THIS IS ALL FILM!
Experimental Film in Yugoslavia 1951-1991
Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art
Curators: Bojana Piškur, Ana Janevski, Jurij Meden, Stevan Vuković
22 December 2010 – 28 February 2011
Experimental film—one of the most exciting forms of cinematic expression and, paradoxically, also one of the most ignored by the various (historical, theoretical, critical, economic, educational, etc.) discourses on the cinema—has long been predominantly the domain of rather marginalized theory and practice, separated from the mainstream.
In all of the former Yugoslavia experimental film almost unfailingly derived from the tradition of the so-called amateur film, whose home ground consisted in the numerous cinema clubs that flourished in all major cities of the former federation. The line separating amateur film from experimental film is thus unclear not only due to the subjectivity of judgment, but also because the former term in its most widely accepted meaning refers to the production conditions, while the latter term designates the aspirations, procedures, and effects of a specific cinematic expression. Furthermore, the terms experimental film and its more or less synonymous avant-garde film never really took hold in our current or former countries; thus the Croatian (or more specifically the Zagreb school) tried to shape new theories and practices, such as "antifilm", while the Belgrade school struggled with the even looser term of "alternative film".
One short-term result of such interdisciplinary connections was a far richer and more diversified film production, while one of the long-term results may have been that this selfsame production made less of an impact historically as a whole. Publications dealing with the history of Slovenian film are few, and in them we search in vain for any mention of amateur or experimental film. The whereabouts of the few known archives (e.g. that of the ŠKUC Gallery, which in the 1970s and 1980s was one of the few venues in Ljubljana that sustained continuous promotion and production of experimental film) are unknown; and none of the present-day professional national archives is engaged in systematically maintaining extensive film oeuvres. Unlike the disastrous state of affairs in Slovenia and slightly better situation in Serbia, the avant-garde film in Croatia has been treated far better: there are monographs, historical overviews, numerous DVDs, even restored copies of film (mostly thanks to the Croatian Film Clubs' Association); but above all, experimental film has been seamlessly integrated into the national film history as one of the principal sources of new ideas and film professionals.
The exhibition at the Moderna galerija will be the first comprehensive presentation of the phenomenon of experimental film in former Yugoslavia in a museum setting, linking it also with other art forms. The focus will be on the most prominent experimental filmmakers, developments and trends, festivals (GEFF, the Mala Pula, Belgrade Alternatives, Marčevska osmica in Novi Sad, Amateur Film Festival Ljubljana), production associations (cine clubs etc.), formal and informal networks, and on films "made with other means".
Participating artists: Ante Babaja, Žarko Batinović, Breda Beban & Hrvoje Horvatić, Luka Bezić, Mate Bogdanić, Krešimir Buljević, Ana Nuša Dragan, Srečo Dragan, Ivan Faktor, Petar Fradelić, Ivan Ladislav Galeta, Karpo Godina, Tomislav Gotovac, Ljubiša Grlić, Zlatko Hajder, Jovan Jovanović, Branko Karabatić, Željko Kipke, Tomislav Kobija, Vladimir Kristl, Dušan Makavejev, Davorin Marc, Ivan Martinac, Ivica Matić, Miodrag Milošević, Zdravko Mustać, OHO, OM Production, Mihovil Pansini, Neša Paripović, Živojin Pavlović, Vladimir Petek, Zoran Popović, Vasko Pregelj, Miloje Radaković, Kokan Rakonjac, Vinko Rozman, Franci Slak, Aleksandar Srnec, Aleksandar F. Stasenko, Mladen Stilinović, Lazar Stojanović, Milan Šamec, Slobodan Šijan, Ljubomir Šimunić, Dušan Tasić, Sava Trifković, Ante Verzotti, Lordan Zafranović, Edvard Zajec, Ira Zorko.
PROGRAM OF EVENTS
GUIDED TOURS
Sundays at 11:00
SCREENINGS at 18:00
20. 1. Ira Zorko: Space projection, 1985
15. 2. Films by OM Production
22. 2. OM Production: KUMBUM (1975-1987), feature-length experimental film
SYMPOSIUM: FIVE VIEWS ON EXPERIMENTAL FILM
29. 1. 10:00–14:00
Pavle Levi, Jurij Meden, Darko Štrajn, Hrvoje Turković, Tanja Vrvilo
TALKS: FILM = EXPERIMENT at 18:00
11. 1. Early film experiments in the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb Film and Video Collection
Leila Topić, talk and screenings
The 1980s and the experimental films produced by ŠKUC
Barbara Borčić, talk and screenings
(date to be announced later)
Miklavž Komelj, talk (date to be announced later)
Presentation of the Croatian Film Clubs' Association
Diana Nenadić, talk and screenings (date to be announced later)
BOOK PRESENTATIONS (dates to be announced later)
Amir Muratović: Slatka slast periferije: Enciklopedija Ivice Matića and screenings of Ivica Matić's experimental films
Ana Janevski and Łukasz Ronduda: As Soon As I Open My Eyes I See a Film: Experiments in Yugoslav Art in the 1960s and 1970s
The latest issue of KINO! magazine dedicated to experimental film in Slovenia
PANEL DISCUSSIONS at 18:00
18. 1. Origins of Film Education in Slovenia 1950–1970
9. 2. From Yugo-nostalgia to alternative future society: on transcending the utopias of the past.
A PRESENTATION OF THE WORKS ENTERED FOR THE 11TH SHORT ELECTRONIC FORM COMPETITION "Another 30 sec in ex-Yu"
8.–10. 2.
WORKSHOPS FOR CHILDREN UNDER 12
Saturdays, 11:00–13.00
Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art
Tomšičeva 14
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
Open daily except Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Image Credits: Courtesy of Hrvatski Filmski Savez.
