The 86th ULUS Autumn exhibition TAJNĀ ZNÁNJA ( Secret (of) Knowledge) Film ⇆ Photography ⇆ Painting aims to explore the secret connections and inspirations between the art forms of film, photography, and painting, through the lens of indisciplinarity and the display of deliberate and accidental crossing references between works. The exhibition also investigates the effects of bringing together different understandings of the „knowledge of art“, where the influences of amateur (passionate) experimentations fulfill a major role.
The interconnectedness of different indisciplines (Jacques Rancière) with art as form of interdisciplinary knowledge forge a tool for emancipation and gives rise to a condition for what Rancière calls the „poetics of knowledge“ which refers to the practices of a way of thinking that rejects the specialisation of fields, objects, and methods (expertise), including the separation between types of intelligence, assuming equality.
„The poetics of knowledge affirms that there is a faculty of thought that does not belong to any particular group, a faculty that can be attributed to any speaking, thinking being.“ (Jacques Rancière, Method of equality – poetics and politics, 2015). This approach to knowledge favours doing the things we love, doing it out of love (amato) and for this reason revives the view of amateur experimentation with technique (and not only with it), and departs from the strict framework of expertise as a prerequisite for emancipation, subjective access to knowledge and the liberation of man from constraints of the dominant discourse as well as the conditions arising from it.
The exhibition will present the works of over 50 artists from Serbia and abroad. It gathers together selected works from an open call for ULUS’s artists who answered with their works on the proposed topics, as well as invited artists chosen by the curatorial team. The theme of indisciplinarity leads to see the web of relations beyond disciplinary restrictions as well as national boundaries. At the time of several wars on planet Earth, the intention is to look for currents of peace while actively working on the peace that such indisciplinary and impossible connections could produce within art.
A postulate of this exhibition is as follows: indisciplinary migrations hold the capacity to connect territories of knowledge/knowing that at first glance seem distant, but which can be integrated through amateur practices that acknowledge the porosity of the lover, and not the programmatic ethos of the professional. By connecting knowledges and practices and turning them upside down, the displacement of established places of speech and thought can improve the existing system of values in the common world – This contributes to changing the dominant system through micro reconfigurations and transformations, above all by shaking the widespread and prevailing concept of expertise, expert knowledge and narrow hyper-specializations that always start from the axiom of separation and omnipresent moralization. There are those who know (all) and in the name of that deliver instructions and directions and those who, due to assumed ignorance, fulfill tasks and visions of presumed “know-it-all”. This division maintains the status quo, its separation and limitations in an already divided world necessarily seeking a way out towards a liberated relationship to knowledge, the inclusion of art in the family of knowledge, and the emancipatory return to the amateur relation to the knowledge to which this exhibition hopefully contributes a modest part.
The exhibition concept is the result of the collaboration between the Art Council of ULUS and an international team of curators gathered around the international platform for aesthetic experimentation and education for all, PhD In One Night, presented by Ivana Momčilović, Kaya Erdinç and Elisabetta Cuccaro. Contributions to the development of the exhibition concept were also made by theorist of amateur and experimental film and author Petra Belc.
Due to the long-standing unresolved status regarding the use of the „Cvijeta Zuzorić“ Art Pavilion, ULUS has been protesting since November 17. In relation to the development of events, there may be changes in the program. For further information, follow the announcements on the ULUS website.
The exhibition will be open until December 9 with the works of:
Marjan Andrejević, Boško Atanacković, Erna Banovac, Taysir Batniji, Kristina Bajilo, Milica Crnobrnja Vukadinović, Elisabetta Cuccaro, Jelica Ćulafić, Vukašin Delević, Dejan Došljak, Srđan Dragojević, Kaya Erdinç, Petar Gajić, Mina Glogovac, Tatjana Ivančić, Ljubomir Jakić, Nenad Jeremić, Divna Jovanović, Frank Keizer, Marija Kućan, Ivana Kucina, Irena Kuzmanović, Jadran Krnajski, La Cinquième Couche, Xavier Löwenthal, Ivan Martinac, Griša Masnikosa, Mihailo Mitrović, Erol Mintas, Aleksandar Mladenović Leka, Dominika Morariu, Miron Mutaović, Aljoša Ninković, Marinela Neralić, Đorđe Odanović, Ksenija Pantelić, Vesna Pavlović Pažđerski, Aleksandar Paunković, Bata Petrović, Dušan Popović, Tomica Radulović, Maja Rakočević Cvijanov, Sophie Ristelhueber, Ana Stanković, Vida Stanisavac, Milorad Stepanov, Sanja Solunac, Tatjana Strugar, Slobodan Šijan, Ljiljana Šunjevarić, Sarah Vanagt, Aleksandra Vidaković-Lazić, Slobodan Vračar.
