BLENDED INTENSIVE PROGRAMME: YUGOFUTURISM: Post-YU Legacy in the Arts

This international seminar titled Yugofuturism: Post-YU Legacy in the Arts will explore the complex cultural and political contexts of the countries that emerged from the former Yugoslavia. We will delve into the work of artists, cultural workers, and organizers who are reimagining the future while reflecting on the socialist past. Their work critically revisits themes such as equality, solidarity, resource distribution, and creativity, while examining the darker aspects of nationalism, authoritarianism, and revanchism.

The concept of Yugofuturism was explored in the 2023 issue of the Slovenian magazine Maska, where it was presented as a speculative framework that enables a creative examination of emancipatory ideas and practices, including antifascism, self-management, the non-aligned movement, and other political legacies of socialism. This seminar will focus on how these ideas intersect with artists’ work today, highlighting the tensions and contradictions that emerge when addressing these legacies.

Key questions include: How do artists navigate the remnants and potentials of the past while imagining a different future? How do they address these issues through their creative practices, curatorial politics, and modes of organization?

Seminar Objectives:

• To explore the cultural analysis of the past and its role in shaping current social and political realities.
• To study the politics of memory in the context of post-socialist countries, particularly in the aftermath of the Yugoslav Wars.
• To learn from cultural organizations operating in politically challenging environments, especially as agents of democracy, solidarity, and feminist struggles.
• To examine the relationship between activism and art in the context of these countries.
• To gain insight into the geopolitical history of Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia (with participants primarily coming from these regions).
• To engage with post-war memory, exploring the distinctions between nostalgia, a revanchist approach to history, denial, and the importance of memory.
• To engage with various forms of futurism and their histories, both on a theoretical and practical level through exercises.

This seminar will provide an in-depth exploration of how the legacies of socialism and post-war realities are creatively reimagined and critically engaged with in the contemporary arts.

PARTNERS

• Justus Liebig University Giessen, Institute for Applied Theatre Studies
• University of Ljubljana
• University of Nova Gorica