Long Durations and Ideas about the Future

performative discourse program in partnership with Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana

07.09.2017. @ Museum of Modern Art, Cankarjeva 15, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Long Durations and Ideas about the Future consists of a series of interventions in the form of discussions and workshops, focusing on the social antagonisms of the post-Yugoslav political space through the prism of material and ideological heritage, the continuity of cultural networks, and the potential of the future, all of which taken together is called the Yugoslav experience.

The first in the series in May was a discussion about the diverse approaches to Yugoslav archives, the abuse of heritage for the sake of revising the emancipatory history of the 20th century, and possible responses to the growing reactionary revisionism. This was followed by a workshop on alternative archives, the digitization of archival material, and the forms of disseminating knowledge.

The second part of the series in June was comprised of a symposium focusing, via specific artistic practices and social movements, on the constancy and constant instability of structures of long duration, such as nation states, capitalist economies, and imperialisms, in our region.

The final workshops will bring to the fore the ways cultural and artistic agents interconnect and the forms of their imaginary institutionalizing after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, raising the question of the general state of artistic imagination in the political conceptions of the future in the context of the failing hegemony of the West and democratic societies in general.

SCHEDULE

Thursday, 07. September 2017, 11:00 - 19:00, Moderna galerija, Cankarjeva 15, LJubljana

11:00 - 14:00 “The Disintegration of Hegemony and Ideas about the Future”
Headed by Janez Janša, participants: Katerina Kolozova and Jelena Vesić.

11:15 - 11:30 welcome and introduction by Janez Janša
11:30 - 12:00 presentation by Katerina Kolozova
12:00 - 12:30 presentation by Jelena Vesić
12:30 - 12:45 coffee break
12:45 - 14:00 discussion

See the videos:

15:00 - 19:00 “Imaginary Institutions – Post-Yugoslav Stateless Institutions”
Headed by Iskra Geshoska, participants: EminaVišnić and Slaven Tolj (Rijeka 2020); Dragana Afirević and Rok Vevar (Nomad, Ljubljana); Mika Buljević (Booksa, Zagreb) and Vladimir Đurišić (Proletter, Podgorica).

15:15- 15:30 introduction by Iskra Geshoska
15:30 - 16:00 presentation by Dragana Afirević & Rok Vevar
16:00 - 16:30 presentation by Emina Višnić & Slaven Tolj
16:30 - 17:00 presentation by Mika Buljević & Vladimir Đurišić
17:00 - 17:15 coffee break
17:15 - 19:00 discussion

See the videos:

More about the participants:

"The Disintegration of Hegemony and Ideas about the Future"

Janez Janša is contemporary artist who in 2007 together with two other Slovenian artists changed his name into the name of the conservative, two times prime-minister of Slovenia. Before and after this radical artistic gesture Janša has been working as theatre director and performer of interdisciplinary works that focus on the relation between art and the social and political context surrounding it, reflecting the responsibility of the performers as well as the spectators. He is also the director of Maska, a non-profit organization in publishing, artistic production and education, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia and edited several books on contemporary dance and theatre. He is author of the book on early works by Jan Fabre, (La discipline du chaos, le chaos de la discipline, 1994). He is currently fellow at the International research center Interweaving Performance Culture at the Freie Universitaet in Berlin and assistant professor at the master program for theatre directing at the University of Ljubljana.

Katerina Kolozova, PhD, is the director of the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities-Skopje, Macedonia and a professor of gender studies at the University American College-Skopje. She is also visiting professor at Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade: Doctoral Program in Political Studies. She is member of the International Non-Philosophical Organization and Affiliate of the New Centre for Research and Practice. In 2009, Kolozova was a visiting scholar in the Department of Rhetoric (Program of Critical Theory) at the University of California-Berkeley. She is the author of Cut of the Real: Subjectivity in Post-stucturalist Philosophy (Columbia University Press, 2014), Toward a Radical Metaphysics of Socialism: Marx and Laruelle (Punctum books, 2015). Kolozova is the editor of After the “Speculative Turn”: Realism, Philosophy, and Feminism (punctum books, 2016), co-edited with Eileen A. Joy, and has contributed to several collections such as Laruelle and Non-Philosophy (Edinburgh University Press) edited by Anthony Paul Smith and John Mullarkey, Superpositions: Laruelle and the Humanities (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017) edited by Rocco Gangle and Julius Greve and most recently the Post-Human Glossary (Bloomsbery Academic Press, 2017) edited by Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova.

