- Venue
- Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina
- Location
- Serbia
On a visit to Serbia last month for a music festival, I was in awe of the city’s buildings and art exhibition in Novi Sad. On a walk around we passed a concrete building with a woman making a fabric poster. I had to go investigate. The poster read:
She was preparing for an art exhibition opening for the next day. The building was the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina (formerly Museum of Socialist Revolution). I plead with my boyfriend and sister to merge a visit to the opening before our epoch dancing at the EXIT festival. They agreed.
The work was a common mural piece directly on the gallery walls. The visual language was clear. This was a protest style illustrative timeline of people’s journeys. It was confusing to decide which direction to follow the mural. To the left or to the right? a clever installation move by the collective to bewilder the audience. This show was confronting fence building, migration and EU foreign policy.
A mix of drawings representing sky, land, sea, forest, cityscape, people and text shares the hardship stories of people. With no water surrounding the country it was shocking to see how much people depended on walking to flee from war, persecution and extreme poverty.
Sadly, I think the exhibition was too hidden in the museum basement and believe this strong show carrying heavy topical weight should have been more in the public eye – perhaps on exterior walls of the city.
Links:
http://www.msuv.org/program/2016-07-08-hladni-zid-eng.php
http://www.novisad.rs/eng/museum-contemporary-art-vojvodina
http://cargocollective.com/sonjajankov/Ex-YU-Museums-of-Revolution
http://www.msuv.org/info/o-muzeju-eng.php#istorijatmuzeja
