassi, “Loss / Gain”, installation, Kazamati - Military Museum

Raul Martinez, “Ephemeral Sculpture”, installation, Kazamati Military Museum

Raul Martinez, “Ephemeral Sculpture”, installation, and Nina Ivanović, “Knit”, installation, MKM

Nina Ivanović, “Knit”, installation, MKM

Suzana Richle Müller, “Mountain Watching”, photo series (detail), MKM

REAL PRESENCE

316 1

1 2

3 4 5

Itamar Rose & Yossi Atia, “Shirutrom, The Jewish - Arab State”, video Claire Daudin, “Socialised Space”, installation, MKM (Itamar Rose)

Katya Svirgunenko, “Forum”, interactive photo installation, MKM

317

20 4

KATERYNA SVIRGUNENKO This photograph of an old stadium was the result of my search for a location in the city of Belgrade that could symbolise the location of a big meeting. I actually found it by chance whilst spending a good part of the morning and daytime exploring the city and its culture. It was an astonishing discovery of the right spot. This big abandoned arena in Belgrade looks like an ancient amphitheatre – to me it evoked the symbol of a Forum: a big open public space, a place where all the artists gathered there could communicate with each other and take part in presentations, workshops, performances and exhibitions. It perfectly symbolised the meaning of this gathering of great professional significance.

The whole picture was accomplished digitally, consisting of 78 postcard images. Each image was printed on both sides and presented as a postcard. The suggestion was for people to take any image they liked from the wall. I wanted the work to remain interactive up to the end, and it finally vanished in the form of distributable “take-aways”. The idea of “Forum” (an interactive postcards project) was developed during my residency at “Real Presence”, a large international art event which took place in August 2007 in Belgrade, Serbia. The work was presented at the end of the ten-day residency at the MKM - Magacin gallery in Belgrade. 07

REAL PRESENCE

318 1

1 2 3

Katia Meneghini, “In Your Surname”, research project and photo installation, MKM

319

KATIA MENEGHINI “In Your Surname” is a project I started in Belgrade in August 2007 during the “Real Presence” workshop. Some years earlier I’d had the opportunity to encounter diverse realities, foreign to my Italian experience, mainly through extended visits abroad. This permitted me to interact with the territories in which I found myself each time in a more conscious manner, paying particular attention to the relationship between creativity and social responsibility. Belgrade, and especially the context of “Real Presence”, put me in touch with many people who allowed me to read the city through different eyes and with different perspectives. Fundamental elements of my work – attention paid to the various aspects of social life, the relation between urban spaces and their inhabitants – were influenced by the people “Real Presence”, put I met during that time in me in touch with many Belgrade. people who allowed me I had a strong need to know the city, and I wanto read the city through ted to do this through its different eyes. inhabitants’ voices, to try to overcome the cultural barriers and create unexpected connections that could cross geographical borders. A crucial element in my work was dialogue, not only with space but also with the people that live in it, from

an artistic point of view that works as a catalyst for relations. I used a simple process, a completely arbitrary mechanism of investigation, to get closer to the different realities and living habits of the people inhabiting the city: 1. I went to the market and decided to buy some name-tags I found there. 2. The mission was to give these tags an identity. 3. I started my research by checking the yellow pages and looking at the names on the doors in the city. 4. I went door to door, presenting myself in order to give the people the tags. I knocked on 53 doors around the city in 4 days, and in the end I got in contact with more than 20 people. Getting in touch with these people allowed me to create a personal geographic map of the city. Through their stories and their vicissitudes I was able to create an exclusive and intimate image of Belgrade, a story that completed itself with my “Real Presence” in the city of Belgrade.

REAL PRESENCE

320 1

321

20 3

Jacob Tonski, “Wakening”, interactive performance, MKM (Isidora Krstić)

Marco Chiesa, Serena Decarli, “Travel Box”, installation, MKM

Alaattin Kirazici, “Bridge”, performance, MKM

Opening of the exhibition, Heritage House (Daniel Kocev, Katya Svirgunenko)

Nana Papageorgiou

REAL PRESENCE

322

323

ÇIĞDEM KAYA An artwork is present in the mind of the viewer if it is extracted from the mind of the artist. If not, it resides in the artist‘s mind. At certain times this is recognised by the viewer. Most of the time it moves at different speeds: it may dim down, get dislocated, be blown away, shapeshift, flare up. It is the mind of the artist that activates visible and invisible particles in a specific configuration as an artwork. The viewer knows that the work is a representation called into presence in their mind. Hence, art becomes a medium for discreet dialogue in its full potency: in the ink going through the pen and the sensation of movement in any physical form.

07 A curtain is activated into movement by the wind. The words “Real Presence” are stitched on the curtain, becoming visible and invisible according to how the wind blows. Behind the curtain an artist can be seen making the background against which the work will exist, by making the embroidered words “Real Presence” visible.

Bojana Stamenković, “Line”, installation, Heritage House

Evrim Kavcar and Cigdem Kaya, “Real Presence”, photo installation (detail), Heritage House

Evrim Kavcar and Cigdem Kaya, “Real Presence”, photo

REAL PRESENCE

324 1

325

20 5

MARIJA ŠEVIĆ It is 2018. Eight years have passed since the final “Real Presence”. It went on for ten years and then we got a visa-free entrance to the world. Biljana and Dobrila decided to round off these unbelievable ten years, how long the workshop went on. I cannot describe the joy I felt together with my colleagues, when Biljana invited us to participate in “Real Presence”, who had meticulously been following, encouraging and inspiring our work and development. I think this was during my second year of studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. More than a hundred artists, lecturers and curators from all over the world came to our city. The Museum of Contemporary Arts was closed. “Real Presence” that year took place in the second half of August and went on for ten days. From then on, every August would be reserved for this happening. For us as students, this encounter with the outside world and new tendencies in art was priceless. During the day, lectures and presentations were organised, and then we would spend the rest of the time getting to know each other, exploring and creating. We had all the freedom in the world. It felt like one big family, completely in sync with each other. We exchanged and shared our interests, the cultures we stemmed from, and helped each other in realising ideas and projects. The city was ours. Every year would conclude with the culmination of the whole process of exchange between hundreds of people - a huge exhibition that took place in several locations throughout the city.

2 3

Daniela Heigl, “Darling, I have to tell you something…”, photo installation (detail), Heritage House

barbaragurrieri/group (Emanuele Tumminelli and Barbara Gurrieri), “Reconstruction Cycle of an Original Unity I # 12”, photo installation (detail), Heritage House

Vladimir Ivaz, Jovana Jovanović, “Why? / Because!”, action, Heritage House

Party at the boat “Arizona”

Party at the boat “Arizona” (Isidora Krstić, Marija Šević)

Year after year, we grew as artists, some returning over and again, year after year. We made amazing friendships that bonded us for the rest of our lives. Trail-blazed by Biljana and Dobrila, “Real Presence” gave the support and hope to many young artists from the region when it was most necessary for them to have it. It was an entryway to the world through all the amazing people, creators and cultural actors who gave us enormous amounts of motivation to fight for and believe in what we are, and most importantly, never give up.

REAL PRESENCE

326 1

“REAL PRESENCE & FLOATING SITES” Part of official collateral events program of 10. Istanbul Biennial ISTANBUL, 3 SEPTEMBER – 9 SEPTEMBER Venues: G arajistanbul, Istanbul Modern Museum of Contemporary Art and various public locations

“Expanded Academy” symposium, Istanbul Modern, (Victoria Vesna, Milenko Prvacki, Bjørn Melhus)

Workshop, Istanbul

327

MILENKO PRVAČKI red, and happened. And just for 10 years! This project did not stop because of bombs, sanctions, discouragement or even lack of inspiration or ideas. “Real Presence” ceased to exist physically in Belgrade on the top of Curators and academics tend to create not its success. Like a greatest champion. On only a platform, but very specific content/ time, in order not to collapse. “Real Presennarrative in a limited space for artists to dece” continues in a new mental form in every velop their art work. Usually without thinparticipant and art voluntaking of opening the doors ry “slave” of “Real Presenand windows in a claustrop… process, intuition, ce”. hobic room. Therefore, I do stimulations, rakija, absolutely agree with BilAsking my professors and jana and Dobrila’s citation evenings, subversively, students who participated and vision (cited above) in in spite of, evening, in “Real Presence” what their approach to deliberathey think about it and way tely not conceptualise space absence of structure and they are going back to the but leave it like a “tabula real presence all around. RP crime scene again and rasa”. Organic. There is alagain: It is just because of mornings, food, ways enough of great historical and social platform, order, space, fear, playground, luggage around for artists to be inspired, time, curiosity, creativity, surprises, tears, provoked and learn, particularly in a new exploration, risk, play, engagement, collabogeographical and politicalised environration, unpredictability, love, fall, home, inment, Belgrade. teraction, history, misunderstandings, culture, orient, middle Europe, sobriety, light, I do know Belgrade, I do know what Biljana west, situations, sweetness, sounds, romandid in 60s and 70s, I know about the Serbian ce, accidents, inspiration, rivers, smells, situation, about bombing Serbia, I do know colours, chaos, revolution, eavesdropping, about sanctions and attempt of the cultural dreaming, geography, people, stimulatiblockade of Belgrade. But Biljana and Doons, conversations, déjà vu, dark humour, brila have not suggested, implemented nor exploitation, senses, nights, expedition, reinstalled cliché kind of hook for participants laxing, feelings, momentum, darkness, unto grab it and react ‘mimetically’ or to laknown, the truth, metaphysic, connections, ment about. happiness, share, courtesy, smiles, echo, the hang overs, bells, journey, BBQ, accumulaAs in my “TROPICAL LAB” Art Camp in LAtion, attention, hugs, stage, lies, disorder, SALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, “Real treat, fly, music, mixed up, citation, negotiaPresence” is a group of cosmopolitan artists, tion, process, intuition, stimulations, rakija, with great authentic languages and differenevenings, subversively, in spite of, evening, ces that could match very well. And they do. absence of structure and real presence all around. When there is potential for “nothing” to be (like in Belgrade) - “Real Presence” appea“As curators, we decided not to impose anything and to leave free to artists to choose space and situation that suits them better…”

REAL PRESENCE

328 1

Vasif Kortun, talk, Platform Garanti

Visit to the Platform Garanti

Workshop, Garajistanbul

4 5 6

Talks and Presentations, Garajistanbul Marina GrĹžiniÄ&#x2021;, talks and presentations, Garajistanbul

329

MARINA GRŽINIĆ

EDUCATION IS NOT A TRANSPARENT MACHINE FOR PRODUCTION AND CIRCULATION OF SKILLS.

REAL PRESENCE

330

MARINA GRŽINIĆ “Real Presence” that for many years and throughout different cities opened a space of encounters and exchange was important platform for the art studio Post-Conceptual Art Practices (PCAP) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and as well for numerous students and professors in the academy. For the PCAP concretely it was a platform where we could present what we continuously develop for the last 15 years. In 2003 I conceptually renamed what is officially called Studio for Conceptual art into Post-Conceptual Art Practices at the Academy. My vision was to engage in a process of questioning the restructuring parameters of fine arts and to actively enter a wider context of art that can become a powerful social practice. A good case in the matter is that a big number of PCAP students engaged in the Refugee Protest Camp in Vienna which started in 2012 and we engaged actively on questions of racism, seclusion, and the concept of “Fortress Europe”. Activism, politics and theory are of utmost importance for the approach we use in PCAP when dealing with visual practices and politics of representation. Theory is not an old academic theory that suffocates the art practice but rather a contemporary theoretical and critical way of thinking that helps students to develop processes for the conceptualisation of fine arts and the politics of the world that has many different layers. Art is not a tool that can simply be applied to a certain innocent process of production and distribution of images and knowledge. Education is not a transparent machine for production and circulation of skills. Post Conceptual Art Practices (PCAP) has a pretty intensive and lively history of being consciously involved upon occasions of research traveling. Since 2003, we have trave-

universities and academies are under capiled throughout Austria and abroad with the tal pressure, but that the whole society is goal to deepen the intensity of collaboration being radically changed and that the tasks within different spaces, and to learn from to open the educational process to analysis productive antagonisms in different situaand reflection coincide tions and institutions. The with processes of undersoutcome of all these diffeMy vision was to tanding what is going rent encounters are projects engage in a process with our lives in general. open to the public through All our good intentions as exhibitions, performances, of questioning the professors are not enough lectures and films edited by restructuring parameters because universities and students during the trips. of fine arts and to academies are pressed by Some of these trajectories the capital iron law that we as well presented as part actively enter a wider is the law of surplus value of “Real Presence”. context of art that can created through drastic rabecome a powerful tionalisations. Therefore To summarise, our work only with implementation consists in developing: 1. social practice. of dilemmas, new procesA precise analysis of conses of history, different formats of work wittemporary art inside Western democracy hin the process of studying and reflecting and its imperialism/colonialism history and upon art practices can we change something present. 2. A consequent criticism of racist for the benefit and advantage of students. politics. 3. A consequent criticism of the rising anti-Semitism in the context of Europe, and redefinition of new fascist movements throughout Europe. 4. A networking with trans-feminist and migrant queer positions. 5. Research trips and platforms for community-based works and publishing projects. We try to open a platform for discussion and conceptualisation of topics that challenge the assumptions that art is only about technical virtuosity or mute creative expression, and that the occurrences in the classroom are secluded from the rest of our lives. Neoliberal capitalist globalisation transforms processes of thinking into skills, depriving those who study (more and more divided between “citizens” and “non-citizens”) of any sustainable political and acting coordinates. In order to understand these changes, it is necessary to be able to see that not only

331

Dorian Monelli, talks and presentations, Garajistanbul

Workshop, Garajistanbul

Ani Mezaduryan and Mizzi Schnyder, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Would You Like To Play Gameâ&#x20AC;?, actions, Garajistanbul

REAL PRESENCE

332

ISIDORA KRSTIĆ I attended “Real Presence” for the first time when I was 19. I was a fine arts student and I was just tapping into contemporary arts and beginning to define for myself what art “is” and what it can “do”. At the same time, I was painfully aware that I was essentially cut off from the world - not much if any contemporary art from other parts of the world could at that time be seen throughout Belgrade. In addition, an extremely strict visa policy made it difficult to move outside of the country.

“Real Presence” provided a counter-weight to this oppressive situation by bringing the world in. When I look back at this experience, together with all the friendships and collaborations made during this time (some of which still last until today), two notions emerge. One is related to intimacy, in this case defined as a close, intellectual exchange with your peers, and which took effect at an intuitive and selfless level. This enabled an international, intergenerational exchange where it was possible to get a sense of where art was. The other notion relates to gratefulness, despite all other difficulties, for having simply been present, in that specific place and time.

Isidora Krstić and Itamar Rose, “Untitled”, performance, New Mosque

Carmen Colibazzi, “Semazen”, performance, New Mosque, Eminönü

Ania Puntari, “XXX”, video projection, Galata Tower

Saša Tkačenko, “Untitled”, video installation, Garajistanbul (Hafiz Osman and Mohammed Zulkarnaen Bin Othman)

Raul Martinez, “Ephemeral Sculpture”, outdoor installation (Nikola Uzunovski)

One of the strongest influences from “Real Presence” for me was seeing the presentations from Victoria Vesna’s students from the UCLA Design and Media Arts Department. Their work probed the most fundamental questions of life and humanity, through interweaving technology, scientific methods and art in a way I had not yet seen. A bit later, I took a keen interest in overarching the disciplines of art and science, which became a core of my subsequent artistic practice. In 2007, the workshop had its extension in Istanbul, as “Real Presence - Floating Site”. The task was to create something in a little

over than a week. My idea was a spontaneous one, balancing between gesture and performance: I invited Itamar Rose, an artist from Israel, to embrace the pillar of a mosque together. In this way, we would bring symbolic peace between three religions: I was the (symbolic) representative of Christianity, Itamar of Judaism, and the pillar, Islam. In 2008, “Real Presence - Floating Site” was hosted by Museo di Arte Contemporanea Castello di Rivoli in Turin. At the museum, I decided to revitalise an old stone fountain. I would fill it entirely with leaves and use the foliage to create an adjacent object. The leaves came from the gardening work, so it was material that was repurposed from the building’s maintenance. The work can be seen as an attempt to ‘micro-shift’ an institution’s internal operations, while at the same time affecting the public space in front of the museum. The limited period of the workshop format drew me to explore the performative aspect of an artistic work through social and ontological interventions. I think I was always trying to tell a story by constructing a narrative anew and finding connections between objects and occurrences which were not previously there. Biljana Tomić’s understanding of what art ‘is’, still today prompts me to keep carefully and vigilantly re-evaluating the definition of art. She suggests that “art is life, and life is art, there is no distinction between the two”. This thought stuck with me; however, I also realised, to fully comprehend and embrace it, perhaps takes a lifetime to arrive to. Together with all the friendships, this is what I took, and to this day - still continue to take. Thank you Biljana and Dobrila for that.

333

20 2

5 07

REAL PRESENCE

334

Interaction with “Swaporama” by Otto von Busch - Wronsov, (Alessandro Pierattini, Dayan Ozan Özoğlu)

MaraM, Pinar Yoldas

Biljana Tomić, Milenko Prvački

Opening of the 10th Istanbul Biennial (Biljana Tomić, Isidora Krstić, Carla Ehrlich, Boris Stanić, Lidija Delić, Aleksandra Petrusevska, Zorica Zafirovska, Ajeet Mansukhani, Mohammed Zulkarnaen Bin Othman, Saša Tkačenko, Hafiz Osman, Dobrila Denegri)

“Beauties of the Night”, concert, 10th Istanbul Biennial (Alexander Wolf, Markus Krottendorfer)

335

07 5

REAL PRESENCE

336

AUSTRIA

GERMANY

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

Institute for Art in Context, Berlin University of the Arts

ARTISTS Katharina Walpoth Magdalena Walpoth

PROFESSOR Michael Fehr

Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze

ARTIST Irina Novarese

PROFESSORS Umberto Borella Giovanna Fezzi

PROFESSOR Dorit Margreiter ARTISTS Orsolya Bajusz Carla Marie Janine Ehrlich Nicola Feiks Hatschepsut Huss Hanno Schnegg Mario Strk University of Applied Arts, Vienna PROFESSORS Zaha Hadid Brigitte Kowanz Barbara Putz-Plecko Virgil Widrich Erwin Wurm ARTISTS Sonja Bendel Johanna Bruckner Bernhard Garnicnig Susanne Legerer Marlies Pöschl Steffi Schöne Anna Weilhartner BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Academy of Fine Arts, Mostar PROFESSOR Antun Boris Švaljek ARTIST Maja Rubinić BRASIL Federal University of Uberlândia PROFESSOR Marco Antonio Pasqualini de Andrade ARTIST Flaviane Malaquias FRANCE National School of Fine Arts at the Villa Arson, Nice PROFESSOR Pascal Pinaud ARTIST Mathieu Orenge University of Rennes PROFESSOR Jean-Marc Poinsot ARTIST Fabienne Le Gall

Mainz Academy of Arts ARTIST Vanessa Heyde University of Fine Arts, Hamburg PROFESSOR Raimund Bauer ARTISTS Nadine Droste Swen-Erik Scheuerling GREECE Department of Fine Arts and Arts Sciences of the University of Ioannina PROFESSORS Kostas Basanos Xenofon Bitsikas ARTISTS Thomas Apostolou George Itoudis Terpsithea Kremali Eva Marathaki Irene Olympiou Eleni Papadaki Sophia Timini Eleni Tsalidou Theofano Varvariti ITALY Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, Torino PROFESSORS Elisabetta Ajani Radu Dragomirescu Renato Galbusera ARTISTS Alessandra Ascrizzi Giulia Bossone Rosania Alessandro Caligaris Donato Canosa Antonio Lorenzo Falbo Francesca Sibona Christian Sida Alejandro Tamagno Francesca Tosso Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna PROFESSOR Luca Caccioni

ARTIST Giusy Pirrotta Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli PROFESSORS Carmine Di Ruggiero Francesca Morelli Ninì Sgambati ARTISTS Cristiana Arena Riccardo Attanasio Giulio Del Vecchio Pasquale Errico Gianluca Mattei Carlotta Sennato Valerio Veneruso Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma PROFESSOR Gianfranco Notargiacomo ARTISTS Alfredo Conticello Romela Crnogorac Paolo Garau Alessandro Pierattini Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia PROFESSORS Andrea Grassi Anna Sostero Luigi Viola ARTISTS Veronika Ban Francesco Fonassi Nika Korsič Tomaso Matta Alessandra Messali Riccardo Rauseo Giulio Rossi Nicola Ruben Montini Stefano Venturi Brera Academy, Milan PROFESSORS Diego Esposito Ignazio Gadaleta Alberto Garutti Paolo Rosa ARTISTS Aleksandra Erdeljan Alberto Gianfreda Marco Pezzotta Marco Strappato

Istituto Statale d’Arte, Ancona ARTIST Carlo Alessandrelli NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan PROFESSOR Marco Scotini ARTISTS Giulia Casula Eugenia Vanni Università Iuav di Venezia PROFESSOR Eva Marisaldi ARTISTS Eva Cenghiaro Gabriella Guida Alessandra Saviotti Iacopo Seri Chiara Trivelli University of Bologna PROFESSOR Giovanni Matteucci ARTIST Michele Brembilla University of Bologna – DAMS (Drama, Art and Music Studies) ARTIST Valentina Miorandi REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA Academy of Fine Arts, Skopje PROFESSOR Bedi Ibraim ARTISTS Daniel Kocev Aleksandra Petkova Dimitrie Risteski ROMANIA National University of Arts, Bucharest PROFESSORS Iosif Kiraly Ion Stendl ARTISTS Adrian Duceac Valentin Duceac Zaharia Maialina Silvia Alexandra Pintilie

SERBIA University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Anđelka Bojović Dragana Ilić Slobodan Roksandić Jovan Sivački Biljana Vuković ARTISTS Ana Anđelić Željko Anđelković Maja Beganović Natasa Čulina Lidija Delić Smilja Ignjatović Nina Ivanović Bojan Jovanović Sava Knežević Isidora Krstić Iva Kuzmanović Nemanja Lađić Marko Marković Branko Milisković Ana Pavlović Katarina Rašić Nina Simonović Mića Stajičić Bojana Stamenković Boris Stanić Vladimir Stojanović Marko Stojković Marija Šević Tanja Uverić Jovana Višnić Jelena Vujić Sanja Ždrnja University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Applied Arts PROFESSOR Dragan Radenović ARTISTS Nina Galić Tijana Jurišić Jelena Lazić Mia Nikolić Milena Štikovac Saša Tkačenko Academy of Fine Arts BK, Belgrade PROFESSOR Marko Suvajdžić ARTIST Roman Igličar Academy of Arts, Novi Sad ARTISTS Ljubica Čvorić Marina Tomić

337

SINGAPORE

SWITZERLAND

LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

Zurich University of the Arts

DEAN Milenko Prvački ARTISTS Elizabeth de Roza Hafiz Osman Laura Soon SLOVAKIA

PROFESSOR Christian Hübler ARTIST Dionys Dammann TURKEY Faculty of Fine Arts, Marmara University, Istanbul PROFESSOR Tayfun Erdoğmuş

PROFESSOR Milota Havránková ARTIST Andrea Kalinová

ARTIST Ayşe Baysan Yüksel Selin Kocagöncü Gamze Özer Yağız Özgen

SLOVENIA

Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana

Royal College of Art, London

PROFESSOR Srečo Dragan

ARTISTS Güler Ates Ross Taylor

SOUTH AFRICA Bag Factory Artists‘ Studios – Johannesburg ARTISTS Lester Adams Lerato Shadi SPAIN Faculty of Fine Arts - Universidad Complutense de Madrid PROFESSOR Manolis Babusis ARTIST María León

Yoeri Meessen, Head of the educational and public program, Manifesta 7, Trento and Rovereto ASSISTANTS

Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava

ARTIST Ana Čigon

GUESTS Adam Budak, Curator, Manifesta 7, Trento and Rovereto

Lidija Delić Smilja Ignjatović Nina Ivanović Bojan Jovanović Sava Knežević Isidora Krstić Iva Kuzmanović Nemanja Lađić Marko Marković Branko Milisković Nina Simonović Bojana Stamenković Boris Stanić Marija Šević Saša Tkačenko Sanja Ždrnja

USA UCLA Design Media Arts, Los Angeles PROFESSOR Victoria Vesna ARTIST Gil Kuno Mountain School of Arts, Los Angeles ARTIST Corrado Folinea University of Wisconsin– Madison ARTIST Melissa Steckbauer

SWEDEN Södertörns University, Stockholm ARTIST Caroline Malmström Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm PROFESSOR Apolonija Šušteršič ARTIST Marika Troili

REAL PRESENCE

338

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2008” BELGRADE, 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST Venues: Heritage House, MKM, Kazamati - Military Museum, Belgrade City Library and various public locations

339

20 2

Workshop, Belgrade City Library

Talks and presentations, Belgrade City Library

Dobrila Denegri, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Real Presenceâ&#x20AC;?, talks and presentations, Belgrade City Library

Aspramente: Eva Cenghiaro, Gabriella Guida, Alessandra Saviotti, talks and presentations, Belgrade City Library

REAL PRESENCE

340 1

HAFIZ OSMAN My first encounter with “Real Presence” was in 2007. Milenko Prvački, Dean of Fine Arts, invited me to participate in a workshop that would be held in Istanbul. I was doing my degree on the Visual Arts program at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore. Although I had not attended any exchange programmes or workshops locally or internationally, I knew this opportunity would give me great exposure. When I arrived in Istanbul, I brought with me a presentation of images of my current works to share with all the other artists participating in the seminar. Being one of the few Asian participants, I felt a little intimidated and nervous. However, I went ahead with my presentation in a dark hall in front of hundreds of eager listeners. Immediately after my presentation I felt relieved. That was when I was introduced to Biljana and Dobrila. We shook hands. I remember that Biljana said, “I understood your artworks completely, and it was important for your

presentation to be shared.” She smiled and said that my visual language was clear and understandable, even though I came from a different cultural background. That was the beginning of my relationship with “Real Presence”. I learnt a great deal and experienced many special moments each year I went to “Real Presence” between 2007 and 2010. Making friends, exchanging ideas and thoughts on art and culture, “Real Presence” gave me a little something more each time. “Real Presence” allowed me to be the artist I want to be, and it was also an important step in my artistic development. From art residencies and international exhibitions to community based art and collaborative involvement, I am aware of my conscious act/ action as a practising artist. Now, ten years later, I still feel that “Real Presence” is striving and alive. It will always be a special place and I am grateful to be part of this family.

Hafiz Osman, talks and presentations, Belgrade City Library

Romela Crnogorac, “Cafe du Brasil”, installation, Heritage House

Anna Weilhartner, workshop, Heritage House

Anna Weilhartner, “76.065,45 DINAR”, installation, Heritage House

341

20 2

REAL PRESENCE

342

VALENTINA MIORANDI I would like to talk about “Real Presence” as a real evolutionary moment in my life. “Real Presence” had an incredible energy that created extremely strong bonds between the participants. All the artists were very young, full of ideas, feelings and potential energies, which we unleashed and shared first relationally and then artistically. What we perceived was a real generative energy, comparable to the energy of bacteria in the “primordial broth”. Biljana and Dobrila were able to make art a real opportunity for meeting, and in that meeting – that broth – we all evolved together, side by side, in a happy and warm osmosis, where beauty and learning coincided. Learning means changing our own vision of the world, and this change amplifies the way we relate to others. This was such a strong learning experience that in my life since I have always tried to recreate the same approach, both in my work and in everyday life. From that moment, dialogue, listening, doing and living together has always been my work methodology. In 2013, I started to build a raft entitled “Turning Tables”, an anthology of alternative artistic/cultural production practices that affirm culture as their primary common good.

I truly think that “Real Presence” was a crucial moment in my life, and I have always looked for similar realities. Some years later, I had the chance to be one of the students at the Dutch Art Institute, another precious collective learning experience in which my colleagues became my kin. I think that in the age of commodified art and strategies that aim at our separation from the community, such experiences, which appear so simple and natural, are actually the real subversive practices. Since 2014, Sandrine Nicoletta and I have founded the “Drifters” duo, with an interest in interweaving directions and exploring places and people through a heuristic approach. The task of relational art is to unveil how beautiful it is to create entanglements with others. In conclusion, I believe that the real political purpose of these precious occasions of meetings is happiness, and happiness is contagious!

343

VALENTINA MIORANDI

THE TASK OF RELATIONAL ART IS TO UNVEIL HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS TO CREATE ENTANGLEMENTS WITH OTHERS.

