Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade
July 12 – September 9, 2019
Opening: Friday, July 12 at 7 p.m.
Artists: Andy Heller (GER), Ferit Kuyas (CH) , Leta Peer (CH), Natalija Ribovic (SR / GER), Elham Rokni (IL)
Curator: Thomas Elsen (artistic director and curator of Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus, Augsburg, Germany)
The exhibition “Where Do We Go, and How Long Will it Take” is the second part of an exchange between the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade and Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus / Art Collections and Museums of Augsburg, Germany. In Autumn 2018, the Salon of MoCAB presented the exhibition Behind the Image curated by Una Popović in Augsburg, an exhibition of contemporary Serbian artists dealing with video and film in their practice. In this dialogue, the Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus will respond showing a selection of artists related to the Gallery’s program in Belgrade.
The exhibition “Where Do We Go, and How Long Will it Take” deals with the dramatic worldwide threat of the idea of humanity. Cultural identities and their historical memory are increasingly marginalized. Anonymity prevails in the global system. Politics, economics, advertising mechanisms – consumption as an overpowering force is marking the actual attributes and ‘value’ of a new internationality offering us universal equalizing perspectives of life. Large cities, with their interchangeable architectures, growingly mirror these global developments. Contemporary artists thoughtfully ponder on these points and provide fundamental aesthetical essays between perturbation, hope and critical reflection with their images.
These works are frequently inspired by the artists own, very personal stories. These stories, however, do not remain private. Rather, artists consider them as embedded in far-reaching questions about the contemporary state of things in the world surrounding their destinies. Which fate expects a global system that obstinately neglects cultural peculiarities, recollections and provenance although inner and outer migration have a lasting influence on its habits and practices? What constitutes our urban living spaces? Do they still offer space for dignity and the possibility of new designs?
The artists of the exhibition “Where Do We Go, and How Long Will it Take” frame with their striking images a special, personal and yet public visual approach that meets these questions.
Biography of the curator:
In 1996 art historian Thomas Elsen founded the conception of Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus, a new project space for Contemporary art of Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg, after having started there as a curator the year before. He also drafted the H2 – Center for Contemporary Art in the Glasspalace, which has been opened in 2006. Recent exhibitions in both spaces include A Process – ‘Der Greif’ photography magazine (2014), Faces of Disappearance (with Sophie Calle, Larry Sultan, Olaf Unverzart et al., 2015/16), Not Here Yet, together with Celina Lunsford (with Alberto García Alix, Maurizio Cattelan, Hamish Fulton, Ferit Kuyas et al., 2016/17); he furthermore curated exhibitions within the European Month of Photography EMOP, Berlin (2012), Düsseldorf Photo Weekend (2013), Tashkent Photo-Biennale (2014). Since 2012 he is a member of the Deutsche Fotografische Akademie DFA, German Photographic Academy.