22/3—30/9 2024

Trade Palace

Tuesday-Sunday:
10:00-18:00

The international group exhibition No Feeling Lasts Forever. A Collection of Solidarity from 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 arose to help rebuild the destroyed city. As part of the city's reconstruction, a museum of contemporary art was established, and artists from around the world donated their works to the museum's collection. The MoCA Skopje collection can therefore be seen as a time capsule of late modernism across the Iron Curtain, as it includes works by both well-known artists from the Western canon and artists from the then-Eastern Bloc – including Czechoslovakia – as well as artists from the then-Third World, or Global South. The exhibition was held in 2023 at Kunsthalle Vienna, and will be presented at the National Gallery Prague (NGP) in a revised version, expanded mainly with donations from Czech and Slovak artists, as well as a donation of works from the classical modern period from the NGP itself. Contemporary artists were invited to work with the collection and its history: Jesper Alvaer & Isabela Grosse, Brook Andrew, Yane Calovski & Hristina Ivanovska, Siniša Illič, Iman Issa, Gülsün Karamustafa, Elfie Semotan, and the writer Barbi Marković.

Four contemporary artists and two artistic duos – Jesper Alvaer & Isabela Grosse (Prague and Kvænangen), Brook Andrew (Medellín and Melbourne), Yane Calovski & Hristina Ivanoska (Skopje and Berlin), Siniša Ilić (Belgrade), Iman Issa (Vienna and Berlin), and Gülsün Karamustafa (Istanbul and Berlin) – were invited to select works from the MoCA Skopje collection that resonated with their own work. The contemporary artists and artists created subjective exhibitions – with a selection of about ten historical works supplemented by their own works – which provide unique insights into the collection through the perspective of contemporary artists. These artistically conceived exhibitions, each designed in its own architectural style, expand on the core of the exhibition with historical works selected by the exhibition curators and archival materials, including models of iconic buildings and a model of the main plan of the city center designed by the Japanese architect Kenzō Tange. The exhibition conveys the media image of the natural disaster and the subsequent reconstruction of the city through the then-emerging television broadcasts. The exhibition also includes a new series of photographs by the photographer Elfie Semotan (Vienna and Jennersdorf) documenting contemporary Skopje and its transformations, including the exhibition spaces and the MoCA Skopje storage facilities.

The exhibition offers a new perspective on the history of post-war modern art through the unique collection. It provides an alternative to established collection exhibitions, including the newly opened (since May 2023) exhibition 1939–2021: The End of the Black and White Era. Compared to this exhibition, the exhibition allows for the presentation of Czech and Slovak art from the 1960s in an international context. The exhibition is also an invitation to reflect on the historical and contemporary forms of solidarity and the role of art in a time marked by conflict, disillusionment, and uncertainty, but also by cohesion, renewal, and a vision of a hopeful future.

Location: Exhibition Palace, 1st floor, east wing.

Dates: March 21, 2024 – September 29, 2024.

Curators: What, How & for Whom / WHW (Ivet Ćurlin, Nataša Ilić, Sabina Sabolović), Rado Ištok.

In collaboration with Kunsthalle Wien and MoCA Skopje.