The 86th autumn exhibition is realized with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade and in partnership with the Museum of Applied Arts
Exhibition poster’s visual author: Xavier Löwenthal in collaboration with Tijana Cvetković, in dialogue with David Hockney’s collage poster “Skater” for the poster of the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic Games.
It should always be kept in mind
that a huge part of the film
is located on the sticker,
A connection between two frames
which is not visible in the projection.
There is more in such compounds
kinesthetic charge but in the frames of the film.
Film frames from both sides can
be photos too.
Ivan Martinac
architect, film director, screenwriter, editor, cinema amateur, holder of the title „Master of Amateur Film of Yugoslavia“
“According to research published by Charles Seymour in 1964 on the pages of The Art Bulletin magazine, the master painter Johannes Vermeer used a camera obscura, a device that allows the projection of an image through a point of light, to compose his paintings. This theory was also presented by David Hockney in his book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters (Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, 2001). Hockney, known for his light-scenic odes, California swimming pools and rural landscapes, spent two years researching the painting techniques of the old masters to write his book and collected evidence to support his thesis – that some of the world’s most famous painters, Engr (Jean-Auguste -Dominique Ingres), Velázquez (Diego Velázquez), Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi il Caravaggio) and many others, just used different techniques, optics and lenses in creating their classic paintings, masterpieces of art. These insights are significant because they introduce us to a universe of general knowledge in which the territories of knowledge intertwine and intersect. However, although it is possible to find a large number of links between cinematography and painting (in that direction), that is, between the influence of painting on film productions (Ingres/ Godard; Matisse/ Antonioni; Hopper/ Hitchcock; Hopper/ Hawks; Munch/ Murnau; August Renoir/ Jean Renoir, etc.), there are very rare studies that show the influence of film frames, photographic techniques and the environment associated with film-photographic techniques on painting itself and/or on visual arts outside of film and photography.
On the trail of the insights presented, the 86th Autumn exhibition of ULUS TÂJNĀ ZNÁNJA, Film ⇆ Photography ⇆ Painting aims to explore the secret links and inspirations between film, photography, and painting, but also between different areas of “knowledge of art”, as well as art vs. amateur (passionate) experimentation in it. The interconnectedness of different indisciplines (Rancière / Jacques Rancière) and knowledge and art as interdisciplinary knowledge form a tool of emancipation and are a condition of what Rancière calls “poetics of knowledge”, which refers to the practices of (interdisciplinary) thinking, which reject the specialization of fields, objects, and methods (expertise), including the separation between types of intelligence, and assume equality. “The poetics of knowledge affirms that there is a faculty of thought that does not belong to any particular group, a faculty that can be attributed to any speaking, thinking being.” (Jacques Rancière, Method of equality – poetics and politics, 2015). This approach to knowledge favors doing the things we love, doing it out of love (amato) and for this reason, revives the view of amateur experimentation with technique (and not only with it), and departs from the strict framework of expertise as a prerequisite for emancipation, subjective access to knowledge and the liberation of man from constraints of the dominant discourse as well as the conditions arising from it.
For this reason, the Autumn Exhibition 2023 has the title TÂJNĀ ZNÁNJA and the subtitle Film ⇆ Photography ⇆ Painting. It searches for the currents of new, “secret knowledge” that includes art and artistic experimentation and research in the field of knowledge, as well as for correlations between different territories of (co)knowledge on the one hand, and emancipation, human liberation, human realization and peace, and work in peace on the other side.
The hypothesis of this exhibition is that indiscipline migrations that connect at first sight distant territories of (co)knowledge and practice by linking them and turning them upside down, can advance the existing value system in a common world – displacing established places of speech and thought, thus contributing to micro-reconfigurations and transformations dominant system.
In conclusion: the postulate of this exhibition is that indiscipline migrations that connect at first glance distant territories of (co)knowledge and practice by connecting them and turning them upside down, can improve the existing value system in the common world – displacing established places of speech and thought, thus contributing micro reconfigurations and micro-transformations of the dominant system, and above all shaking the dominant concept of professionalization, expert knowledge and narrow hyper-specializations that always start from the axiom of separation and omnipresent moralizing: there are those who (all) know and issue instructions and direction in the name of that, and those who of assumed ignorance fulfill the tasks and visions of assumed omniscients.
