Tuesday-Sunday:
10:00-18:00
International Group Show No feeling lasts forever. Solidarity collection in Skopje is based on the unique collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Skopje and its historical and political context. Following the devastating earthquake that struck Skopje in the summer of 1963, a wave of international solidarity was raised to help rebuild the devastated city. As part of the reconstruction of the city, it was also decided to establish a museum of contemporary art, and artists from all over the world donated their works to the museum's collection. MoCA Skopje's collection can thus be seen as a time capsule of late modernism across the Iron Curtain, as the collection includes works by well-known artists from the Western canon, as well as artists from the former Eastern Bloc - including Czechoslovakia - and artists from the former Third World or Global South. The exhibition was held in 2023 at the Kunsthalle Wien, and will be presented at the National Gallery Prague (NGP) in a modified version, expanded mainly by the gifts of both Czechoslovak artists and the NGP's own gift of works of classical modernism. Contemporary artists Jesper Alvaer & Isabela Grosse, Brook Andrew, Yane Calovski & Hristina Ivanovska, Siniša Illič, Iman Issa, Gülsün Karamustafa, Elfie Semotan, as well as writer Barbi Marković.
Four contemporary artists and two artist duos - Jesper Alvaer & Isabela Grosse (Prague and Kvænangen), Brook Andrew (Medellín and Melbourne), Yane Calovski & Hristina lvanoska (Skopje and Berlin), Siniša Ilić (Belgrade), Iman lssa (Vienna and Berlin), and Gülsün Karamustafa (Istanbul and Berlin) - were invited to select works from MoCA Skopje's collection that resonate with their own work. Contemporary artists have thus created subjective exhibitions - with a selection of around ten historical works complemented by their own works - that provide personal probes into the collection through the lens of contemporary artists. These artist-driven displays, each rendered in the artists' own architectural manner, develop the backbone of the exhibition with historical works selected by the exhibition curators and archival material, including models of iconic buildings and a model of the city centre master plan designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tang. The exhibition conveys a media image of the natural disaster and the subsequent rebuilding of the city through the then-emerging television broadcasting. The exhibition also includes a new series of photographs by photographer Elfie Semotan (Vienna and Jennersdorf) documenting contemporary Skopje and its transformations, including the exhibition spaces and MoCA Skopje's depository.
The exhibition offers a new perspective on the history of post-war modern art through a unique collection. It provides an alternative to the established collection exhibitions, including the newly opened (from May 2023) exhibition 1939-2021: The end of the black and white era. Compared to this exhibition, the exhibition allows for the exposure of Czechoslovak art of the 1960s in an international context. The exhibition is also an invitation to reflect on historical and contemporary forms of solidarity and the role of art in a time marked by conflict, destruction and uncertainty, but also by cohesion, renewal and a vision of a hopeful future.
Venue: Trade Fair Palace, 1st floor, east wing
Deadline: 21/3/2024 - 29/9/2024
Curator*kyWhat, How & for Whom / WHW (Ivet Ćurlin, Nataša Ilić, Sabina Sabolović), Rado Ištok
In cooperation with Kunsthalle Wien and MoCA Skopje
English 
Czech