Exhibition Opening: Focus on Modernism + Peripheral Modernism

When: Wednesday, 02.12. at 6:00 PM (until 05.12. at 7:00 PM)
Exhibition Authors: DaNS – Association of Architects of Novi Sad, Urbanium, and Relja Ivanić
Where: Oris – House of Architecture, Ulica kralja Držislava 3
Exhibition Duration: 02-05 December, 9 AM – 7 PM on weekdays, 10 AM – 1 PM on Saturday

Organization and Presentation in Croatia: Shadow Casters
Concept Authors and Curators of Focus on Modernism Exhibition: Relja Ivanić and DaNS / Aleksandar Bede, Andrej Strehovec, Slobodan Jović, Dragana Konstantinović, Maja Momirov
Concept Authors and Curators of Peripheral Modernism Exhibition: URBANIUM / Natalija Bogdanović, Aleksa Đurić, Marija Simović, Petar Simović + Relja Ivanić

Focusing on the period from the late 1940s to the 1980s, the exhibition will showcase modernist achievements that contributed to the development of architectural trends of the time, which have not yet been the subject of thorough and detailed research.

The exhibition aims to raise awareness among the public about the appearance of striking contemporary heritage buildings primarily in Novi Sad and Kragujevac and to initiate a different attitude towards this often forgotten heritage. The goal of the exhibition and research is to eventually include other smaller places with their derivations of Yugoslav socialist modernism.

This Zagreb exhibition is actually a combination of two exhibitions and the research that preceded them, shedding special light on certain buildings that are characteristic examples of parallel systemic processes in post-war society. These include the process of memorialization, the process of population emancipation (especially workers), and, finally, modernization processes in general, which affected all segments of society – production and construction, culture and education, everyday life, and administrative organization of objects.

The fundamental ideas of modernism were woven into each project, ultimately transforming cities across the former Yugoslavia. The exhibition demonstrates in a very interesting and educational way what we can do today, in a situation of overall impoverishment, media saturation, and lack of social planning, to make the city, by definition a space of community and exchange, smarter, more beautiful to live in, and more useful for all citizens.

The buildings are mainly presented through masterful photographs by Relja Ivanić, while others, due to inadequate reconstruction, one of the key problems of modernist architecture restoration, or the impossibility of photographing, are shown through selected extracts from archives and project documentation.

As part of the Smarter City project, a multi-year program by Shadow Casters that deals with the city as a community resource, Croatian and global architectural and building heritage is promoted and connected, intertwining material and immaterial heritage, contextualizing the project with historical, scientific, cultural, and general social themes and content. These themes and content are further processed in collaboration with interested local communities and numerous international experts.

These two intriguing exhibitions have inspired us for similar research in the Republic of Croatia. An exhibition of this research was planned, but due to the pandemic, we couldn’t complete it and now plan for it in the 2021 season, when Shadow Casters will celebrate their 20th anniversary of existence and public activity.

At the opening of the exhibition, due to prescribed coronavirus containment measures, up to 25 people will be allowed in the space – all with masks and maintaining the prescribed distance. Others can wait outside, and as soon as someone leaves, you will be allowed in.

Join us at the opening!

Smarter City is a multi-year program by Shadow Casters that deals with the city as a community resource. Within this program, Croatian and global architectural and building heritage is promoted and connected, intertwining material and immaterial heritage, constantly contextualizing the project with historical, scientific, cultural, and general social themes and content, which are processed in collaboration with interested local communities and numerous international experts.

Donors of Smarter City: Ministry of Culture and Media, Office for Culture of the City of Zagreb