Engaged Art Practice and Institutional Change: A Brief Introduction to Art Experiments in Yugoslavia and Serbia from 1968 to the Present

Abstract

This article will explore examples of art practices and the work of curators in Yugoslavia and Serbia, from 1968 until the present, and will attempt to challenge the capitalist logic of the dominant art institution and its criteria that enable the exploitation of the work of artists. Focusing on collaboration, participation, democratization, and transformative experiences, these practices are shifting the modes of production and disturbing hierarchies between the artist, the artists’ work, and the audience. This shift implies changes in the nature of artwork, trying to re-imagine and test a new institutional framework outside the dominant art system and its logic of exploitation. The examples explored emerged from the student and youth centres in Yugoslavia around 1968, from the anti-war movement of the 1990s in Serbia, and from the so-called independent cultural scene in Serbia during the first decades of the 21^stcentury. This paper’s focus is inspired by the current students’ protests taking place in Serbia and the need to analyze them in relation to the legacies of the art practices which can be recognized in some features of the current movement and its related artistic articulations.