[artinfo] Exhibition_CONTEMPORARY SURREALISTS

[MMSU]

Exhibition

CONTEMPORARY SURREALISTS

Aljosa Basaric,Emil Bencic,Tomislav Ceranic, 

Zeljko Kipke,Josip Klarica,David Maljkovic, 

Christian Nguyen,David Smithson,Janos Sugar

 

4 December - 30 December 2006

Museum of modern and contemporary art

Mali salon, Korzo 24, Rijeka, Croatia

 

 Contemporary surrealists do not seek to change the world, do not consider and do not practice new methods of the artistic creation, not even when they use modern technology. Instead of provocativeness and challenge, contemporary surrealists have stronger interest in citation, stating the absurd and escapism as a principle of detachment, as opposed to confrontation with today predominating aesthetics of spectacle where shock and provocation are everyday and pragmatic, planned tools. Paradoxically, they affirm conservative values of a professional approach to work that are obvious in minute rendition and metier perfectionism, in elitism of the work's content and morphological layer, while formally they proclaim figuration and narrativity.  Is a conservative position in contemporary cultural discourse an opposition? Today's idea of "liberation" from restrictions of any kind has been pushed to absurd proportions, threatening to abolish meaningfulness of the creative effort in general. Ductus of the authors that, for the purpose of this exhibition, have arbitrarily been called 'contemporary surrealists' is an expression of seriousness, sense of importance, dignity and purposefulness of the art profession. Professionals working in mediating creation to the public are very much aware as to how much these values are missed by today's audience. 

Curated by  Branko Franceschi 

 

DAVID SMITHSON, Bach Backwards, 2005 (still frame)


MUZEJ MODERNE I SUVREMENE UMJETNOSTI
MUSEUM OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART
Dolac 1/II, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
tel. ++385 (0)51 334 280, 335 252; fax 330 982
e-mail:mmsu-rijeka at ri.t-com.hr
www.mmsu.hr