Valentina Miorandi, “Meeting In Belgrade”, installation, MKM

REAL PRESENCE

344 1

1 2 3

Carla Ehrlich and María León, “Top-Secret”, performance, Kazamati - Military Museum

345

MARIA LEÓN I joined Real Presence” ten years ago, in 2008. I heard about the program through my friend Carla Ehrlich, who I met on my Erasmus studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts. It was Carla who encouraged me to apply, and we went to Belgrade together. Participants in this edition were asked to show their artwork in a public presentation, but I refused. At that time I was 23, and I didn’t feel I had a “serious” body of work yet. I was still learning, experimenting, looking for my own voice as an artist, which also meant I was open to all challenges and possibilities. In fact, the piece I showed in the final exhibition of this edition of “Real Presence” was a collaboration with Carla. We decided to give a performance at the Military Museum. For this performance we began to look into the social and cultural context, which was quite unstable at the time. Radovan Karadžić, a war criminal who had hidden his secI am interested in things ret identity from Serbians that are about to become for more than a decade, their own ruins, on the had just been arrested in Belgrade. So we decided verge of extinction, ready to fake a sort of conspirato disappear into the torial action in a room in past, questioning the the Military Museum where we were not allowed to linear history of progress. work. The room was full of weapons and other unidentified military stuff. We wore white suits, masks and red gloves as if we were a couple of scientists involved in a sort of secret mission. We acted as if we were manipulating the objects that surrounded us. The public had no access at all to the room, so the only way of catching a glimpse of the performance was from outside the building through a small hole in a broken window. Later, the documentary

video of the secret intervention could be seen in the most visible place in the Heritage House. In addition to this, we recorded a series of interviews in which we asked people if they had had the chance to see the top secret performance. Carla and I tried to work together after “Real Presence”, but it did not happen. We are still good friends. She became an art teacher and I developed my career as professional artist based in Berlin. While writing this text I see that my current art practice is not so far from the performance we gave in “Real Presence” 2008. For example, I make use of everyday objects in my work that have lost the splendour of current interest, for it is precisely at this moment that they feel free of any functionality, in exactly same the way that the objects in the room in the Military Museum had become covered in dust. I am interested in things that are about to become their own ruins, on the verge of extinction, ready to disappear into the past, questioning the linear history of progress, objects that speak about times earlier than the present, like the artillery equipment we found for our performance. My artistic research is about exploring the materiality of printed media, mostly newspapers, a medium that has only a limited, one-day lifespan; the history of print media took place in parallel with the history of weapon development. Furthermore, I look for ways to situate materials of different speeds and temporalities in dialogues in order to create diverse new resonances, just as is happening right here: an experience that belongs to the past being brought to the present by the means of writing.

REAL PRESENCE

346 1

Dionys Dammann, “Untitled”, performance, Kazamati - Military Museum

Iacopo Seri, “An open cluster is a group of stars that were formed from the same cloud and are still loosely gravitationally bound to each other. They become disrupted by tidal forces and close encounters with other clusters as they orbit the galactic centre”, drawings (detail)

347

20 3

IACOPO SERI My contribution to “Real Presence” 2008 was a situation specific piece called: “An open cluster is a group of stars that were formed from the same cloud and are still loosely gravitationally bound to each other. They become disrupted by tidal forces and close encounters with other clusters as they orbit the galactic centre.”

The piece consisted of 81 drawings, each a pencil portrait of the moles on a different “Real Presence” participant’s back. The moles became silver stars on blue paper. I used carbon paper for the drawings, so there’s a double copy of each portrait of someone’s back. I gave one to each artist and kept the other, so today the work is scattered around the globe. The friendships we made in Belgrade were so powerful that they still shape our lives to some extent. I feel we’re like those stars, orbiting around similar dreams and ways of life. We touch each other briefly here and there, while still expanding our boundaries, despite all the borders and walls. Today, 10 years after I drew those moles, this open cluster is still dancing around the world. We’re still loosely playing together, sometimes colliding again, but whatever happens we know we belong to similar galaxies. This is the real presence, and it’s now more real than ever.

REAL PRESENCE

348 1

349

20 4

Selin Kocagöncü, “Exchange”, action, Knez Mihajlova Street

Marlies Pöschl, workshop, MKM

Boris Stanić, workshop, Heritage House

Alessandro Caligaris, Christian Sida, “Orthodox Metamorphoses”, Heritage House (Alessandro Caligaris)

Marco Strappato, workshop, Heritage House

REAL PRESENCE

350

Giusy Pirrotta, “Buvlja Pijaca”, installation, Heritage House

351

GIUSY PIRROTTA During my experience at “Real Presence” 2008 in Belgrade, I wanted to explore the territory, talk to people and create a work that could say something authentic about the places I was seeing. Driven by this desire, I found “Buvlja Pijaca” (flea market), a place built and managed by the local Roma community, which turned into a market at the weekend. I found this place extremely suggestive due to the immense piece of land it occupied and also because “Buvlja Pijaca” means “public square”, thus a place dedicated to people, their lives and their business, in this case different from what would be considered a “normal” lifestyle. The market was built on a massive garbage dump underneath a bridge. At the weekend you could go in and find anything you wanted – clothes, shoes and many other different objects. Although a fence surrounded the place, you could enter freely to buy or exchange something you had to bargain with the locals. I remember being really fascinated by the place, and I wanted to interact with the community living there and buy something. Wandering around, I was impressed by the seemingly infinite number of shoes on the ground. I decided to make an offer, collect as many shoes as I could and install them in the exhibition space. Together with a local woman, I collected the shoes and put them in a dozen bin bags. I managed to find someone with a truck and transported my “shopping” to the exhibition space. This was how “Buvlja Pijaca” was born, an installation that aimed to tell of a place far away from the city centre, on the outskirts of the city, and of my interaction with the people living there.

The shoes are witnesses to life; they represent vital paths, unknown to us. They are a body simulacrum, in this case representing the people of Belgrade and the steps they take. Looking at the work we can only fantasise about who the shoes belonged to. In the exhibition space they became a strongly evocative symbol because they carried signs of human presence: memories, hopes and discoveries. I remember there were 201 pairs of second hand shoes nailed to the wall, releasing a strong smell into the room, a smell of life and death. Since my experience in Belgrade my work has changed and developed, but I have kept a similar approach to space in my way of installing site-specifically. My research involves the use of different media, such as film, video, photography and ceramic, and aims to dissolve the boundaries between disciplines like art, craft and design and languages such as moving image and sculpture. My practice focuses on the multidisciplinary use of the moving image, its interaction with sculptural elements and different light sources. My intent is to shape light in order to create a tactile experience of an evanescent phenomenon through the interaction between projected image/light and sculpture and architectural space. My interventions aim to question the condition of seeing and the relationships between the moving image and its objects, the physical installation space and the viewer experience. My research is developing through a practice-based PhD project that investigates the relationship between the use of moving images and the different creative languages adopted by artists and aims to transform the exhibition context and contribute to creating a hybrid system of moving image installation in contemporary art.

REAL PRESENCE

352 1

RUBEN MONTINI

BELGRADE HAD THIS FASCINATING AURA THAT MADE IT VERY ATTRACTIVE. IT WAS UNDERGROUND, IT WAS CHALLENGING AND VIBRANT.

Valentin Duceac, Adrian Duceac, Alessandro Pierattini, “Untitled”, installation, Heritage House

Valentin Duceac, Adrian Duceac, Alessandro Pierattini, “Untitled”, installation (detail), Heritage House

Valentin Duceac, Adrian Duceac, Alessandro Pierattini, “Untitled”, installation (detail), Heritage House (Valentina Miorandi, Marco Pezzotta, Giulia Casula)

353

20 2

REAL PRESENCE

354 1

RUBEN MONTINI “Let Me Be Your Butterfly” was the title of the performance I gave during “Real Presence” in 2008 in Belgrade. Just a few weeks later, I presented “Eva-cquazione”, still within the frame of “Real Presence” but at the Castello di Rivoli in Turin. What was amazing about “Real Presence”, besides the fact that it allowed each participant to get to know many other young artists and curators from all over the world, was the fact that it gave us the opportunity to showcase our ideas within a professional framework: whether in a project space, a gallery or a museum. After showing my first performative project at Galleria A+A, which at the time was the Slovenian Cultural Centre in Venice, “Real Presence” was the second time I displayed my work in a professional environment. In the meantime I had moved to London. Back then, London was a must for all young Italian art students. We would all move there because of the freedom and openness the city would grant us, still fascinated by the legendary culture that had characterised the UK in previous decades. It was everybody’s dream, everybody’s goal. When I decided to take part in “Real Presence”, Belgrade had this fascinating aura that made it very attractive to me. It was underground, it was challenging and vibrant. And thanks to “Real Presence”, for two weeks every year it would turn into an international campus for young artists. For an aspiring artist like me, fascinated by the history of performance art, who saw Belgrade as a special place where the history of political performance began, going there was just the right thing to do.

I had already some ideas in mind for the final project I would like to produce while in Serbia. But I soon realised that it would be pointless to make something without actually relating to the context, or something I could have made anywhere else in the world. So I did some quick research on Google just the day before my departure. I immediately realised that the Gay Pride in 2007 was a total disaster: participants were kicked, punched and attacked by members of the most conservative political party. I also discovered that the government did not do a lot about it. At the same time, I found out that in 2008 the British government had asked Serbia to provider some protection for the LGBTQ community that would be coming to the country to attend the Eurovision Song Contest that summer. Unfortunately, the Serbian Parliament, hoping that nothing dangerous would happen, denied any special protection for sexual minorities during the festival. All of a sudden the idea for my project was there. In fact, “Let Me Be Your Butterfly” was a poetic answer to a hypothetical attack. If you would attack me because of my sexual orientation, then I would present myself as even weaker than I am. I will remove all my protections: my clothes, and then my natural defence: my hair. I would become a butterfly, like a caterpillar, like the weakest little thing on earth. This project became a seminal work in my research, leading on to the production of more actions that I presented in several European countries, reflecting my personal experience as young gay guy facing a society that still has a lot to work on when it comes to the rights of every kind of minority.

1 2 3

Ruben Montini, “Let Me Be Your Butterfly”, performance, Heritage House and MKM

355

20 2

REAL PRESENCE

356 1

JOHANNA BRUCKNER 1. SCAFFOLDING AGENCY I have always been interested in choreography, the orchestration of bodies, as an organising principle of social thought. When I was a gymnast as a teenager I was fascinated by structures of movement and the changing metamorphic settings and patterns of how bodies relate to, dissolve from and merge again with each other. I was interested in chimeric bodily assemblages that invisibly and infinitely change their interwovenness. Later, I became informed by theories of post-Fordist performance, which let me critically examine the relation between labour and the dissolution of art into life, determining the realities in which subjects work and move. I linked my interest in movement with political thought, which now enables me to elaborate my own artistic position in this field. In my work, moving bodies are labouring bodies, whose social intimacies, created through the affective zones that appear between the bodies, produce new bodily assemblages, whose languages aim to interrupt exploitative labour regimes as fields of agency.

2. PERFORMING AFFECTION The lecture performer is a worker on stage; he/she is a producer of content, but also a producer of affectivity. Mediation of the content depends on the performance of affect, the capability to address and impress the other, the potential to attract and catch audiences – the love he or she performs with. The body’s engagement is a measure of evaluation. Performance, as we know, has surpassed the art genre and determines the contemporary subject: the market demands a body that is continuously performing to optimise his/her desires and pleasures. The lecture performance may challenge how language can be passed from one to the other (the articulation of language, for example, is completely open to the artist). More significantly, I approach the lecture performer’s body as a site in which the pro-

1 2 3

Johanna Bruckner, “Untitled”, performance, Heritage House

357

duction of affect is integral to his/her work. One of my early works, “Body Conference II” – a collective lecture performance, features participants as personified emotions and symptoms. The feelings of the body (a performer) debate how they are being put to work today. In fact, they resist being an “emotional motor” of the market and consider their cooperation a means of resistance. A lecture performance’s method of transmission may be affective mediation from one to the other. So is the self a constantly mediating force today: the body serves the subject, and the other way round, back and forth, continuously evaluating the affective outputs in order to affirm or change direction. Mediation between body and subject is economic – the “fuel” is affect. I connect these thoughts in my current work on cryptocurrencies and post-monetary forms of value production. 3. MOVEMENT IN THE FACTORY OF SOCIAL DATA I usually work with a number of performers in temporary social settings, in which the performers’ bodily physical gestures and their transmission aim to propose new social infrastructures for the present. Let me explain this process by referring to one of my recent works in Hamburg’s HafenCity, in which a temporary group performed on the site of a forthcoming construction project on former warehouse wasteland. For this work, I invited an assemblage of performers to develop dance scores that transform the urgencies of construction labour and the paradoxes of housing policy and its associated ambivalent structures into possible collective agencies. The ground plans for the future construction project in HafenCity are redrawn, creating forms of housing that better accommodate prospective populations. The algorithms of floorplans for new urban development zones, which are automatically and technologically generated, are contrasted with the Brazilian Marxist architect

Sérgio Ferro‘s drawings and proposed housing models, which are integrated into the performance of the newly composed algorithms.

are actualised by a changing group of performances on a global scale in response to situational immediacy. I call these practices Scaffolding Agency.

The bodies perform in relation to one other, creating a physical language that remains temporarily autonomous because the scores, in their emerging structure, are temporarily foreign to capitalist abstraction. The bodies’ movements are beyond the range and scope of HafenCity’s surveillance mechanisms as they interrupt and disrupt the algorithmic streams of data and finance. These bodily constellations perform as self-determined, self-composed durational social endeavours, rehearsing relational accountabilities. Communal knowledge is created through horizontal exchange and learning, and different experiences of the investigation of labour and housing are discussed and put forward. A collectively produced manifesto poses HafenCity’s demands to the authorities. The group of performers investigates questions about what it could mean to organise collective forces in response to situational urgency in Hamburg: what does planning organisation mean, and how would it manifest itself? Attempting to define organisation as a constituent planning force based on situational immediacy, a practice in which organisation is determined by participants’ consistent social relations and communication about aspects of politics that concern their rights, working hours, workload, duty times and so on. This organisational practice is simultaneously both a general support structure and an archive: a data resource to be used on a global scale by those in need and their supporters. It is determined by workers sharing information about the situation and conditions on site and updating information based on local and situational experience, with references from radical practices such as Sérgio Ferro and the Architecture Nova Group. These practices

4. “WORKING / HACKING WITH CARE” I think it is important that art responds to and comments on the developments one is surrounded by, because it can offer alternative views to the given state of affairs. Art’s indeterminacy may have the intention to transform, recompose, abstract situationally. For example, I am currently giving voice to hacker ethics: to how methods of hacking crypto finance may be used to rethink how subjectivities relate to each other. The above-mentioned concepts of care, affection and crypto-solidarity are central to this work. More specifically, this work sheds light on the hacker’s collective “Hacking with Care”, which explores care as a component of hacking, while also seeking to liberate care, as appropriated by neoliberal development, and inspire alliances between “caregivers” with various competences, through, for example, decentralised post-monetary systems of value production. Moreover, the speeches of the hackers’ collective respond to geopolitically instrumentalised developments in logistics software linked to warfare in the Global South. As the commercial surveillance industry grows, so too must the bridges between planning, policy and advocacy communities, and I believe that art may give direction to citizens’ understanding of agencies. So, I accept the claim of the social pluralism of perspectives and positions in society only under the condition that social support structures sustain residents’ and citizens’ subjectivities on a stable and equal basis. Technology has the potential to link agencies on a global scale, but this may mean the politicisation of coordination and its means of connecting and linking people.

REAL PRESENCE

358 1

GIL KUNO I was invited to “Real Presence” twice, and the relationship with the people I have met continues to this date. In Belgrade, I collaged an image of the iconic war torn building in the city centre with the words “Hope” spelled out with the remaining windows. In Rivoli museum curators wanted for the artists to “change the perception of the exhibitive space”. I created a sculpture out of onions, as onions bring tears to people‘s eyes. With tears in one‘s eyes, the viewer‘s perception will change. Dobrila has since put me in a show in Poland (which landed me a show in Warsaw,) and Biljana has connected me to many key people in the art world. I am so very thankful to them and Victoria Vesna for sending me there! Let‘s all keep the RP spirit alive!

Gil Kuno, “Hope”, digital print, MKM

Marco Pezzotta, “Memory Game”, collage, MKM (Melissa Steckbauer)

Workshop, MKM

359

20 2

REAL PRESENCE

360 1

MARIKA TROILI & CAROLINE MALMSTRÖM Presentations at the city library. Dinners in a courtyard. Afternoons in a hip café. Breakfast: two fried eggs swimming in oil and fluffy white bread. Limited time: producing something, anything. We record film in the student corridor. We browse through the catalogue of amazing cakes at one of the bakeries and order a shiny white one for the opening. We buy fruit at the market before leaving for Istanbul. The staging of Marina Abramović’s performance. The closing party on the river boat. Becoming Facebook friends – many of my first FB friends are people I met at “Real Presence”. I remember signing up for Facebook while sitting in front of my PC in the small student room. When I hesitated, Melissa said: “you can have a professional profile”. It felt weird to expose my relationships like that. People were more open online at that time, sharing images and notes about their everyday life in a different manner than today. But I went through with it. We were at a bar one evening. Nina from Belgrade told me that no one in her generation was interested in political discussions any more, they were tired of it. They wanted to leave the war behind them. They just wanted to party.

This was when borders were still relatively closed, at least in one direction. As EU citizens we could enter Serbia easily, a stamp in my passport is all I remember. No visa application was required. But during those weeks in Belgrade we learned that crossing borders in the other direction, entering the EU with a Serbian passport, was far more complicated. “Real Presence” was a way of creating an international context for art students who couldn’t travel so freely. Traces of those weeks in Belgrade still exist on my Facebook timeline. A photo of us sitting in the gallery space, watching a performance. I don’t remember it being taken. I was tagged in the photo, not you. It was Aleksandra who published it, but we’re not Facebook friends any more. Some of the people we met still remain “friends”. Some of them are very successful, their lives pass by in my feed. Or fragments of their lives. Eva had a baby recently. Melissa was posting things frequently. Johanna was looking for a new flatmate to share her flat in Zurich, where she was teaching. Ruben was always doing a performance somewhere, and I saw pictures of his two dogs, Dalmatians. Hafiz got married. When we try to look for other “Real Presence” participants who don’t show up in the feed so

often, we can’t find them, maybe they are no longer on Facebook? Boris wrote a message on my timeline in Norwegian one year after “Real Presence”, asking how we were, saying that he and Lidija were still hoping to move to Scandinavia somehow and wanted to enrol at one of the art academies. That was the reason he was learning Norwegian. These are traces of our encounters in Belgrade, which now exist in the hands of a multi-national tech company, although those wall posts might still keep us in touch somehow. We could catch up if any of you happen to pass through Stockholm, something which is more likely now - new visa agreements with the EU have made Serbia’s national borders less rigid. Logging out, we cannot help but think that the actual history is all that is not on Facebook timelines and chronologies, events that were not and perhaps could not be documented. This is what makes art history from below, a collective becoming through semi-staged encounters, as is the spirit of the avant-garde tradition of South/East Europe.

361

20 2

1 2 3

Marika Troili and Caroline Malmström, “I Love You a Million Dollars”, collective action, MKM Alessandra Saviotti, Marika Troili

REAL PRESENCE

362 1

Aspra.mente - Real Presence: Aspra.mente, “Untitled”, installation, Heritage House

Aspra.mente - Real Presence: working on the installation

363

ALESSANDRA SAVIOTTI Exactly 10 years ago I was in my room in Ravenna, without air conditioning, packing my backpack. The plan for that night was to catch up with Gabriella, who would be arriving at Ferrara train station from Naples at around 10:00 pm. Eva would have jumped on the train in Venice at midnight; unfortunately Giulia was not joining us this time. We were still dazed and excited about our latest project, “Vaccinium”, which we had presented at Manifesta 7 in Rovereto a couple of months earlier, and we could not stop thinking about what we would do next. Belgrade was waiting for us. I remember hearing almost legendary stories about “Real Presence” from our fellow students at IUAV, our university in Venice. I could not wait to get there, although I did not know what exactly to expect. Belgrade seemed so far away; seventeen hours by train through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia to reach a city where I could not even understand the alphabet. Yet it was not difficult to feel at home, I think it was love at first sight. Thinking retrospectively about the value of that experience, I believe it was an important example of radical pedagogy through an approach of total inclusivity and openness. In a city where the course of a ferocious war was still so visible, I felt like culture, and in our case art, was the only common ground we had between each other. The way the workshops and exhibitions were conceived was totally free: we did not have any constraints, and this helped us to develop our methodology as a collective, essentially through cross-pollination and mutual exchange. Today, after several residencies around the world, I believe that “Real Presence” was a truly honest space for experimentation devoted to emerging artists. In contrast to what happens in most residency programs,

Aspra.mente (Alessandra Saviotti, Eva Cenghiaro, Giulia Gabrielli and Gabriella Guida) is a group which focuses on the common definition of “work in progress”, seeking the contribution of operators in fields other than art for interdisciplinary projects We all wanted to be just present in that mofree from time constraints. An open-ended ment. phase of exploratory research in a given field will thus only consolidate into a defiIn 2016, Aspra.mente turned 10 years old, so nite form when the time for public viewing we decided to celebrate at an event we were comes. Their projects are generally coninvited to take part in. I remember that dutext-driven, with local ring the artist’s talk a jourconstituencies playing nalist told us: “You were not Artists need to ask an important part in deaware of what you were dothemselves: how do we termining the guidelines: ing back in 2006, you were by involving the public as ahead of your time, and you immerse ourselves a stakeholder in the creatidid not know it. You can see in a context we are not ve process, art becomes an it now, this kind of socially familiar with? agent and a tool for social engaged art project has beinitiatives and cohesion in come a trend”. We thought the most disparate settings. The prevalent this was quite offensive: of course we were running theme is the consumption of food, aware of what we were doing. “No artist was regarded as intimately land-specific and a born ahead of her or his time, it is impossibpotential generator of agri-cultural projects. le!” said Hannah Gadsby about Van Gogh in her comedy show “Nanette”. The journalist’s comments came to my mind a year later when I was preparing a class for my students in San Francisco. I was reading some texts by Tania Bruguera and Jeanne van Heeswijk, who both arrived at the conclusion that through their work artists are able to rehearse the future and train for the not-yet . Both concepts reveal the potentiality of art to become a sort of third dimension, where our agency can be tested in order to find a balance between individual and collective needs. Artists need to ask themselves: how do we immerse ourselves in a context we are not familiar with? I think that is precisely what we have been i Jeannette Petrik, Education is always about the future: an trying to do since the very beginning of our interview with Tania Bruguera, career: just be honest with the reality around Temporary Art Review, July 20, 2017. http://temporaryartreview. us, and be present. com/education-is-always-aboutparticipants were not necessarily required to produce a work at the end of the experience, but more or less everybody showed a work or organised a performance or event.

the-future-an-interview-withtania-bruguera/ Accessed July 30, 2018.

*** ii

Jeanne van Heeswijk, Preparing for the Not-Yet, in “Slow Reader: a resource for design thinking and practice”, Carolyn F. Strauss and Ana Paula Pais (eds.), Valiz, Amsterdam, 2018.

REAL PRESENCE

364 1

365

20 3

1 2 3

Workshop, Kazamati - Military Museum Lidija Delić, “Line”, MKM, Magacin #8

REAL PRESENCE

366

“REAL PRESENCE & FLOATING SITES” RIVOLI (TURIN), 5 SEPTEMBER – 14 SEPTEMBER Venue: Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

367

Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, photo: Gil Kuno

Workshop, Manica Lunga, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art (Alberto Gianfreda)

3 4

Workshop, Manica Lunga, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

REAL PRESENCE

368

NINA SIMONOVIĆ In 2005, I was a first year student of Painting in a fine arts school in Belgrade, and Biljana invited me to take part in her and Dobrila’s project, “Real Presence”. Since then, I had participated in almost all of its following editions, until the last show in 2010.

internet - it became accessible only in 2007. “Real Presence” meetings were for me not only the opportunity to discover unfamiliar approaches to art, they were also one repeating annual experience that I could directly learn from.

I was twenty-one. I grew up in Belgrade. At that time, traveling was not easy due to complicated visa procedures and financial limitations that the majority of us depended on. I had no friends from other countries and I had a huge fantasy of life outside of Serbia, which was the fantasy of life in another, more advanced and better time. My first experience of “contemporary” art was actually at the “Real Presence” opening reception the year before.

Apart from inviting young artists, art students and lecturers, Biljana and Dobrila gave us the opportunity to create and exhibit in fantastic, both conventional and unconventional spaces. They organized afternoon meetings where we could present and discuss our practices with each other, shared meals every evening, and a big boat party on the final night of the residency. In addition to that, there were the “Real Presence” events in other countries, which were for us from Serbia – a chance to finally travel and get to see some of the most important art exhibitions and museums of contemporary art.

At the annual meetings and on our organized trips to Venice, and then Castello di Rivoli, I encountered a huge variety of – for me – new art forms. I was impressed and curious, but I can’t say I knew how to interpret them. I was never actually taught critical thinking, nor were we (the students) given much information about contemporary artistic practices in the quite conservative art school I had attended. The literature that we had access to was limited and as for (fast)

There was neither pressure to make artworks nor to make ‘good’ ones. Like an unconditional opportunity. We were invited to share our time together and get to know each other. We would spend ten days visiting the town, the flea market, sharing meals, searching for materials to make our works, helping each other, collaborating,

presenting and discussing our work, going out together each night, falling in love… We were having so much fun, every time it seemed there wouldn’t be enough time to prepare the final show. And still in the end – somehow - each time – a beautiful show would happen. I can’t be objective about it, but my feeling was that it reflected perfectly our time spent together: it felt fresh, it was sincere and alive. The town would be conquered with site-specific installations and performances. The observations and informal exchange made with other participants, as well as Biljana and Dobrila, together with the personal investment I had put into creating within these interactions, opened up my reflection to crucial questions regarding what art is, what it could be, and how artworks can be presented in different contexts and in relation to each other. I felt really free and encouraged to experiment with forms and materials. Many of us who participated in “Real Presence” are still in contact. Not as often as before, but we still continue meeting all over the world, we help each other, hang out and maybe still collaborate together.

369

1 2

Nina Simonović, “Untitled”, intervention on the floor, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Sanja Ždrnja, “Dream Factory (Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me)”, photos and drawings, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Sanja Ždrnja, “Dream Factory (Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me)“ [Series of photos, photomontages and drawings. Seemingly unrelated images, in a long line, represent the atmosphere of a dream. I took photos of the whole trip to Rivoli and photographed everything that was on my way. I was curious to explore the city, the travelling, to express how I felt, what I was thinking during that time. The second part of this work was to make the drawings. This work talks about how I felt all changes, in the atmosphere (air, dust, rain, sun), voices, the others, feeling of being surrounded by art, other artists and how my memory influence my perception.]

REAL PRESENCE

370

BOJANA STAMENKOVIĆ There are impressive moments, people and events that influence all of us in our personal development paths. For me, one such moment was when, for the first time, I met hundreds of young artists from all over Europe, Asia and America in a city in which we had been hermetically closed, with no insight into anything beyond our country’s borders. Our country was so isolated that we had huge expectations of art and everything else outside, so we were even frightened we were not worthy of it. And it just happened that we were all smiling, productive, without prejudice, unencumbered, free to create exactly what we wanted and how we imagined, surrounded by art from around the world in Belgrade. That experience gave me new energy, boundaries were broken and my awareness of the art that emerged from behind them changed, becoming ever simpler and easier. At the time I was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, and I wanted to deal with contemporary art, whatever that meant, something new, different, something that was not part of the academic program. “Real Presence” was non-academic education that contributed greatly to my development, and I claim with certainty, also to the development of a large number of my friends who were studying in Belgrade. We had a couple of years of amazing energy, sharing, experience, team learning, creating art in the community in various cities and countries, and most importantly learning about ourselves in these new situations. After graduating, I founded an art group with my colleague Jelena Fužinato, and with a couple of friends I started a non-governmental organisation dealing with culture and youth activism. I took part in several foreign summer schools and solo and group exhibitions, as well as devising projects and

raising funds for their realisation. In every aspect of my development, and in my various areas of operation, I must admit that I am grateful for the existence of two remarkable persons: Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri. After all, I’m currently between Austria and Germany, a student on the educating/curating/managing (ECM) Advanced Master’s programme at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Vienna, and more than ever before I see these ladies’ contribution. My engagement with organisations, with curatorial work and with culture over the last four years in these countries has shown me how much the two of them did for all of us. With so much freedom, with smiles on their faces, the free space, the lack of limits, the materials, the funds... they welcomed (or hosted) us all in a way that we did not feel like their work was an effort. With their hospitality they made everyone feel like hosts, like guests. I recently found a few sentences that reminded me of “Real Presence”, Biljana and Dobrila once again. With these words I finish a text that is very personal for me: “A curatorial situation is always one of hospitality. It implies invitations to artists, curators, audiences, and institutions; it receives, welcomes, and temporarily brings people and objects together, some of which have left their habitual surroundings and find themselves in the process of relocation in the sense of being a guest. Thus the curatorial situation provides both the time and the space for encounter between entities unfamiliar with one another. “Culture of the Curatorial – Hospitality, Hosting Relations in Exhibitions”; Beatrice von Bismarck, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer (eds.)

