The exhibition “Archives, Sketches, and Connections ~ Laboratory of the Art Collection of Non-Aligned Countries” was ceremoniously opened last night at the gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro (MCAM). The exhibition presents an overview of the many years of work on a curatorial and research project dedicated to the legacy of the Gallery of Art of Non-Aligned Countries.
The exhibition is part of a project conceived and realized since autumn 2021 by curators Anita Ćulafić, Marina Čelebić, Nada Baković, and Natalija Vujošević, with a focus on research, reactivation, and contemporary interpretations of the holdings of the former Gallery of Art of Non-Aligned Countries (Titograd 1981–Podgorica 1995). Over four years of work, an extensive research program has been developed, numerous international collaborations established, and exhibition and educational projects realized, as well as new artistic productions created in dialogue with the archive and the collection.
A special segment of the project is the continuity of artists’ donations, which symbolically and substantively continues the practice of building the collection of the former Gallery of Art of Non-Aligned Countries “Josip Broz Tito.” At the initiative of the members of the Laboratory, a procedure has also been launched to declare the Collection of Art of Non-Aligned Countries a movable cultural property of national importance.
The exhibition presents new productions and donations realized through project collaborations, installed in dialogue with works from the Collection of Art of Non-Aligned Countries, as well as rich archival materials and rituals that testify to collective work, comradeship, and solidarity.
The exhibition features works by the following artists: Ana Hoffner ex Prvulović (Austria), Unknown Author (Iraq), Unknown Author (Palestine), Unknown Author (Colombia), Unknown Author (Nigeria), Đorđe Balmazović (Serbia/Slovenia), Irena Lagator Pejović (Montenegro), Jasmina Cibic (Slovenia/UK), Kareem Dabbah (Palestine), Luka Bekavac (Croatia), Omar Carreno (Venezuela), Oswaldo Vigas (Venezuela), Rene Portocarrero (Cuba), S. Nandagopal (India), Siniša Ilić (Serbia), Ted Carrasco (Bolivia), Teja Merhar (Slovenia), Vitorino Antoni Madonga (Tanzania), and Zuzana Chalupova (Yugoslavia).
As part of the accompanying program, on Tuesday, January 20, 2025, at 6:00 PM, a lecture titled “Yugoslavia and the Formation of the Non-Aligned Movement” will be held by Luka Savčić, research associate at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade, followed by the promotion of the publication “Archives, Sketches, and Connections” and a conversation about the project’s collaborations with guest Bojana Piškur, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova in Ljubljana.