29th SLAVONIAN BIENNALE: THE INSTITUTE OF THE INVISIBLE – SPACES OF PERCEPTION
November 28, 2024 – February 28, 2025
Curator: Valentina Radoš
Jury Panel: Janka Vukmir, Chair, Ana Knifer, Matej Knežević, Dalibor Prančević, and Valentina Radoš.
LOCATIONS
- Museum of Fine Arts
Temporary exhibition space Kapucinska 36, Osijek - City Galleries Osijek, Waldinger Gallery
Fakultetska 7, Osijek - Cultural Center, Kat Gallery
Kneza Trpimira 2/a, Osijek - Rectorate of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University
Trg Svetog Trojstva 3, Osijek - Student Center Osijek (main entrance)
Istarska Street 5, Osijek
For the 29th edition of the Slavonian Biennale titled THE INSTITUTE OF THE INVISIBLE – SPACES OF PERCEPTION, the Jury selected works by 46 artists and artistic collaborations who will exhibit at this year’s exhibition, chosen from a total of 228 works submitted to the competition from over 30 countries worldwide.
The exhibition’s title aims to explore and present art as a life and fate commitment approached uncompromisingly, and often without understanding from the surrounding environment. The title also connects two significant facts that influenced the conceptual direction of this 29th edition of the event: in 2024, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Julije Knifer, who was born in Osijek, and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Gallery (now the Museum) of Fine Arts. Both anniversaries form the backbone of the exhibition concept: the life and work of Julije Knifer as an example of uncompromising and farsighted artistic persistence, while the focus on the museum’s jubilee is an opportunity to comment on the role of heritage and exhibition institutions and their perpetuating effect on the (mis)understanding of (contemporary) art. As curators, we pose the question of how to present an exhibition whose theme is the invisible, and often misunderstood, artistic intention, in a Museum that, as a bastion of culture in its jubilee year, itself becomes invisible, i.e., closed due to reconstruction of its physical exhibition space? In the exhibition The Institute of the Invisible – Spaces of Perception, we also question the artists about the true nature of their work – how to make visible what is invisible, intangible, untouchable… Through the answers offered by the artists, we wish to confirm the idea of artistic autonomy often marked by invisible contours, but of eternal duration, about art as a social and personal need entrusted to us for safeguarding, valuing, and interpreting.
— Valentina Radoš
By nature, a work of art suggests a difference from reality. A visual artwork can transform visible reality into an immaterial, imaginative image, or, as Julije Knifer writes in his Diaries, it can go the other way: “The job I do is absurd in every way. And precisely for that reason, I must turn that absurdity into a certain reality.” [January 1, 1985, 21:20]. By realizing his works, he materializes absurdity. So where do we look for invisibility? We seek it in the work, in perception, in the process, in that liminal, borderline space, the interstice between reality and (non)object, in the space of transformation, in the space of initiation, in the space of freedom. In the gap, where there may be the least room, but the most meaning. The same applies to the exhibition medium and the symbolism of the museum institution. The fact that someone one day has the possibility to make an exhibition is more important than what will be shown, writes Goran Trbuljak in 1973, pointing to the process of affirming an artwork even when its visibility or appearance does not play a role, thus making that statement his own work. In both cases, invisibility is actually a focus on subtle perception, observation, reflection, and action. The delicacy of poetics is almost the only thing that can oppose the brutality of reality. In Slavonia, which is literally fading in its physical appearance, and in Osijek, which has taken accelerated steps in development, the very thing that is still unseen should be sought as a clear imbalance in everyday life, where mutual solidarity between politics and poetics must be found; and artists in this region are often the best explorers.
— Janka Vukmir
Artwork:
#nevidljive / #invisibleones
#theinvisibleones is an artistic intervention initiated by Milijana Babić, Branka Cvjetičanin, Tajči Čekada, Nadija Mustapić, and Nika Rukavina, in response to the Rijeka edition of the inter-institutional exhibition Visible at MMSU Rijeka in 2023. The intervention was a reaction to the treatment of female artists that was inconsistent with the exhibition’s stated concept. The intervention continues as the issue of female artists’ visibility extends beyond a single exhibition, opening up a space for stakeholders in the cultural and artistic scene to articulate their conditions for visibility as prerequisites for artistic autonomy.
#invisibleones: The 29th Slavonian Biennale, titled Institute of the Invisible – Spaces of Perception, raises questions about artistic autonomy, the role of heritage in artistic work, the role of exhibiting institutions, the impact of institutions and curatorial practices on the (mis)understanding of (contemporary) art, the visibility of the artistic process… Following the proposed thought of “life-long commitment and destiny“, we continue with the question of whether there is a dialogue, and whether and how we participate in the processes of creating institutions? Are these processes based on positioning artistic autonomies or on cultural industries? Considering the interplay between artistic autonomy and mutual dependence, the #invisible intervention proposes a space for dialogue on Instagram, promoting solidarity among artists and between artists and institutions, fostering mutual empowerment within a feminist framework.
#invisibleones: Artistic autonomy is not an isolated task for a cultural worker. Artistic autonomy also implies an artistic, political, and economic reflection on how to establish a critical discourse regarding the relationship between art and the (institutional) system.
#invisibleones: Visibility for artists means affirmation, and for their work, it means ontological determination. Visibility leads to adequate production and exhibition conditions. Visibility means networking, contextualization, and a professional and solidary interdependent relationship between artists and institutions, art and the system. Visibility means a fee for artistic work.
#invisibleones: Wearing a paper bag is a symbolic act that underscores the ‘glass ceiling’ hindering artistic freedom.
#invisibleones: The Intervention #invisible is an opportunity for all invisible artists, curators, and cultural workers to articulate their own terms for visibility.
#invisibleones: Take a paper bag. Put it on your head. Stand next to the # sign. Take a photo. Share it on Instagram, and if you like, on other social media platforms, with the mandatory tag @nevidljive_invisibleones. Hashtag your photo with #invisibleones#slavonskibiennale, and in the caption, share your thoughts on what visibility means to you in the context of art and culture (Visibility is…).
#slavonskibiennale#nevidljive#slavonianbiennal
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