image: Nottingham Contemporary
Yugoslavia, post WWII forties; a man called Josip Broz Tito takes charge of the country with a new socialist dictatorship. The huge cultural changes and sudden surge of outside influences gave birth to a new wave of artists, questioning their countries unfamiliar regime. Monuments Should Not Be Trusted is a mixed media exhibition showing over thirty artists work from the ‘Golden Years’ of the Socialist Federal Republic, alongside artefacts from Tito’s own personal collection. It is the first of its kind to be shown in the UK.
Inside Gallery One, Utopian Consumerism and Subcultures, a colourful collection of works representing the country’s westernization and the rise of consumerism, which they criticize, but also embrace. Yugoslavian pop songs blare out alongside their videos, acting as a soundtrack while you mingle with the array of different artworks and textures, from cartoons, paintings, collages, experimental film and music. What we frequently see in these pieces is less of a direct scathe to Tito, but more of a passive aggressive smirk. However, there are a couple of glaring criticisms; a video showing TV commercials played on a loop behind thick black bars and a Nazi symbol drawn onto an American flag. A striking, ghostly video piece called White People is also packed full of bold imagery: white rats, people adorned in white robes, billowing smoke, a lone, naked tree on the horizon line.
Gallery Two: Comrades Superwomen. A spotlight on the huge shift of the role of women in their current society. On one hand they have been given a sense of equality in society and the workplace, but at the same time have become more sexually objectified due to the rise in media. This gallery space holds a different tone to the last. Hanging from the walls are a series of photo montages, juxtaposing newspaper clippings against artist photographs, and weird, sexually-charged art films.
As we venture further through the exhibition things become gloomier. In Gallery Three’s Socialism and Class Difference, we look at labour and the role of the artists. We hear the cries of a country struggling under a socialist, consumerist regime. A homemade documentary shows the rise of unemployment, homelessness and undesirable living situations that threatened Tito’s ideals. Two depictions of the Yugoslavian flag, one made out of cotton wool and one made out of razor blades, hang across the room from a fiery photo-action piece by Marina Abramovik.
Gallery Four: Public Space and the Presence of Tito. In this room, the artworks and collections let us explore the Yugoslavians’ complex relationship with their leader. There are some particularly poignant pieces in here, helping us to feel omnipresence of a leader with an unlimited term, and we feel the tear between the public and their attitudes towards Tito. A TV screen shows the film Plastic Jesus which was banned in Yugoslavia in the seventies due to its controversial messages, parts of which have gone mysteriously missing. Among the artworks and films, there are artefacts from Tito’s personal collection. Set up in glass boxes are birthday presents and batons beautifully crafted by the public, as a way of showing their devoted love for their benevolent leader.
The exhibition as a whole gives a very interesting insight to the cultural, social and economic movements of the time. The artwork is playful and powerful. It sometimes reeks of contradiction. Tito achieved some great things during his time in power and revolutionised the country but there are dark undertones to any radical regime. The exhibition sends a clear message about those failures; economic inequality, unstable gender equality and the evils of consumerism – themes we can still relate to today in modern Britain.
Monuments Should Not Be Trusted runs at Nottingham Contemporary until Friday 4 March.
Nottingham Contemporary website
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