371

20 2

Bojana Stamenković, “The Line”, installation, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Boris Stanić, “Pollution”, drawings, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Marko Marković, “Untitled”, wall drawing, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Nemanja Ladjić, “Untitled”, installation, Manica Lunga, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Isidora Krstić, “Green Globe and Fountain”, installation in front of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

REAL PRESENCE

372 1

Smilja Ignjatović and Bojan Jovanović, “Captured Rain”, intervention in the garden of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Smilja Ignjatović and Bojan Jovanović, “An Artist Having Lunch at Combal.Zero”, digital print, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Saša Tkačenko, “Common People”, video installation in the elevator of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Saša Tkačenko, “Common People”, video installation in the elevator of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art (Giulio Delve’)

Nadine Droste, Swen-Erik Scheuerling, “Untitled”, video installation, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

373

20 3

REAL PRESENCE

374

SWEN-ERIK SCHEUERLING A camera is sliding along an endless bench past people frozen in movement. They are standing, sitting or lying in various postures, one is walking backwards. As a tableau vivant, Nadine Droste and I made this video with other participants for the exhibition in Manica Lunga. The bench was placed outside, parallel to the exhibition space with its long straight structure. This was my first “Real Presence”, in 2008 at Castello di Rivoli. I remember the warm welcome from Biljana and Dobrila and the friendly and interested atmosphere. Young artists from Serbia, Italy and all over the world – a great get-together, going on for long nights at the Boccia Club bistro next to the Castello, with a lot of pizza, pasta and wine. I also showed some studies of platonic shapes in Rivoli. For my diploma, I was working on an idea for a dome, using uniform structures and circular architecture. Half a year later I built a construction with rope and weights attached to a motor, which by rotating formed a transparent hemispherical shape. I presented this work at “Real

Presence” 2009 in Venice, while in Rivoli I gave away sketches of the platonic shapes as presents, so they spread out into various countries. At the time Nadine and I were curating the HFBK (University of Fine Arts Hamburg) gallery, and we were able to invite some “Real Presence” participants. With Branko Milisković, Corrado Folinea, Lester Adams and Saša Tkačenko we conceived the show “The Outerworld of the Innerworld of the Innerworld of the Outerworld”, about the interaction between personal perception and external influences. The last “Real Presence” in 2010 was my first visit to Belgrade. Arriving at the Palace Hotel with its plush red carpet and mirrored corridors was a bit like visiting another time. “Real Presence” happened in the whole city simultaneously, with lectures, various events and visits to studios, galleries and project spaces, as well as discussions about history and the difficult conditions for cultural institutions. I especially remember an extensive debate after a visit to the Museum of Yugoslavia about a postcard featuring Tito in swimming trunks lying on the beach,

and nice lunches with intense conversations and slivovitz at the Question Mark. For the exhibition at Gallery Zvono I conceived a spatial drawing using rope: a kind of gate, referring to an entrance door, in the various steps of a falling movement. The ropes were aligned to be perceived as a vanishing point from which they merged visually to one frame. For me, “Real Presence” was a kind of collective event – curious and open – an enriching exchange about origin, backgrounds, approaches and questions about zeitgeist and the personal and political dimensions of the intention to produce art; a chance for (self-) reflection and of course contacts and friendships with other artists from various nations. Afterwards, meetings and visits followed, as did projects and collaborations like those with Branko at Kampnagel Hamburg or with Corrado at his Museo Apparente in Naples or Turin – a subsequent progress that hopefully won’t freeze.

375

Swen-Erik Scheuerling, Untitledâ&#x20AC;?, installation, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Antonio Lorenzo Falbo

Lester Adams

Isidora KrstiÄ&#x2021;, Giorgio Carli

REAL PRESENCE

376 1

FLAVIANE MALAQUIAS I met Biljana Tomić In 2007, at the AICA Congress in São Paulo. Biljana invited me to participate in “Real Presence”. In 2010 in Belgrade I developed the work, “Yes, We are Black!”

Flaviane Malaquias, “Untitled”, collaborative action and installation, Manica Lunga, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Giulio Delvé, “Untitled”, installation, Manica Lunga, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Giulio Delvé, Corrado Folinea, Valerio Veneruso, “La Lunga Manica / The Long Sleeve”, Manica Lunga, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

The line of research I am currently developing focuses on the reflection of Brazil’s image abroad, built through stereotypes. I intended to use the silhouettes of black bodies for urban interventions in public spaces, and during the workshop I proposed making silhouettes of moving black bodies, characteristic of their various manifestations in Brazilian culture. These diverse silhouettes were installed in the gallery, composing the following sentence: YES, WE ARE BLACK!

This phrase affirms a condition, and the mass of black silhouettes that compose it reaffirms this condition. This phrase, made of black movements in the gallery, promoted a dialogue between the space and the viewer, enabling new appearances perspectives and perceptions. These silhouettes were also spread across some spaces around the city, causing these spaces to acquire new meanings and creating new appearances. Joining “Real Presence” was a remarkable experience in my career as an artist. Experiencing new world-views and materials and discussing experiences with young artists from other countries was a unique opportunity to realise that contemporary art not only directly influences aesthetic issues, but also has a strong significance for moral, social, cultural and political matters, especially for those whose countries have been marked by war. These aspects can be perceived in each artist’s representations.

377

20 2

CORRADO FOLINEA Working as an artist, presenting my research, having an opportunity to get together with many young artists in exciting and unique places like Belgrade in 2007 and then Rivoli near Turin in 2008, accompanied by the respected curator Dobrila and Biljanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s enthusiasm, was one of the most important experiences in my life. It was a valuable artistic exchange for me, and has influenced my work today as owner of the Acappella Gallery and the Apparent Museum in Naples.

REAL PRESENCE

378 1

379

20 5

MARCO PEZZOTTA It has been a while since my “Real Presence” experience, and Dobrila’s request for a contribution is unexpected but unquestionably pleasant. I was in Belgrade with about 100 other young artists in 2008, after I decided to take part in “Real Presence” almost as a fortunate result of a sequence of chances. It was my first trip abroad that I now consider strictly connected to my artistic practice, talking more about research than my CV. In a sweet way it was the place where a certain “mood” of my practice took shape.

Bocciofila, Rivoli

Francesco Fonassi, Corrado Folinea, Iacopo Seri, Riccardo Rauseo, “Bocciofilia”, photo, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Francesco Fonassi, “Leave It As It Is”, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Workshop (Francesco Fonassi), Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Marco Pezzotta, “Its All About the Day of My Birth”, digital print, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

It is slightly odd to think of me immersed in that experience now that 10 years have passed, but the feeling this memory provokes is so pleasant. Of course, it is not the first time that I have had this thought: as I have kept working in art in various countries across Europe, I have often met people that were also part of “Real Presence”, sometimes in a different year than I participated. More than once this was reason enough to connect with someone, and more than once I have found myself thinking about the experience I shared with the huge number of people who were involved in the 10 years the project existed. I am definitely thankful to Dobrila, Biljana and the fortunate chances I mentioned above for giving me the opportunity to start a chain reaction that has led me now to this point.

REAL PRESENCE

380 1

2 3

Alberto Gianfreda, “Frequencies / Oblique Variable”, sculpture, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Ljubica Čvorić and Marina Tomić, “In Between”, performance, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

381

20 4

BRANKO MILISKOVIĆ I met Biljana Tomić at some point in early 2004 at “Sećanja” (Memories), an evening event at the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade. We didn’t know each other before that, and once the event had finished Biljana came up to me and asked if she could get the photos and videos I had taken with my small camera. She than told me about “Real Presence”, the workshop she had been organising since 2001 in Belgrade and Venice, and asked if I might be interested in taking part. The next day I sent her an e-mail suggesting that we made an appointment, and about ten days later we met at the Youth Centre in Belgrade. Biljana told me stories about the 1970s, the Students Cultural Centre, Marina Abramović, Gina Pane, Klaus Rinke and Joseph Beuys. At the time I was just a sculpture student at the Faculty of Fine Arts, gradually becoming interested in performance art and happenings. A year later, in 2005, Biljana invited me to be part of “Real Presence”, which took place in Venice in September. I remember it was such a hectic time for me trying to get an Italian tourist visa, and it took a lot of time and contacts to finally get it. I returned to Belgrade after a three-week workshop in Berlin, and two days later we departed for Venice, spending about eight sensational days there filled with art presentations, exhibitions and performances. This was during the Venice Biennale, and we had the opportunity to visit the majority of pavilions and see the variety of exhibitions. I remember lying down on some mattresses in a church, watching projections by Pipilotti Rist, who had designed a masterful four-channel video installation,

entitled “Homo Sapiens Sapiens”, projected onto the whole vaulted ceiling above the nave of the high Baroque Chiesa di San Stae on the Grand Canal, not far from the railway station. At the end of the “Real Presence” workshop I gave my very first public performance, four hours long and entitled “Walking on Continual Lines”. I experienced many ups and downs before, during and after the performance, and it took me some time to understand what I would like to become professionally. After that, the urge to construct and deliver live performances got so strong that I simply could not go back to being just a sculptor. “Real Presence”, led by Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri, gave me an opportunity to meet very many young artists and art students from almost every corner of the world, particularly at a time when we were still on the Schengen black list, unable to travel without a visa. I also attended “Real Presence” in 2006 at the Heritage House in Belgrade, which was my last year before moving to The Hague to continue my BA art studies. Even though Biljana, Dobrila and I did not collaborate on “Real Presence” any more, we had some professional collaborations, such as at the “Theatre of Life”, a major international exhibition curated by Dobrila Denegri in the Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun, Poland in 2012. There were also many occasions where ICA/NKA supported my international artistic activities and eventually made me what I am now. Of course there is still a long way to go, but I frankly believe that “Real Presence” gave me an injection of curiosity, adrenaline and a never-ending urge to go further and find my very own way.

4 5

Branko Milisković, “Images of Cupidity”, performance (duration 4 hours), Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

REAL PRESENCE

382 1

1 2

Opening of the exhibition, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Opening of the exhibition, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art (Steffi Schöne, Melissa Steckbauer)

Exhibition, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art (Paolo Pellion)

Alejandro Tamagno, “You Are Here”, performance, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Carmen Colibazzi, “The Girl Without Hands”, performance, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

383

20 4

REAL PRESENCE

384

LERATO SHADI My first trip to Europe was to Turin with “Real Presence” 2008. My second trip to Europe, in 2009, was also with “Real Presence”, to Belgrade. In 2008 I travelled with Lester Adams. We were both taking part in “Real Presence”, and it was also Lester’s first European trip. The Bag Factory (a studio and residency organisation) had been partnering with “Real Presence” for a few years, and this was the year they sent Lester and me to Italy. We were sent under the banner of the Bag Factory’s educational and workshop programs. Lester and I joined the 2008 “Real Presence” group in Turin. We had both only ever lived in South Africa, a country famous for apartheid and Nelson Mandela. I will always remember walking down the hill towards Castello di Rivoli, the museum hosting “Real Presence”, after dropping our bags off at the hostel. Lester suddenly stopped me and half whispered, half screamed, “Look!” Slightly alarmed, I asked, “What!?” Lester replied, “Look, a white man sweeping the street!” We both stood and watched for a few seconds. Fourteen years after apartheid had ended, at the age of 29, it was true that we had never seen a white man sweeping the street or doing a service job. We had grown up and still lived in a country shaped by apartheid. Although apartheid had ended legally, we were still living under the effects of past laws, and new laws had not yet made a great difference to our lives. That was a strange moment, which I have not yet fully analysed. There we were, a black girl and a coloured boy from South Africa, watching a white man sweep the street in Italy. To unpack this moment is a paper in

democratic elections in South Africa. In Belgrade the people might have been white but they felt familiar. The people and the space were marked by a trauma I was familiar with. There was openness, generosity and kindness in the few locals I interacted with, which I was not yet really prepared for. My own country had taught me that At Castello di Rivoli we were met by the mointeractions between white and black peother and daughter team Biljana and Dobrila. ple always had something to do with race. I I must admit that I loved this relationship. had always been aware of One was energetic, the otbeing black around white her calm, but both had this Art becomes a way people. These white peoaura of people who are used of unpacking personal ple knew I was black, they to getting things done. I was just did not make an issue also impressed by how they and historical trauma, out of it. Please don’t mimanaged to “see” each and then finding a way to sunderstand me, Europe every one of us. I had come articulate it. and Belgrade have their with the attitude and the own racism issues to deal idea that I was there to lewith. I don’t want to suggest in any way that arn, but Biljana kept telling me I was there Belgrade was free of racism. I just remember to teach, to share my knowledge. moments like when this poor working class The main thing I remember Biljana saying family of four gave me a bus ticket when I to me was: was struggling to figure out how to buy one. “Use your voice. You have a powerful voice”. They gave me their ticket not because they I thought she meant I could sing or incorpohad a lot of money, not because it cost them rate voice in my performance. But that is not nothing to give me one, not because I was a what she meant. It’s a good thing she repeablack person. ted those words to me the following year. They gave me their bus ticket in a way I recognised, because I was a human being, In 2008 I presented a performance that later and that’s what you do in a society, you help became a video work. each other out and pass the kindness on. The following year, in Belgrade, I presented This year Biljana reminded me again that I what became the starting point for a new should use my voice. I think I would say my work. Both times the workshop presented artistic practice is a way of training that voime with a space to carve out and begin to ce, of honouring my voice and using it. Art articulate an artistic practice. then becomes a way of unpacking personal Belgrade was important in that I saw paraland historical trauma, then finding a way to lels with my own country there. The effects articulate it. of the war were still present in a way that for me was comparable to the mood after the violence that took place before the first itself, so I won’t do it here, but I will acknowledge that “Real Presence”, and its partner the Bag Factory, had brought us here. This point marked a beginning and a change, but most of all it presented an opportunity in our being there.

385

20 1

Lerato Shadi, “Uncut”, performance, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Giusy Pirrotta, “Crash”, performance, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Ruben Montini, “Eva-cquazione”, performance, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

REAL PRESENCE

386 1

Steffi Schöne, “Gran Riserva”, digital prints, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Steffi Schöne, “Untitled”, photography

Steffi Schöne, “Gran Riserva”, installation, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

387

STEFFI SCHÖNE What can a photograph do for you? It can do pretty much nothing or something, maybe even a lot. In my case, one image had an impact that has lasted till today. I was a student in Erwin Wurm’s “Sculpture and Multimedia” class at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna when I attended “Real Presence” in 2008. My primary artistic medium then was photography, on the border with sculpture, as it is today. Before my arrival in Belgrade I was used to creating and presenting my ideas over the course of a semester at the university. So, creating a piece in a week, which seemed like the duration of one breath in and out, was not only new Everything is equal, to me but scary. I didn’t only you give it meaning know whether I could rely or take it away. on my ability to be that spontaneously creative in And whenever you do an unknown environment that, it says something without any tools or maabout you. terial for production. Today, I would say it’s a great thing to open up to the unknown and experiment with it. However, because I doubted it in those days, I put my existing work in my suitcase in case I failed to produce for the final exhibition. I forgive myself this slight cheating, because I just didn’t know better then. But here we go. I arrived at the airport in Belgrade in the morning, excited. I got my

suitcase containing the soothing back-up and went outside to the bus stop to take bus into town. With half an hour to wait, I started breathing in and absorbing this new place, when my eyes came to rest on a lady’s back. I was amused by her way of sitting on a flower pot as if she wanted to hide or vanish behind the ivy pattern and the tree, which bent slightly in the opposite direction to her spine. What a strong match, I thought. Just before she stood up I took a few hurried shots with my Olympus C5050, and off she went in a bus. When I breathed out, the week was over. I had squeezed the city and my patience, but everything I created seemed to be lacking in my eyes. Time for my suitcase? Well, just before that I reconsidered. It took me the whole week to give that very first image from the airport a chance. One image, above all the first, taken when I had not even fully arrived? That seemed odd, too easy to be true. Good work isn’t easy, and a bit more than one is needed, right? And would it mean that “Real Presence” could have happened in only ten minutes at a bus stop, instead of a week-long adventure of city exploration and racking my brain? I certainly wouldn’t want to miss the experience, my handmade shoes in a fancy shoemaker’s tiny backyard, the new acquaintances, charming memories and friendships that last till today. So does the photograph,

if not the shoes. After the single shot made it onto a wall as an A0 printout in the final exhibition, it moved into the living room of friends in Vienna, where it lives today. The red pigment vanished a long time ago, but to me it’s still a reminder that a photograph that was more a warm-up coincidence, taken effortlessly, is full of potential value. Everything is equal, only you give it meaning or take it away. And whenever you do that, it says something about you. Today I understand better why it’s hard to produce creatively free work when you pressure yourself. It can be explained by quantum physics. Scientists have proved that creativity and inner connection take place when your brain waves are at alpha frequency. That is when you don’t think, but relax, meditating like at the moment before you fall asleep. While thinking, your brain waves are at beta frequency. It’s impossible to be open to the unexpected at this stage. Thinking works in the opposite way to awareness. It is said that any idea or flash of insight pops up when you are in the relaxed mode of alpha waves, at least. This could be while humming in the shower or waiting at a bus stop expecting nothing, to name some options besides conscious meditation. We can assume that even Einstein wasn’t thinking hard when the findings of the theory of relativity struck him. So why not breathe in and out and let things happen instead of chasing them?

REAL PRESENCE

388

Flaviane Malaquias, “Three Beings”, digital prints, Manica Lunga, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Marko Marković, Nemanja Ladjić, Saša Tkačenko, talks and presentations, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

Yoeri Meessen, lecture on educational and public program of the Manifesta 7, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

4 5 6

Valerio Veneruso, “High Point”, intervention on the wall, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

389

REAL PRESENCE

390

AUSTRIA

FRANCE

ITALY

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

Ecole Regionale des Beaux-Aerts de Nantes

Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino

PROFESSOR Patricia Solini

PROFESSORS Elisabetta Ajani Radu Dragomirescu

PROFESSORS Dorit Margreiter Manfred Pernice ARTISTS Fiona Brady Maria Eberhardt Moira Hille Stefan Klampfer Mario Strk School for Artistic Photography, Vienna PROFESSOR Pascal Petignant ARTIST Lisa Andergassen University of Applied Arts, Vienna PROFESSOR Brigitte Kowanz ARTISTS Evelyn Loschy University of Art and Design Linz PROFESSOR Anne von der Heiden ARTIST Antonia Rahofer

ARTISTS Théodora Barat Matthieu Crimersmois Anthony Cochet Laurie Etourneau Guillaume Fouchaux Ji-Hye Kim Jérémie Laurent Camille Simony Carole Theodoly-Lannes Charlotte Zonder GERMANY Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) PROFESSORS Penelope Wehrli ARTIST Dieter Nicka University of Fine Arts of Hamburg PROFESSOR Andreas Slominski ARTISTS Anabela Angelovska Swen-Erik Scheuerling Paul Sochacki Kerstin Schroedinger

University Mozarteum, Salzburg PROFESSOR Dieter Kleinpeter

GREECE

ARTISTS Jakob Buchner Matthias Noggler

PROFESSOR Giannis Psychopaidis

FINLAND University of the Arts Helsinki, Academy of Fine Arts PROFESSORS Eija-Liisa Ahtila Villu Jaanisoo Tarja Pitkänen-Walter Seppo Salminen ARTISTS Tatu Engeström Lukas Malte Hoffmann Sakari Jokiranta Joonas Anna Nykyri Sara Pathirane Anna Rokka Sakari Markus Tervo

Athens School of Fine Arts

ARTISTS Fani Bitou Ioannis Cheimonakis Ioannis Delagrammatikas Palpana Fotini HUNGARY Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest PROFESSOR Allan Sigel ARTISTS Emőke Majohunbo Bada Boglárka Bordás Réka Mózes

ARTISTS Gaya Andreuzza Giulia Bossone Rosania Donato Canosa Bianca Cassinelli Antonio Lorenzo Falbo Luigi Sorbilli Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna ARTISTS Serena Piccinini Alia Scalvini Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma ARTIST Marcello Fraietta Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia PROFESSOR Carlo Di Raco ARTIST Aleksander Velišček Brera, Milan PROFESSORS Alberto Garutti Giacinto Di Pietrantonio Franco Marrocco ARTISTS Jessica Gaudino Derek Maria Francesco Di Fabio Andrea Romano Serena Vestrucci NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan PROFESSOR Marco Scotini ARTIST Giulia Casula

Università Iuav di Venezia PROFESSORS Giulio Alessandri Carlos Basualdo Lewis Baltz Antoni Muntadas Adrian Paci Cesare Pietroiusti Angela Vettese ARTISTS Francesca Belia Giulia Bini Claire Bosi Antonella Campisi Valentina Ciarapica Benedetta Cioppi Francesca Coluzzi Alessandra Di Giantomasso Giulia Giazzoli Gabriele Guarisco Francesco Locatelli Giulia Magrin Corinne Mazzoli Eva Meneghetti Barbara Nardacchione Mattia Norbiato Ilaria Omizzolo Martina Piazza Claudia Rossini Aurora Scalera Elio Ticca NORWAY Oslo National Academy of the Arts PROFESSOR Duba Sambolec ARTIST Halvor Rønning ROMANIA National University of Arts Bucharest PROFESSORS Alexandra Croitoru Roxana Treistoreanu ARTISTS Andra Chitimus Alexandra Georgiana Chirnoaga Claudiu-Petru Lucaci George Pascanu Elena Alexandra Soldanescu

Polytechnic University of Milan ARTIST Federico Venturi School of Arts, Humanities and Cultural Heritage of the University of Bologna ARTIST Dario Fardello

SERBIA University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts PROFESSORS Mrđan Bajić Anđelka Bojović Dragana Ilić Biljana Vuković

ARTISTS Lidija Delić Nina Ivanović Isidora Krstić Nemanja Lađić Marko Marković Nina Simonović Mića Stajčić Zorica Stajčić Bojana Stamenković Boris Stanić Vladimir Stojanović Marija Šević University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Applied Arts PROFESSOR Dragan Radenović ARTISTS Ana Cvejić Tamara Jeremić Marija Jovanović Ksenija Kostić Ana Pavlović Jovana Radojević Jovana Vasić Nikola Zmajevic Academy of Arts, Novi Sad ARTIST Zorica Čolić SINGAPORE Lasalle College of the Arts Singapore PROFESSOR Ian Woo ARTIST Hafiz Osman SOUTH AFRICA About Art Program – Bag Factory, Johannesburg ARTIST Lerato Shadi SPAIN Faculty of Fine Arts Universidad Complutense de Madrid PROFESSOR Marinella Senatore ARTISTS Héctor Julián Barios Lozoya Lucia Baños Brizuela Ana Andrés Cristóbal César Carrión Guillermo González Hernansaiz Virginia Lázaro Villa Ignacio Tejedor López Pablo Lueiro Valencia Emilio Rivera Peña Esther Saura Muzquiz Nicole Ziegler

391

SWITZERLAND

ASSISTANTS

ECAV - Ecole Cantonale d‘art du Valais, Sierre

Lidija Delić Nina Ivanović Sava Knežević Anđela Korać Isidora Krstić Ivona Kukić Iva Kuzmanović Nemanja Lađić Marko Marković Nina Simonović Bojana Stamenković Boris Stanić Marija Šević

ARTIST Caroline Cuenod Zurich University of the Arts PROFESSOR Christian Hübler ARTIST Dionys Dammann THE NETHERLANDS DAI - Dutch Art Institute, ArtEZ University of Arts, Enschede ARTIST Veridiana Zurita UK Royal College of Art, London ARTISTS Güler Ates Ross Taylor Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London PROFESSOR Joanna Greenhill ARTIST Elisabetta Alazraki

REAL PRESENCE

392

“REAL PRESENCE & FLOATING SITES” BELGRADE, 20 AUGUST – 30 AUGUST Venues: Heritage House, MKM, Kazamati - Military Museum, Belgrade City Library and various public locations VENICE, 2 SEPTEMBER – 10 SEPTEMBER Venues: Iuav University, Faculty of Arts and Design - Convento delle Terese, Ligabue Complex and various public locations

Workshop, Iuav University, Faculty of Arts and Design, Ligabue Complex

393

MARINELLA SENATORE In conversation with Dobrila Denegri DD: I have seen that you describe yourself as an artist and activator. What does the term “activator” mean in the context of your practice? MS: I see my role as an “activator”, an instigator, a facilitator of processes that are often focused on emancipation and engagement. I involve entire communities in the creative process for my projects, which are often developed in collaboration with museums, universities and related institutions. To be more specific, each project involves masses of volunteers in various cities banding together for a common creative goal. I’ve enlisted a community of retired miners from Enna, Sicily; more than 15,000 citizens of Derby, UK; 300 Lower East Side residents in NYC; and most recently 1,800,000 children all over Italy. The viewer becomes a participant in these processes, and the hierarchy between the artist as author and the public as recipient can be questioned and rewritten. But I refuse to claim an authoritative position in my projects. For me, it becomes quite essential to ruminate on how individuals’ values, allegiances and issues tie communities together. The idea is to offer an inspiring example of people working together to create intellectual consensus by collectively investigating the nature of community. Public participation or engagement has always been of significance, no doubt about it, and this will continue as it is in its nature. Engaging with art is not simply a solitary event. Art and culture represent one of the few areas of our society where people can come together to share an experience, even if they see the world in radically different ways. The important thing is not that we agree about the experience we share, but that we consider it worthwhile to share an experience at all. Disagreement is accepted and embraced as an essential ingredient of art and other forms of cultural expression. In this sense, the community created by art and culture is potentially a great source of inspiration for politicians and activists who are working to transcend the polarising populism and the stigmatisation of other

people, positions, and world-views that are sadly so endemic in public discourse today. My artistic process is indelibly community-forward, driven by what I call a “horizontal structure of didactics”, creating an environment where people become not only the focus of the work but also what propels it. It exemplifies the powerful idea of rethinking more dynamically the places that are responsible for culture. Simultaneously promoting the active inclusion of the public in the creation and use of the artwork, it empowers the individual in relation to social structure and community-gathering systems. Even just a temporary community is important, because – quoting Bauman – even the sounds feel good, and at least from my point of view after meeting and working with over 60,000 people, the feeling of belonging to something is becoming more and more crucial. DD: Can you tell me more about the dynamics of your projects, and about “The School of Narrative Dance” in particular? MS: “The School of Narrative Dance“ was founded in 2013: it’s a nomadic and free-ofcharge school, without any headquarters, which proposes an alternative system of education based on emancipation, inclusion and self-cultivation. For many years I have been, and still am, a professor at various universities around the world, and I have always questioned the roles of student and teacher. Again, a figure can activate a more dynamic learning process based on things that are too often considered useless, but which are part of the self-education I believe in so strongly. The multidisciplinary school is focused on storytelling and provides a wide range of “experiences” and lessons, including literature, oral history, carpentry, art history, crafts, photography, arithmetic, drama and finally theatre dance, where dancing is not an athletic gesture but a way of telling stories, another tool among others. One of the school’s goals is to unite many groups and communities, even just for a while, in order to celebrate the wide variety of skills and talents every single member can offer or develop. The school has al-

ready involved millions of people in over 15 countries, including political activists, craft people, the illiterate, students, housewives, trade unions, pensioners and teachers. I will try my best to seek out every possible opportunity and occasion there is to experience. Each project I’ve produced is a site-specific piece. Working with over 5 million people around the world, every experience is individually unlike any other. Each time is different. I have various strategies for connecting with communities, but the first step is always to be in the place and meet as many people as possible. My methodology for approaching groups will often proceed by issuing open calls inviting people to participate in my projects, interviewing them and contacting local associations, scholars, universities, schools, workers, the unemployed, unions and other institutions. Throughout the process, institutions and curators help me a lot by introducing me to the local community. My idea is to seek local energy, but not to impose on my assistants and/or collaborators. In fact, my collaborators are spread worldwide, as they are previous participants in my projects or former students. I want the experience of creation to be available to everyone. We practice inclusion, aggregation, empowerment, emancipation and compassion. I don’t like most art collaborations involving the public because they can be very abusive, with participants reduced to employees or material, or even worse to numbers, fulfilling the artist’s desire without being included in any idea or process. To start off, my open calls for projects are really open: I don’t turn anybody away. Ninety percent of my collaborations are not connected to the arts or cultural production in general, and some belong to stigmatised cultural minorities, the illiterate, the homeless, etc. When they create characters or think about a plot they’re offering up a piece of their lives, their environments, their memories. It’s a privilege to experience that. The meaning of all of this is to bring people together and collectively imagine and foster new models of social structures.

