Dietmar Unterkofler: Grupa 143: Critical Thinking at the Borders of Conceptual Art, 1975–1980 (2012) [Serbian/English]

The late-conceptualist art collective Group 143 was founded in March 1975 by Biljana Tomić in Belgrade as an open educational and theoretical platform at the Student Cultural Centre. Besides Tomić, the other key figures in the group were Miško Šuvaković, Jovan Čekić, Paja Stanković, Neša Paripović, and Maja Savić. The group worked together for five years, producing a broad range of artistic work in the media of photography, film, the artist’s book, diagrams and charts, public lectures, and performance art. Their research was focused primarily on epistemological and theoretical questions about the “art world” in general and the critical potential of intellectualized art-thinking within the conditions of late socialism in Yugoslavia.

The theoretical foundation of their art was shaped by structuralist and post-structuralist French theory, language philosophy, post-constructivism, and British and American conceptual art. Their last public presentation of their work came in August 1980, when Group 143 had a solo exhibition at Galerija Loža in Koper. (Source)

Grupa 143: kritičko mišljenje na granicama konceptualne umetnosti 1975-1980
Publisher Glasnik, Belgrade, 2012
ISBN 9788651915539
393 pages

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Boris Buden, Želimir Žilnik, kuda.org, et al.: Uvod u prošlost (2013) [Serbian]

“Ovo je knjiga koja se naizgled bavi jednim sasvim određenim segmentom prošlosti, nečime što se je nekada zvalo kulturna povijest. No, tu kulturnu povijest ona ne tretira kao posebnu disciplinu historiografije koja za svoj predmet uzima ono što je u prošlosti steklo status kulturnog dobra. Za ovu knjigu kulturna povijest je sama forma u kojoj nam se danas ukazuje prošlost. U mjeri u kojoj smo svjesni prošlosti, svjesni smo je kao kulture.

Konkretno, kada se u ovoj knjizi govori o kulturnoj proizvodnji bivše Jugoslavije, o filmovima, odnosno o takozvanom filmskom jeziku redatelja Želimira Žilnika, kada se u njoj raspravlja o sukobima u kulturi, njihovim akterima, odnosu politike i umjetnosti, o ekonomskim pretpostavkama filmske produkcije i njenim društvenim efektima, onda se o tome ne govori u disciplinarnom smislu jedne, recimo, povijesti jugoslavenskog filma, odnosno, individualnog filmskog djela određenog redatelja, pri čemu kategorije društva, politike i ekonomije služe kontekstualizaciji jednog po sebi čisto kulturnog narativa. Kultura se ne zbiva u nekakvom unaprijed zadanom ekonomskom, političkom i društvenom kontekstu; ona je kao takva uvijek već i ekonomska činjenica i politički faktor i društveni proizvod. Ona nam ne govori o tome kakva je prošlost doista bila, nego jest ta prošlost u njenoj prisutnosti, aktualnosti, neizvjesnosti, otvorenosti. Ona je prošlost s onu stranu njene razlike spram sadašnjosti i budućnosti.” (Iz predgovora)

Publisher Centar za nove medije_kuda.org, Novi Sad, September 2013
kuda.read series
Copyleft license
ISBN 9788688567077
221 pages

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Sharon Zukin: Beyond Marx and Tito: Theory and Practice in Yugoslav Socialism (1975)

In this study Dr Zukin combines the approaches of a political scientist and a sociologist to examine the distance between theory and practice in the lives of ordinary Yugoslavs living under socialist self-management. Going beyond previous work on socialist societies, she asks how Yugoslavs – as workers, as citizens and as a society – have benefited from the form of socialism that they have pioneered. She also considers the relevance of the official ideology of self-management, institutions like workers’ councils and communes, and political and economic controls to post-industrial as well as industrializing societies. The book includes long passages from intensive, in-depth interviews with members of ten Belgrade families. The families, which are described in terms of their place in the Yugoslav social structure, indicate their political and socialist ideology through telling their life stories, interpreting their own place in social changes, and reacting to these changes and pressures. Participant-observation of local voters meetings provides an examination of give-and-take in Yugoslav grass-roots politics.

Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1975
ISBN 0521206308, 9780521206303
302 pages

publisher
google books

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