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No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection

20.4.2023–28.1.2024
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com

Location

Kunsthalle Wien
Museumsquartier

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

A joint exhibition of Kunsthalle Wien and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Skopje, North Macedonia

Artists: Brook Andrew • Yane Calovski & Hristina Ivanoska • Siniša Ilić • Iman Issa • Gülsün Karamustafa • Barbi Marković • Elfie Semotan

With artists from the collection: Pierre Alechinsky • Getulio Alviani • Dimitar Avramovski Pandilov • Enrico Baj • Georg Baselitz • Anna-Eva Bergman • Maria Bonomi • Alberto Burri • Zofia Butrymowicz • Alexander Calder • Luis Camnitzer • Christo & Jeanne-Claude • Bronisław Chromy • Peter Clarke • Božidar Damjanovski • Josip Demirović Devj • Josip Diminić • Slobodan Filovski • Michel Gérard • Ion Grigorescu • Sheila Hicks • David Hockney • Alfred Hrdlicka • Bogoljub Ivković • Olga Jančić • Olga Jevrić • Jasper Johns • Alex Katz • Zoltán Kemény • Rudolf Krivoš • Boško Kućanski • Wifredo Lam • Sol LeWitt • Oto Logo • Petar Lubarda • Nikola Martinoski • Roberto Matta • Zoran Mušič • Meret Oppenheim • Olga Peczenko-Srzednicka • Dushan Perchinkov • Pablo Picasso • Bogoja Popovski • Joan Rabascall • Vjenceslav Richter • Bridget Riley • Ivan Sabolić • Niki de Saint Phalle • Francesco Somaini • François Stahly • Henryk Stażewski • Gligor Stefanov • Kumi Sugai • Aneta Svetieva • Beáta Széchy • Dimo Todorovski • Victor Vasarely • Vladimir Veličković • Тоmо Vladimirski • Marjan Vojska

The comprehensive, international group exhibition No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection revolves around the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Skopje's unusual collection of modern works, as well as the historical and political context of this extraordinary project.

After the massive earthquake that hit Skopje (then Yugoslavia) in 1963, there was a huge effort to help rebuild the devastated city, as a large-scale gesture of international solidarity. The decision was made to establish a museum of contemporary art as a key cultural element of the reconstruction, and thousands of works were donated to Skopje by artists from around the world.

The collection of MoCA Skopje represents both a time capsule of international art at a moment when modernism was still in its prime and a rare artistic encounter across the Cold War divide between East and West: it includes many artworks by predominantly white and male figures who will be well recognizable to an art-loving public, but it also goes beyond the established canon of modernism and incorporates often fascinating works by artists who hail from the former Eastern bloc, as well as from the Global South.

For No Feeling Is Final, Kunsthalle Wien invited four artists and one artist duo – Brook Andrew (Melbourne), Yane Calovski & Hristina lvanoska (Skopje), Siniša Ilić (Belgrade), Iman lssa (Berlin), and Gülsün Karamustafa (Istanbul) – to select works from the collection and to add their own contemporary works, bringing their vision of MoCA’s collection into intimate relation with their respective artistic practices.

Furthermore, renowned photographer Elfie Semotan (Vienna) was invited to document the cityscape of Skopje and the museum through her unique way of photographic storytelling. Writer Barbi Marković (Vienna) – known for her sharp mix of fiction and social reality – contributed a travelogue of her experience of encountering Skopje’s and the museum’s complex histories.

The exhibition also aims to connect the artworks from the collection to the place where they are housed and cared for. Therefore, the history of the city of Skopje, the 1963 earthquake, and the rebuilding are part of the exhibition’s story within an extensive context section, expanded by loans from the Museum of the City of Skopje. We are especially pleased that we were able to borrow Kenzō Tange’s model of the Master Plan of the City Center. This model stands alongside a variety of maps from the Institute for Town Planning and Reconstruction Skopje, which demonstrate the research and analysis done locally in rethinking what the new city could be. To highlight the quality of the structures actually built, we loaned models from a Skopje-based architectural team consisting of Ana Ivanovska, Jovan Ivanovski and Vladimir Deskov.

No Feeling ls Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection offers a present-day mirror to look at the well-rehearsed history of modern art in Western capitals, including Vienna, as well as opening a window to the cultural and architectural history of a nearby neighbor. It is an invitation to feel and reimagine solidarity with neighbors at a time when instability and aggression across Europe is tangibly present.

Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection: Gülsün Karamustafa, The Crime Scene, 2022/2023, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, with works by Elfie Semotan, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Foto der ausgefallenen Architektur des Zentrales Postamts und Telekommunikationszentrums Skopje.
Elfie Semotan, Untitled (Central Post Office and Telecommunication Center), Skopje, 2022, courtesy Studio Semotan © Elfie Semotan
Kubistisches Portrait einer Frau von Pablo Picasso.
Pablo Picasso, Woman's Head, 1963, photo: Marin Dimeski, courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje © Succession Picasso / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023
Abstrakte Malerei einer Blumenwiese
Alexander Calder, To Skopje, 1965, photo: Marin Dimeski, courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje © Calder Foundation, New York / Bildrecht, Vienna 2023
Malerei eines Mannes mit Hut.
Nikola Martinoski, Portrait of Rastko Purić, 1934, photo: Marin Dimeski, courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje
Skulptur
Josip Diminić, Touches, 1973, photo: Robert Jankuloski, courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje
Kleinteilige grafische Malerei
Dushan Perchinkov, Motif from a Suburb III, 1971, photo: Robert Jankuloski, courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje
Skulptur
Olga Jevrić, Vaulted Form, 1964/1965, photo: Robert Jankuloski, courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje
Architekturfotografie vom Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje
Elfie Semotan, Untitled (Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje), Skopje, 2022, courtesy Studio Semotan © Elfie Semotan
Architekturfotografie einer Kirche mit einem Bauzaun davor.
Elfie Semotan, Untitled (Still Life), Skopje, 2022, courtesy Studio Semotan © Elfie Semotan
Installation view No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection: Gülsün Karamustafa, The Crime Scene, 2022/2023, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Im Vordergrund steht eine Skulptur mit drei Beinen, im Hintergrund sind weitere Kunstwerke.
Installation view No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection: Iman Issa, I, the Artwork, 2023, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Installation view No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection: Brook Andrew, mulunma wiling mangi gudhi (inside the lip of a stolen song), 2023, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Am Ende eines Tunnels steht eine Person mit Lampe und hüllt die Umgebung in warmes Licht.
Iman Issa, I, the Artwork, 2023, c-print mounted on aluminum, courtesy the artist and Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman
Installation view No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection: Yane Calovski & Hristina Ivanoska, All Things Flowing, 2023, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Malerei auf der eine Frau mit Kind aus dem Fenster schaut und sieht wie ein Mann von einem Uniformierten abgeführt wird.
Gülsün Karamustafa, Window, 1980, painting and mixed media, courtesy the artist and BüroSarıgedik
Installation view: No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com
Das Kunstwerk zeigt drei Arme aus Papier auf blauem Grund.
Siniša Ilić, Filigran, 2022/2023, paper-cut, courtesy the artist
Installation view No Feeling Is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection: Siniša Ilić, Filigran, 2022/2023, Kunsthalle Wien 2023, photo: www.kunst-dokumentation.com

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