first exhibition in non-existing museum

Tomas Gotovac: kissing asphalt, 1981 Zagreb

The Gorgon Group, performance Looking in the sky, 1966 Zagreb.

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Not well known art, but...

As soon as I open my eyes I see a film.”Experiment in the art of Yugoslavia in the 60’s and 70’s.April 24 – June 21 2008
The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw is pleased to present it’s first exhibition at it’s temporary headquarters. “As soon as I open my eyes I see a film. Experiment in the art of Yugoslavia in the 60’s and 70’s” is a research project and exhibition about experimental strategies in visual arts in the common cultural space of former Yugoslavia. The developments in visual arts in Yugoslavia in the 60’s and 70’s were not exempt form the radical redefinitions of the art practice characteristic to this ever fascinating period in history. Art embarked on a journey into reality beyond the confines of the studio and the gallery, in an attempt to be more responsive to the world.

history of the cat

Everyone knows CHAT NOIR by Theophile Alfons Steinlein, but who knows that this cat have had longer history?

On the edge of the gender

Semiology of connotation was explored by Roland Barthes. In his theory of realistic representation a work of art pretend to be a part of real word throughout ideal mystification, which is supported by the “rule of stereotype and detail”. A work of art seem to be realistic when it repeats a conventional belief. On ground of this sentence Barthes builds a distinction between: “pleasant show” and “show of bliss (delight)”. The first one recalls a stereotype. For example: every nude brings in our mind a stereotype of the women. The second makes a play with spectator; sticks him out from automatism, like Sleeping Indymin of Girodet-Trisson. His pose is feminine but we recognize a men through his penis. Through association in the first view we become some kind of fear, if words are able to reflect the real “meaning of the thing”; meaning of the essence. We lost our sure about power of the words – they are defeated by the power of the picture; power of the sign. Thanks to margins, which were left, this picture is unclear and we focus all our attention on the problem of representation, not of identification. We don’t ask if he is a women, but how women’s part of him exists in this creation. He breaks an order of Hegel’s conception. In Endymion's case the thesis and antithesis aren’t a new thesis, but there are connected in once. The world doesn’t base on dichotomy any more, it’s doesn’t base on different statements, where a meaning profits their rightness through their denial. That's why it brings us to delight...

feet's fetishist

George Clooney was asked by one journalist: Are you women-feet's fetishist? Actor answered: Well... Fetishist, perhaps not, but the fact that woman have feet is very important to me... Perhaps the same reasons have had Adolph Mezel, when he painted his own leg. This painting can be viewed as a painted caricature of Realism. The German artist used the canvas to criticise the new direction in painting, whose adherents preferred everyday, and sometimes trivial, subjects, to literary or historical themes (Menzel himself generally painted more exalted subjects). Here he decided portray a leg, a symbol of tryviality... But throughout this example we should think also about men's feet in some more friendly manner...

Let them dance!

Does the photographer Stanisław Markowski know that tango is a poem of the longing soul? The famous description "firulete" refers to the steps that dance-couple make as a skill display to seduce and beautify the dance, and it is the detail that transforms the tango into a showy spectacle. The tango has wide range of choreographic options, making it intriguing and of singular visual beauty. It is important to differentiate the choreographic dance from the improvised one. In the first one, the dancers skills offer a specific rehearsed show, while the improvised dance is unexpected and does not come out as a result of rehearsals but shows creativity and expertise. So don't disturb. Let them dance...

charming lady

Alexander Roslin was a Swedish portraitist who worked mainly in France. However, the lady, with her mystical smile, is neither royal nor a member of society. She is Roslin’s wife, the artist Marie-Suzanne Giroust. Enjoy the atmosphere...

idyll on the edge

Felix Valloton: Le monsieur et la dame, 1909. Searching for the aura of this paint I would ask: who is hidding behind the hat? Tête-à-tête galant? Only element which can give us an answer is the shadow of women's hand...