REAL PRESENCE

394 1

NINA IVANOVIĆ

For me, “Real Presence” meant connecting, learning, playing and experimenting. Since the beginning of my studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, the international workshop “Real Presence” was the parallel activity that had great significance for my artistic development. In time, the experiences I gained through formal education and the ones I picked up “at the street” (I am alluding to street exhibitions “Progressive Hopes” that took place at the same time as “Real Presence”), intertwined and became the unique experience of exhibiting and communicating with the audience. Presentations by my colleagues, as well as foreign participants of the workshops, but also lectures by professors, artists and curators who participated at programs, were precious. The international workshop “Real Presence” truly brought the world to Belgrade, and the friendships made during those summer days stand as an evidence of the incredible energy of togetherness. RP is an exchange of ideas, creation of friendships, learning about ourselves and our own work. The short deadlines for production of the art works were encouraging spontaneity and experiment. RP are great exhibition spaces, total freedom and diversity in expression. RP is friendship. RP is a gift by Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri to students and local audience.

395

20 3

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Virginia Lázaro Villa)

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Serena Vestrucci)

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Halvor Rønning, Stefan Klampfer, Jakob Buchner, Matthias Noggler)

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Natalija Gormalova)

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Claudia Rossini, Aleksander Velišček)

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Caroline Cuenod)

REAL PRESENCE

396 1

NINA IVANOVIĆ

“REAL PRESENCE” IS AN EXCHANGE OF IDEAS, CREATION OF FRIENDSHIPS, LEARNING ABOUT OURSELVES AND OUR OWN WORK.

397

20 3

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Lukas Malte Hoffmann)

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Elisabetta Alazraki)

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Verdiana Zurita)

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Anna Nykyri)

Nina Ivanović, “Train”, photo series (Marko Marković)

REAL PRESENCE

398 1

Real

Wiktionary 08/20/2018 English Etymology

From Middle English real, from Old French reel, from Late Latin reālis (“actual”), from Latin rēs (“matter, thing”), from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁ís (“wealth, goods”).

Pronunciation

enPR: rēəl, rēl, IPA(key): /ˈɹiːəl/, /ɹiːl/ Homophone: reel

Adjective

real (comparative realer or more real, superlative realest or most real) True, genuine, not merely nominal or apparent. Genuine, not artificial, counterfeit, or fake. This is real leather. Genuine, unfeigned, sincere. These are real tears! Actually being, existing, or occurring; not fictitious or imaginary. a description of real life That has objective, physical existence. (economics) Having been adjusted to remove the effects of inflation; measured in purchasing power (contrast nominal). My dad calculated my family's real consumption per month. (economics) Relating to the result of the actions of rational agents; relating to neoclassical economic models as opposed to Keynesian models. (mathematics, of a number) Being either a rational number, or the limit of a convergent infinite sequence of rational numbers: being one of a set of numbers with a one-to-one correspondence to the points on a line. (law) Relating to immovable tangible property. real estate; real property Absolute, complete, utter. This is a real problem. (slang) Signifying meritorious qualities or actions especially as regard the enjoyment of life, prowess at sports, or success wooing potential partners. I'm keeping it real.

Synonyms

(true, genuine): true, actual (genuine, not artificial): authentic, genuine, actual (genuine, unfeigned): authentic, genuine, heartfelt, true, actual (that has physical existence): actual

Translations

true, genuine, not merely nominal genuine, not artificial, counterfeit or fake enuine, unfeigned, sincere that has physical existence absolute, complete, utter

Presence Wiktionary 08/20/2018 English Alternative forms præsence (archaic)

Etymology

Through Old French presence, from Latin praesentia (“a being present”), from praesentem.

Pronunciation

IPA(key): /ˈpɹɛzəns/ Hyphenation: pres‧ence

Noun

presence (countable and uncountable, plural presences) The fact or condition of being present, or of being within sight or call, or at hand. Any painter can benefit from the presence of a live model from which to draw. The part of space within one's immediate vicinity. Bob never said anything about it in my presence. A quality of poise and effectiveness that enables a performer to achieve a close relationship with his audience. Despite being less than five foot, she filled up the theatre with her stage presence. Something (as a spirit) felt or believed to be present. I'm convinced that there was a presence in that building that I can't explain, which led to my heroic actions. A company's business activity in a particular market. The state of being closely focused on the here and now, not distracted by irrelevant thoughts.

Antonyms absence

Translations

act or condition of being present the state of being present with an object or person a person or object at a place that is not seen.

Verb

presence (third-person singular simple present presences, present participle presencing, simple past and past participle presenced) (philosophy, transitive, intransitive) To make or become present.

Related terms present presentation omnipresence

1 2 3 4

Anabela Angelovska and Moira Hille, “Real Presence”, installation, Heritage House

399

ANABELA ANGELOVSKA Biljana Tomić and Dobrila Denegri achieved no less than what the title of the workshop says: a “Real Presence” of more than 100 artists, positions and artistic approaches over 10 days! 2009 was the second time my colleague Moira Hille, from Vienna, and I, from Hamburg, made an appointment to meet in Belgrade in the frame of “Real Presence”. We adored the atmosphere of openness and cordiality in this alternating capital, which always Participation in the gave us strong impulses workshop itself already for our work. And Dobrila had the taste of utopia. and Biljana had created a perfect setting to focus on the elaboration of an artwork and have the opportunity for exchange. At the time, Moira and I were interested in modernist architecture and conceptual art from former Yugoslavia. We were looking for an artistic approach that we could use to transfer some of the utopian ideas of the past to the present situation, to create a dialogue. 4

Participation in the workshop itself already had the taste of utopia: more than 100 artists and art students from all over the world took part in numerous lectures and meetings, organised in the frame of “Real Presence”. We shared our perspectives and learned about different approaches to and questions of art. The simple fact of OPENNESS without any exclusion was THE political statement, at a time when right wing organisations were on the rise. As we knew from the media, terrifying events coming from the conservative and right wing side dominated public discourse in 2009, while the Belgrade authorities tore

down Roma houses to build “Belville”, a University City for participants in Universiade 2009. At the same time we read about attacks on foreigners and tourists, as well as the cancellation of Belgrade Pride, which could not take place as planned due to security risks. In contrast we experienced great tolerance in Belgrade, while during the workshop the politics of OTHERNESS was kept strictly out. Students of all colours, races and genders were welcomed to “Real Presence”. For some participants it was the first contact between the so-called former East and West, while for others it was the first time they had presented their work at an art institution. Just as Biljana and Dobrila had promised, “Real Presence” was a “dynamic laboratory, open for encounter, dialogue and collaboration”. And at the final exhibition, which took place in galleries, museums and various public spaces across Belgrade, this spirit of the workshop was spread across the city. As a result of our research, Moira and I presented the installation “Attitudes”, which we showed at “Kuća legata” (Heritage House) in the city centre. Concerning form, we quoted Joseph Kossuth’s “First Investigations”, subtitled “Art as Idea as Idea”. With our installation we drew a parallel between the failure to realise the utopian urban masterplan for New Belgrade and the current situation in the cultural field concerning the predominant role of the curator. To present our work in Belgrade and discuss it directly with the audience was great, and a real present. We were thankful for the exchange and all the new impulses we got from our participation in “Real Presence”. Thank you Biljana and Dobrila for this great experience.

REAL PRESENCE

GUILLAUME FOUCHAUX

400

“Paris-Belgrade” – this sign designates a mental territory, bringing together the fantasies of a cinematographic memory. An assembly of wood and tape, this model represents the border of an artificial territory defined by the cinema. Like Wim Wenders’s “Paris-Texas” or Pontus Hultén’s exhibition “Paris-Moscow”, this work suggests a “Paris-Belgrade” DIY of wood and silver paper, a sign lit by comical flashlights. My meeting with Belgrade played a big role in the production I presented to “Real Presence”. The search for a mental territory between France and Serbia, this fictitious border, for me became the starting point of the production of my piece.

My participation in “Real Presence” was rich in meetings and exchanges. The mix of cultures is always a highlight, and the protocol implemented by Dobrila via “Real Presence” allowed me to connect my own French vision of art with different cultures and points of view. The exchanges during these meetings opened up a world of possibilities for me, which was very important in the continuation of my artistic career, as well as creating a network of artists with whom I still have connections today, 10 years later.

Aleksandra Plavšić, “Connections”, installation, Heritage House (Biljana Tomić, Aleksandra Plavšić)

Guillaume Fouchaux, “Paris / Belgrade”, installation, Heritage House

3 4

Lerato Shadi, “Tlhogo Ya Tsie”, performance, Heritage House

Marko Marković, “Untitled”, installation, MKM

Marko Marković, “Untitled”, installation, MKM (Tatu Engeström)

401

REAL PRESENCE

402

ALEKSANDER VELIŠČEK My very first experience as an artist in residence abroad took place in summer 2009. “Real Presence” was a very important step in my artistic improvement, as were the other residencies that followed. Being involved in this kind of project helps young artists, as I was at the time, to grow up. It provides an opportunity to meet already established artists and other young artists, deepens the sense of being part of a group and above all provides the challenge of the context of the event, culture and place where it takes place. Belgrade had a great impact on me, bringing to light some fantasies and memories that had been lost, frozen in time somewhere deep in my unconscious for quite a long time. As a Slovenian born in 1982, when Slovenia was still part of the united Yugoslav Federation, I felt deeply connected to the Serbian spirit and the atmosphere of a city that strongly represented the imaginary of the former Yugoslavia, at least as I knew it through books, photographs and various stories my relatives told me. I had already seen the dozens of pictures, symbols, gadgets and magazines I found at the flea market during my stay in Belgrade in the attic of my parents’ house, stored up there after Slovenia’s declaration of independence in 1991. It was quite an interesting and unique experience seeing all those

things once again after so many years. My main idea was to bring back to life all my memories and all the people of the former Yugoslavia. To do so, I needed something strong, something firmly rooted in everybody’s recollection. The solution was quite obvious. I needed someone with an immense personality, like Josip Broz Tito. The figure of the Marshal was able to bring back to life a lot of memories from my childhood, even though he was already dead when I was born. I vividly recall, like it was yesterday, the big picture of him in our dining room, his picture in every classroom, a small bronze statue in my grandmother’s bedroom, and so on. The almanac I found in the flea market in Belgrade was the starting point for the brand new work I wanted to develop. Inside was a huge collection of pictures of Tito’s extraordinary life. As I work predominantly with painting, it was a natural and spontaneous thing for me to make some painting interventions over the original photos, portraying this eclectic and controversial personality. I tried to give the pictures a kind of evocative sensation. The main idea was to show some details of Tito’s life, and hide some others, that were morbidly rooted in the people’s reminiscence, as well as in mine. I like to exhibit the body of work I

developed in the years that followed, based on the same idea of Tito and Yugoslavia, under the name “Jugo-nostalgija and mediatic power”. One of my favourite paintings, taken from one of the two series mentioned above, which I painted after Belgrade, is J.B. Tito and NASA. The painting is a diptych representing a memorable meeting between Josip Broz Tito and a NASA engineer. This was one of many images used for so-called propaganda, predominantly to promote the legendary partisan leader and then president of the SFRJ. In my reinterpretation of the picture, my painting is converted into writing. The main idea was to replace the original didascalic text on the front with a new text, with no relation to the original. I decided to copy some text from a Slovenian pornographic magazine, word for word. When you stare at the painting, the unrealistic feeling, the nonsense, makes the whole idea even stronger and effective. As a whole, it represents, what I like to call the alienation of mediatic power. I am not exaggerating when I say that after the experience of “Real Presence” my artistic research took a clearer direction. I learned to analyse power and politics from different points of view and using different media.

403

20 2

09 1

Aleksandar Velišček, “The Marshal”, paintings, MKM

Halvor Rønning, “Untitled (Tools)”, digital prints, MKM

Anna Rokka, “Untitled”, installation, MKM

REAL PRESENCE

404

ANNA NYKYRI “Not to find one‘s way around a city does not mean much. But to lose one‘s way in a city, as one loses one‘s way in a forest, requires some schooling. Street names must speak to the urban wanderer like the snapping of dry twigs, and little streets in the heart of the city must reflect the times of day, for him, as clearly as a mountain valley.” Walter Benjamin, “Tiergarten”, 1932-1936 As a visual artist and documentary film director (MFA, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts & MA Choreography, Trinity Laban), I work with moving images in the fields of visual arts, the film industry, contemporary dance and theatre. I use film and found footage to create documentary films and cinematic video installations. The themes of my works are often social but also corporeal, for example covering questions of freedom, gender, power and control. I often work through creative collaboration, especially with contemporary dancers, sound artists and cinematographers. I also co-operate with institutions and NGOs like Amnesty International and UN Women.

At the time of the 2009 “Real Presence” workshop I was an MFA student at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. The workshop was a game changer for the beginning of my artistic career in two ways: by inspiring me with other young artists’ ideas and through the workshop’s free and encouraging spirit. We participants were not given any specific rules or restrictions on what we were expected to do. Quite the opposite – we were trusted on how we wanted to work. We were given the time, space and opportunity to work in creative collaboration or by ourselves, although still part of a larger group of people we had just met. This was a very important lesson for me that influenced my daily working routine in the future. As a young artist at the workshop I learned to trust my vision even when I was not sure what I was looking for, to arrive at my studio open-minded every day, to begin work and see where it takes me. In my daily artistic work I am still looking for glimpses of a sense of freedom similar to what I felt at the time of the 2009 “Real Presence” workshop, in a foreign country and surrounded by people I knew almost nothing of. Yet there was a strong sense of belonging, of thinking: “Well, this is an adventure. I have no idea where it’s leading me, but it just might be part of something bigger, more surprising”.

405

20 2

ANDREA ROMANO - Za vreme trajanja radionice, moguće je upoznati troje dece, na različitim mestima u Beogradu, u različitim trenucima u toku dana. Oni će pratiti sva kretanja, postavljajući neka pitanja i uključujući druge osobe. - During the workshop, you can get to know three children, in various parts of Belgrade, at various times of the day. They follow all movements, asking questions and involving other people. “Spotter” was a text hung on the wall of the Heritage House and MKM Magacin in 2009. My work intended to insinuate within the group of participants the presence of three mysterious Roma children. I underlined something possible and present in reality and made it potentially ominous in order to turn a real context into its own representation, so as to create a landscape. The piece was actively built by the questions the other participants asked me about the text on the wall and my answers to them. The aim was to manage to my advantage the impressions I wanted to keep and expand the edges of the work as far as possible. Thus, those who read the text have seen some children in the streets differently since that moment, and maybe some noticed their presence for the first time. Those who might have met those children in the street would have thought it was my work.

Anna Nykyri, “Untitled”, video installation, MKM

Claudiu Petru Lucaci, “Untitled (Wafer)”, installation, MKM

Lidija Delić, “My Mother Made Me a Dress”, installation, MKM

Alessandra Di Giantomasso, “Pasta in Loop”, collective action, MKM

REAL PRESENCE

406 1

407

ANNA NYKYRI

WELL, THIS IS AN ADVENTURE. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT’S LEADING ME, BUT IT JUST MIGHT BE PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER, MORE SURPRISING.

Corinne Mazzoli, Francesca Coluzzi, Benedetta Cioppi, “Untitled”, performance, MKM

2 3

Paul Sochacki

Tatu Engeström, Sakari Tervo

Dieter Nicka, “AAAAAAA”, installation, Kazamati - Military Museum

Elisabetta Alazraki, “Bend Without Breaking“, intervention at the doorway of Kazamati - Military Museum

REAL PRESENCE

408

2 3

4 5

Caroline Cuenod, “Military Museum”, installation, Kazamati - Military Museum (Stefan Klampfer)

Caroline Cuenod, “Military Museum”, performance, Kazamati - Military Museum

Veridiana Zurita, “Gordons in the Garden”, performance, Kazamati Military Museum

409

REAL PRESENCE

410 1

411

20 6

Ilaria Omizzolo, Barbara Nardacchione, Eva Meneghetti, Mattia Norbiato

Ecole Regionale des Beaux-Aerts de Nantes, Prof. Patricia Solini, Laurie Etourneau, Charlotte Zonder, Carole Theodoly-Lannes, Jérémie Laurent, Anthony Cochet, Théodora Barat, Ji-Hye Kim, Guillaume Fouchaux, Camille Simony, Matthieu Crimersmois

Jérémie Laurent

Verdiana Zurita, Caroline Cuenod, Vladimir Stojanović, Marko Marković

Lerato Shadi, Elisabetta Alazraki

6 7 8 9

Party at Nina’s place

REAL PRESENCE

412

BARBARA NARDACCHIONE one moment in particular: the final evening, after a masked parade, we went to listen to an outdoor concert when a rainstorm hit us. One of the Belgrade artists took us home. There were about sixty of us. She opened her closet and started distributing clothes. She pulled out shirts, pants and socks until I remember the guards’ knuckles on the everyone was wearing something. These gedoor, each country a passport control, us stures assumed a ritual form. Taken into the lying asleep, stretching out our arms every house, we were in every corner, in the crevitime, without even looking at the man asces of the kitchen, we folking the question, but with lowed the surfaces of the equal meekness delivering I discovered the closets, we squeezed onto the booklets and putting rhizomatic nature of the sofa and at her feet, them back each time under we occupied the corridors, the pillow. making art, the convivial the bathrooms. I‘m wonaspect that eliminates dering if that house ever We travelled down to Belagain reached such a peak grade station, the midday constraints and facilitates of humidity and joy at the sun was beating down perknowledge, speech and same time, such a fullness pendicularly on the city. advice. of culture and languages. Here I report a series of moments that dance At the time I was working on voice and mein my mind: “Živeli!”, the wish pronounced mory. I asked each artist to make an audio by Biljana Tomić during our evenings togecontribution in their own language, a first ther / a giant portion of pasta with ragù in memory to share. I was fascinated by that an informal homey place found by chance heterogeneous group of artists with comamong the houses after a trip to Ada Cipletely different cultural baggage, the way ganlija / an artist in residence disguised as the level of understanding increased and Flash, whose goal was to photograph herself decreased according to language. I made an with the guards at Kalemegdan park, the empathetic effort towards others and vice Gordons: I picture her in my mind in yellow versa. Every year I replay those voices teland red, on top of a tank’s cannon. Then, From Venezia Santa Lucia station, a EuroNight train left in the evening (21.32, track 7) crossing in the dark – in order – Veneto, Friuli, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia.

ling me their stories, as an idea I have cherished since that conditioned my work in the years that followed. They talk of an encounter between people and a desire to share. Knowing the other strengthens a young artist whose experience is mainly based on the context in which he lives. There, I discovered the rhizomatic nature of making art, the convivial aspect that eliminates constraints and facilitates knowledge, speech and advice. I happen to meet people who participated with me in “Real Presence” in the most disparate contexts. I happen to meet people who participated in “Real Presence” in different years. The matter does not change, as if the experience has united us all at an ideological level. If I think that the EuroNight train no longer exists, its last race was in 2011... I took the train with the same unconsciousness with which I participated in “Real Presence”. I was 21 years old, and that journey is marked in my mind like a succession of stages, voices and landscapes that gradually emerged from the darkness of the night, from the tunnels, towards an unknown place where the sun beats straight and thins the shadows.

413

HALVOR RØNNING & ESTHER SAURA MÚZQUIZ I’ve been looking for an angle for the text about “Real Presence”, but in the end I’m left with an account of the last evening of the workshop in Belgrade in 2009. I initially wanted to write about the political significance of the whole project, and how grateful I am to have taken part in it. I found it shocking when I first got to know about the intention to organise the workshop in the first place, to bring international influences to Belgrade because Serbian students and residents had trouble crossing borders in Europe. One Serbian participant in the workshop told me that when she was applying for a visa, she had to show up at the Italian embassy with a physical 500 Euro note as humiliating proof of her financial solidity. It was simply heartbreaking, and so unfair to have access to mobility cut off like that. On one of the last days of “Real Presence” 2009, some 50 participants, including me, found our way to an outdoor jazz festival on the fringe of Belgrade’s city centre. I remember the atmosphere among us being slightly sad, exhausted from many previous late evenings, but still carrying expectations of a final blowout. After a couple of performances and a few drinks it started raining heavily, and the temperature dropped from

30 degrees to a shivering 15. One of the Serbian students told us that she lived nearby, and that her parents were away. She warned us that the house was very small but that we could probably all just fit. We arrived at the house soaked and freezing, but were immediately offered clothes belonging to her parents and siblings, meaning that we all undressed in the kitchen, living room, hallway, stairway and garden. Losing the clothes we had chosen to wear that night and changing into random outfits effectively shattered any remaining ice between the “Real Presence” participants. Money for alcohol was crowdsourced by everyone emptying their pockets, and we kept it going until the daylight made us calm down and make efforts to get hold of taxis. I remember lipstick drawings on the television screen, people jumping in and out of the windows, something breaking into pieces, but mostly and most importantly more than 50 people crammed into a small house, grateful and happy for there not to be any excess space between them. As for the clean-up the morning after, and whatever was damaged that night, I am forever grateful for the sacrifice, because this was the single best party I have ever attended.

REAL PRESENCE

414 1

415

20 7

Angela Vettese, Giulio Alessandri, lecture, Iuav University, Venice

Matteo Giannasi, presentation of the educational and public program, Venice Biennial

Workshop, Iuav University, Venice (Biljana Tomić, Anna Sostero, Ruben Montini, Dobrila Denegri, Mattia Norbiato)

Workshop, Ligabue complex, Iuav University, Venice (Saša Tkačenko, Bojana Stamenković, Swen-Erik Scheuerling, Osman Hafiz, Giulia Casula)

Workshop, Ligabue complex, Iuav University, Venice

Jérémie Laurent, “Untitled”, installation, Ligabue complex, Iuav University, Venice

Héctor Julián Barios, “Untitled”, photos, Ligabue complex, Iuav University, Venice (Boris Stanić)

Zorica Čolić, “Tickling”, installation, Ligabue complex, Iuav University, Venice

9 10

Camille Simony and Matthieu Crimersmois, “Untitled”, action, Venice [This work was about the impact of tourist behaviour in Venice. My romantic friend and I saw the dirty lagoon in Venice. We understood the absurdity and the nonsense of pollution and romance in Venice: there is no romance in Venice. So we decided to invent a new responsible job for tourists. Camille Simony and I bought a costume for tourists made of garbage bags and landing nets. We cleaned the lagoon for two hours with the expectation of creating a utopian vocation. Matthieu Crimersmois]

REAL PRESENCE

416

GIULIA CASULA “Real Presence” was a place of exchange and cross learning. The presence of hundreds of young artists from Europe, Asia and America was disruptive. Poetic and political collective actions were born, with the city of Belgrade’s streets and squares as their theatre.

The project “VoV_Voice of Venice” was born from this experience. I once again thought about landscape, thinking of the city as a consumed territory, highly exploited due to the number of tourists. The city of Venice disappears behind an inflated and banal image.

As a teacher and artist I recognise and promote the importance of an alternative education that invites social criticism and cultural activism by the community. The goal of my work is to stimulate thinking through analysis of the social imaginary.

“Real Presence” is also a state of mind, a predisposition of the body to listen, to be ready for restitution.

My attempt to remedy this situation was to reflect on the most ephemeral aspect of the landscape, the sound. To walk and get lost. To sit and listen to the sounds and surrounding voices, by day and by night. To walk and get lost, off the beaten track, to stop and note the coordinates. The soundscape is ephemeral, expanding in the time of memory.

My most recent work is “Sardinia∞Remix” (2017, in progress), a mapping of the island of Sardinia in an unconventional 40-page paper guide focusing on the theme of military disarmament, presented during the “Disarmante” contemporary art festival.

“Beo-grad”, the white city. Looking at the street map of the city I noticed that the names of some streets had changed over time, so I asked people why. Some remembered the old names, names that had changed with changes of government. From these questions, the video site-specific installation “Kraljevića Marka?” (2009) was born, a sociological survey of the experience of continuous political change, as undergone by the citizens of Belgrade. 2009 was the last year that Serbia’s borders were closed, after 10 years in which Serbian artists were unable to leave their country freely. The connection between “Real Presence” and some Italian cities and universities meant that it was possible to keep cultural exchange active. In 2009, a residency took place in Venice, and the IUAV University invited all the artists to take part in the Biennale.

The collected voices were transcribed with indelible markers on the front of old postcards. The image, partly deleted, is fragmented, telling possible new stories. The purpose is to stimulate a constant estrangement in the observer. Let him relive his personal experience through a reinterpretation of everyday life. Reflect on your own surroundings. My investigation focuses on metamorphosis of the landscape; on the geological stratification of the lived and imaginary; on the relativity of time and memory. The political and social crisis changes the paradigm and continues as a constant, even today in Italy. In Sardinia, my land of origin, an apparent paradise island, the crisis manifests itself concretely through emigration and unemployment.

Although militarisation is a burning issue in Sardinia, this is not perceived by those who visit it occasionally. Sardinia is a highly exploited territory, occupied by the military bases established in the post-war period, which carry out military exercises all year round with only a summer break. The island’s landscape is indelibly affected. “Sardinia∞Remix” is a guide to the island which does not omit these aspects, highlighting and comparing false postcard images with images of places that are inaccessible because they are militarised. It is a territorial and conceptual investigation which uses a formal and aesthetic language to reconstruct and propose a reflection on human existence in society, a poetic form of social criticism.