Jelena Vesić is an independent curator, writer, editor, and lecturer. She holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary studies from the University of Arts, Belgrade and currently is a researcher and Goethe Institute fellow at Haus der Kunst Munich, working on the topic "Postcolonial: 1955-1980". She was co-editor of Prelom—Journal of Images and Politics (2001–2010) and co-founder of the independent organization Prelom Kolektiv. Active in the field of publishing, research and exhibition practice that intertwines political theory and contemporary art, she is also co-editor of Red Thread journal and a member of editorial board of Art Margins. Vesić curated collective exhibition project Political Practices of (post-) Yugoslav Art, taking place in the Museum of History of Yugoslavia and critically examining art historical concepts and narratives on Yugoslav art after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

"Imaginary Institutions - Post - Yugoslav Stateless Institutions"

Dragana Alfirević is a cultural worker in the field of contemporary dance. She works as performer, choreographer, teacher, curator and writer. She is part of and co-initiator of the Nomad Dance Academy as well as co-founder and producer of CoFestival. Nomad Dance Academy is operating since 2005 as an extended family, learning and production tool, collaboration platform, and space for challenge and growth for the malnourished population of contemporary dance of the Balkans and wider. It is actualized through searching for new educational formats, internatioanl coproductions, is developing own curatorial practices, and is busy with the long-term archiving and advocacy processes.

Miljenka Buljević is a cultural operator and translator who focuses on promotion of literature and reading habits as well as on non profit cultural management and networking. She is a co-founder of Kulturtreger and the manager of its literary club Booksa in Zagreb. From 2010 to 2016, Miljenka was the chairwoman of Alliance Operation City, a platform of local organizations active in the field of independent culture and youth in Zagreb which co-founded POGON - Zagreb center for Independent Culture and Youth with the City of Zagreb. In June 2016 she became the chairwoman of Clubture, national network of independent cultural organizations in Croatia. She is a member of the Editorial Board of European network of cultural journals Eurozine.

Iskra Geshoska is founder and a president of Kontrapunkt. Since 1994 she is active in the building of the Independent cultural sector and the contemporary, self-organized formats of action in the socio-cultural space. Her key focus is the development of critical thinking and critical theories, as well as the relationship of cultural and artistic practices and the political. She is actively involved in the process of local and national advocacy level of political relevance of the independent cultural sector as well as in the process of enabling regional cooperation. In the period 1998 - 2008, she was an editor at the publishing house Templum and the magazine Margina. From 2003 to 2005 she was an adviser at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia. From 2002 to 2010 she is a co-founder and a Director of the independent Cultural center “Tocka” (Skopje). Since 2012 she is President of JADRO - an association of the independent cultural scene, a national platform for advocacy in Macedonia. Additionally, she is a member of Parliament of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, and she has a second mandate as a member of the Advisory Board of the regional platform of the Independent cultural sector KOOPERATIVA. Besides her theoretical and socio-cultural practices, she has rich and intense activist engagement and participates in almost all activist processes which contribute to the development and democratization of the society. To date she has published over 100 essays and research papers in the field of critical theory, performing arts, visual arts and cultural policies. She loves to cook.

Emina Višnić is a cultural worker, experienced in cultural management, networking on local, national and international level, and cultural advocacy and capacity building. Since January 2017 she is executive director of the project Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture. Before that she was an active member of independent cultural scene in Zagreb, operating as cultural activist and manager, co-starting and/or working in various organizations and networks in Zagreb (BLOK, Multimedia Institute, Clubture Network). Before she left to Rijeka, she served as Director at POGON - Zagreb Centre for Independent Culture and Youth (Zagreb), an open center for independent culture and youth, funded as public institution based on a new model of civil–public partnership.