5-6 March 2025
Xcenter – Centre of Creative Practices, Nova Gorica
Cultural Centre Gorizia
The international symposium Distant Gaze: New Objectivity and Realisms in Central Europe (1925-1933) enabled in-depth insights into the art, culture and society of the 1920s and 1930s in Central Europe and beyond. It was based on the exhibition of the same title at Galerija Božidar Jakac – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (on display 22 November 2024 – 23 March 2025), which showcased key shifts and developments in visual art and visual culture in the restless interwar period. The symposium presented contributions of a diverse and interdisciplinary group of experts and creators from fields such as visual arts, literature, history, anthropology, philosophy and other areas of the human sciences. The central focus was on the historical and social circumstances of the politically divided, yet closely connected cultural milieus of Central Europe.
The symposium further deepened the insights that have already been opened and analysed by the exhibition and accompanying publication Distant Gaze: New Objectivity and Realisms in Central Europe (1925-1933), which focused on the historical period of the 1920s and 1930s, when completely new artistic tendencies started appearing and developing. The style and manner of expressionism, that was dominating art scene up to that time, was replaced by a cluster of related styles based on realism and classicism. After the traumatic experience of the World War I, the 1920s saw a major turning point, not only in politics and economy but also in arts and culture. Visual arts of the 1920s developed the style of “new realisms”, whose objective, resigned and ironic expression corresponded with the Zeitgeist of that era.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE SYMPOSIUM:
Wednesday, 5 March 2025
Xcenter – Centre of Creative Practices,
[Delpinova ulica 20, 5000 Nova Gorica]
Daniela Ferrari: ”Modern Classicism by Margherita Sarfatti. The Novecento Italiano Exhibitions in Italy and Abroad”
Daniela Ferrari ia a curator at MART – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto.
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prof. dr. Egon Pelikan: “Ideological Marking of Space along the Slovene-Italian Ethnic Border: Art between Catholicism, Fascism and Slovene Irredentism”
prof. dr. Egon Pelikan is an academic researcher and head of Institute of Historical Studies, Science and Research Centre Koper
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dr. Darija Alujević: “Women’s Art Club (1927-1940) in Zagreb and its Impact on Recognition and Professionalisation of Female Artists”
dr. Darija Alujević is an academic researcher, Fine Arts Archives of Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb
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prof. dr. Rajko Muršič: “New Sounds and New Lives: Popular Music, Jazz and Radio in Slovenia between 1922 and 1941”
prof. dr. Rajko Muršič is a professor at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
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dr. Kristina Pranjić: “Avant-Gardes on the Periphery: Yugoslav and Central European Avant-garde Networks in the 1920s”
dr. Kristina Pranjić is an associate professor at the School of Humanities and Research Centre for Humanities, University of Nova Gorica
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mag. Marijan Rupert: “Transformations of Realism: The Concept of Objectivity and Reality in the Context of the Inter-war Period”
mag. Marijan Rupert is a curator of the Manuscript Collection, NUK – National and University Library, Ljubljana
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Thursday, 6 March 2025
Xcenter – Centre of Creative Practices,
[Delpinova ulica 20, 5000 Nova Gorica]
Miha Colner: “Industrialisation of the Image: Photography as a New Medium in the 1920s and 1930s”
Miha Colner is a curator at Galerija Božidar Jakac – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Kostanjevica na Krki
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dr. András Zwickl: “Realisms in Hungary – From Neo-Classicism to New Objectivity”
dr. András Zwickl is a professor at MOME – Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Institute for Theoretical Studies, Budapest
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Ivana Hanaček: “Grupa Zemlja in the Perspective of the 1920s: From Cesarec to Krleža”
Ivana Hanaček is an assistant at the Department of Art History, University of Zadar
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Emil Jurcan: “Roman Monuments and the Urban Transformation of Pula Between the Two World Wars”
Emil Jurcan is an architect and activist from Pula
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dr. Neda Zhivkova: “The Influences of the New Objectivity in Bulgarian Art and the Artistic Exchange between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in the 1930s”
dr. Neda Zhivkova is a curator at the Sofia City Art Gallery
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dr. Julia Maria Secklehner: “New Realisms in Central Europe: Painting, Photography, Design”
dr. Julia Maria Secklehner is a postdoctoral researcher and assistant, Masaryk University, Brno
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prof. dr. Lev Kreft: “Realism, from the Painting Studio to Paranoia”
prof. dr. Lev Kreft is a sociologist, philosopher and publicist, Ljubljana
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Cultural Centre Gorica
[Ulica I. Brass, 34170 Gorizia]
Miljenko Jergović: “What is the New Objectivity Today?”
Miljenko Jergović is a writer, publicist and critic, Zagreb
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The symposium and exhibition offered a closer insight into artistic production in the period 1925-1933, within the wider cultural milieu of Central Europe, and an opportunity to analyse the sociopolitical processes of the time through art, which always mirrors the Zeitgeist.
The symposium was co-organised by EPK GO!2025.
GALERIJA BOŽIDAR JAKAC (BLOG) 