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2/4/2012

Two Exhibitions

Calvert 22, London

curated by Lina Džuverovid

Calvert 22 is delighted to welcome the most influential art movement to emerge from the Balkan region in the latter half of the 20th Century - Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK).

TIME FOR A NEW STATE is part of a London wide presentation in cooperation with Tate, who will be hosting a Symposium (14 April), and which will also comprise of a music performance at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall (14 April), an exhibition of archival material at Chelsea Space (Chelsea College of Art) and a seminar at UCL.

Neue Slowenische Kunst was established in what was then Yugoslavia. Concerned with the political unrest in the region at the time and issues of national identity NSK projects broke through the limitations of the visual arts. Highly collaborative and based around a constant flow of ideas, NSK provided a platform that brought together theatre, music, painting, literature, philosophy, design and performance, reaching into society at large.

TIME FOR A NEW STATE will be the first UK retrospective of IRWIN, the visual arts component of NSK, founded in Ljubljana (Slovenia) in 1983. This ambitious display will feature seminal projects from the past twenty years including a special adaptation of Transnacionala (1996), an interactive installation enabling participants to become NSK citizens and have their own passports created. Also on display will be Kapital (1991), a site-specific installation that mixes taxidermy with religious icons, appropriating and recycling the symbols of past totalitarian governments and utopian art movements.

Public artworks across London will include an installation located at one at of London’s busiest interchanges. This specially commissioned billboard by IRWIN features an appropriated advertising slogan originally used, by a leading drinks brand, in Lagos alerting us that it may be ‘Time For A New State.’

In addition, the exhibition will examine in depth the group’s strong connections with Moscow art scene of the 80s and 90s by hosting a special event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the seminal NSK Moscow Embassy (1992), one of the most influential of all apt-art projects, central not only to IRWIN’s own practice but also to the development of avant-garde practices across the entire ‘former East’.

The downstairs exhibition space of Calvert 22 will present a selection of NSK Folk art; a diverse collection of intriguing artefacts created by the citizens of the NSK State in Time. This virtual state, formed in 1992, today contains over fourteen thousand citizens from Dublin to Taipei to Sarajevo to New York. As it has evolved over the last 20 years, members have developed a strong sense of collective identity, which has manifested itself in the creation of a unique Folk Art, expressing citizens’ devotion to the state and ideologies of NSK. Works on display include NSK passports, stamps, plates and films made by NSK state members.

IRWIN’s constantly evolving practice continues to be at the forefront of the contemporary art scene of the former ‘Eastern Bloc’ countries. Their work encourages the viewer to critically examine the art history of ‘Western Modernism’ as they counter this with their own ‘Eastern Modernism’, pointing to the continued exclusion of contemporary Eastern European Art. IRWIN has actively and concretely intervened in social and historical activities in an era that redefined the status of art in Eastern Europe.

IRWIN - TIME FOR A NEW STATE / NSK – FOLK ART is curated by Lina Džuverovid and is accompanied by an in-depth publication, digital resources and an extensive events programme including Tate Symposium on 14 April, Viktor Misiano in Conversation with IRWIN on 10 May and Symposium on the East Art Map in collaboration with UCL on 2 June.

About NSK
Neue Slowenische Kunst was established in 1984 in what was then Yugoslavia and is the most influential art movement to emerge from the Balkan region in the latter half of the 20th Century. From its inception the NSK movement included dedicated ‘departments’ which fused theatre (Scipion Nasice Theater), music (band Laibach), painting (IRWIN), moving image (Retrovision), theory (Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy), and design (New Collectivism). This highly collaborative movement, which was envisaged as a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ (total artwork) was based around a constant flow of ideas and exchange. In the lineage of Dada and Constructivism, NSK broke through disciplinary boundaries powerfully affecting the wider cultural sphere not just in Eastern Europe but globally. Infiltrating many facets of society and culture through its highly politicised cross-disciplinary initiatives, NSK projects could often be seen in public media, national festivals and competitions – thus reaching into society at large. NSK developed a complex artistic language which challenged accepted notions of national identity and belonging, often repurposing symbols of totalitarian regimes extracted from often incompatible political ideologies, in turn fusing them with reoccuring motifs from the history of the avant-garde.