417

20 1

09 1 2

Giulia Casula, ”VoV_Voice of Venice”, postcard project

Alia Scalvini, “Walk Cross”, action, Venice

Dario Fariello, “Untitled”, performance, Arsenale, Venice Biennial

REAL PRESENCE “EXPANDED ACADEMY” Lectures and panels Belgrade City Library and Museum of Yugoslavia Giulio Alessandri, Vice-director FDA, Università Iuav di Venezia Ido Bar-El, Head of the Art Department, Bazalel Academy for Art & Design, Tel Aviv Thomas Bayrle, artist, Frankfurt am Main

418 Simon Thorogood, Researcher, London College of Fashion Angela Vettese, Director FDA, Università Iuav di Venezia Ósk Vilhjálmsdóttir, Professor, Iceland Academy of the Arts, Reykjavík Måns Wrange, Dean/Vice-Chancellor, KKH - Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm

Helke Bayrle, filemaker, Frankfurt am Main

“PRESENCES” EXHIBITIONS

Jean-Sylvain Bieth, Professor, Ecole Supérieure des BeauxArts de Nantes Métropole

Belgrade City Museum – Palace of Princes Ljubica Palazzo Italia – Italian Cultural Institute Cervantes Institute Goethe-Institute Students Cultural Centre REX Cinema Gallery Zvono Gallery Remont Gallery of Belgrade City Library

Hannes Brunner, Professor, ECAV - Ecole cantonale d‘Art du Valais Rainer Fuchs, Vice-director and chief curator, mumok - Museum of Modern Art, Vienna Erik Krikortz, artist, Stockholm Gil Kuno, artist/musician, Los Angeles/Tokyo Joa Ljungberg, Curator, Moderna Museet Malmö Friedemann Malsch, Director, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz Adrian Notz, Director, School of Arts, St. Gallen Tobias Rehberger, Vice-dean, Städelschule Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main Richard Ross, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara Seppo Salminen, Professor, Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Dean, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Gabriëlle Schleijpen, Director, DAI – Dutch Art Institute, Enschede Marta Smolińska, Chair of the History of Art and Culture, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

AUSTRIA Catrine Bolt & Marlene Haring Franz Kapfer Leopold Kessler Christian Mayer Steffi Schöne Julia Weidner Tamara Wilhelm BELGIUM Adrien Tirtiaux CHINA Yingmei Duan ESTONIA Dagmar Kase FINLAND Anna Nykyri Hans Rosenström Pilvi Takala GERMANY Dirk Fleischmann Cristiane Löhr Barak Raiser Tomas Saraceno Christian Sievers Swen-Erik Scheuerling Alexander Wolf

Patricia Solini, Professor, Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes Métropole

Itamar Rose & Yossi Atia

Gary Stevens, Researcher, Slade School of Fine Art, London

ITALY

János Sugár, Professor, Intermedia Faculty, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest Miodrag Šuvaković, Professor, University of Arts, Belgrade

ISRAEL

Alek. O Elisabetta Alazraki Giorgio Andreotta Calò Michele Bazzana Giorgio Benotto Giuseppe Buffoli Raffaella Crispino Andrea Carrara

Giulia Casula Camilla Cazzaniga Marco Chiesa Serena Decarli Natascia Ferretti Francesco Fonassi Alberto Gianfreda Michele Mazzanti Valentina Miorandi MaraM Giusy Pirrotta Susanna Roda Elisabetta Scalvini Iacopo Seri JAPAN

SWEDEN DETEXT (Raul Marinez & Valentin Duecac) SWITZERLAND Philippe Bannwart Annatina Caprez Marina Tomić THE NETHERLANDS Arend Roelink TURKEY Nezaket Ekici

Gil Kuno Mihoko Ogaki Zero Reiko Ishihara

UKRAINE Katja Svirgunenko

MEXICO

USA Christopher O’Leary

Gastón Ramírez Feltrin MONTENEGRO Jelena Tomašević NORWAY Halvor Rønning REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA Anabela Angelovska ROMANIA Nicu Ilfoveanu SERBIA Maja Beganović Zorica Čolić Lidija Delić Smilja Ignjatović Nina Ivanović Vladimir Ivaz Smilja Ivetić Bojan Jovanović Jovana Jovanović Isidora Krstić Marko Marković Branko Milisković Branislav Nikolić Jelena Pantović Ivana Perić Jovana Popić Katarina Radović Maja Radanović Nina Simonović Ivana Smiljanić Bojana Stamenković Mirjana Stojadinović Mića Stajčić Vladimir Stojanović Saša Tkačenko Mihailo Vasiljević Zoran Vranešević Vesna Zarev SERB REPUBLIC Igor Bošnjak SLOVENIA Katja Majer son:DA

“REAL PRESENCE GENERATION 2010” WORKSHOP Heritage House MKM Cultural Centre GRAD Kazamati – Military Museum Various public locations AUSTRIA Academy of Fine Arts Vienna PROFESSORS Pawel Althamer Monica Bonavicini Marina Gržinić Matthias Herrmann Dorit Margreiter Costanze Ruhm ARTISTS Nora Bednar Pauline Adele Faucheur Vinko Nino Jaeger Christoph Kolar Stephanie Gloria E. Misa Nadine Nemke David Payr Linda Reif Mario Strk Sira Zoé Schmid Ulrike Wagendorfer University of Applied Arts, Vienna PROFESSORS Brigitte Kowanz Paolo Piva Erwin Wurm ARTISTS Hanna Burkart Florian Novak Vedran Pilipović Yamuna-Jana Maria Valetna

BRASIL Federal University of Uberlândia ARTIST Flaviane Malaquias FINLAND Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki PROFESSORS Villu Jaanisoo Silja Rantanen Seppo Salminen ARTISTS Tatu Engeström Ilari Hautamäki Henna Maarit Hyvärinen Tiina Johanna Pyykkinen Ilkka Tapani Pitkänen Anna Rokka Milka Tertsunen Sakari Tervo Okan Yildirim FRANCE École des beaux-arts de Bordeaux PROFESSORS Michel Aphesbero Jean Calens Danielle Colomine Pierre Ponant ARTIST Louis Pierre-Lacouture École régionale des beaux-arts de Rennes PROFESSOR Debesh Goswami ARTIST Morgane Lagache École supérieure des beauxarts de Nantes Métropole PROFESSORS Michel Aubry Jean Sylvain Bieth Claire-Jeanne Jézéquel Patricia Solini ARTISTS Anne Carrique Estelle Fonseca Makiko Furuichi Johnny Gaitée Bertrand Leroy Clément Prunier Éléna Salah Anne-Sophie Yacono GERMANY Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig PROFESSOR Christin Lahr ARTIST Kathrin Freytag

419 The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main PROFESSOR Tobias Rehberger ARTISTS Florian Auer Federico Del Vecchio Othmar Farre Moritz Grimm Sandra Havlicek Eloise Hawser Yasuaki Kitagawa Annina Matter Shane Munro Jonathan Penca Hannah Laura Schawelka Marcel Schiele Tomislav S. Vukić GREECE Department of Fine Arts and Arts Sciences of the University of Ioannina ARTIST Lida Alexiou HUNGARY Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest PROFESSOR János Sugár ARTISTS Bence Bálint Gábor Erlich Ferenc Getto Bence Hajdu Barbara Ipsics Dóra Karácsony Judit Kis Ágnes Violetta Lugosi Anna Németh László Ruszty ICELAND Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavík PROFESSOR Hulda Stefánsdóttir ARTISTS Bryndís Björnsdóttir Baldvin Einarsson Hrafnhildur Helgadóttir ISRAEL Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Tel Aviv PROFESSORS Nahum Tevet Ido Bar-el ARTISTS Ayelet Ben Dor Yael Riva Efrati Elad Larom Haran Mendel Chaya Ruckin Hadas Satt Tamar Sharara Dana Yoeli Yaara Zach

20 ITALY

Bauer, Milano

SERBIA

SWITZERLAND

Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, Torino

ARTIST Alessandra Vittoria Zanchetta

University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts

ECAV - École Cantonale d‘art du Valais

ARTIST Valentina Menegatti

C.o.C.A - Center of Contemporary Arts, Modica

PROFESSOR Mrđan Bajić

PROFESSOR Federica Martini

Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara

CURATOR Francesco Lucifora

PROFESSOR Pier Giorgio Balocchi

Università Iuav di Venezia

ARTISTS Ana Cvejić Tamara Cvetić Lidija Delić Smilja Ignjatović Nina Ivanović Tamara Jeremić Bojan Jovanović Isidora Krstić Iva Kuzmanovic Ana Marđetko Bojana Mašković Miloš Miletić Milan Nenezić Ana Pavlović Katarina Petrović Katarina Rašić Bojana Stamenković Marija Šević Biljana Veselinović

ARTISTS Leah Anderson Jacquie Steyn

ARTISTS James Fausset Harris Helena Hladilová Namsal Siedlecki Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze PROFESSOR Radu Dragomirescu ARTIST Dominique Fidanza Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli ARTISTS Maria Giovanna Ambrosone Viviana De Crescenzo Roberto Marchese Francesco Russo Accademia di Belle Arti Palermo PROFESSORS Daniela Bigi Valentina Console ARTISTS Giuseppe Buzzotta Valentina Cirami Anna Németh László Ruszty Gianluca Concialdi Francesca Fiore Francesco Fontana Davide Oliveri Linda Randazzo Stefania Zocco

PROFESSORS Lewis Baltz Carlos Basualdo Marta Kuzma Antoni Muntadas Cesare Pietroiusti Angela Vettese Francesco Vezzoli ARTISTS Bianca Baldi Giulia Bini Antonella Campisi Carlo Cecconi Michelangelo Corsaro Marta Ferretti Nina Fiocco Giulia Gabrielli Francesco Locatelli Gaia Martino Luca Pucci Claudia Rossini Maria Chiara Zenzani University of Calabria, Cosenza ARTIST Alfredo Ponticello NORWAY

LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore PROFESSOR Milenko Prvački ARTIST Hafiz Osman SOUTH KOREA Hansung University Seoul

Oslo National Academy of the Arts

PROFESSOR Dirk Fleischmann

PROFESSORS Jeannette Christensen Duba Sambolec

ARTISTS Sun-Young Hur Hyejin Kim Jihye Kim

ARTIST Maria Gordana Belić Accademia di Belle Arti di Jesper Halling Urbino Runhild Hundeide Siri Leira ARTIST Michael Rahbek Rasmussen Alberta Iera Halvor Rønning Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia Silje Eugenie Strande Øktner Zachary Andrew Tomaszewski PROFESSORS Anna Sostero ROMANIA Luigi Viola National University of Arts, Bucharest ARTIST Alberto Rosado PROFESSORS Nicu Ilfoveanu Brera Academy, Milan Roxana Trestioreanu PROFESSORS ARTISTS Alberto Garutti Claudiu Petru Lucaci Franco Marrocco Dan Cristian Angelescu Francesco Poli ARTISTS Antonella Aprile Alessandra De Vecchi Derek Maria Francesco Di Fabio Beatrice Marchi Chiara Paulon Andrea Romano Giovanni Sortino

SINGAPORE

SPAIN Faculty of Fine Arts - Universidad Complutense de Madrid PROFESSOR Marinella Senatore

THE NETHERLANDS Dutch Art Institute, Roaming Academy ARTIST Eelco Wagenaar UK Central Saint Martins, London PROFESSOR Joanna Greenhill ARTISTS Elisabetta Alazraki Nicola Ruben Montini School of Art and Design, Middlesex University, London PROFESSOR Katharine Meynell ARTIST Marco Gobbi Slade School of Fine Art, University College London ARTISTS “Ladies of the Press” (Ana Čavić and Renée O‘Drobinak) Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London ARTIST Simona Rossi USA UCLA Design Media Arts, Los Angeles PROFESSOR Victoria Vesna

ARTIST María Esther Saura Múzquiz

ARTISTS Megan Daalder Johanna Reed

Facultad de Bellas Artes, Granada

University of California, Santa Barbara

PROFESSOR Marisa Mancilla

PROFESSOR Richard Ross

ARTIST Laura García Moreno-Torres

ARTISTS Patrick Melroy Kathryn McCarthy

SWEDEN Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm ARTISTS Dimen Abdullah Peppe Carlsson Borge Louise Dahl Lindvall Linus Nordensson Spångberg Arvid Wretman Rut Karin Zettergren

University of Cincinnati ARTIST Tamara Polishchuk

REAL PRESENCE

“REAL PRESENCE” BELGRADE, 25 AUGUST – 8 SEPTEMBER Venues: Belgrade City Museum - Princes Ljubica Palace, Palazzo Italia – Italian Cultural Institute, Cervantes Institute, Goethe-Institute, Student Cultural Centre Gallery, REX, Gallery Zvono, Gallery Remont, Belgrade City Library and Gallery of Belgrade City Library, Museum of Yugoslavia, Heritage House, MKM, Kazamati - Military Museum, Cultural Centre Grad and various public locations

420

421

“Real Presence Official”, photo: Srdjan Veljović

REAL PRESENCE

422 1

Talks and presentations, Belgrade City Library

Dobrila Denegri, lecture, Belgrade City Library (Biljana TomiÄ&#x2021;, GabriĂŤlle Schleijpen)

Talks and presentations, Belgrade City Library

423

20 4

Gabriëlle Schleijpen, Director, DAI – Dutch Art Institute, Enschede, lecture, Belgrade City Library

Thomas and Haleke Bayrle, lecture, Belgrade City Library

Måns Wrange, Rektor/ViceChancellor, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, lecture, Belgrade City Library

REAL PRESENCE

MÅNS WRANGE In 2010 a group of students from The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm and I participated in “Real Presence”. The students took part in a number of workshops and seminars and I contributed to the lecture program with a presentation as well as participated in a few seminars. Both the students and I had a really interesting and inspiring time at “Real Presence” in Belgrade. Here follows an abbreviated version of the text that I presented at “Real Presence”:

The Scandal Effect The public discourse of the last years has been characterised by increased social, political and cultural polarisation in Sweden, as well as in other parts of the world. This development has also become apparent in the public debate on contemporary art, which has never occupied as much space in the public sphere in Sweden as it has in the last two decades due to a series of art controversies—or as the media often prefer to label the events—art scandals. As a cultural, social and political phenomenon, art scandals are a relatively neglected area in art history as well as in other fields of research. Most of the studies that have focused on scandals more generally, for instance political and media scandals, indicate that the source can generally be traced to a transgression of norms in some way.i Even though, on the whole, scandals challenge some degree of consensus, since the mid-nineteenth century visual art has occupied a unique position, as transgression of norms has played a central role in it. And as an institutionalised element within the concept of art, today artistic provocation is encouraged and has acquired the function of both renewing art and altering the internal hierarchies between practitioners as well as others active in the field.

424

Art scandals share most characteristics with other categories of scandals, such as political and media scandals: the offending of fixed social values, norms, or moral codes; the event by which the norm is transgressed must be known to more than the parties involved, as scandal can only arise in the glare of publicity; people must be indignant and shocked, and action must be taken by entities interested in criticising the event publicly.ii The kind of norm transgression that gives rise to scandal is, of course, dependent on the cultural and socio-political context in which it occurs. In several countries where religion plays an important role, the major art controversies in recent decades have involved blasphemy and sex, often in combination. In more secular and liberal parts of the world, such as the Scandinavian countries, blasphemy or sex on their own seldom give rise to scandal, as long as references to these areas do not transcend the heteronormative matrix and merely concern the majority society. In Sweden, major political scandals in the last decade have rather been caused by financial irregularities and misuse of the taxpayers’ money, as the issue of money is considered more of a taboo than sex in Sweden.iii And this is also symptomatic for many earlier art scandals in Sweden, where several of the controversies were not caused by the transgression of a norm itself, but by the fact that the violation of norms was paid for by the taxpayers in being produced, funded, or exhibited in public institutional frameworks.iv A typical art scandal scenario in Sweden has for decades often followed the same pattern. A controversy originates through the indignation of some of the local population in the area in which a work of art has been shown, which would then be reported by the local media with a small note in the middle of a newspaper. The cultural world would routinely defend the controversial artwork, and the local politicians, especially those involved with cultural policy, would be very cautious about involving themselves in the public debate. This has been true for many years in Sweden, but during the last decade this situation has changed. In Sweden, as in a number of European countries, it has been possible to discern a shift in the attitude of politicians to culture in general and to contemporary art in particular. The criticism against particular contemporary art works has, however, not only come from politicians from so called populist parties, or even conservative parties, but also from established

parties from the middle of the political spectrum. In several cases, the criticism expressed by a leading politician has not consisted of spontaneous remarks but strategically considered public statements and articles in the major daily papers or established political blogs and forums. Why then, have some leading politicians started to break with the arm’s length principle, by applying the same rhetorical strategies against contemporary art as used by the same populist parties that they otherwise are taking pains to distance themselves from? We would argue that there are several reasons for this development. The first is the change of the political landscape. Sweden had not seen the same development of rightwing populist parties as in other European countries until the last decade. This delay is explained by the dominant position occupied by socio-economic questions about welfare, employment, and economics in the Swedish political debate.v But, during the last decade there has been a shift in the political discourse, in which socio-cultural issues such as culture, national identity, and traditional family values have also acquired importance. The rise of populist parties has in Nordic countries, such as Denmark and Norway, also led to a development where some of the established parties have adapted their politics and rhetoric. Similar tendencies have also recently been seen in Sweden. The term “populism” is here not used to signify a certain type of movement or ideology on the extreme right, as it often is by the news media. In accordance with scholars on populism such as Ernesto Laclau and Yves Surel, the term is instead used to describe a political and rhetorical strategy that can be used across the entire political spectrum and that unites a number of disparate movements from Right to Left.vi One of the characteristics of the political logic of populism is a form of division into opposition and identification, in which populists attempt to create identification with the “people” and position themselves in opposition to an enemy—“those who are not like us” —which could be either political, technocratic, intellectual, or cultural “elites”, or minorities.vii There may be the same kinds of reasons for the frequency of art scandals in Sweden in recent years as for the rise in moral political scandals. The transgression of moral norms, as has already been pointed out, lies in the very nature of art scandals. Art scandals are structured in the same way as political scan-

425

dals in the media. They have a clear, cliffhanger “story,” with a beginning, middle, and an end—but they can be taken up again and angled differently. If the changes of the political landscape offer one reason for the growth of populism in Sweden as well as the rest of Europe, then the transformation of the media landscape naturally offers another.viii In a period of crisis for the established media in combination with a reorientation of values in the political discourse, the rhetoric of the news media is increasingly driven by emotions, polarised, and exaggerated—it becomes melodramatic, which involves a shift from logos to pathos. Opinions and feelings take priority over facts, which has resulted in an increase in opinion articles by commentators, columnists, and celebrity writers at the expense of the more costly investigative and fact-based journalism. Opinions do not call for facts to be checked or sources to be confirmed. Audience-focused research on the media has consequently also linked media stories to the genre that embodies emotion and excess—melodrama—and its unerring capacity to adapt to the techniques of the different media.ix Empirical studies have also shown that the general public remembers a scandal because of its gradual development into a coherent, exciting, and dramatic “story” that is simple to headline and has a clear point.x Almost all art scandals match the characteristics of melodrama: they deal with moral values; they are presented emotionally and as embodiments of some form of opposition between a victim (for instance, the taxpayers) and a perpetrator (the artistic elite); the events take the form of a series of spectacular actions, heated outbursts, threats, vandalism, complaints to the police, cancelled exhibitions. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media and Internet forums enable a scandal to be augmented and transposed, and the reverberations of its origination passed on to other media, both nationally and globally. The scandal spirals, it does not rise and fall.xi Ten years ago the sociologist Ari Adut described art scandals in liberal democracies as generally “low stake affairs” that concern a limited circle and seldom lead to legal penalties or social sanctions.xii This no longer applies in Sweden, nor in many other countries. Individual works of art have provided front-page stories and have at times been featured in television and radio news programmes. Leading journalists, academics, lawyers, spokespeople for various religious

denominations, and politicians have debated ethical, legal, and political aspects of artworks. Social media have seen lively controversies with heated blogs, Twitter storms and Facebook campaigns for and against works of art. Individual works have been reported to the police, threats have been made against artists and exhibitions, and even terrorist attacks have been aimed at an artist. In Sweden, one of the most secular countries in the world, art controversies that involve religion have become an exceptionally socially and politically sensitive issue. These situations are in many cases ethically complex since there is often not just one ethical principle at stake, but multiple, which can also be in ethical conflict with each other. This can in its turn result in a kind of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario: the art scandal as an ethical kaleidoscope, where just one twist in either direction will totally change the ethical view. Or as an ideological litmus test that exposes less visible ideological cracks and frictions in society.

Adut, Ari. On Scandal, Moral Disturbances in Society, Politics, and Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008.

Thompson, John B. Political Scandal: Power and Visibility in the Media Age. Cambridge: Polity Press. 2000. pp. 13ff.

iii

Allern, Sigurd and Pollack, Ester (eds.). Scandalous! The Mediated Construction of Political Scandals in Four Nordic Countries. Göteborg: Nordicom. 2012. pp. 38–49.

Jönsson, Dan. Estetisk rensning: Bildstrider i 2000-talets Sverige. Stockholm: 10tal Bok. 2012.

Rydgren, Jens, Sweden. The Scandinavian Exception. In Albertazzi, Daniele and McDonnell, Duncan (eds.). Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European Democracy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. p. 149.

Laclau, Ernesto. Populism: What’s in a Name. In Panizza, Francisco (ed.). Populism and the Mirror of Democracy. London: Verso. 2005. pp. 1–10. and Surel, Yves. Berlusconi, leader populiste?. In , Janine Chêne, Oliver Ihl, Vial, Éric and Waterlot, Ghislain (eds.). La tentation populiste au coeur de l’Europe. Paris: La Decouverte. 2003. p. 186.

vii

Pasquino, Gionfranco. Populism and Democracy. In Albertazzi and McDonnell. Twenty-First Century Populism. p. 28.

viii

Karlsson, Maria and Wrange, Måns. Scandal Success — The Political Economy of the Art Scandal. Scandalous. A Reader on Art & Ethics. Möntmann, Nina (ed.). Berlin/New York: Sternberg Press. 2013. pp. 88-105.

Martín-Barbero, Jesús. Communication, Culture and Hegemony: From the Media to Mediations. trans. Fox, E. and White, R. A.. London: Sage. 1993. p. 119.

Bird, Elizabeth S. What a Story! Understanding the Audience for Scandal. In Lull et al. Media Scandals. p. 103.

Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press. 2006. p. 15ff.

xii

Adut 2008. p. 224.

REAL PRESENCE

426

JÁNOS SUGÁR “Elements of the utopias written in Atlantis may be found in the present, but the understanding from shore of boats reconstructed on the high seas is exclusively genetic.” (Johan Sjerpstra) The capitalist system (representative democracy based on a market economy) has become incapable of functioning in its present form. For one thing we have reached the natural limits of growth, and now produce predominantly trash and environmental damage. Furthermore we have developed technological avenues for manipulation that have evolved into a subtle, complex, and convergent system that has the capacity to take economies, finance, and social structures in entirely unrealistic directions. This has all happened in the name of specialisation that arose in the scientific revolution of the 17th century and then the Enlightenment, discarding universal modes of thought perceived as clumsy and an obstacle to development. Secularised specialisation naturally gave rise to tremendous scientific and technological development from the 19th century to our day, one that could never have been envisioned in an earlier era – but it has also brought catastrophe and a string of societal tragedies. With the rise of autonomous art in the 19th century after the wane of its religious/political function, gradually the expectation of realism and the grand narrative also fell away, concurrent with the proliferation of visual media. This was the beginning of a

bution of labor, the function of art has come self-driving process, borrowing the accumuto represent the other who stirs us to think, lative and growth-oriented logic of capitaand offering non-violent, thought-based aplism, that built a system of institutions that, proaches, and solutions based on creative, in addition to commercial activities, support independent, lateral thinking. art’s own self-reflexive reArt works through over-intersearch. This clearly leads Art is the last refuge pretation – the infrastructuall the way from modernist of free speech, re (institutional framework) concepts of freedom to conthat aids understanding – and temporary art’s notion of which must be prepares us for the encounter total competence. Now this carefully guarded and with the other, and for solving institutional structure is represerved above all. problems we cannot yet know. shaping all the world over With its new autonomy, art in a populist/demagogical became a place for learning about the envein, in the name of the so-called creative counter with the new, a place where, in an industry. environment that is simpler than reality, we During the Cold War the main message of may encounter something unknown and exthe culture was demonstrating freedom, perience the road from non-understanding and art has taken this freedom, of course, in to understanding. During this journey we new directions, like medial/social/political/ fortify ourselves with learned ways of unglobal awareness. The Cold War is over, the derstanding and interpretation, and this is crisis is here, and the ideology of openness is inevitably critical process. getting to be replaced by control. In politics The critical competence of art is questiothere is a change in general attitude toward ned now by populists everywhere, in many art/culture: politicians realise its importlocal dialects. Art is the last refuge of free ance, but they misunderstand it at the very speech, which must be carefully guarded same time. They simply want more control and preserved above all. Solutions for future over the influential creative class, and theproblems can be found only if we save this refore envision a creative industry, which, critical counter-system. Since modern art is like the other important sectors of a counalso built on the principles of capitalism (actry’s economy (like military, energy) has to cumulation and growth), what will happen be able to be governed, allowing play on its if the underlying system – capitalism – is different registers. transformed? With the wane of institutions of over-interWhat other models can we imagine? pretative mediation, the ability of the system to resolve problems is also weakened. Within the exceptionally subtle and effective distri-

427

20 1

Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Dean, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, lecture, Belgrade City Library

Claudiu Petru Lucaci, performance, Belgrade City Library

Biljana TomiÄ&#x2021;, Adrian Notz

Friedemann Malsch, Director, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, lecture, Belgrade City Library

REAL PRESENCE

428 1

Lectures, presentations and talks, Belgrade City Library (JeanSylvain Bieth, Patricia Solini)

Lectures, presentations and talks, Belgrade City Library (Dobrila Denegri, Miodrag Šuvaković, Zoran Erić)

Miodrag Šuvaković, lecture, Belgrade City Library

Miodrag Šuvaković, lecture, Belgrade City Library (Nikola Uzunovski, Dobrila Denegri, Friedemann Malsch)

429

MIODRAG ŠUVAKOVIĆ The term “post(e)-pedagogy” was coined by the American Derridian thinker Gregory L. Ulmer, attaching Jacques Derrida’s concept of the “scene of writing” to entirely different “authors”, such as psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, sculptor and performance artist Joseph Beuys, film director Sergei Eisenstein and theatre director Antonin Artaud. For Ulmer, post(e)-pedagogy implies the deconstruction of conventional art- and media-related pedagogy on behalf of experimental and activist work and the establishment of pedagogy on behalf of the age of electronic media. I use the term “postpedagogy”, and later “transpedagogy”, to denote the curatorial and critical or artistic work of early Germano Celant, Lucy R. Lippard, Biljana Tomić, Claire Bishop, Andrea Fraser, Xavier La Roy, Janez Janša etc. Post/trans-pedagogy, in a broader and more ambiguous sense, also refers to processes of educational formation of the contemporary hybrid, nomadic or self-organised “artist”, “curator”, “activist”, “choreographer” or “participant”. The epistemology of contemporary art education is determined by the concept of postulating the “subject-as-artist-as-producer”, -“post/ trans producer” or “contextual-activist”. In other words, the artist cannot be perceived as a “practitioner” or a “designer”, nor indeed an “author”, but as a cultural and social symptom – the locus of slippage of the symbolic order – art, culture and society. The artist therefore re-directs his epistemologies

towards “learning” or “research”. The notion “symptom” most commonly designates the sliding of critical unstable cultural knowledge between passivity and activity, between social order and chaotic neoliberal society. Art in the age of culture and socio-economic crisis is a vague index of identification of artistic practices pertaining to the period since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the turn from isolated symptomatic retro art practices in the 1980s and early 2000s to the art of the new age of globalisation. The new “art in the age of culture/society” has evolved from autonomies centred in the macro-political order into art with manifest and demonstrative functions for culture/society, as part of the new media-bound reconfiguration and re-semantisation of actuality. Art in the age of culture/society rises with global empires: the USA, the EU, China, India and post-coldwar Russia. Art has become an object, a situation or an event, a media flux made, appropriated, or simulated by representations or phenomena of “culture/society” in the shift from our worlds into the “possible world” of global consumption and global antagonisms. Art has become a “matter of culture” and “society’s practices”, with the specific task of mediating between cultural and social formations of historical and geographic actuality. Contemporary art no longer reflects social content by way of thematics, but immediately, by organising the very economy

of signifiers – thematics being merely its secondary effect. Thus, art does not emerge as a form of “primordial chaos”, the elusive abyss of nature, but as a determinate social practice: a real practice in the midst of manifest social contradictions, demands, expectations and deeds. Therefore, the ontology of these contemporary pieces is not aesthetic but social. Ontology is not the presence of form, but the resistance (entropy) of form in performed affective events. In other words, these contemporary artistic practices, which in many respects correspond to the cultural industry’s practices of coping with actuality and discovering forms of life, are not determined in terms of media or metamedia, but in terms of transmedia: events and affects. Transmedia implies that the artist has become an author, licensed to deploy any media or platform for production or postproduction and the respective appropriate procedures to achieve the desired result in a human contextual situation. In terms of contemporary education, the artist as an author/producer/curator or activist (‘artivist’) is no longer “tied” to a certain type or category of art products, but rather to certain possibilities of distribution of arguably multifaceted artistic “samples” or, metaphorically speaking, contextual softwares. In that sense, the education of artists advances towards affective cultural and social studies – studies of theoretical and practical interventions in the institutional matrices of contemporary capitalism.

REAL PRESENCE

430

1 2 3

Talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia Marta SmoliĹ&#x201E;ska, Professor, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, lecture, Museum of Yugoslavia

431

MARTA SMOLIŃSKA As the ten-year cycle of exhibitions, workshops and lectures called “Real Presence” has shown, the question of models of (artistic) education and the relationship between practice and theory continues to be not only important but also very inspiring. This is especially true when the question is posed from the perspective of Belgrade, a city that experienced war in the 1990s, its scientific and artistic circles facing the problems of a young democracy and economic or identity crises. For me, “Real Presence” is above all a persistent raising of questions related to the issue of acquiring knowledge and skills in the classical artistic education system. These questions lead in turn to the conclusion that alternative paths can be found, different to traditional ones but adjusted to specific contexts and related to a given time and place. Each city, each cooperating institution and each participant showed radical hospitality and openness. “During my stay in Belgrade I delivered a lecture about two artists who represent the post-feminist current in Poland: Beata Ewa Białecka and Aleksandra Ska. Conversations followed: an exchange of reflections, discussions about particular works I had shown and attempts to compare the dynamics of the development of art connected with particular waves of feminism in Poland and the countries of former Yugoslavia. I learned a lot.”

The starting point for the search for alternative models of knowledge was an experience that somewhat undermined the hierarchy of the lecturer-student relationship, based on real presence, on being together in the field of art and on constant discussion. Within the framework of “Real Presence”, knowledge transfer had a network character because everyone learnt from everyone else, questioning traditionally sanctioned patterns rooted in systems of knowledge acquisition. It can be assumed, therefore, that the alternative nature of the “Real Presence” model consists in part of the multidirectional flow of inspiration, taking place in a system that is far more horizontal than vertical. The network of contacts established between those who participated in this event over the course of ten years is unpredictable, much like the rhizome metaphor proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. “While serving meals in a restaurant, elegant waiters in white shirts and black trousers (the inevitable comb in the back pocket) asked a surprising question: ‘Normal or vegetarian?’” We live at a time of widespread commercialisation of education. On the one hand, academics often have several jobs, which affects the quality of their teaching. On the other hand, students increasingly choose

courses of study motivated not by passion and interest, but by employment prospects and the laws of the market. “Real Presence” functioned outside this kind of context, accumulating in a given place and time a creative energy generated simply by the actual presence of students, artists, curators and art theorists. “I also distinctly remember inspiring discussions with Thomas Bayrle and his wife Helke Bayrle on a barge moored at the confluence of Belgrade’s two rivers: the Danube and the Sava. After all, conversation, excellent food and wine – real presence and the celebration of alternative educational models demand that we taste the genius loci! I also remember a visit to the Museum of Yugoslavia and the post-communist and post-war spectres of Belgrade. In this city, a vibrant expansive new life clashed with the memory of the recently ended war, creating a unique context in which to pose always new questions about the role or mission of artists, curators and theorists.” Neither artistic education nor theoretical discourse on art can be set once and for all, that is for sure. Artists, theoreticians and curators should by no means hibernate in their own zones, closing themselves off from what can happen between artistic practice and theory. The key here is real, actual presence, which I understand as a committed, vigilant and absorbing being together in the field of art and networking. “Real Presence” as a project should never end. The idea put forth by Dobrila Denegri and Biljana Tomić has demonstrated that this kind of radical hospitality is a viable alternative to the academic model of education.

