2025 Summer School
Revolutionary Roads. Destination: Comradeship
The 4th edition of the summer school organized jointly by the Moderna galerija (Ljubljana), the Museum of African Art (Belgrade), and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, will offer a nomadic learning experience, traveling through three cities in the Balkans—Ljubljana, Belgrade, and Podgorica—while exploring the legacy of Yugoslav socialism, solidarity work actions, antifascist monuments, and the cultural connections of the Non-Aligned Movement. This journey will include lectures, workshops, discussions, and performances, with a special focus on “locally situated knowledge.” The participants will engage with three distinctive museum collections that challenge traditional Western-centric art histories and canons.
Topics:
Other Easts: Reexamining the East through a decolonial and pluralized lens, with a focus on the Arteast 2000+ collection in Ljubljana.
Monuments & Memory: Examining the post-WWII Partisan resistance monuments created in Yugoslavia, which commemorate the antifascist struggle and the socialist revolution. Manyof these monuments, ranging in style from socialist realism to modernism, were damaged or destroyed after the changes in regime in the 1990s. The participants will reflect on how these monuments shape collective memory and identity.
Challenging the Western Canon: Exploring three museum collections that break away from linear, traditional art-historical narratives: Arteast 2000+, the collection and archives of the Belgrade Museum of African Art, and the collection of the art of non-aligned countries in Montenegro Museum of Contemporary Art. These collections offer diverse, non-linear explorations of art, politics, and history, and will allow the participants to broaden their perspectives on the legacies of the East and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Program Structure & Learning Outcomes:
Over the course of the summer school, the participants will travel between Ljubljana, Belgrade, and Podgorica, spending two days in each city, with a mix of lectures, field trips, and hands-on workshops. In addition to engaging with the topics set out above, the participants will:
– analyze the lasting impact of antifascist monuments and their role in collective memory (Ljubljana, Jasenovac, Belgrade, Podgorica);
– gain critical insights into decolonial and pluralized art histories;
– experience firsthand the challenges of curating non-Western collections and learn about curatorial practices through discussions with curators, artists, and researchers. The program will foster a collaborative learning environment, encouraging the participants to actively engage in discussions, group projects, and site-specific activities.
The 2025 summer school will provide an opportunity to learn from revolutionary ideas of solidarity also in shaping a future world, while also exploring the diverse and often underrepresented narratives of the East and the non-aligned world. Through immersive travel, direct engagement with local experts, and access to off-beat collections, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the region’s complex cultural and political landscape. In addition, the workshops with local artists will enable them to engage in the creative processes of some of the most intriguing art practices in the region, based on research on power relations within the art system, various traditions of experimental and avant-garde film, and archives.
The workshop facilitators and speakers will include: Rana Anani, Zdenka Badovinac,Nada Baković, Sezgin Boynik, Marina Čelebić, Anita Ćulafić, Dоplgеngеr, Merve Elveren, Emilia Epštajn, FOKUS Grupa, Siniša Ilić , Sima Kokotović, Irena Lagator Pejović, Teja Merhar, Ahmet Öğüt, Bojana Piškur, Nemanja Radonjić, Natalija Vujošević, Ivana Zatežić and Beti Žerovc.
The program of courses will be published on the websites of the Moderna galerija, the Museum of African Art Belgrade, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Montenegro. All the courses will be held in English. The summer school will take place from August 24 to August 31, 2025.
More information and an application form can be found here.
https://forms.gle/VxRGKaZ7QRmWLFAr8
The application deadline is March 25, 2025.
For any questions regarding the application, please contact Sanja at sanja.kuveljic-bandic@mg-
Organizational team of the Summer School: Bojana Piškur, Adela Železnik, Sanja Kuveljić Bandić, Emilia Epštajn, Natalija Vujošević.