About Calvert 22:
CALVERT 22 is the UK’s only not-for-profit foundation dedicated to the presentation of contemporary art and culture from Russia, CIS countries and Eastern Europe and presents a dynamic programme of exhibitions, talks and cross- disciplinary events from both emergent and established artists. Founded in May 2009 by Nonna Materkova, a Russian- born, London based economist, Calvert 22’s mission is to create a unique platform, through imaginative and active presentations, for the very best in current art and culture from the former ‘Eastern Bloc’, whilst being a catalyst for new possibilities of cross-cultural understanding and exchange.

About VTB Capital:
VTB Capital, the Investment Business of VTB Group, is one of the three strategic business arms of VTB Group, along with the corporate and retail businesses. Since its foundation in 2008, VTB Capital has taken part in more than 184 ECM and DCM deals, which were instrumental in attracting more than USD 88bn worth of investments in Russia. VTB Capital offers a full range of investment banking products and services to Russian and international clients, focusing on arranging operations in the debt, equity, global commodities markets, developing investment and asset management, advising clients on M&A and ECM deals in Russia and abroad. VTB Capital operates in Moscow, London, Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong, with headquarters in Moscow.
VTB Capital occupies the top position in the debt and equity capital markets in Russia and CIS according to the league tables for the first 9 months of 2011 by Dealogic, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. In 2011 VTB Capital research team was ranked #1 in Thomson Reuters Extel Survey and Institutional Investor All-Russia Investor Survey.

The season at Calvert 22 is a component of a unique four-part presentation of NSK in co-operation with Chelsea Space, Tate Modern and UCL.

IRWIN – TIME FOR A NEW STATE and NSK FOLK ART are curated by Lina Džuverović and are accompanied by an in-depth publication, digital resources and an extensive events programme.

Events Highlights:

Neue Slowenische Kunst – Retrogarde Reading Group
Every other Wednesday from 11 April–20 June inclusive, 7pm

IRWIN in Context: Zdenka Badovinac and Eda Čufer in Conversation with IRWIN
Friday 13 April, 7pm

Screening and Talk: Predictions of Fire (1996), directed by Michael Benson
Followed by a discussion with Chris Bohn, Editor, The Wire Magazine.
Thursday 26 April, 7pm

Events presented in collaboration with the History of Art Department, University College London: 20-year anniversary of NSK Moscow Embassy: Viktor Misiano in conversation
Thursday 10 May, 7pm

Self-historicisation as Artistic Practice: The Case of IRWIN
Workshop with Saša Nabergoj (SCCA Ljubljana)
Friday 1 June, 10am–5.30pm

Archive as Strategy: Conversations about Self-historicisation across the East Symposium – East Art Map: History is Not Given. Please Help to Construct It
Saturday 2 June, 2–6pm, University College London
Speakers: Charles Esche, Gediminas Gasparavičius, IRWIN, Saša Nabergoj, Milena Tomić and Jonah Westerman.

Image: Irwin, Kapital, 1991, Installation view, Clock Tower Gallery, New York, Courtesy Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin/ Ljubljana

For more information please contact Calvert 22 Press and Marketing Officer
Giulia Crossley on 020 76132264 or giulia@calvert22.org or Penny Sychrava PR on 0796 791 5339 or pennysychrava@hotmail.com

Press View: Tuesday 03 April 2012, 4 – 6.30pm
NSK Passport Office/Issuing of NSK Passports
Opening speech by Peter Mlakar (NSK Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy)
Private View, Tuesday 3 April, 6–8.30pm

Calvert 22
22 Calvert Avenue - London
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday: 12–6pm
Admission free

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