Future of Melancholia — HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark

Cooperation: Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (MoCAB), HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Graz (HK Styria)
Curator: Sandro Droschl

Ilija Bašičević Bosilj, Ljiljana Blaževska, Kosara Bokšan, Vane Bor, Lidija Delić, Milena Dragicevic, Biljana Đurđević, Vukadin Filipović, Olga Jevrić, Bogoljub Jovanović, Marko Obradović, Radomir Reljić, Marko Ristić, Leonid Šejka, Sava Sekulić, Marija Šević, Ivan Tabaković, Saša Tkačenko, Aleksandar Vučo & Dušan Matić, Nina Zeljković, Radojica Živanović Noe, Milica Zorić

Press talk: 21.3.2025, 11 am
Artist talk: 22.3.2025, 12 pm

Online guide

Views

Sava Sekulić, *Nature Walking over Heaven*, 1974
Oil on hardboard, 102 × 70,5 cm
Courtesy Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art, Jagodina

Text

The exhibition Future of Melancholia explores the role that art can play in furthering our understanding of the future. It is evident that we are living in complex times that can bolster elegiac and melancholic sentiment. Melancholy stands for the mood of our time, both globally and regionally. It also enables us to think about inner and outer circumstances, deepening our understanding for our relationship to our psychological, social, and natural environments, and also looking at “other” possible worlds.

When we consider the shared experiences of such different countries as Serbia and Austria, which have been connected by a long history of both pleasures and sorrows, then we think again and again of such contradictory set of ideas as the preservation, restoration and prolongation of the status quo contrasted with a nonetheless existent faith in progress and a better future that also entails an element of the utopian. This leads to a diffuse mood of melancholy and nostalgia for tradition, also oriented toward a form of heroic dreaming, as if by way of a response to the experiences and images of the course of history and their still tangible effects on the present day.

This view of what has become a confusing state of affairs under the sign of a lack of self-confidence and simultaneous self-affirmation against the other stands, however, not just for a regional specificity but rather reflects a global picture of our age. It shows not only the complexity and an erstwhile uncertainty when dealing with the diverse and ever more numerous demands of the present, but also a backlash that sees alleged salvation in a more traditional view of the world posited against a striving for progress and change — and it is not clear where this will lead. Linked to this is a withdrawal into the private realm and away from events in the outside world, partly as a form of self-protection and partly as an emotional state of being that is often termed melancholy.

This is a little reminiscent of a famous passage in Robert Musil’s epochal work The Man without Qualities (1930): “If there is a sense of reality, there must also be a sense of possibility.” Musil’s character Ulrich is unable to commit to anything in earnest and avoids all fixed definition concerning his own life, wishing to keep new options and constellations open.

The exhibition particularly looks at how artists explore this heavy-heartedness and introspection that also reflect an inner conflict between tradition and progress. Often, they turn to the surreal and dream-like, which offer opportunities to address the interplay between inner sentiment and the state of the outside world. The resulting works follow a narrative structure that is sometimes very bleak and unfathomable, but can also be humorous and hopeful. This melancholic sentiment is the focus of this exhibition, which presents historical, modernist, and contemporary positions from both Serbia and Austria both in Belgrade and Graz in three chapters shown almost simultaneously: at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade (Gallery-Legacy of Milica Zorić & Roduljub Čolaković and Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art) and at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark (HK Styria) in Graz.

The exhibition at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark (HK Styria) in Graz presents three generations of artists from Serbia, exploring the continuities of the surreal and associative imagery from the 1920s to the present, with historical positions from the surrealist group around Marko Ristić, Vane Bor, Radojica Živanović Noe, and others, who were the founders of surrealism in Serbia and who interacted internationally with other surrealist artists. From the 1950s to 1990s various positions emerged with profoundly individual approaches and poetics presented in the practices of artists such as Ljiljana Blaževska, Olga Jevrić, Bogoljub Jovanović, Radomir Reljić, Leonid Šejka, Sava Sekulić, and Milica Zorić. Through figuration or abstract forms, a metaphysical view, elements of the surreal, manifestations steeped in allegory, or the exploration of the relationship between spirit and matter, these artists produced unique renderings of immediate reality and the experiences of the world. The exhibition also presents contemporary Serbian artists, who, like their Austrian contemporaries whose works are shown in Belgrade, use allegories of the surreal, allusiveness, and nostalgia that envision fantastic, atmospheric, and sometimes bleak worlds. Like their predecessors, this generation, represented here by Lidija Delić, Biljana Đurđević, Marko Obradović, Marija Šević, and Saša Tkačenko, can also be described as idiosyncratic – a generation that, in new contexts, connects with other artists across borders in order to enter into a supranational and multilateral dialogue.

