Denes

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The forming of the art group ‘Denes’ [‘Today’] in 1953 reflects the first ‘revolutionary’ attempt in the field of the plastic arts in Macedonia. Based on the concept of the ‘synthesis of arts’ this group established a specific role of the art: to incorporate several art-disciplines (painting, sculpture, and graphic print) with the architecture, i.e. the synthesis of the arts is related to interlacing of all of them into a spatial ambience. The statements in the group’s manifesto referred on the experiences of the modern art, and placed its interest back to the idea of Bauhaus school of architecture. Even that the first of these statements found realisation in the particular oeuvres of the members, their final consequences can be found in the later practices of some pro-conceptual artists from the seventies and, first of all, in some architectural memorial complexes in the late seventies and early eighties. What is most important as a result of the acting of this group is surely the discussion in the cultural magazines about the relation between the traditional and abstract art. By that the abstraction is definitely confirmed and accepted as a sign of the free access for the artist to any expressive procedure that satisfies the artistic need. Later there were two other grouping of artists appeared ‘VDIST’ in 1955 and ‘Mugri’ [(Down)] in 1960. With their attempt to confront with the traditional approach to the art they continued in a large extend the formerly begun process of implementing the modern understanding of art. With the later one the attempts of its predecessors are definitely confirmed and the interest of the art production, besides the other origins of the modern art, for the ‘genius loci’ addition (as their contribution to the world art) became a foreground for any further practices.

Source: Nebojša Vilic, "Glossary of Art Terms: Macedonian Case" [1]