15 September 2018 -From September 11th to October 30th, the National Museum of Montenegro has organized the exhibition "From Diaspora to Diversities", which is a part of the regional project launched with the idea to consider the phenomenon of diaspora through artistic productions and practices of authors of different generations.
The exhibition, which is hosted by the Montenegrin Art Gallery "Miodrag Dado Đurić" in Cetinje and realized in cooperation with Remont - an independent art association from Belgrade, includes the following project creators: Mladen Bundalo, diSTRUKTURA, Adrijana Gvozdenović, Ivana Ivković, Mirko Nikolić, Nada Prlja, Vahida Ramujkić and Neli Ružić.
The setting was created through the selection of artwork presented at exhibitions in Belgrade (Remont Gallery) and Skopje (Ćifte Amam/ National Gallery of Macedonia). The aforementioned exhibitions were realized by evaluating and assessing a variety of authorial viewpoints, conceptual standpoints, articulation in observation, all through analysis and critical review of the observed phenomena, and through initiating a number of questions: the perception and reception of the "other" and the "different"; European immigration and asylum policies; socio-cultural issues of integration, dilemmas “whether to go or to stay”, the concept of home and belonging; travel and nomadic existence as an introspection process; the pervasion of the memory layers of the past and today, and in this context the connection between distant lands, societies and cultures; urban landscape as a cultural and symbolic construct; the effects of technological progress and the information and images of mass media on the everyday life of contemporary global society.
Addressing the concept of diaspora outside the dominant ethnocentric and ethnic definitions, the focus of project research includes a wide range of causes and experiences in temporary and permanent displacement of either a group of people, or individuals from the motherland.
"Redefinition of the term and the concept of diaspora has, for quite some time, been in the wake of theoretical debates initiated by new constellations of global socio-political, technological and communication flows and movements, by increased transnational mobility, and increasingly intense cultural nomadism developed through hyperproduction of international artistic events and “artist in residence” programs. The issues of challenges in everyday and professional life “somewhere outside”, integration processes, and often ad hoc adjustments and interactions with the specifics of other / non-motherland environments, have all served as starting points for the consideration of various forms of diaspora existence and the reasons for the migration movements of participants of the international artistic and cultural scene from the Western Balkans," said the curator of the exhibition Miroslav Karić (Remont).
Project research includes artists who represent the second generation of diaspora, who live and work abroad for a long period of time, artists who are intensively commuting from the country of their current residence to their motherland, as well as those who are conditioned to live their lives in constant movement, with frequent and temporary dislocations throughout the world.
By reflecting the perspectives of various circumstances that introduced them to new living and working environments, the authors deal with a series of phenomena and migration experiences, all the while exploring the identity, mentality, geographical, cultural, historical, contemporary socio-political characteristics and contexts of their surroundings.
The project "From Diaspora to Diversities" was realized from 2015 to 2017 in cooperation with Remonta - an independent art association (Belgrade), the European Cultural Centre Esperanza (Skopje), Kunst Ost (Graz) and the Institute of Contemporary Art (Zagreb).
The curator of the exhibition is Miroslav Karić with the assistance of the coordinator Ana Ivanović.
The exhibition will be open until October 30th.