However, this is not a decidedly regional phenomenon, but rather the melancholy that is articulated in the surreal and fantastic in current artistic practice is a global phenomenon that is examined more closely in this exhibition with a focus on Austria and Serbia.

Future of Melancholia is a cooperation of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade and HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark. This would not have been possible without the generous support of the Cultural Department of the State of Styria, the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (BMEIA), the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. The project was initiated within the BMEIA program Imagine Dignity – Laboratories Of Hope: Regenerating Democratic Prosperity.

As a whole, the project aims to promote deeper exchange and cultural understanding between Serbia, Austria, and Styria within the context of a shared European space, providing dialogic insight into current activities in art in these neighboring countries.

Future of Melancholia
Further exhibition venues:

Future of Melancholia
Kamilla Bischof, Flora Hauser, Katharina Höglinger, Ernst Yohji Jaeger, Nanna Kaiser, Matthias Noggler, Maruša Sagadin, Anna Schachinger, Klaus Schuster, Lisa Slawitz, Susanne Wenger
8.3. – 4.5.2025
Gallery-Legacy of Milica Zorić & Rodoljub Čolaković
Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (MoCAB)
Rodoljuba Čolakovića 2, 11000 Belgrade

Philipp Timischl: Molded
8.3. – 4.5.2025
Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (MoCAB)
Pariska 14, 11000 Belgrade

Artists

Participating artists

Solo exhibitions (selection): Open Art Museum, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2024), Centre Culturel de Serbie, Paris (2022), Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York (2021, 2018), Goethe Institute, Belgrade (2018), John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, USA (2009), Art Pavillion “Cvijeta Zuzorić”, Belgrade (2008).

Group exhibitions (selection): Gallery of Matica Srpska, Novi Sad (2024), Belgrade Cultural Center (2022), museum gugging, Klosterneuburg (2021), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2020), Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York (2020), American Folk Art Museum, New York (2019), Halle Saint Pierre, Paris (2018÷17), Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York (2017), Galerie St. Etienne, New York (2014, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Palazzo Carrozzini, Lecce (2023), 15 Orient, New York (2021), BLOK Gallery, Belgrade (2013), Galerie La Cave, Geneva (2009), The Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (ULUS), Belgrade (2006, 1997), National Museum of Vranje, Serbia (2005), Cultural Centre of Belgrade (1991, 1983), Dom Omladine Gallery, Podgorica, Montenegro (1984, 1970).

Group exhibitions (selection): Cromwell Place, London (2023), The Warehouse, Dallas, Texas, USA (2022), ADZ Gallery, Lisbon (2021), Gallery SANU, Belgrade (2009), October Salon, Belgrade (2006), Remont Gallery, Belgrade (2001), Piran City Gallery, Slovenia (1976), “13 November” Salon, Cetinje, Montenegro (1975).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Gallery RIMA, Belgrade (2019), Gallery RIMA, Kragujevac (2018), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2001), Visual Arts Gallery – Endowment Collection of Rajko Mamuzić, Novi Sad (1990).

Group exhibitions (selection): Gallery RIMA, Kragujevac, Serbia (2025), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2020).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (1990).

Group exhibitions (selection): Tate Modern, London (2022), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2022), Ubu Gallery, New York (2017), Museum der Moderne Salzburg Rupertinum, Salzburg (2006).

Solo exhibitions (selection): ALBA Gallery, Vienna (2023), Navigator Gallery, Belgrade (with Boris Lukić, 2023), ICA – Sofia Gallery, Sofia (2022), Eugster II, Belgrade (2021), Kulturni Centar Šabac, Serbia (2021), Non Canonico, Belgrade (2020), Manifesto Belgrade (2020), Belgrade Youth Center (2018), Ciroloquadro, Milan (2017), Gallery 212, Belgrade (2016), U10, Belgrade (2016, 2015, 2013).

Group exhibitions (selection): Art Salon Podgorica, Moderna gallery, Podgorica (2024), 60th October Salon, Belgrade (2024), November Gallery, Belgrade (2023, 2020), Montenegro Pavilion, 59th Venice Biennale (2022), Lauba, Zagreb (2022), Gallery Arte, Belgrade (2022), Cvijeta Zuzorić Art Pavilion, Belgrade (2020), Swiss Institute, New York (2019), Gallery Reflector, Užice (2019), Vaska Emanuilova Gallery, Sofia (2019), Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2019), Museum of Aviation, Belgrade (2019), Center of Contemporary Arts Montenegro, Podgorica (2018), 57th October Salon, Belgrade (2018), Aperto Lieu d’art, Montpellier (2018, 2017).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna (2025, 2018, 2014, 2011, 2008, 2003), Pump House Gallery, London (2008), Galerie Vera Munro, Hamburg (2006), Ibid Projects, London (2005, 2002).

Group exhibitions (selection): Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds (2024, 2015), Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna (2023, 2022, 2021, 2016, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005), Arts Council Collection, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery / Southampton City Gallery / Royal West of England Academy, Bristol (2022), Belmacz, London (2018), 57th Venice Biennial, Serbian Pavilion, Venice (2017), Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2017), Galleria d’Arte Moderna Milano (2015), Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2014), Holburne Museum of Art, Bath (2013), Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam (2012), British Art Show 7 (2011), De Hallen, Haarlem (2007), Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2007), Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2005), ICA, London (2005).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Hestia Gallery, Belgrade (2024), Museum of Contemporary Art, Banja Luka (2022, 2013), Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (2022), Éva Kahán Foundation, Vienna/Budapest (2022, 2017), Contemporary Art Gallery, Smederevo, Serbia (2017), RIMA Gallery, Kragujevac, Serbia (2016), Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv (2015), Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (2013), Cultural Center Belgrade (2010), Gallery KIBLA, Maribor (2009), Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa (2009), Museet Moderna, Stockholm (2006).

Group exhibitions (selection): Art Gallery Nadezda Petrovic, Čačak (2020), Belgrade City Museum (2016), Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg (2013), Frissiras Museum, Athens (2010), Hagaur Museum, Oslo (2010), Austrian Cultural Forum, New York (2010), Ascona Museum of Modern Art, Ascona (2007), Musée d’art moderne Saint-Étienne Métropole, Saint-Étienne (2009), Carinthian Museum of Modern Art, Klagenfurt (2009), Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Napels (2006), Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, San Francisco (2006).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Gallery Non Canonico, Belgrade (2024), Red Carpet Art Award Showroom (presented by Les Nouveaux Riches), Vienna (2023).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Handel Street Projects, London (2019), PEER, London (2019), Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2016), Heritage House, Belgrade (2012), Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade (2001), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (1981), Student Cultural Center Gallery Belgrade (1988), Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (1965), Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (1964), Drian Gallery, London (1962), Gallery of Serbian Artists Union (ULUS), Belgrade (1957).

Group exhibitions (selection): Notizie Gallery, Turin (1959), Yugoslav Pavilion in the 29th Venice Biennial (1958).

Solo exhibitions (selection): RIMA Gallery, Kragujevac, Serbia (2016), Zepter Museum, Belgrade (2016), ULUS Gallery, Belgrade (1953), Graphic Collective Gallery, Belgrade (1953, 2006).

Group exhibitions (selection): Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (1980).

Group exhibitions (selection): Tate Modern, London (2022), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2016), Graphic Collective Gallery, Belgrade (1985).

Solo exhibitions (selection): LUKOWA Art Collection Showcase, Lucerne (2024), Eugster II Belgrade (with Jelena Visković, 2024), Cejla gallery, Brno (2023), SKC Kragujevac, Kragujevac (2023), De Bouwput gallery, Amsterdam (2022), Ostavinska Gallery, Belgrade (2021).

Group exhibitions (selection): Eugster II Belgrade (2022), Gallery Berlínskej Model, Prague (2024), U10 gallery, Belgrade (2023, 2022), Heritage House, Belgrade (2022), Annual Youth Biennale in collaboration with The Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (ULUS), Belgrade (2022).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2023).

Group exhibitions (selection): Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2023, 2016), Prodajna galerija Beograd, Belgrade (2010), Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nuremberg (1978), Galerija Umjetnina Split (1967).

Group exhibitions (selection): Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2024), Ubu Gallery, New York (2024), Tate Modern, London (2022), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2022).

Main protagonist of the Belgrade Surrealists (1926 – 1939). Editor of Putevi (Ways), Svedočanstva (Testimonies), Nemoguće- L’Impossible, Pečat (Seal), Delo (Deed).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Graphic Collective Gallery, Belgrade (1958).

