Round table discussion marking the publication of the monograph Desires and Contradictions: Exhibiting Art and Architecture in Slovenia 1947–1979

The monograph Desires and Contradictions: Exhibiting Art and Architecture in Slovenia 1947–1979 examines selected examples of art and architecture exhibiting, observing them through the prism of the Yugoslav political order, its doctrine and its geopolitical prospects. Through case studies, it explores the factors that decisively shaped art and culture in relation to exhibiting, as well as how these fields operated in relation to the state: whether they adhered to and reinforced the official ideology or distanced themselves from it. The chapters consider what the exhibitions articulated and how – both in relation to the national aspirations of individual Yugoslav nations and the question of a shared cultural identity, as well as considering how they were presented internationally. Insight into the organisation of these events in Slovenia also provides a broader understanding of the exhibition as a medium and of the functioning of art institutions. In the context of the Cold War, both the exhibitions and the institutions emerge as willing collaborators with the political-economic systems and as conveyors of their ideologies – even if not necessarily those that one might have expected.

A round table, at which the editors and authors of the book will speak, will—alongside a discussion of the above topics—also present the five-year research project within which the work was created, as well as the website Exhibiting in Slovenia 1947–1979 (URL: https://razstavljanjevsloveniji.si/en/naslovna-english). The core of the website is a database established during the research, focusing on Slovenian infrastructure in the field of visual art exhibitions, titled Exhibition Venues in Slovenia Between 1947 and 1979: An Interactive Map. The interactive map outlines, in its basic features, who established a more permanent form of exhibiting or an actual exhibition venue, when, and for what reasons. Compared to the truly modest pre-war situation and the fact that the first purpose-built exhibition venue for visual art in Ljubljana was only opened in 1909, the period under consideration reveals remarkable progress in art exhibition practices. By the end of the 1970s, Slovenia had developed a widely branched, polycentric, and largely professionalized network of exhibition venues, with numerous specialized institutions and well-developed inter-institutional connections both at home and internationally.

The event is organised by: the Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, Ljubljana University Press - Faculty of Arts, and the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory.