Impossible Histories

by Djuric, Dubravka

• ISBN13: 9780262541893
• ISBN10: 0262541890
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-04-01
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Impossible Histories is the first critical survey of the extraordinary experiments in the arts that took place in the former Yugoslavia from the country's founding in 1918 to its breakup in 1991. The combination of Austro-Hungarian, French, German, Italian, and Turkish influences gave Yugoslavia's avant-gardes a distinct character unlike those of other Eastern and Central European avant-gardes. Censorship and suppression kept much of the work far from the eyes and ears of the Yugoslav people, while language barriers and the inaccessibility of archives caused it to remain largely unknown to Western scholars. Even at this late stage in the scholarly investigation of the avant-garde, few Westerners have heard of the movements Belgrade surrealism, signalism, Yugo-Dada, and zenitism; the groups Alfa, Exat 51, Gorgona, OHO, and Scipion Nasice Sisters Theater; or the magazines Danas, Red Pilot, Tank, Vecnost, and Zvrk. The pieces in this collection offer comparative and interpretive accounts of the avant-gardes in the former Yugoslavian countries of Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia. The book is divided into four sections: Art and Politics; Literature; Visual Art and Architecture; and Art in Motion (covering theater, dance, music, film, and video). All of the contributors live in the region and many of them participated in the movements discussed. The book also reprints a selection of the most important manifestos generated by all phases of Yugoslav avant-garde activity.

Table of Contents

Preface: The History of a Book	p. x
Introduction: Art and Politics
Impossible Histories	p. 2
The Three Avant-Gardes and Their Context: The Early, the Neo, and the Postmodern	p. 36
Literature
Radical Poetic Practices: Concrete and Visual Poetry in the Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde	p. 64
Writings of Death and Entertainment: Textual Body and (De)composition of Meaning in Yugoslav Neo-Avant-Garde and Post-Avant-Garde Literature, 1968-1991	p. 96
Visual Art and Architecture
Visual Arts in the Avant-Gardes between the Two Wars	p. 122
Inside or Outside "Socialist Modernism"? Radical Views on the Yugoslav Art Scene, 1950-1970	p. 170
Conceptual Art	p. 210
Neue Slowenische Kunst	p. 246
(Im)possible Photographs	p. 270
From Zenit to Mental Space: Avant-Garde, Neo-Avant-Garde, and Post-Avant-Garde Magazines and Books in Yugoslavia, 1921-1987	p. 294
Architecture in Former Yugoslavia: From the Avant-Garde to the Postmodern	p. 332
Art in Motion
Between the Curtains: New Theater in Slovenia, 1980-1990	p. 376
Problems and Paradoxes of Yugoslav Avant-Garde Music (Outlines for a Reinterpretation)	p. 404
We Will Rock YU: Popular Music in the Second Yugoslavia	p. 442
The Unfilmable Scenario and Neglected Theory: Yugoslav Avant-Garde Film, 1920-1990	p. 466
Video Art from Conceptual to Postmodernism	p. 490
Manifestos
historical avant-gardes
Zenitist Manifesto	p. 525
Borse dekliniert triest	p. 532
The Modern Stage	p. 533
Group Zemlja Manifesto	p. 535
neo-avant-gardes
Manifesto	p. 539
Exat 51
Manifesto	p. 540
Untitled	p. 542
Collective Work	p. 543
Gorgona
From Manifesti	p. 545
Mangelos
Notes	p. 548
The Vocovisual	p. 550
conceptual art
OHO	p. 553
Untitled	p. 557
Retrospective	p. 558
(I; IV 1971)	p. 559
Untitled	p. 561
Rhythm 10, 5, 2, 4, 0	p. 562
About the Elementary or Post-Aesthetic Art (Elementary Painting)	p. 568
Statement	p. 569
Group 143
postmodern, retro-avant-gardes
Footwriting	p. 573
Art and Totalitarianism	p. 574
Laibach
The First Sisters Letter	p. 575
Scipion Nasice Sisters Theater
NK Proclamation	p. 576
New Collectivism
The Foundling Document	p. 577
Red Pilot Cosmokinetic Theater
The Ear behind the Painting	p. 579
Eda Cufer and Irwin
List of Contributors	p. 582
Index	p. 584
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