REAL PRESENCE

432 1

Talks and presentations, Museum of Yugoslavia (Thomas and Helke Bayrle)

Rut Karin-Zettergren, “Untitled”, performance, Museum of Yugoslavia

Eelco Wagenaar, “Coloured Sky”, collective action, Museum of Yugoslavia

Eelco Wagenaar, “Coloured Sky”, collective action, Museum of Yugoslavia (Elad Larom)

Eelco Wagenaar, “Coloured Sky”, collective action, Museum of Yugoslavia

433

20 6

EELCO WAGENAAR What is it to be here in Belgrade with all these people? Talking about culture, about politics, about art. What is art? Art. Art for me is the being in the moment. An experience. But the experience experienced in a state of presence. With additionally an aftershock. For me being here in Belgrade at “Real Presence” made me again realize this. There is a difference between creating a sculpture and creating a moment. A sculpture is a sculpture and will be a sculpture for the existence of its lifetime. A moment will be a moment for only a moment. After that we can talk about a memory of a moment (in time). We cannot go back to the same moment, but a sculpture we can return to.

Eelco Wagenaar, “Coloured Sky”, digital print, Museum of Yugoslavia

The moment is where the spectators are all connected to the actual thing. I cannot see the spectators as merely spectators or audience. They are actively involved; they

are maybe participants, or beholders. They are co-creators of the moment. Co-authors even, because they give presence to the moment; they validate the moment, without them there wouldn‘t be this moment. Moments can be staged or created, but it is hard to create a moment all by just one person for one (and the same) person. To experience moments, often more then one are needed. Creating moments, is not trying to enforce ideas upon people. It is trying to establish a mental connection; sharing a thought. The moment can be extended (in memory), but this is already not anymore the moment but an ‘aftermath’, a remembrance. To get back to the example of the sculptor in relation to creating moments. It can just be that the creator of the sculpture also tries to create a moment. And the moment of a sculpture just haves a longer time span? Only thing is, it will not allow the audience into being co-authors of the moment.

REAL PRESENCE

434 1

Christian Sievers

Collective photo, Museum of Yugoslavia

Andrea Carrara, Natascia Ferretti, Dobrila Denegri, Arend Roelink, Camilla Cazzaniga, Giuseppe Buffoli, Michele Bazzana, Serena Decarli, Marco Chiesa

Serena Decarli, Zorana StojanoviÄ&#x2021;, Marijana GobeljiÄ&#x2021;

435

20 5

Andrea Carrara

Michele Mazzanti

Iacopo Seri, Giulia Casula

Nina IvanoviÄ&#x2021;, Nemanja NikoliÄ&#x2021;

REAL PRESENCE

436 1

437

20 7

Marko Marković

Halvor Rønning

Sun-Young Hur

Megan Daalder

Ido Bar-el and Seppo Salminen

Christian Sievers, Simon Thorogood, Dobrila Denegri, Hannes Brunner

Namsal Siedlecki, Helena Hladilová, Iacopo Seri, Sara Rossi, Elisabetta Alazraki, Megan Daalder

Iacopo Seri, Sara Rossi, Patrick Melroy

Malin Ståhl, “Walking Cinema Video Vision,” performance, Princess Ljubica Palace and Istituto Cervantes

Malin Ståhl, “Walking Cinema Video Vision,” performance, Princess Ljubica Palace (Michele Bazzana, Giuseppe Buffoli, Pilvi Takala)

Malin Ståhl, “Walking Cinema Video Vision,” performance, Princess Ljubica Palace (Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen)

REAL PRESENCE

438

LADIES OF THE PRESS Our formation was an accident. 2007 — the two of us were in our third year at art school. We teamed up to make an exhibition pamphlet for a group exhibition we were co-organising at the Slade School of Fine Art. In the lead up to the exhibition we put together an ambitious call-out to other participating artists, asking for image and a text submissions, only to find ourselves without a single submission of work and a day to go until the opening. We decided to take our printing project to the exhibition space instead, install our DTP press in the thick of things, and see what happens. Opening day - we at our ‘press desk’, armed with cups of tea and coffee, a couple of laptops, a scanner and a cheap inkjet printer that, by today’s standards, took a ridiculously long time to print a single sheet of paper. We announced an open invitation to all exhibition participants and visitors alike to submit a piece of work for our A5 pamphlet, which we promoted as an alternative (and democratic) exhibition space and called a “LIVE PRESS” on account of its being printed live and on site for the duration of the exhibition. The performance and publication were a huge, albeit surprising, success. We had queues of eager artists handing us drawings, texts, ‘performative pieces’ for the paper, and an equally enthusiastic audience patiently waiting for the painfully slow printer to produce another booklet so they can purchase a copy. We had unintentionally created a hub of activity in this exhibition space, inviting spontaneous art-making and collaboration. We took a variety of submissions, from documentation of large pieces to sketchbook scribbles. We engaged in discussion, conducted off-the-cuff interviews, and took instruction from participants were keen to make interventions into the pamphlet itself. Through live submission and our own commentary we documented the exhibition as it unfolded over five days and printed an alternative version of the event: The publication was democratic in how it was produced and how the scale and significance of each artwork was skewed in the layout. Our career was an accident. We had spontaneously declared our continued collaboration beyond the “LIVE PRESS” project during our assessment that year and

decided to produce an art magazine – an uncommon practice in UK art schools at that time, though it had a precedent in student art publications such as ARC. It was called “Cluster” and the first edition drew together 50 pieces of work around a theme, which we curated, designed, edited and printed in an offset edition of 500. It was a short-lived project that successfully brought together emerging artists of the time. In the years that followed art school, we set up “LIVE PRESS” performances all over London, usually at the request of fellow young artists. It was a way of supporting each other: we gained exposure from independently run galleries and project spaces, and in turn we brought audience engagement and a bit of ‘buzz’ to an event as a participating artist. It was 2010. We were eager to take our fledgling art practice abroad when Ana had spotted a call for participation for the final rendition of “Real Presence”. We produced a zine, live and on site at Princess Ljubica Palace, Belgrade, documenting conversations and comments from other participating artists and capturing ‘moments’ in real time through the medium of print. As we look back at the zine, some eight years later, and most of it doesn’t make much sense – there are typos, fragmented sentences, drawings, writing in Cyrilic, Hangul, and English – we nevertheless recognise the significance of it, as a relic of that time. Without immediate memory to rely on, all that we are left with is a sense of raw energy from both ourselves and other participants, the desire to have a meaningful exchange across languages and cultures, documented in its broken, haphazard glory – rough edges and all. It was a special moment, not just for us as young artists, but for Ana in particular, who had left Yugoslavia as a child in the late 1980s and was prevented from returning because of the war in the 1990s. Returning to her home country, albeit temporarily, as a practicing artist was one way to establish connections with a new generation of local artists. At the same time, Renee’s UK visa was about to expire and a return to her native Japan was imminent. Both being foreigners and based in the UK meant that the future of our practice was unclear. The fact that visa restrictions hindered artistic exchange

in Serbia and in turn inspired “Real Presence”, in the end, was poignant for both of us on a personal level; we had discussed how we could keep our practice alive, somehow, beyond our separation while we walked around Tito’s mausoleum. The politicisation of our work was an accident. Despite an increasingly hostile environment for immigrants in the UK, we persisted. As our practice developed, we were increasingly being asked to perform for larger organisations — everything from major museums like Tate, to political think tanks to local authorities. We worked with ‘local communities’; we worked with ‘stakeholders’; we worked with educators, bureaucrats, health professionals and museum curators, and most importantly with ‘the public’. Had we, through our public engagement projects, unwittingly become the helping hand of neoliberalism’s public relations stunt? Our desire to democratise art-making had turned into what the local authority might describe as an outreach activity, and what developers might describe as public relations or corporate social responsibility. Meanwhile, we ourselves were being pushed further and further to the margins of society, living in east London (the artist quarter) — one eviction at a time. The ensuing battle was not an accident. We are listed in the most recent “Real Presence” credits as UK artists. But what is a UK artist? The two of us developed our practice in the UK, and still practice here, but nevertheless we were never really able to shake off our otherness; our practice came dangerously close the end under the recent conservative government when, in 2014, Renee’s permanent residence application was rejected for what later turned to be a trivial error on part of the Home Office. Shortly after Renee won a prolonged legal battle and gained the same Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK status as Ana, the British populace then voted for Brexit. It was now Ana’s turn to be ideologically ‘shut out’ of Britain, ironically through her connection with Europe; having been born and lived in ex-Yugoslavia, she was now planning to re-locate to Ljubljana, Slovenia.

439

20 1

We write this as we prepare our next performance, “Life in the UK: VIP Lounge” which examines the notion of citizenship generally and UK Citizenship in particular by way of a test (based on the current “Life in the UK” test, a citizenship examination undertaken by applicants) which grants successful participants passports to access to a segregated VIP area within the exhibition. It is made entirely out of cardboard and printed matter, overtly referencing the Union Jack and other nationalistic motifs, prevalent in the public sphere since the 2012 Olympics in London and even more so since Brexit. Amid the shoddily constructed neoclassicist cardboard columns and tongue-in-cheek bureaucratese (we playfully co-opted the language, typography and paper stock used by the Home Office in their official correspondence) lies our response to growing UK nationalism and the bureaucracy that supports it. Importantly, VIP Lounge is situated within a larger artistic inclusion project called “Crip Casino” by artist and activist Abigail Palmer whose work highlights society’s attitudes to disability and disadvantage in their many forms. Our latest series of works examine the fundamental structure of media and propaganda, while consciously engaging with the problematics of positioning our practice, unwittingly or wittingly, on the knife-edge between democratic art-making and corporate PR. The discomfort of our own practice, much like our discomfort at our shaky identities as ‘UK residents’, is something we embrace and investigate in order to better our understanding of what increasingly seems monstrously unjust in our adopted country and in society generally. The “LIVE PRESS” zine we made at „Real Presence”, with all its awkwardness and hasty construction, reminds us of the perseverance in the face of obstacles that we had in common with “Real Presence”. It was that energy, that collective effort, that brought us there in the first place — naive, perhaps, but there was authenticity in how it invited togetherness, even for that short period while the press desk was buzzing with activity and the printer was spitting out “Real Presence” zines hot-off-the-press for all who had come together on that day in 2010.

Ladies of the Press (Renée O’Drobinak and Ana Čavić)

Ladies of the Press, “Real Press”, Live Press zine printed live at Princes Ljubica Palace

Ladies of the Press, “Real Press”, Live Press zine (page spread), printed live at Princes Ljubica Palace on 31 August 2010

REAL PRESENCE

440 1

Jovana Jovanović, “Piano”, performance, Princess Ljubica Palace

Ljubica Čvorić and Marina Tomić, “Mum’s the Word”, performance, Princess Ljubica Palace

Dirk Fleischmann, “Made in North Korea”, installation, Princess Ljubica Palace

Barak Raiser, “A Graph Without a Photo”, installation, Princess Ljubica Palace

Smilja Ignjatović, “Sinking Boat”, installation, Princess Ljubica Palace

Marko Marković, “Organ 2”, installation, Princess Ljubica Palace

441

20 4

REAL PRESENCE

442 1

443

20 3

1 2 3 4

Giorgio Andreotta Calò, “Untitled (Belgrade 2007)”, slide projection (detail), Princess Ljubica Palace

REAL PRESENCE

444

IGOR BOŠNJAK At the time I participated, “Real Presence” was something really special, and it remains a pleasant memory. At that time, it was difficult and expensive to travel for us students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. Visas were expensive, and obtaining them involved a lengthy procedure: in other words, it was very complicated to travel anywhere. For me and other young artists and art students, “Real Presence” was very important because we could compare oursel“Real Presence” provided ves with students studying across the world and exyoung students with a change experiences, ideas sort of identity in the and thoughts with them. sense that we felt we “Real Presence” provided young students with a sort belonged somewhere, of identity in the sense that we were not on the that we felt we belonged margins of the art world. somewhere, that we were not on the margins of the art world. “Real Presence” was a springboard for our contemporary art careers. It is almost unbelievable that in a city as large Belgrade no similar concept exists today. Most art academies in the region were in a pretty bad condition at the time, especially

when it came to researching new media and contemporary art production. Participating in workshops, associations and socialising with foreign teachers and students as part of “Real Presence” could compensate for our academies’ outdated plans and programs. I know that most students and artists who participated have had notable careers here and abroad. I remember the atmosphere being positive and creative, everybody was joyful about each other. Participants set their works together and everybody helped each other. The presentations were interesting, contemporary and full of interaction, dialogue and mutual understanding. When I look at that time from this distance it seems to me that people are more remote and closed now, that the Balkan region has degraded again. Of course, capital, tourists, goods and people are still on the move, but in my opinion our society and the region is less open to the world and global ideas than it was ten or fefteen years ago. All in all, it was wonderful to be a part of that story and I am glad I have participated twice. If there were something similar in the region today I would definitely send my students to participate.

445

1 2

Igor Bošnjak, “Bosnian Moon”, digital print, Princess Ljubica Palace

REAL PRESENCE

446 1

447

20 4

Opening of the exhibition “I Am the Milk in Your Plastic”, Italian Cultural Institute (Angela Vettese, Dobrila Denegri and Maria Mazza, Director of Italian Cultural Institute)

Valentina Miorandi, “Vergangenheitsbewaltigung” digital photo on pvc, Italian Cultural Institute

“I Am the Milk in Your Plastic”, exhibition view, Italian Cultural Institute (Marco Chiesa, “Blue Tent”, Alexander Wolf “Détournement”, Mihoko Ogaki, “Milky Way #011”)

Miholo Ogaki, “Milky Way #011”, mixed media on paper

Camilla Marinoni, “Libera”, performance

Michele Bazzana, “Nadi”, installation, Italian Cultural Institute

Arend Roelink, “45°16’05.90” N – 14°52’48.41” E, 45°27’08.34” N - 9°09’19.14”, installation (detail), Italian Cultural Institute

REAL PRESENCE

448 1

449

20 6

Giulia Casula, “Present Landscape”, lambda print

“Presences”, video screenings, Cinema Rex

Gastón Ramírez Feltrín, “September”, video screening, Cinema Rex

Nezaket Ekici, “Learning Turkish”, screening, Cinema Rex

Exhibition “Presences”, opening, Remont Gallery (Marco Chiesa, Serena Decarli)

Saša Tkačenko, “Was It Worth It”, installation, Remont Gallery

Saša Tkačenko, “Was It Worth It”, installation, Remont Gallery (Lidija Delić, Francesco Fonassi)

Vladimir Stojanović, “Untitled”, installation, Remont Gallery (Angela Vettese)

REAL PRESENCE

450 1

1 2

3 4

Christian Sievers, “Sheltered Life”, exhibition opening, Student Culture Centre Gallery

Christian Sievers, “Unshelter”, installation, Student Culture Centre Gallery

451

CHRISTIAN SIEVERS I was part of “Real Presence” twice, in 2001 and 2010. The first time, when I was still a student, my contribution was to paint the windows of the Student Cultural Centre’s van. This way my artwork constantly travelled through the city. I think I later heard that the artwork, and the van, survived for several years, but I’m not sure that isn’t wishful thinking. Biljana, Dobrila and the team at the first “Real Presence” in The way 9/11 disaster 2001 were immensely hospitawas instrumentalised to ble and welcoming. This was a time when Belgrade was still advance a politics of fear, scarred by the NATO bomcontrol and surveillance bings from two years earlier. left a deep mark on me In their welcome speech, the organisers said they hadn’t and my art practice. been allowed to leave the country for a long time, and that instead they now wanted the world’s art students to come to Belgrade. Part of the program was a tour of some spectacular ruins, the local results of the war. In a way, the dust still hadn’t settled. One hot summer night we were having a party on someone’s roof, and I vividly remember looking down over a precipitous edge to a pack of stray dogs, chasing after cars passing by in the street, four storeys below, trying to bite

the wheels at 60 km/h. It looked suicidal. I was told that all of Belgrade’s stray dogs had gone mad during the 1999 bombings. Another baroque Balkan story. We returned from Serbia at the beginning of September 2001, full of new experiences and happy to be back in peaceful, untroubled Germany. The 9/11 attacks happened only a few days later. I wasn’t a tourist at the developments that followed. The way this disaster was instrumentalised to advance a politics of fear, control and surveillance left a deep mark on me and my art practice. In 2010, I made a fort-like wagon installation, made from parasols. This was part of a larger investigation into temporary security structures and mobile fortresses. The inspiration came from a gossip paper, which showed a couple of parasols arranged on the ground like a fort. The caption said that supermodel Naomi Campbell and her then Russian billionaire boyfriend were hiding inside. I found another historical precedent in Belgrade‘s Military Museum, in a depiction of the Battle of Kosovo. The Student Cultural Centre gallery wasn‘t large enough to house my structure in its ideal perfectly circular form, so we had to break it up. It looked like it housed Genghis Khan or some wild children, not military at all. 10

REAL PRESENCE

452 1

453

20 5

ZERO REIKO ISHIHARA

2010 was a special year for me. I had several exhibitions and residency programs in Germany, Austria, Japan and Belgrade. I was in the mood of a travel ler. It was the first time I visited Serbia. In the city I could still see the traces of the war. Some parts of the city were full of new buildings, other parts were still dark from the fire. It’s like a weird patchwork, that was my first impression. Art can be very fragile in a time of crisis. When the crisis is over it grows again like grass on a field after a fire.

Exhibition “Presences”, opening, Cervantes Institute

Halvor Rønning, “Untitled (Tools)”, installation, Cervantes Institute

3 4

5 6

Halvor Rønning, “Untitled (Tools)”, installation (detail), Cervantes Institute

Zero Reiko Ishihara, “The Metamorphosis”, intervention on the windows of the Cervantes Institute

REAL PRESENCE

454 1

Exhibition “Presences”, opening, Zvono Gallery (Ósk Vilhjálmsdóttir, Dobrila Denegri, Angela Vettese, Ido Bar-el, Yael Riva Efrat, Dana Yoeli)

Exhibition “Presences”, opening, Zvono Gallery (Veljko Vujačić, Ósk Vilhjálmsdóttir)

Katja Majer, “Gaia’s Embrace”, interactive installation

Katja Majer, “Gaia’s Embrace”, installation, Zvono Gallery (Giorgio Benotto)

455

20 5

Exhibition “Presences”, opening, Zvono Gallery (Dominique Fidanza, Swen-Erik Scheuerling)

Swen-Erik Scheuerling, “Case Study - the Cat/Mouse that Caught the Mouse/Cat”, site specific installation, (detail), Zvono Gallery

Hans Rosenström, “In Our Hearts”, video screening, Zvono Gallery

Christiane Löhr, “Little Constellation”, sculpture, Zvono Gallery

REAL PRESENCE

456

FEDERICO DEL VECCHIO After many years, Dobrila asked me to contribute to the publication regarding my participation in “Real Presence” in Belgrade, where I took part with my class form Städelschule, Frankfurt… I was quite surprised about the invitation, and also found it quite challenging. Our relationship with time is something that we deal with constantly. I will try to deal with it through some flashbacks, considerations, questions…

During our class meetings/group crit, I had never heard our professors, who also happened to be stars of the art system, tell us how to be successful. Instead, we would always have critical discussions addressing issues including the fact that an ‘artwork’ should arise from a problem… also not a very relevant problem… Rehberger would always repeat: something interesting can also come out of a ‘stupid’ idea.

We are in 2007 and I had just been accepted to the ‘prestigious’ Städelschule! I could not believe it. My English was still scarce and full of West Coast slang, as I had just come back from a one-year scholarship stay in California, between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Finally, I could be confronted with a more international context and engage with a more critical environment.

One thing we learned from working together was to recognize a certain conceptual and formal quality … how to be selective, create collaborative structures and maybe even how to be arrogant… Here, I would again like to recall our Golden Lion, Tobi, even ten years later, some friends and I still find ourselves quoting him for fun: “You can find a white wall everywhere”. I guess this teaches you how not to be greedy and how not to be a ‘Sunday painter’… but instead to identify the context … and the power of the white cube or whatever the context might be. I was looking for a better, more engaging and ‘more actual’ educational process. This was one of the main reasons I left Italy years ago, and the reason I started my own project space now when I’m back. I wanted to bring a closer and more critical discussion that unfolded behind the ‘commercial’ art scene in Naples.

The outsider maybe sees Städelschule as a ‘factory for success’, and maybe it‘s true ... but what might be wrongly perceived is that it is focused on how to become ‘successful’ in this ‘jungle’ of an art world. This is not really a secret recipe... rather, the school or institution offers a high level of critical discussion… freedom… a productive environment … an approach away from bureaucratic and static academism… a small number of selected students… a multicultural and crazy environment that is on one hand productive, and on the other, why not, competitive.

The continuous debates and collaborations with my colleagues shaped my art-making and my personality, and represent an important element of my own artistic-curatorial practice. As part of my artistic practice, I have also taken a curatorial role that provides a platform for my research interests and critical experimentation. I am the co-founder of the curatorial initiative “Flip“, a project-space based in Naples which later became nomadic. “Flip” is a platform aimed at expanding on current cultural and artistic practices. Its projects represent the result of my research and engagement within an international network and multidisciplinary collaborations with my artist-peers. Continuous shifts in context have created opportunities to extend invitations, and create collaborations as well as spontaneous occurrences that contribute to the multi-layered and transnational discourse that characterizes “Flip”. “Flip” is a vision and a project in itself, not specific to a single site, but rather an evolving initiative which questions and revaluates through discussions, exhibitions, and printed publications those aspects that constitute the artistic-curatorial practice. The network of the Städelschule is something very strong - it is a bond that continues for years... wherever you travel, you find friends of the Städel with whom to share moments and continue to work together.

457

20 1

Florian Auer, “Prince Paul Orange Stephan”, mixed media

Sandra Halvicek, “Untitled”, installation

Florian Auer, Federico Del Vecchio, Othmar Farre, Moritz Grimm, Sandra Havlicek, Eloise Hawser, Yasuaki Kitagawa, Annina Matter, Shane Munro, Jonathan Penca, Hannah Laura Schawelka, Marcel Schiele, Tomislav S. Vukić, talks and presentations, Belgrade City Library

REAL PRESENCE

458 1

TOBIAS REHBERGER “A guy wants a classic suit and he goes out to get one. Maybe he thinks he’s found the ideal cut, but years later he takes another look at his sample of eternal beauty and the whole thing seems grotesque – maybe the lapels are too wide, or the colour seems off. My work deals with these mechanisms: what at one time was seen as a classic form, something neutral or even timeless, is a construction. I’m interested in this whole process. I want to look at the context in which aesthetic values arise.” (Artforum, 1998) This quote describes my teaching, because it describes my way of thinking. Of course that’s the only thing I can offer to the students, and in that sense, it’s unavoidable that your own work goes into how you deal with people. But I try to do that as indirectly as possible. Of course I have my belief sys-

tems, and I have what I think is my knowledge, and of course that influences me. Obviously the system of what I believe in has something to do with exactly that change in time – not in the linear sense, but in the progression of ideas about what art is. I’m sure I’ve said something like that a couple of times to the class in the last couple of years. I’m sure that once a year I say something like that, because for me it’s very important to think about that. Whenever a work appears that leaves something like that out of consideration, then I critique it. And of course they can either take the critique or they bring something that proves me wrong. I’m really interested in that too. So it’s not that they have to follow what I think. I’m even more interested in them being able to prove me wrong in certain things.

459

20 2

Tobias Rehberger, Professor, The StĂ¤delschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main, lecture, Belgrade City Library

Antonia Alampi, Stefania Miscetti

Nikola Uzunovski, Joa Ljungberg

Talks and presentations, Belgrade City Library

Rainer Ruchs, Head of Scientific Department and Vice Director, mumok - Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, lecture, Belgrade City Library

REAL PRESENCE

460 1

Namsal Siedlecki, “Selfportrait”, video

Helena Hladilová, “Naked”, intervention

Michael Rahbek Rasmussen, “uden navn, uden tittle / Unamed, Untitled”, intervention

Megan Daalder, “Untitled”, video

461

NAHUM TEVET Bezalel Academy’s participation in summer 2010 happened when I was ending my ten years as head of the MFA, which had opened in late 2000 in Tel Aviv. Opening this program in Tel Aviv, rather than Jerusalem, where the academy has been located since it was founded in 1906, had something in common with “Real Presence” spirit. Tel Aviv is Israel’s cultural and economic capital, and the centre for contempoThe best way for an artist rary Israeli art and artistic to find his “persona” discourse and activities. Moreover, it also has a soamong so many cio-political meaning, as contradictory options is part of the politics and the different problematics and to experience as many spirits of these two cities. voices as possible from

not always verbal flow

Moving to Tel Aviv basically meant openness to sensitivities. wider social and political layers, openness for developing a dialogue with society and the wider cultural community.

of ideas, energies and

When we opened the program in Tel Aviv, actually the first MFA program in Israel, we knew we had to work and function within “academic roles”, but we always tried to take advantage of the academy’s “given logic” for the benefit of each student’s creative and artistic growth. We emphasised good meaningful dialogue within the student group, with mentoring from artists and student colleagues from Israel and abroad. For me, that’s at least as important as, probably more than, the curriculum demands of theoretical courses. For that reason,

from the very start we brought many international MFA students, artists and curators from other countries to meet our students, initiating collaborations and participating in international MFA seminars in Tel Aviv, Glasgow, Paris, Chicago, Helsinki, Taipei, Gwangju, Kassel, Singapore and Zagreb, to name just a few. On the occasion of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design’s 100th anniversary, we also initiated and organised “MFA International 2006”, probably the first ever large-scale‚ Biennale-type exhibition involving students from 15 international MFA programs. More than 50 students and artists came from Helsinki, CalArts, Columbia University, Beaux Arts Paris and Lyon, Goldsmiths and the Slade in London, Malmö Art Academy, Konstfack in Stockholm, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hochschule Frankfurt, the Royal College of Stockholm, Glasgow School of Art and Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul. This led to more projects and international collaborations, including exhibitions, workshops and seminars held in our large gallery in Tel Aviv featuring the final projects of students on other MFA programs. All this was done with the deep trust we had that the best way for an artist to find his “persona” from among so many contradictory options is to experience as many voices as possible from the not always verbal flow of ideas, energies and sensitivities. 10

REAL PRESENCE

YAARA ZACH The space for the “Real Presence 10” residency was located not far from an international shopping boulevard that looked quite different from everything around it, like it didn’t belong there (but then, it belonged everywhere). I bought some basketballs in one of the stores there and cut the orange parts out of the balls, so in the end only their skeletons – the black rubber that holds them together – remained. This was the beginning of a group of structures based on the basketball skeleton. The original structure of the ball, which initially created a familiar place and space, changed. Now it created a new unknown territory, in a different time and with different borders. Readymade objects relating to and surrounding the body, likes basketballs, sleeping bags, swimming cups and zippers, continued to appear in my work. These objects are the basis for many of my sculptures, which go through processes of disassembly and reassembly. Many of them are floor objects or are flaccidly installed between the wall and the floor. Having corporeal presence, these objects create special relationships with the spectator’s body, manipulating its movement and emphasising its own physical presence.

462

In my latest project, “Unreasonable Doubt”, the meeting between the body and its industrial surroundings continues to blur. This project was exhibited in 2018 as a solo exhibition at the Petach Tikva Museum in Israel (curated by Hadas Maor) and as part of the main project at The Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (curated by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti). It is a largely black, almost monochromatic installation, in which materials and forms seem to flow from one piece to the other. The installation includes a series of unique objects, combining crutches, leather whips and amorphous sacks filled with ink fluids. Starting to create my ink sculptures, I was driven by the desire to control liquid (which didn’t seem to want to be controlled, which made me want it even more). Looking back at the beginning of this process, it was the thought of the human body and its limits that stood at the foundation of this wish; its skin, veins and arteries, but also its industrial membranes, body extensions and the intimacy that accrued at the body’s meeting points with its surroundings. In this project, just like in the basketball works, I was interested in negative existence – of the body and the object. Just like the remains of the basketballs appear as a line drawn in space, the black sculptures of “Unreasonable Doubt” seem to be swallowed by two-dimensional, black silhouettes.

463

20 1

YAEL EFRATI

Yael Efrati, “Real Presence Pigeon”, photo

Before arriving at “Real Presence” in 2010, I remember reading about Belgrade’s history, especially the war of the 1990s, and watching documentaries like the BBC’s “The Death of Yugoslavia”, trying to gain some knowledge and “understand” the place – or at least “get” a broader general picture. Nevertheless, an outsider cannot really understand, cannot grasp the complexities of “everyday” life in a manner that does not reduce or flatten it all. Basically, I was (and am) a tourist. However, I did get a chance to speak with some of the local art students who accompanied us. For example, I am still in contact with Smilja Ignjatović even now, and she actually visited Tel Aviv last year (although unfortunately I missed her). These dialogues between us continue to this very day, and I’m more than grateful for that.

