PhD candidate Nicoletta Rousseva to participate in The Big Shift: The 1990s: Avant-gardes in Eastern Europe and Their Legacy, sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, MG+MSUM, Ljubljana, 23 to 30 August 2019
The Big Shift: the 1990s. Avant-gardes in Eastern Europe and Their Legacy
Museum of Modern Art plus Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, MG+MSUM, 23 to 30 August 2019
This year’s Summer School, organized by Moderna galerija, Ljubljana for the second year in a row, will continue to draw on the topics related to the legacy of Eastern European avant-gardes. A particular emphasis will be placed on the major changes caused by the collapse of socialism, the end of the Cold War and the restoration of capitalism in the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The discussions will focus on the paradigm of an avant-garde artist and art that was thoroughly shaken and altered in the 1990s.
During the socialist era, the main point of reference for Eastern European (including Russian) art was the Communist ideology and the conflict with the West. Today, the main (explicit or non-explicit) points of reference are the new nationalist and populist movements in Europe and attempts to define one’s cultural identity by artistic means. This also implies a reassessment and reinterpretation of the avant-garde traditions and of the socialist past.