ABOUT THE CURATORS:
Ph.D. In One Night is an international platform for aesthetic education and experimentation for all based between Belgium, Finland, France, and the island of Vis. The collective of collaborators has been working with Jacques Rancière and his ideas of equality, emancipation, and the poetics of knowledge through aesthetics and indiscipline for more than 15 years. Starting from the hypothesis that art is knowledge, the collective deals with aesthetic education in different contexts (self-organized groups, primary and secondary schools, art academies, and universities) creating different methods of sharing knowledge as a collective artistic creation: literacy (learning a second language) refugees (Belgium, Serbia) through artistic practice (contemporary dance, collages, sound interventions, short films). Last courses for students of various Art Academies and Universities in Europe (selection): Course on the inexplicable; Indiscipline Symphony; Useless Knowledge and the Method of equality; Guerrilla University…
Ivana Momčilović is a playwright and researcher from Brussels. Her work is focused on moving philosophy and art into different spheres of everyday life – education, migrant movements, gardening, as well as redefining the concepts of “non-existent” / impossible” and their practice in the field of contemporary aesthetics and politics. It explores the relationship between fiction and ideology and the relationship between aesthetics, politics, education, and forms of collective intelligence. She is the initiator and active member of several collectives: Collective EI-Migrative Art; Edicija Jugoslavija (samizdat), PhD In One Night – a platform for everyone’s aesthetic experimentation. Recent works: Collective Garden of Guerrilla Knowledge (Bijerba Orangery / collective work in progress 2023); Day of Aesthetic Cartography of Situations (with Jacques Rancière) 2022, Bierbais Orangery, Belgium; May 1, 2022, Radical Peace Laboratory (Bierbais Greenhouse), Guerrilla University (Rojava / Kurdistan / Belgium, 2020/2022; Guerrilla University, Austria (Wolkersdorf / Künstlerhaus, Vienna), October 2021; Experimenting Anyone, program of the Yugoslav experimental amateur film at the Center for Contemporary Art, Geneva, September 2020 – April 2021; Method train – Feel Festival Helsinki / Uniarts Helsinki – work on the student project Dada, Law, Ranciere in collaboration with Aalto University and University of Helsinki, May 2020. It is one of the collective’s authors of the experimental film Poems From Which We Learned (Poems from Which We Learned) – fragments of self-education about sensibility and politics (2007-2019). Since 2005, he has been working within the international platform Ph.D. In One Night, under the umbrella of aesthetic education in different contexts (self-organized groups, primary and secondary schools, art academies, and universities) creating different methods of sharing knowledge as collective artistic creations: literacy (learning a second language) of refugees (Belgium, Serbia) through artistic practice (contemporary dance, collages, sound interventions, short films). Last courses for students of various Art Academies and Universities in Europe (selection): Course on the inexplicable; Indiscipline Symphony; Useless Knowledge and the Method of Equality; Guerrilla University etc.
Kaya Erdinç is an amateur artist, writer and gardener. He currently lives in Houthem St. Gerlach, a Dutch village named after a 12th-century hermit who allegedly received protection from Hildegard von Bingen. Kaya sees poetry as a compass through which she can relate to issues of intimate revolt and our ever-changing experience of privacy. His work as a gardener helps him to actively engage with aesthetic-political issues that further underlie the private and public spheres in which he lives.
Elisabetta Cuccaro (Italy, 1992) is an indiscipline artist based between Italy and the Netherlands. After studying painting (Milan), contemporary art practice (HKB, Bern), and art, knowledge, and criticism (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), he strives to bring the freedom of poetry and the stability of structures into art, curatorial practices, and art criticism. Elizabeth produces reflections, mental maps, texts, and poetic criticism in the form of visual and performative pieces. Her work is mainly based on collaboration and dialogical endeavors. As co-founder of the artist-run initiative SuperEgo (2017-2019), she organized and curated Trilogy (2018), a series of exhibitions exploring femininity. In 2021, she participated in the Guerilla University in Austria, and since then she regularly collaborates with the PhD In One Night platform, within their initiatives Laboratory For Radical Peace and Les Orangeries de Bierbais, where she was three times in residence. Inspired by the work of Anna Atkins, she linked her work during the residencies to the historic English garden in reconfiguration, initiating a weed cyanotype herbarium as well as collaborating on the Esthetic Cartography of Situations project, a new Guerilla University session with Jacques Rancière. In 2022, she also founded the collective Arcade, a playground for art criticism. Founded in Groningen, the collective seeks to challenge the boundaries between artistic and critical approaches. Towards a possible theory of exhibition is her last theoretical work which deals with exhibition as an art form.
The collegial contribution to the development of the exhibition concept was made by film theorist and author Petra Belc.
The 86th autumn exhibition is realized with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade and in partnership with the Museum of Applied Arts.
Author of the visuals: Xavier Löwenthal, in collaboration with Tijana Cvetković, in dialogue with David Hockney and his collage poster “The Skater” made for the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, 1984.