REAL PRESENCE

464

ELAD LAROM In the past few years I have been thinking about painting in a way that resembles editing, which means combining a number of pieces together to create a complex and meaningful narrative. As a counter twist, my video pieces have gradually attained the features of two dimensional image framing, and are actually moving paintings. I am interested in developing this process and performing it in a new venue, in order to formulate an updated visual vocabulary in an unknown territory. I believe that good art must have a wide impact, and that it needs to function simultaneously on common grounds and at higher levels of perception, without downgrading any of them. Putting this idea into practice means that an image can be popular and function as a catchy spectacle, yet in its inner layers can function as a deep and meaningful metaphor. I therefore see the artist as a mediator, meaning that the creative mind is not a “mind” per se but an evolving piece of art that uses the medium as a vessel for ideas. This is why I believe that focusing on the medium misses the point, while the main concern –

which is sometimes forgotten – is not what one does but what one has to say. The contemporary art world is divided into sectors, formalities and professional niches. Personally, though, I see artistic existence as a full-life experience, not necessarily dependent on different mediums or careers. Therefore, when I think of a project within the boundaries of the art field I instinctively think of a form of art that can both function and be directly present across a wide cultural spectrum, and thus in the psyche of human societies. For these reasons I believe that art has a role in directly affecting human society and politics, whether it is presented in an art gallery or via the mass media, live on a television screen. As an Israeli artist, located at the geographical and political junction between West and East, with their cultural battle to shape an “appropriate” human life and future, I find it impossible not to have a personal perspective on it. Having learned from history that battles between cultures and individuals are endless, an eternal striving for power and domi-

nation, I came to believe – and this is quite a torture for me due to my personal background – that being torn between the two, not here and not there, gives me a different viewpoint, and added personal value: I am both an Israeli and an Italian; I am both a Jewish-Israeli and an Arab-Jew, whose grandparents were born in Syria; I am in both the East and the West. Therefore, and as a result of my artistic point of view, when I try to imagine a new art project it is only natural that I sometimes “give up” to the framework of the medium’s boundaries, as with painting or the boundaries of the formalities of an art gallery. Nevertheless, I believe that art projects can still enjoy the freedom that these frames allow. The platform, therefore, is not the end result for me but just the beginning, as my aim is to create an artistic experience that can interact with social consciousness and transmit it through iconic forms. In so doing, I don’t encourage the use of provocations, but quite the opposite: using smart yet simple pieces that can resonate far beyond their “natural” context.

465

20 2

Elad Larom, “Pool Triangle”, oil on canvas

Elad Larom, “Colosos”, oil on paper

REAL PRESENCE

466 1

Patricia Solini, Anne Carrique, Estelle Fonseca, Makiko Furuichi, Johnny Gaitée, Bertrand Leroy, Clément Prunier, Éléna Salah, Anne-Sophie Yacono, private garden in Dečanska street, 32, Belgrade

Bertrand Leroy, Estelle Fonseca, “Tank”, installation, private garden in Decanska street, 32, Belgrade

Estelle Fonseca and host of the installation “Tank”

467

PATRICIA SOLINI manipulated by visitors as a door, opening Laurie Etourneau invites ten prestigious or closing in the entrance of the House of European art institutions to send a series of Legacy. postcards to indicate their presence in Belgrade. Inspired by the name plates of official inAnthony Cochet juxtaposes in triptych filstitutions, Johnny Gaitée proposes an abmed images of a Serbian demonstration, a surd, poetic, free reading, paying tribute to mechanical toy and a pigeon ripped apart by his “masters”, such as Velazquez, Kirchner, a gull, as an always-possible history. Beuys, Kelley, Debord, Hadzifejzović… Their Charlotte Zonder films people, machines first names are written in white reserve on and objects as they stop, move or are immoa black background, translated into Serbibile: the poetic drift of the gaze. an: “The full piece will be Jihye Kim offers a way of constituted of 15 plates of folding a French flag to “Real Presence” was an pure gold or yellow gold”. make a Serbian flag. excellent experience for Discovering stores in the Jérémie Laurent composes name of Philip Zepter a “painting” on the ground students in terms of their during his wanderings in made from the sleeves of LP awareness of artistic Belgrade, Clément Prurecords, entitled “Jerry was work, outside their nier is interested in this here”. important businessman Camille Simony continues comfort zone at school. and imagines a project inher series of photographs of volving the initial Z, rising in 3D, in which taxis in Europe by making portraits of taxi we would get lost, as we get lost in the situdrivers in front of their vehicles: “Belgrade ation of this man’s political and financial Taxi Drivers”. Following the examples set by power. Wim Wenders’s prestigious “Paris-Texas”, In the installation “Like a dog”, Elena Saand the exhibition “Paris-Moscow”, Guillah juxtaposes red and black plaster skittles laume Fouchaux suggests “Paris-Belgrade”, with a frame fallen off the wall confining a a do-it-yourself of wood and silvery paper, a photograph of a building damaged by bomsign illuminated by comical flashlights. bing. Carole Theodoly-Lannes reveals the backs Anne Carrique is photographed in front of of women’s heads photographed on the the Danube, Europe’s greatest river with her streets of Belgrade. arms crossed as if measuring the water level. Théodora Barat activates an acrid and threaEstelle Fonseca goes to meet the hardwortening army of mechanical white rabbits king local population and invites construcwith red eyes in the dark cellars of the Milition workers on a site of destruction to take tary Museum. a quirky break with her to shape assemblies, Matthieu Crimermois allows himself to be

trying to make a link through the medium of art. Similarly, Bertrand Leroy invites himself to someone’s housee with the aid of a pile of wood cut for winter, making a tank modelled on those he finds at Belgrade’s Military Museum. A series of memories of portraits painted in watercolour occupy the wall in rows of onions, as Makiko Furuichi‘s head is careful not to forget. Finally Anne-Sophie Yacono gives up a few strokes of coloured pencils in the doorway, perhaps conveying the difficulty of real presence in the world. These two workshops teemed with ideas: projects well done, poorly done or not done, but more than the production of pieces, difficult in terms of both time and means, this Belgrade exercise was an excellent experience for students in terms of their awareness of artistic work, outside their comfort zone at school. Preparation upstream, analysis of exhibition spaces, the right understanding of each artist’s ability to carry out work under the constraints imposed by the context, including its financial realisation. In fact, no haste and analysis of work at the end, these are the lessons learned by the participating students. And the icing on the cake: exchanges between and meetings with other students and art schools across Europe that helped expand their networks. “REAL PRESENCE” in art, mission accomplished ! 10

REAL PRESENCE

468 1

469

20 5

Makiko Furuichi, “Impression“, watercolours on paper, Heritage House

Simona Rossi and Elisabetta Alazraki, “Following”, performance, Heritage House

Exhibition view, Heritage House

Opening of the exhibition, Heritage House

Opening of the exhibition, Heritage House (Friedemann Malsch, Dobrila Denegri, Zoran Mlađenović, Ana Veljković, Biljana Tomić, Giulio Alessandri, Filip Brusić-Renaud)

Exhibition “Real Presence 10”, Heritage House (Jean Calude Mosconi, Head of Artistic and Cultural Advisory - GBS Area, UniCredit Group, Francesca Pagliuca, Artistic and Cultural Advisory - Group Identity And Communications, UniCredit S.p.A)

REAL PRESENCE

470 1

471

20 3

Stephanie Misa, “Facade”, installation, Heritage House

Alia Scalvini, “She Shines for Somebody While You Are Sleeping”, installation, Heritage House

Alessandra De Vecchi, Chiara Paulon, “Good Morning Belgrade”, installation (detail), Heritage House

Anna Rokka and Derek Di Fabio, “Dragon”, collective performance, MKM, CC Grad

5 6

Exhibition opening, Cultural Centre Grad

REAL PRESENCE

472

Valentina Cirami, “Untitled”, installation, Cultural Centre Grad

Valentina Cirami, Francesco Lucifora

3 4

Stefania Zocco, “Doormat”, installation (detail), Cultural Centre Grad

473

FRANCESCO LUCIFORA In 2010 I saw Belgrade and never forgot it. Now that I’m sorting out my memories some coincidences arise. “Real Presence” was born in 2001, the same year I curated my first project, changing a traditional gallery space into a dynamic temporary zone for performance and action, a coincidence that became presence. Nine years have passed since the time I opened CoCA, a contemporary arts library in Modica, Sicily, with Rosario Antoci and Stefania Zocco, as well as answering an invitation to “Real Presence” along with Daniela Bigi and nine students from the Fine Arts Academy of Palermo: Giuseppe Buzzotta, Valentina Cirami, Gianluca Concialdi, Francesca Fiore, Francesco Fontana, Davide Oliveri, Linda Randazzo, Giovanni Sortino and Stefania Zocco. That experience means a lot in my present. I moved from one border – Sicily – to another – Serbia – which inevitably influenced my point of view on art and politics. “Real Presence” erased the imagery of Belgrade that the media had built in all of us, replacing it with a real sequence. Arriving at “Nikola Tesla” airport, I seemed to feel history, pain and courage in the set of objects, signs, and looks I saw. I cannot explain it better than to say that I, who have not experienced any national liberation, perceived I was in a liberated country.

Now I recognise that every city in the world has people who are able to feel the needs of communities and translate them into concrete actions. An international project as broad as “Real Presence” comes from a great and stubborn intention to nourish the soul of its people, rebuild blocked roads and guide politics towards the common good, whatever the cost. Never more than I did during “Real Presence” have I felt the universal and conciliatory power of art in its contemporary being, aimed at creating multilateral exchanges and reflections among artists, citizens, students and curators. In Belgrade during “Real Presence 10” I figured out that blatantly political artworks would not always be to my liking, because the trip to Serbia made me understand artists’ centrality to and responsibility for geopolitics. I found myself facing not only a project created to breach a border closed to the rest of the world, but a colossal work of political and relational art. Nowadays I read “Real Presence” in this direction. Meanwhile, I witness the self-ostentation of many artists who deal with conflicts, inhumanity, regimes and abuses against communities with compassion disguised as commitment, which ultimately becomes a way to conquer a universal syntax and get quick recognition from the art world.

“Real Presence” invested in the proximity of experiences, giving Serbian art students concrete opportunities to meet the world that awaited them or the universe they would leave, an experience very close to the urbanisation that art lived after the end of World War II. In Belgrade this reached intense levels after the Balkan conflict, showing the capacity for reaction due to the close relationship between the Serbian people and international culture. Living those days in close contact with the city and its people helped me to understand that “Real Presence” not only opened a new decennial connecting artery, but also allowed artistic, philosophical and generational passages that, in parallel with the winds of democracy and freedom, laid the foundations for a surge of shared pride and reconstruction. I feel lucky to have lived that part of history. It was essential to be able to closely observe the wounds and rubble become the interlocutors and witnesses of a new beginning, not only of Serbia, but also of this European continent that should never forget the meaning and supreme value of relationships, coexistence and confrontation. I am pretty sure that the 9 students from the Fine Art Academy of Palermo with whom I shared those days brought back more than a memory, and told of a gutted building and territory where art supported courage and action.

REAL PRESENCE

474

475

Michelangelo Corsaro, “An attempt to deliver my presence to a different space and time”, intervention, Cultural Centre Grad

Performances during the opening of the exhibition “Real Presence 10”, Cultural Centre Grad

Flaviane Malaquias, African dances from Brazil, performed by Nikola Medić and dancers from “Havana” club, Cultural Centre Grad

Louis Pierre-Lacouture and Hyejin Kim, “Translations”, performance, Cultural Centre Grad

5 6

Rut Karin-Zettergren, Linus Nordensson Spångberg, Arvid Wretman, Dimen Abdullah, “Untitled”, collective performance, Cultural Centre Grad Dan Angelescu, “Real Presence”, collective action, Cultural Centre Grad

REAL PRESENCE

476 1

1 2 3

Exhibition “Real Presence 10”, opening, MKM

Ilari Hautamäki, “Mental Mindmap”, wall drawing (detail), MKM

Yamuna-Jana Maria Valetna, “Harmonly”, sound installation, MKM

Dominique Fidanza, “Dance of Souls”, installation, MKM

Milka Tertsunen, “Cartography”, installation, Kazamati - Military Museum

Opening of the exhibition, Kazamati - Military Museum

477

20 5

REAL PRESENCE

478

LIDIJA DELIĆ We were lucky to be part of “Real Presence” once, twice, many times. Curiosity and art gave us energy. We invented a new rhythm in the local scene. Many people worked on the exhibitions, not just curators. We were just before Facebook. *** Lidija Delić: When did you first start exhibiting? Iva Kuzmanović: I have been exhibiting my whole life: in the living room when I was 4, pretty seriously on the terrace of our summer house at the seaside when I was 6. I felt competitive in elementary school art contests, and I also felt like I had won the Turner prize when I received an award at the end of an art colony I attended in high school. When I started studying art, my first serious, more institutional (although student) exhibitions came along. But then came “Real Presence”. We hosted dozens of international young artists in our city. We helped them understand their surroundings, get inspiration and find materials for their artworks. We worked together, completely immersed in our walkabouts, we bonded in friendship, exchanged our thoughts. Each year, an exultant synergy was felt in the air. What we didn‘t know then is what a tremendous impact this experience would have on the majority of us as artists. We learnt how to think completely outside the boundaries. We learnt how to represent an idea in hundreds of ways, and how to choose the one that communicates it to its core. We learnt how to co-operate. Somehow, through all the fun and friendships, we also learnt about our responsibility for our own work. We gained integrity and openness. All of this helped us understand what it means to be really present.

Lidija Delić: Where did your inspiration come from? Francesco Fonassi : I wouldn‘t say my work comes from actual inspiration. It‘s more about research and following open paths, experimental techniques, reflecting on affordances and the properties of media and solving problems. For sure, most projects arise from mental images or needs that can be also considered inspirational. Lidija Delić: What does creativity mean to you? Hafiz Osman: To me, creativity means making something unfamiliar with/without conforming to the norm. Encouraging discontent and regularity. Spending a second more than usual. Lidija Delić: How did you start working with “Real Presence”? And how would you describe your mode of work? Andrea Romano: That summer (2009) I went to Belgrade after breaking up with my girlfriend (she is Serbian and some glimpses of the city reminded me of the time we spent together). So, even though I was surrounded by interesting and nice people from many countries, I didn‘t feel so extrovert and social myself. Perhaps that‘s why I also kept my distance from the approach many students took to “Real Presence”. When we visited the exhibition spaces, many participants rushed to occupy space and fill it forcefully. In general I don‘t feel that necessity, and I preferred to live the city as a flaneur. I decided to employ the whole experience in a work that was both simple and complex at the same time. I wanted to employ the city, my feelings and my expectations of the art by the other participants and the audience. I just hung a sentence on a wall and “played” with what happened after that. I realised I had made a good piece when by chance some Roma children came to the opening, maybe attracted by the crowd.

One year later I was invited to the last “Real Presence”. My heart was healed and it was an unforgettable summer. I think most of my practice comes from that time. Between 2008 and 2010 I used to work with those kinds of modalities. I was obsessed by the most structural aspects of art practice: our expectations of the roles related to a context, the ways in which the idea of value is transmitted and perceived, the limits of a representation. What I have done since that time is work with this concept, but through figures and objects. Lidija Delić: Do you still work in art? Where does your visual language stem from? Iacopo Seri: Yes I still work in art. My language and practice come out of the mystery of the floating atoms of poetry hidden in the stones we kick, the juices we make and the looks we take. Lidija Delić: How would you describe your mode of work? Saša Tkačenko: My practice as an artist evolves around exploration of representational modes and models in the public sphere – the spaces of social communication and exchange that constitute the unstable scenographies of contemporaneity. I observe how the appearance of (public) places and their transformation is constructed, and explore their spatial and sound aspects by exposing them to image-based media such as video and photography, as well as by translating their architectural features to fields of sculpture and installation. I therewith aim to provoke the performative potential of given spaces and create dynamic situations in the exhibition format, which are presented to the audience within my works. Investigation of the historical and institutional background of the places and their strategies of representation plays an important role in this process.

479

20 1

Marija Šević

Lidija Delić, Ana Pavlović, Marko Marković, Hafiz Osman

Lidija Delić

Marko Marković

REAL PRESENCE

480

1 2

Marija Šević

Ana Pavlović

Lidija Delić

Hafiz Osman, Lidija Delić

Hafiz Osman

Lidija Delić, Marija Šević, Marko Marković, Hafiz Osman

481

LIDIJA DELIĆ

WE WERE LUCKY TO BE PART OF “REAL PRESENCE” ONCE, TWICE, MANY TIMES. WE WERE JUST BEFORE FACEBOOK. 6

REAL PRESENCE

482 1

SAŠA TKAČENKO As hard as it is to define all that “Real Presence” had us go through together, one could say that encounter itself was the key to what happened in Belgrade, Istanbul, Venice, Rivoli and everywhere else. Encountering others who are just as confused as you are, caught between great expectations and fear; encountering and recognising those who think like you, or on the contrary those you fail to understand; encountering VeWhere art was and what nice from a train, slowly kind of art we were gliding over the causeway making at the time is around 5 A.M.; and finally encountering yourself, perfectly defined in the really. In the first decade present actually. When I of the 2000s, carrying the look at all those people weight of the 90s, encounters seemed impossible to today and see where us. Traveling then was so they are and what they different from how we trado, I think it‘s obvious vel today. In 2007, to get to Istanbul we first had to obwhere the art was. tain a short-term visa for Bulgaria, which was then a new EU member (this took 5 working days) and then ask for another one at the Turkish embassy (anot-

her 2 days). Yet everything bad went down the drain after we shared our ideas and plans on trains, in our carriages. Looking back, I miss that period of innocence and guilelessness we all had. Today, I can hardly imagine dancing to “I Will Survive” with the bride at an Istanbul wedding, having crashed it, and realising that the song was somehow being played by one of my “Real Presence” friends. I‘m still trying to understand how fifty of us fitted into a single hotel room in Rivoli and how I prepared a feast for 200 artists on a tiny barbecue in the yard in front of my studio. This could go on forever, me remembering the feelings and anecdotes that marked that period, so it would be fair to ask – where‘s art in all that? Art was all around us, and for precisely this I would like to thank you most, dear Biljana and Dobrila, knowing that at any moment it was possible: there were gestures, sounds and movements that could make art happen. Where art was and what kind of art we were making at the time is perfectly defined in the present actually. When I look at all those people today and see where they are and what they do, I think it‘s obvious where the art was.

1 2 3

Saša Tkačenko, Francesco Fonassi

Barbecue at Saša’s studio

483

20 2

REAL PRESENCE

484

485

APPENDIX

486

REAL PRESENCE

2001 REAL PRESENCE 20 AUGUST – 8 SEPTEMBER

ORGANISED BY Visual Art Program, Student Cultural Centre

VENUES Museum of Yugoslavia, Student Cultural Centre Gallery, Faculty of Fine Arts (graphic, sculpture department and club), BK Academy, Cinema Rex, Sculpture Park of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Remont Gallery, Zvono Gallery

WORKSHOP Every day, 4pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 27 August _ Performance, Arend Roelink, Hannelore Houdijk, “Real Presence Virus” _ Lecture, Harald Szeemann, Artistic Director, Venice Biennial 29 August _ Action, Leopold Kessler, Henning Hennenkemper, Werner Skvara, Alexander Döring, “Boat to Belgrade”, Dock on Danube river 30 August _ Performance, Iris Selke, “HHHHHI” _ Lecture, Mare Emmott Tralla, Professor, Academy of Fine Arts, Tallinn 31 August _ Lecture, Nataša Đurović, Vice Dean, Academy of Fine Arts, Cetinje 1 September _ Performance, Annagret Luck, “The Bridge”, Quay under the Branko’s Bridge _ Action, Lisa Jugert, “The Fountain” _ Performance, Herma Wittstock, “Drink Ambrosia” _ Performance, Franz Gerald Krumpl, “Toti & Monki” _ Performance, Sarah Braun, “Euphorie” _ Performance, Daniel Müller-Friedrichsen, “Righting” 3 September _ Action, Drena Virag Čvorović, “Cultural Cultural Cleansing”, Student Cultural Centre _ Action, Antea Arizanović, Marija Đorgović, Marija Konjikušić, Ksenija Marinković, Jelena Martinović, “Cup of Coffee”, Student Cultural Centre _ Lecture, Svetlana Racanović, Curator, Montenegro Mobil Art, Podgorica _ Lecture, Lavinia Garulli, Tulio Pacifici, www.exibart.com _ Outdoor installation, Mihoko Ogaki, “The Light in to the Light”, Sculpture park, Museum of Contemporary Art

4 September _ Action, Drena Virag Čvorović, “Cultural Cultural Cleansing”, Student Cultural Centre _ Perfromance, Nataša Skusek, Martina Bastarda, Mateja Očepek, “Washing of the Feet” _ Lecture, Darka Radosavljević, Stevan Vuković, Independent Artistic Association Remont _ Lecture, Katarina Milovanović, “3+4” Magazine _ Exhibition, Zvono Gallery 5 September _ Lecture, Luciano Fabro, Professor, Brera Academy, Milan _ Lecture, Jasna Dimitrijević, Director, Youth House _ Exhibition, Club of the Faculty of Fine Arts _ Performance, Noemí Martínez Chico, “Senseless” 6 September _ Action, Andrija Pavlović, Vukašim Nedeljković, “Beans”, Student Cultural Centre _ Encounter, Danica Jovanović Prodanović, Director, KCB - Cultural Centre of Belgrade _ Exhibition, Luminita Cochinescu, “Real Presence”, Remont Gallery _ Encounter, Katarina Živanović, Director, Cinema Rex _ Lecture, Dragana Marković, Director, Center for Youth Creativity _ Lecture, Miško Šuvaković and “Walking Theory” _ Action, Slavica Peševska, “Gravitation”, roof of the Belgrade Palace _ Exhibition, Student Cultural Centre Gallery _ Intervention, Catrin Bolt & Marlene Haring, kiosk of Belgrade Lottery, street Cara Dušana 55 _ Installation, Christian Mayer, Alexander Wolff, Student’s City, Student’s House, Wing F, Block III, room 425 7 September _ Exhibition, Sculpture department - Faculty of Fine Arts _ Exhibition, Museum of Yugoslavia _ Action, Nicu Ilfoveanu, “Art Wűrtl” _ Action, Drena Virag Čvorović, “Real Presence” _ Performance, Andrea Schull, “Untitled” _ Performance, Irena Missoni, “Untitled” _ Performance, Herma Witstock, “Turn Around” _ Performance, Nezaket Eckici, “Catch a Turkish Kiss” _ Performance, Sarah Braun, “Sarah” _ Performance, Franz Gerald Krumpl, “The Partisan” _ Performance, Iris Selke “Narcissus” _ Performance, Daniel Muller-Friedrichsen and Viola Yesiltac, “Love Letters” _ Performance, Voislav Radovanović, “Snake Dance” _ Performance, Marijana Gobeljić and Andreja Pavlović, “Untitled“ _ Performance, Jasmin Duraković, “Lion Is Not a Small Cat, II” _ Performance, Jelena Masnikosić, “Šolska Pot” _ Performance, Beatrice Barrois, “Nest” _ Music Session, Gunter Anderlik

487

2002

APPENDIX

REAL PRESENCE & FLASHBACK GASTHOF 20/25 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST

8 September _ Encounter, Dragoslav Krnajski, Director, Association of Visual Artists, Belgrade _ Action, Katja Majer, “Untitled” _ Exhibition, Vukašin Nedeljković, “Animals”, Belgarde ZOO _ Lecture, Joa Ljungberg, Curator, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Student Cultural Centre Gallery _ Lecture, Cecilia Parsberg, Professor, Umeå Art Academy, Student Cultural Centre Gallery * where not indicated otherwise, the event took place at the Museum of Yugoslavia

PROJECTS/INTERVENTIONS IN THE PUBLIC SPACE _ Zoran Srdić, “Posters” _ Diana Levin, “Title” _ Tomas Saraceno, “Autotravel” _ Achim Stiermann, “Beog-Rad”

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2001” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Serbia and Montenegro _ Republic Ministry of Culture, Serbia _ Republic Ministry of Education, Serbia _ Assembly of the City of Belgrade _ City Secretariat of Culture, Belgrade _ Open Society Fund, Belgrade _ Academy of Arts BK, Belgrade _ Embassy of Austria in Belgrade _ Embassy of Denmark in Belgrade _ Embassy of Germany in Belgrade _ Embassy of Italy in Belgrade _ Embassy of the Netherlands in Belgrade _ Embassy of Switzerland in Belgrade _ Goethe-Institut, Belgrade _ Italian Cultural Institute, Belgrade

ORGANISED BY nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association, Belgrade

VENUES Museum of Yugoslavia, Student Cultural Centre Gallery

WORKSHOP Every day, 4pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 20 August _ Exhibition “Flashback Gasthof”, Museum of Yugoslavia 26 August _ Lecture, Jan Woo, Professor, LaSalle College of the Arts - Faculty of Fine Arts, Singapore 27 August _ Performance, Malin Ståhl, “Wishing Three” _ Performance, Marijana Gobeljić, “Interactive Voice Control” 28 August _ Performance, Jelena Janev, Jelena B. Kovačević, Zorica Čolić, “Untitled” _ Lecture, Joa Ljunberg, Curator, Moderna Museet, Stockholm _ Lecture, Mikael Askergren, Professor, Royal Institute for Technology _ Performance, Malin Ståhl, “Dance Piece for Stage Performance” 29 August _ Performance, Noemí Martínez Chico, “Revelation” _ Performance, Predrag Miladinović and Ivana Ranković, “Tablecloth” _ Exhibition, Dejan Antonijević, “Born on the Sixth of June”, Student Cultural Centre Gallery, curated by Joa Ljunberg 30 August _ Action, Marko Stamenković, “The Flag” _ Performance, Jasmin Duraković, “Hommage to the Wooden Leg“ _ Lecture, Edi Muka, Director, Tirana Biennial _ Performance, Nenad Jeremić and Dušan Jevtović, “Western Impressions” _ Performance, Noemí Martínez Chico, Marijana Gobeljić, Sandra Poccescki, “Dance” _ Exhibition, “Real Presence”, Museum of Yugoslavia _ Performance, Vladan Jeremić, “Kunst „n‘ Brega” _ Performance, Malin Ståhl, “Cut”

REAL PRESENCE

2003

488

REAL PRESENCE 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST

31 August _ Performance, Rüdiger Reisenberger, “Permanent Breakfast“ 2 September _ Video screening “Flashback Gasthof”, Student Cultural Centre Gallery

ORGANISED BY nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association, Belgrade

VENUE Museum of Yugoslavia

* where not indicated otherwise, the event took place at the Museum of Yugoslavia

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2002” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Republic Ministry of Culture, Serbia _ Pro Helvetia, Skoplje _ Goethe-Institut, Belgrade _ Moderna Museet, Stockholm _ Swedish Institute, Stockholm

WORKSHOP Every day, 4pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 22 August _ Video screening, Franz Kapfer 24 August _ Performance, Mima Orlović, “Lend Me Your Ear”

SPONSORS _ Grafix _ Inter-Dedra Trade / Intermezzo _ McDonald’s _ Publikum _ Vlasinka d.o.o. Rosa

25 August _ Performance, Mima Orlović, “Lend Me Your Ear” _ Performance, Marija Ivošević, Ana Truinić, “5 Minutes of Glory” 26 August _ Performance, Mima Orlović, “Lend Me Your Ear” _ Lecture, Jiří Ptáček, editor in chief, “Umelec” art magazine 27 August _ Performance, Mima Orlović, “Lend Me Your Ear” _ Action, Valerie Krause and Julia Ruther, “Trade”, Green Market _ Performance, Voislav Radovanović, “Secret Performance in Munich” _ Performance, Ivana Falconi, “Untitled” _ Performance, Zorica Čolić, Monika Sigeti, Cecilija Hajzler, “Untitled” 28 August _ Performance, Mima Orlović, “Lend Me Your Ear” _ Performance, Antea Arizanović, “Eliksir Tranzicije” 29 August _ Performance, Katja Majer and Jana Braga, “Ritual”, junction of Danube and Save rivers _ Action, Alessandro Mancassola, “Open Museum”, public spaces _ Exhibition “Real Presence”, Museum of Yugoslavia _ Performance, Severin Weiser, “Untitled” _ Performance, Giorgia Boller, “Fertilization 3; circle, square, menstrual blood, earth” _ Action, Sepp R. Brudermann, “Bar” _ Action, Tuulia Susiaho, “Finish Karaoke”

489

2004

APPENDIX

REAL PRESENCE 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2003” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Serbia and Montenegro _ Republic Ministry of Culture, Serbia _ Republic Ministry of Education, Serbia _ KulturKontakt, Vienna _ BK Academy, Belgrade

SPONSORS _ Avala Ada _ Grafix _ Duga _ FS. Pančevo _ Kryogas _ McDonald’s _ Merkator _ Oikos _ Publikum _ Super Vero _ Vlasinka d.o.o. Rosa

ORGANISED BY nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association, Belgrade