Group exhibitions (selection): Gallery-Legacy of Milica Zorić & Rodoljub Čolaković, Belgrade (2022), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2016, 2014), Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2015), Group Mediala (1958, 1959, 1960), Alexandria Biennale for Mediterranean Countries, Alexandria (1963).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Michael Haas Gallery, Berlin (2021), Cultural Center of Serbia, Paris (2021), Sammlung Zander, Bönnigheim (2015), Galerie Hell, Munich (2008, 2006, 2004), Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art, Jagodina, Serbia (2003), Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne (1992), Galerie Zander, Cologne (2001), Museum Charlotte Zander, Bönnigheim (1998), Charlotte –Galerie für Naïve Kunst und Art Brut, Munich (1984), Croatian Museum of Naïve Art, Zagreb (1976).

Group exhibitions (selection): Halle Saint Pierre, Paris (2018, 2011), Withworth Art Gallery, Manchester (2010), Galerie Hamer, Amsterdam (2010), Croatian Museum of Naïve Art, Zagreb (2007), Galerie St. Etienne, New York (2007, 2006, 2000), Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundacíon “La Caixa,” Madrid / Whitechapel Gallery, London / Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2006), Tate Britain, London (2005).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Non Canonico, Belgrade (2023), Gallery Rima, Kragujevac, Serbia (2021), SAAS Gallery London (2019), U10 Art Space, Belgrade (2017), MAC Maja Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2017), Gallery Josip Bepo Benković, Herceg Novi, Montenegro (2016), French Cultural Center, Belgrade (2015), The Alliance française, Brasilia, Brazil (2013), U10 Art Space, Belgrade (2012).

Group exhibitions (selection): 60th October Salon, Belgrade (2024), Navigator Art Gallery, Belgrade (2023), Gallery of Contemporary Art Niš, Serbia (2023, 2015), DOTS GALLERY, Belgrade (2023), Dom omladine, Belgrade (2022), Art Weekend Belgrade (2021), Contemporary Gallery Zrenjanin, Serbia (2021), Gallery Novembar, Belgrade (2020), Galerie Dix9, Paris (2019), Reflektor Gallery, Užice, Serbia (2019), Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2019), U10 Art Space, Budapest / Belgrade (2018, 2012).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (1977), Graphic Collective Gallery, Belgrade (1964), ULUS Gallery, Belgrade (1955).

Group exhibitions (selection): Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2023), 34th Venice Biennial (1968), Cultural Center Belgrade (1966), Salon of the Modern Gallery, Belgrade (1962), Group Dvanaestorica, Belgrade (1937), Art Pavilion, Belgrade / Zagreb (1927), Kunsthalle Bern (1926).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Eugster II Belgrade (2024, 2018), Basel Social Club (2024), Galeria e Bregdetit, Vlore, Albania (2022), Center for Contemporary Art of Montenegro, Podgorica (2021), ENA Viewing Space, Budapest (2018), Contemporary Art Gallery, Subotica, Serbia (2017), Gallery for Contemporary Art, Smederevo, Serbia (2017), Gallery Podroom, Belgrade (2014), Gallery LAGE EGAL, Berlin (2011).

Group exhibitions (selection): NADA New York (2025), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2023, 2020, 2018, 2016, 2012), Museum im Bellpark, Kriens, Switzerland (2022), 59th October Salon Belgrade (2022), Eugster II Belgrade (with Flaka Haliti and Bojan Šarčević) (2022); Pera Museum, Istanbul (2022), Museum of African Art, Belgrade (2019), Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus, Augsburg (2018).

Group exhibitions (selection): Tate Modern, London (2022).

Solo exhibitions (selection): Gallery Ursula Walter, Dresden (2023), Centre culturel de Serbie, Paris (2023), Non Canonico, Belgrade (2022), Come Over Chez Malik’s @ Zollo, Hamburg (2022), Holger Priess Gallery, Hamburg (2021), U10 Art Space, Belgrade (2015).

Group exhibitions (selection): Multiple Box, Hamburg (2021), NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2021), MOM art space, Hamburg (2019), Belvedere 21, Vienna (2019), Frappant Gallery, Hamburg (2019), ASA Open Studios, Hamburg (2017).

Group exhibitions (selection): Art Pavilion “Cvijeta Zuzorić”, Belgrade (1932), variable group art exhibitions, Belgrade (1936 – 1940).

Solo exhibitions (selection): The Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, Novi Sad (2019), Semberija Museum, Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2013, 2006/2007), Museum of Herzegovina, Trebinje (2007), Museum of Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996÷97), Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (1982), Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts, Niš, Serbia (1973), Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (1971).

Group exhibitions (selection): Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade (2022), Gallery of the Military Club, Belgrade (2011), The Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, Novi Sad (1962), Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (1960÷61).