Yugoslav architecture exhibition in New York from July 15

The New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has announced a Yugoslav architecture exhibition for the second half of 2018, encompassing over 400 drawings, models, photographs and film footage from the period from 1948 till 1980 from city archives and private and museum collections from the entire region, Seecult reports.

The exhibition “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980” opens on July 15.

Situated between the capitalist West and the socialist East, Yugoslavia’s architects responded to contradictory demands and influences, developing a postwar architecture both in line with and distinct from the design approaches seen elsewhere in Europe and beyond. The architecture that emerged—from International Style skyscrapers to Brutalist “social condensers”—is a manifestation of the radical diversity, hybridity, and idealism that characterized the Yugoslav state itself. Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 introduces the exceptional work of socialist Yugoslavia’s leading architects to an international audience for the first time, highlighting a significant yet thus-far understudied body of modernist architecture, whose forward-thinking contributions still resonate today, MoMA says in its press release.

Toward a Concrete Utopia explores themes of large-scale urbanization, technology in everyday life, consumerism, monuments and memorialization, and the global reach of Yugoslav architecture.

The exhibition includes more than 400 drawings, models, photographs, and film reels from an array of municipal archives, family-held collections, and museums across the region, and features work by important architects including Bogdan Bogdanović, Juraj Neidhardt, Svetlana Kana Radević, Edvard Ravnikar, Vjenceslav Richter, and Milica Šterić.

From the sculptural interior of the White Mosque in rural Bosnia, to the post-earthquake reconstruction of the city of Skopje based on Kenzo Tange’s Metabolist design, to the new town of New Belgrade, with its expressive large-scale housing blocks and civic buildings, the exhibition examines the unique range of forms and modes of production in Yugoslav architecture and its distinct yet multifaceted character, the press release adds.

The exhibition is organized by Martino Stierli, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, and Vladimir Kulić, guest curator, with Anna Kats, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art.

It will be open until January 13, 2019, Seecult reports.

Museum of Modern Art New York

New York

Yugoslav architecture

Yugoslavia

SFRY

MoMA

socialism

communism

capitalism

Bogdan Bogdanović

Juraj Neidhardt

Svetlana Kana Radević

Edvard Ravnikar

Vjenceslav Richter

Milica Šterić

White Mosque

Skopje

Kenzo Tange

New Belgrade blocks

Martino Stierli

Vladimir Kulić

Anna Kats