VENUES Museum of Yugoslavia, House of Youth, Remont Gallery

WORKSHOP Every day, 4pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 21 August _ Lecture, Božidar Bośković, curator 22 August _ Lecture, Dorothee Willert, curator 23 August _ Lecture, Jovan Čekić, artistic director, BELEF - Belgrade Summer Festival 24 August _ Lecture, Svebor Midžić, Ana Nikitović, Jelena Vesić, curators of Vršac Biennial 25 August _ Lecture, Elaine Speight and Ziggy Slingsby, “Yolk Project” _ Lecture, Andrej Mirčev, curator 26 August _ Lecture, Yana Kostova, curator _ Performance, Yingmei Duan, Ljubica Čvorić, “Untitled” 27 August _ Lecture, Marko Stamenković, curator _ Intervention, Alex Gerbaulet, Mirko Winkel, “Untitled”, public places _ Exhibition, Remont Gallery _ Exhibition, House of Youth 29 August _ Exhibition, Museum of Yugoslavia _ Performance, Spartak Yordanov, “Connection” _ Intervention, Alek O., “Urban Mama” _ Performance, Simon Häferle, “Terranian Free Life Insurance Co.Ltd.” _ Performance, Andrew J. Milne, “Because You Asked” _ Performance, Donna Kukama, “Molatlhegi Nageng” _ Music session, Tamara Wilhelem, “Untitled” _ Ljubica Čvorić, “Thread Softly Because You Thread on My Dreams”

REAL PRESENCE

2005

490

REAL PRESENCE & FLOATING SITES VENICE 9 JUNE – 12 JUNE BELGRADE 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST VENICE 5 SEPTEMBER – 11 SEPTEMBER

_ Action, Ivana Milojević, “This Is Our Time” _ Performance, Yingmei Duan, “Dream” _ Action, Annatina Caprez, “Untitled”

ORGANISED BY nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association, Belgrade

30 August _ Lecture, Petar Ćuković, National Museum, Cetinje, Montenegro

IN COLLABORATION WITH _ Faculty of Arts and Design, IUAV University, Venice _ Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna _ Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2004” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Serbia and Montenegro _ Republic Ministry of Culture, Serbia _ Republic Ministry of Education, Serbia

SPONSORS _ Avala Ada _ Grafix _ McDonald’s _ Oikos _ Publikum _ Vlasinka d.o.o. Rosa

VENUES Venice: Faculty of Arts and Design - Convento delle Terese and Ligabue Complex, SS. Cosima e Damiano, Giardini, Venice Biennial, Mars Pavilion and various locations in the public space Belgrade: Museum of Applied Arts, Gallery 063 - BK Academy, House of Youth, Kazamati - Military Museum, Remont Gallery

WORKSHOP Every day, 4pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 9 June _ Greeting, Marco de Michelis, Dean, Iuav University, Venice _ Lecture, Johan Thom, Professor, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria 10 June _ Collective action, Marco Chiesa, Andrea Cavarra, Serena Decarli, Camilla Marinoni, Camilla Cazziniga, Giuseppe Buffoli, Nadia Galbiati, Sergio Breviario, Solange Solini, Fabio Marini, Michele Mazzanti Pietro Renga, Ilde Vinciguerra, Federica Ferzoco, Cerese Muratori Claudia Canavesi, Chiara Camoni, “Illegals”, entrance to the Giardini, Venice Biennial _ Intervention, Philippe Batka, “Floating Inside”, entrance to the Giardini, Venice Biennial _ Performance, MaraM, “Inside/Outside”, Giardini, Venice Biennial _ Intervention, Seretse Moletsane, “Mud”, Giardini, Venice Biennial _ Performance, Ania Puntari, “CV on Sale”, Giardini, Venice Biennial _ Performance, Nikola Uzunovski, “Untitled”, Giardini, Venice Biennial _ Lecture, Mrdjan Bajić, Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade 11 June _ Performance, Rachel Montshiwa, “Fertility”, SS. Cosima e Damiano _ Performance, Biljana Babić, “Santa”, Arsenale, Venice Biennial _ Intervention, Katarina Radović, “Ads”, public spaces _ Action, Nikola Uzunovski, progettozero+, “Party Pool”, Iuav University, Convento delle Terese

491

12 June _ Exhibition “Floating Sites”, Iuav University, Convento delle Terese _ Music session, Petra Gregorović, Motoko Dobashi, Anna Friedel, Franka Kassner, Jans Kabisch, Reinhard Korting, Bo Kristian Larsson, Maekus Merkle, Daniel Man _ Performance, Ivana Smiljanić, “Three Hours Dancing”, Club Round Midnight SPECIAL PROJECT “Illy Words”, magazine edited by illycaffè S.p.A. for the opening of the Biennial, dedicated to “Real Presence” and designed by its participants. 24 August _ Performance, Marijana Gobeljić, “Intermezzo”, Gallery 063 26 August _ Music session, Andrea Veneziani, “Improvisation”, Gallery 063 _ Action, Esad Hajdar-Pašić, “One for No One”, public places _ Collective action, Gastón Ramírez Feltrín and progettozero(+), “Dinner”, Restaurant “?” 27 August _ Performance, Matteo Bologna, “True Presence”, Gallery 063 28 August _ Action, Luciana Andreani, “Sensational Tourist Info Point”, Kalemegdan _ Intervention, Matteo Rubbi, “Menu”, fast-food restaurant “Orao” _ Intervention, Katharina Fiegl, “Untitled”, Kralja Petra street 29 August _ Intervention, Gastón Ramírez Feltrín, “Urban (Play) Traces”, public places _ Action, Jan Biberstein, Karol Slowik, “Total Sail”, Cvetko’s Market _ Action, Luciana Andreani, “Sensational Tourist Info Point”, Kalemegdan _ Action of voluntary blood donation, “Art For Life”, Museum of Applied Arts _ Intervention, Anna Dickreiter, Eduard Klein, Jenni Kneis, “Untitled”, public places _ Intervention, Kamila Dąbrowska, Anna Żukowska , “Untitled”, public places _ Intervention, Vera Mair, “Real Presence”, tramway line _ Intervention, Maja Bačer, Jaka Ajdašek Žumer, “Untitled”, bombed building in the Kneza Miloša street _ Exhibition “Real Presence”, Museum of Applied Art and Kazamati - Military Museum _ Performance, Andrej Čikala, “Untitled”, Museum of Applied Art _ Performance, MaraM, “Abyss 2”, Museum of Applied Art _ Performance, Anja Puntari, “CV on Sale”, Museum of Applied Art _ Performance, Ljubica Čvorić and Marina Tomić, “Invulnerable”, Museum of Applied Art _ Performance, Emilia Ukkonen, “Homesick”, Museum of Applied Art _ Performance, Cristoph Meier, Nicola Brinnhuber, Alexia Karavela, “Beware of the Holly Whore”, Museum of Applied Art _ Performance, Katharina Fiegl, “I Am Resilient”, Museum of Applied Art

APPENDIX

9 September _ Screening, Nikola Uzunovski, “Reconstructions of Medvedkin’s Lost Film”, vaporetto _ Action, progettozero+, “Walking With Trees”, Giardini, Venice Biennial 10 September _ Exhibition “Real Presence”, Ligabue Complex - Faculty of Arts and Design, Venice

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2005” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Serbia and Montenegro _ Republic Ministry of Culture, Serbia _ Republic Ministry of Education, Serbia _ Assembly of the City of Belgrade _ European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam _ KulturKontakt, Vienna

492

REAL PRESENCE

2006 REAL PRESENCE 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST

ORGANISED BY nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association, Belgrade

VENUES Heritage House, Gallery 063 - BK Academy, House of Youth, Kazamati - Military Museum, Remont Gallery

WORKSHOP Every day, 4pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 21 August _ Welcome party, organised by “DRM Theatre” (Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade), Club FLU 24 August _ Lecture, Victoria Vesna, Princes Ljubica Palace 25 August _ Exhibition, House of Youth 28 August _ Exhibition, Concetta Modica, Teresa Capasso, Carmen Colibazzi, Remont Gallery _ Performance, Carmen Colibazzi, “Knowing Daniela”, Remont Gallery _ Performance, Bozhana Nesheva “Vila’s Bath”, Docks of Danube 29 August _ Intervention, progettozero(+), “Untitled”, public place _ Intervention, Dayan Ozan Özoglu, Silvester Stöger, “Haven’t Seen it, Maybe Forgot” _ Performance, Anastasia Melekou, “Crash-Test”, public places _ Intervention, Magdalena Pilko and Eva Engelbert, “All this soon will become memory”, Politika newspaper _ Intervention, Diego Tonus, “On the Trail of a Hidden Symbol”, Novosti newspaper _ Action, Rudi Fink and Paul DeFlorian-Schmitting, “Eat Me”, Republic Square _ Action, Elisa Ferrari “What Would You Trade For a Gypsy’s Clothes?”, Cara Lazara Street _ Action, Alessandro Ambrosini, “Untitled” _ Action, Elisabetta Scalvini, “Untitled” _ Exhibition, Kazamati - Military Museum _ Performance, Ana Vilenica, “Ground (ed)” _ Performance, Bozhana Nesheva, “Flower Giving / Pushpanjali” _ Performance, Deniz Aygun, “Green for Meirav”, Istanbul gate and Natural Museum, Kalemegdan park _ Action, Agassi Bangura, “Untitled” _ Action, Gudrun Gruber and Karl Kühn, “Untitled”

_ Exhibition “Real Presence”, Heritage House _ Action, Nina Barnett, “Water/Water”, Knez Mihajlova Street _ Intervention, Raluca Davidel “Façade” _ Action, Rudi Fink and Paul DeFlorian-Schmitting, “Eat Me” _ Performance, Branko Milisković, “Cleaning Myself Interiorly” _ Performance, Teresa Capasso, “Doll” _ Performance, Jovana Jovanović, “The Piano” _ Performance, Vladimir Ivaz, “I Found My Perfect Line but How Should I Follow It?” _ Performance, Grigoris Markatos, “Space, Age and Me” _ Performance, Jelena Stojanović, “Very Stylish Girl” _ Performance, Ljubica Čvorović and Marina Tomić, “Dream Destination” _ Action, Attilio Tono and Veronique Pozzi, “Real Preference” _ Action, Lisa Rampilli, “Untitled” 30 August _ Farewell party, “Sava” restaurant, New Belgrade

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2006” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Republic Ministry of Culture, Serbia _ Republic Ministry of Education, Serbia _ Assembly of the City of Belgrade _ Italian Cultural Institute, Belgrade

493

APPENDIX

2007

REAL PRESENCE & FLOATING SITES BELGRADE 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST ISTANBUL 3 SEPTEMBER – 9 SEPTEMBER

ORGANISED BY nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association, Belgrade

7 September _ Video projection, Ania Puntari, “XXX”, Galata Tower _ Intervention, Raul Martinez, “Ephemeral Sculpture”, public place

IN COLLABORATION WITH _ The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts _ Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna _ Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana _ Faculty of Arts and Design, IUAV University, Venice _ LaSalle Collage of the Arts, Singapore _ UCLA, University of California, Media Arts Department

9 September _ Symposium, “Expanded Academy”, Istanbul Modern - Museum of Contemporary Art _ Lecture, Bjørn Melhus, “Open Space” _ Lecture, Victoria Vesna, “Teaching in Transition” _ Interventions by Dobrila Denegri, Milenko Prvački, Petja Dimitrova, Katia Meneghini, Nikola Uzunovski

VENUES Belgrade: Heritage House, MKM - Magacin, Kazamati - Military Museum, 063 Gallery - BK Academy

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2007” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Ministry of Culture, Republic of Serbia _ Ministry of Education, Republic of Serbia _ Assembly of the City of Belgrade

Istanbul: Garajistanbul, Istanbul Modern - Museum of Contemporary Art

WORKSHOP Every day, 4pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 20 August _ Introductory word, Victoria Vesna 28 August _ Exhibition, Heritage House _ Action, Vladimir Ivaz, Jovana Jovanović, “Why? / Because!” _ Exhibition, Kazamati - Military Museum _ Action, Raul Martinez, “Ephemeral Sculpture” 29 August _ Exhibition, MKM _ Performance, Alaattin Kirazici, “Bridge” _ Performance, Jacob Tonski and Isidora Krstić, “Wakening” _ Action, Raul Martinez, “Ephemeral Sculpture” _ Exhibition, Remont Gallery 5 September _ Video screening, “Real Presence”, Platform Garanti 6 September _ Performance, Isidora Krstić and Itamar Rose, “Untitled”, New Mosque _ Performance, Carmen Colibazzi, “Semazen”, New Mosque

494

REAL PRESENCE

2008

REAL PRESENCE & FLOATING SITES BELGRADE 20 AUGUST – 31 AUGUST RIVOLI 5 SEPTEMBER – 14 SEPTEMBER

ORGANISED BY nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association, Belgrade

IN COLLABORATION WITH Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli (TO)

VENUES Belgrade: Heritage House, MKM, Kazamati - Military Museum, Belgrade City Library Rivoli (TO): Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art

WORKSHOP Every day, 4pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 27 August _ Exhibition, Heritage House _ Action, Selin Kocagöncü, “Exchange”, Knez Mihailova Street _ Performance, Johanna Bruckner, “Untitled” _ Performance, Ruben Montini, “Let Me Be Your Butterfly” _ Exhibition, Kazamati - Military Museum _ Performance, Carla Ehrlich and María León, “Top-Secret” _ Performance, Dionys Dammann, “Untitled” 28 August _ Exhibition, MKM _ Performance, Ruben Montini, “Let Me Be Your Butterfly” _ Action, Marika Troili and Caroline Malmström, “Non Wedding Cake” 29 August _ Exhibition, Remont Gallery 10 September _ Lecture, Yoery Meessen, Head of Education and Public Program, Manifesta 7 12 September _ Exhibition, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli (TO) _ Collective action, Flaviane Malaquias, “Untitled” _ Intervention, Alessandra Messali, “Sugar” _ Performance, Ljubica Čvorić and Marina Tomić, “In Between” _ Performance, Branko Milisković, “Images of Cupidity” _ Performance, Ruben Montini, “Eva-cquazione” _ Performance, Giusy Pirrotta, “Crash” _ Performance, Alejandro Tamagno, “You Are Here”

_ Performance, Alessandra Giubaldo, “The New Collection” _ Performance, Carmen Colibazzi, “The Girl Without Hands” _ Performance, Lerato Shadi, “Uncut” _ Music session, Francesco Fonassi and Giulio Rossi, “Leave It As It Is” 13 September _ Lecture, Adam Budak, Curator, Manifesta 7

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2008” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Republic Ministry of Culture, Serbia _ Republic Ministry of Education, Serbia _ Assembly of the City of Belgrade _ Austrian Cultural Forum, Belgrade

SPONSORS _ Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank a.d _ BDD KBC Securities a.d _ Credy Bank _ Milenijum Group

495

APPENDIX

2009

REAL PRESENCE & FLOATING SITES BELGRADE 20 AUGUST – 30 AUGUST VENICE 2 SEPTEMBER – 10 SEPTEMBER

ORGANISED BY nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association, Belgrade

IN COLLABORATION WITH _ Educational and public program, Venice Biennial _ IUAV University, Venice _ Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts, Helsinki _ DAI - Dutch Art Institute, Enschede _ Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Nantes Métropole _ University of Fine Arts of Hamburg _ University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Fine Arts

VENUES Belgrade: Heritage House, MKM, Kazamati - Military Museum, Belgrade City Library, Venice: IUAV - Faculty of Arts and Design - Convento delle Terese and Ligabue Complex

WORKSHOP Every day, 4pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 28 August _ Exhibition, Heritage House _ Performance, Matthieu Crimersmois, “Hostel” _ Performance, Lerato Shadi, “Tlhogo Ya Tsie” _ Exhibition, MKM _ Action, Alessandra Di Giantomasso, “Pasta in Loop” _ Performance, Corinne Mazzoli, “Untitled” _ Exhibition, Kazamati - Military Museum _ Intervention, Elisabetta Alazraki, “Bend Without Breaking” _ Performance, Veridiana Zurita, “Gordons in the Garden” 3 September _ Introduction word, Angela Vettese, Giulio Alessandri, Iuav University 5 September _ Presentation, Matteo Giannasi, Educational and Public program, La Biennale di Venezia _ Performance, Dario Fariello, “Untitled”, Arsenale, Venice Biennial 9 September _ Exhibition, Iuav University, Ligabue Complex _ Action, Camille Simony and Matthieu Crimersmois, “Untitled”

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2009” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Ministry of Culture, Republic of Serbia _ Ministry of Education, Republic of Serbia _ Assembly of the City of Belgrade _ Municipality of Stari Grad, Belgrade

SPONSOR _ UniCredit Bank Serbia

496

REAL PRESENCE

2010 REAL PRESENCE 25 AUGUST – 8 SEPTEMBER

ORGANISED BY nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association, Belgrade

IN COLLABORATION WITH _ Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna _ Academy of Fine Arts, Uniarts, Helsinki _ Accademia di Belle Arti, Palermo _ Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Tel Aviv _ ECAV - Ecole cantonale d‘Art du Valais _ Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Nantes Métropole _ Intermedia Faculty of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest _ National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo _ Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm _ The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main _ UCLA - University of California, Design & Media Arts Department, Los Angeles _ UCSA - University of Santa Barbara _ University of Arts, Faculty of Visual Arts, Belgrade

VENUES Belgrade City Museum - Princes Ljubica Palace, Palazzo Italia – Italian Cultural Institute, Cervantes Institute, Goethe-Institute, Student Cultural Centre Gallery, REX, Gallery Zvono, Gallery Remont, Belgrade City Library and Gallery of Belgrade City Library, Museum of Yugoslavia, Heritage House, MKM, Kazamati - Military Museum, Cultural Centre Grad

WORKSHOP Every day, 4 pm - 8 pm, talks and presentations

EVENTS / OPENINGS 26 August _ Lecture, Måns Wrange, Dean, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm _ Lecture, Gabriëlle Schleijpen, Director, Dutch Art Institute, Enschede 27 August _ Lecture, Thomas Bayrle _ Video screening, Helke Bayrle, “Portikus Under Construction”

29 August _ Lecture, Marta Smolińska, Professor, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun _ Lecture, Gil Kuno _ Action, Eelco Wagenaar, “Coloured Sky” _ Performance, Johanna Reed and Megan Daalder, “Untitled” _ Performance, Linus Nordensson Spångberg, Arvid Wretman, “Untitled” _ Performance, Rut Karin-Zettergren, “Untitled” _ Lecture, Hannes Brunner, Professor, ECAV - Ecole cantonale d‘Art du Valais 30 August _ Lecture, Simon Thorogood, Lecturer, London College of Fashion _ Lecture, Gery Stevens, Lecturer, Slade School of Fine Art, London _ Performance, Claudiu Petru Lucaci, “Untitled” 31 August _ Lecture, Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien _ Exhibition “Presences”, Princes Ljubica Palace _ Performance, Malin Ståhl, “Walking Cinema Video Vision” _ Performance, Ljubica Čvorić and Marina Tomić, “Mum’s the Word” _ Collective action, Philippe Bannwart, “Untitled” _ Performance, Ladies of the Press, “Real Press” _ Performance, Jovana Jovanović, “The Piano” 1 September _ Lecture, Adrian Notz, Dean, School of Arts, St. Gallen / Director, Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich _ Exhibition “I am the milk in your plastic”, Palazzo Italia – Italian Cultural Institute _ Performance, Giorgio Benotto, “Untitled” _ Exhibition, Christian Sievers “Sheltered Life”, Student Cultural Centre Gallery _ Exhibition, Steffi Schöne, Happy Gallery, Student Cultural Centre _ Video screening “Presences”, Cinema Rex 2 September _ Lecture, Angela Vettese, Professor, Iuav University, Venice _ Lecture, Malin Ståhl _ Lecture, Joa Ljungberg, Curator, Moderna Museet, Malmö _ Lecture, Ósk Vilhjálmsdóttir, Professor, Academy of the Arts, Reykjavík _ Exhibition “Presences”, Cervantes Institute _ Performance, Malin Ståhl, “Walking Cinema Video Vision” _ Exhibition “Presences”, Gallery Zvono _ Exhibition “Presences”, Gallery Remont _ Action, Iacopo Seri, Sara Rossi, “Untitled” _ Exhibition by Branko Milisković, Goethe-Institute 3 September _ Lecture, Ido Bar-El, Professor, Bezalel Academy for Art & Design, Tel Aviv _ Lecture, Richard Ross, UCSB, Santa Barbara _ Exhibition, Richard Ross, “Juvenile in Justice”, Gallery of Belgrade City Library

497

4 September _ Lecture, Seppo Salminen, Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki _ Lecture, Erik Krikortz _ Lecture, János Sugár, Professor, Intermedia Faculty of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest 6 September _ Lecture, Rainer Fuchs, Chief-curator, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien _ Lecture, Giulio Alessandri, Professor, Iuav University, Venice _ Lecture, Tobias Rehberger, Vice Dean, The Städelschule - Academy of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main _ Exhibition “Real Presence 10”, Heritage House _ Action, Simona Rossi and Elisabetta Alazraki, “Following” _ Exhibition “Real Presence 10”, Kazamati - Military Museum _ Exhibition “Real Presence 10”, MKM _ Exhibition “Real Presence 10”, Cultural Centre Grad _ Action, Anna Rokka and Derek Di Fabio, “Dragon” _ Performance, on invitation by Flaviane Malaquias, Nikola Medić and dancers from “Havana” club, “African dances from Brazil” _ Performance, Louis Pierre-Lacouture, Hyejin Kim, “Translations” _ Performance and music session, Rut Karin-Zettergren, Linus Nordensson Spångberg, Arvid Wretman, Dimen Abdullah, “Untitled” _ Action, Dan Angelescu, “Untitled” 7 September _ Lecture, Friedemann Malsch, Director, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz _ Lecture, Miško Šuvaković, Professor, University of Arts, Belgrade _ Lecture, Jean-Sylvain Bieth, Professor, Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes Métropole _ Lecture, Patricia Solini, Professor, Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes Métropole

INTERVENTIONS IN PUBLIC PLACES / VARIOUS LOCATIONS: _ Installation, Bertrand Leroy, Estelle Fonseca, “Tank”, private garden in the Dečanska st. 32 _ Photo installation, Elisabetta Alazraki, “Untitled”, Room in the “Studentski Grad” _ Graffiti and wall drawings, Ilari Hautamäki and Ilkka Tapani, street walls, within Graffiti Festival, Belgrade

“REAL PRESENCE - GENERATION 2010” WAS REALISED WITH THE SUPPORT OF _ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Serbia _ Ministry of Culture, Republic of Serbia _ Ministry of Education, Republic of Serbia _ Assembly of the City of Belgrade

APPENDIX

_ City Secretariat of Culture, Belgrade _ Municipality of Stari Grad, Belgrade _ Austrian Cultural Forum, Belgrade _ Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana _ British Council, Belgrade _ Cervantes Institute, Belgrade _ EUnic, Belgrade _ Embassy of France in Belgrade _ Embassy of Italy in Belgrade _ Embassy of Israel in Belgrade _ Embassy of Sweden in Belgrade _ FRAME, Helsinki _ French Cultural Centre, Belgrade _ Goethe Institute, Belgrade _ IASPIS, Stockholm _ IFA - Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart _ Italian Cultural Institute, Belgrade _ Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam _ NCF - Norden Cultural Fund, Copenhagen _ Pro Helvetia, Zürich _ The Japan Foundation, Tokyo

SPONSORS _ Grafix, Belgrade _ Moak, Modica _ Student Centre, Belgrade _ Publikum, Belgrade

REAL PRESENCE

EDITORS Dobrila Denegri Biljana Tomić Isidora Krstić PUBLISHER nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association CONTRIBUTORS Marina Abramović, Antonia Alampi, Giulio Alessandri, Anabela Angelovska, Paola Anziché, Simone Bader, Mrđan Bajić, Michele Bazzana, Daniel Birnbaum, Igor Bošnjak, Narvika Bovcon, Franziska Bruckner, Johanna Bruckner, Giulia Casula, Marco Chiesa, Matthieu Crimersmois, Raffaella Crispino, Zorica Čolić, Raluca Davidel, Lidija Delić, Federico Del Vecchio, Dobrila Denegri, Cordula Ditz, Nezaket Ekici, Dirk Fleischmann, Corrado Folinea, Francesco Fonassi, Guillaume Fouchaux, Alberto Gianfreda, Marina Gržinić, Philipp Haager, Gabriel Hadler, Marlene Haring, Miha Horvat, Nicu Ilfoveanu, Pravdoliub Ivanov, Nina Ivanović, Franz Kapfer, Çiğdem Kaya, Leopold Kessler, Isidora Krstić, Gil Kuno, Ladies of the Press (Ana Čavic, Renée O’Drobinak), Nemanja Lađić, Irena Lagator Pejović, Elad Larom, María León, Francesco Lucifora, Catherine Ludwig, MaraM, Katja Majer, Flaviane Malaquias, Caroline Malmström, Alessandro Mancassola, Ksenija Marinković, Noemí Martínez Chico, Christian Mayer, Katia Meneghini, Branko Milisković, Valentina Miorandi, Ruben Montini, Ulrike Möschel, Charlotte Mumm, Barbara Nardacchione, Jonas Nobel, Adrian Notz, Anna Nykyri, Alek O., Hafiz Osman, Maja Ozvaldič, Cecilia Parsberg, Irena Paskali, Karin Passarnegg-Denissov, Marco Pezzotta, Giusy Pirrotta, Milenko Prvački, Barak Raiser, Gastón Ramírez Feltrin, Tobias Rehberger, Martin Rille, Arend Roelink, Andrea Romano, Halvor Rønning, Hans Rosenström, Joanna Sandell, Esther Saura Múzquiz, Alessandra Saviotti, Swen Erik Scheuerling, Steffi Schöne, Marinella Senatore, Iacopo Seri, Lerato Shadi, Christian Sievers, Ivana Smiljanić, Marta Smolińska, Patricia Solini, Malin Ståhl, Magda Stanová, Bojana Stamenković, Gabriele Sturm, János Sugár, Kateryna Svirgunenko, Kamila Szejnoch, Harald Szeemann, Marija

498

Šević, Miodrag Šuvaković, Nahum Tevet, Johan Thom, Johanna Tinzl, Adrien Tirtiaux, Saša Tkačenko, Biljana Tomić, Jacob Tonski, Diego Tonus, Roxana Trestioreanu, Marika Troili, Mezli Vega Osorno, Aleš Vaupotič, Aleksander Velišček, Cosimo Veneziano, Angela Vettese, Victoria Vesna, Ósk Vilhjálmsdóttir, Eelco Wagenaar, Måns Wrange, Yaara Zach, Thanos Zakopoulos, Heimo Zobernig, Sanja Ždrnja © authors for the texts COPY EDITING Dobrila Denegri PROOFREADING Isidora Krstić Soliman Lawrence Matthew White GRAPHIC DESIGN Maximilian Mauracher Nicoletta Dalfino Spinelli PHOTO CREDITS Archive Marina Abramović, Archive Student Cultural Centre (Čanković, Dobričić), Silvio Acocella, Paola Anziché, Antonella Aprile, Miriam Bäckström, Tiago Baccarin/Estúdio Garagem, Teresa Capasso, Helmut Claus, Marino Colucci, Zorica Čolić, Dobrila Denegri, Eva Maria Eggermann, Liat Elbling, Guillaume Fouchaux, Giulia Giazzoli, Alberto Gianfreda, Wolfgang Günzel, Gabriel Hadler, Vladan Jeremić, Pavle Kaplanec, Alex Kent, Tim Koprivšek, Markus Krottendorfer, Isidora Krstić, Christiane Löhr, Nemanja Ladjić, Dario Lasagni, Mara Maglione, Lena Malm, Ajeet Mansukhani, Marko Marković, Andrew J. Milne, Predrag Miladinović, Jovana Milovanović, Petar Mirosavljević, Vukašin Nedeljković, Miloš Nenković, Christopher O’Leary, Sara Pathirane, Ana Pavlović, Paolo Pellion, Miljana and Tijana Pakić, Barak Raiser, Vadim Schäffler, Hans Schröder, Joanna Sitko, Ivana Smiljanić, Dominika Sobolewska, Marko Stamenković, Mirjana Boba Stojadinović, Katya Svirgunenko, Gregor Titze, Biljana Tomić, Jacob Tonski, Srđan Veljović, Mezli Vega, Liar Zilberstein

TEXT SOURCES 2003 Abramovic, Marina et al. “Marina Abramovic, Student Body”. Milan: Ed. Charta, 2003. Q&A: Abramovic, Marina. “The Connected Body: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Body and Performance”. Interview by Scott de Lahunta. Amsterdam: Amsterdam School of the Arts, 1996. Tobias Rehberger in conversation with John Reardon All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publishers. EDITION OF 500 BELGRADE, 2019 ISBN 978-86-87665-04-0 KINDLY SUPPORTED BY

www.hfft.com WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT BY

PRINTED BY Publikum Printing Company Slavka Rodica 6, 11090 Belgrade www.publikum.rs

nKA / Ica - Independent Cultural Association Dr. Ivana Ribara 113/3 11070 New Belgrade, Serbia www.ica-realpresence.org