In this lecture, Jelena Vesić investigates the images of history in contemporary art, what she calls solidarity in time, engaging with the questions of how to think history in the present moment, beyond teleological and linear understandings of time and apologetic-nostalgic returns to “better past.” She focuses on the Tribune Program of SKC in Belgrade from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, which presented several important political gatherings: The Week of Spain in 1976, coinciding with the end of Franco’s dictatorship; Weeks of Latin America in the 1970s and early 1980s dedicated to the anti-colonial movements, guerrilla struggle, politically engaged art and militant cinema; and the conference Drug-ca žena (Comradess Women) in 1978, one of the first international gatherings of second-wave feminists outside the West. Vesić develops her concept of solidarity in time by probing how contemporary artists, theorists, and exhibition makers explore, remember, and actualize emancipatory histories, the actions of transnational networks of political solidarity, and the programs of cultural exchange. Is it possible to express solidarity in time beyond commemoration and reconstruction, but as a source of imagination? Jelena Vesić is an independent curator, writer, editor, and lecturer. She is active in the field of publishing, research and exhibition practices that intertwine political theory and contemporary art. Vesic is co-editor of the journal Red Thread (Istanbul), a member of the advisory board of Mezosfera (Budapest) and president of the association of art critics AICA Serbia.
New York City, NY; NYC