黑料不打烊

Arteast 2000+ was the first museum collection conceived with a focus on Eastern European postwar avant-garde art in a broader international context. Since its inception in 2000, the collection has become well known for providing a comprehensive overview of art in the region. Similarly, it is recognized for the insight it provides into certain shared sociopolitical issues that are or were of central concern for artists in the formerly socialist countries. In 2011, the Arteast 2000+ collection came to form the core of the newly founded Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM), which operates as part of Moderna galerija in Ljubljana.

The selection of works from Arteast 2000+ for the new, refreshed exhibition of the collection addresses the question: How to go on? This is all the more relevant as the collection was conceived in the 1990s, when events such as the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Eastern Bloc, and the breakup of and wars in Yugoslavia, reshaped the political, economic and cultural landscape of the East. The radical changes of that decade were so profound that their consequences continue to haunt us to this day. So what is left of the idea of Eastern Europe more than 30 years after the end of the Cold War? It has all but disappeared from the geopolitical map of the world, to be replaced by the Global East, Central Europe, the Baltics, Southeast Europe, or the Western Balkans. The overturning of one system (communism) in order to copy another (liberal democracy) left most of the region with decades of social inequality, corruption, and a general feeling of powerlessness. It is now accurate to say that there is no longer just one Eastern Europe, but many. As a consequence, the Arteast 2000+ collection is also changing, with an emphasis on an expanded notion and understanding of these multiple Easts, their arts, artists, art collectives, and the social and political contexts that have defined this geopolitical-social-cultural space over the last decade.

In this context, the part of the exhibition on the ground floor of the museum deals with the war in Yugoslavia, the transition to capitalism, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of the idea of Eastern Europe as a socialist project. It addresses themes of social hierarchy and power relations, the state, identity, language, community, and direct reactions to reality, as well as critiques of the past and doubts about the future. This section presents a selection of works by the artists Jusuf Had啪ifejzovi膰, Igor Grubi膰, Vlado Martek, Darinka Pop - Miti膰, Dan Perjovschi, Tone Stojko, B谩lint Szombathy, 艩办补谤迟, Jane 艩travs, Slaven Tolj, and Konstantin Zvezdochiotov.

The new installation of the collection on the first floor includes works by women artists that have been grouped around two broad themes: patriarchy, the body, and the media on the one hand, and ideology and war on the other. The artists representing the former are Marina Abramovi膰, Vlasta Delimar, Alla Georgieva, Katalin Ladik, and Natalia LL, and those representing the latter are Maja Bajevi膰, Jenny Holzer, Sanja Ivekovi膰, Zofia Kulik, Goranka Mati膰, and Milica Tomi膰. These artists do not necessarily depart from feminism as a defining or starting point of their actions, but from a position of rebellion against and noncompliance with any form of dominance and discrimination, be it male dominance over women in predominantly patriarchal societies or militarisms, sexisms, and nationalisms of all shapes and sizes, as well as the devastating impact capitalism has on society as a whole. Their performances and actions can be seen as acts of rebellion, disturbing the ingrained social arrangement of power, whereby the ideology of those in dominant positions is questioned and can therefore no longer be seen as valid or taken for granted.