The New Art Practice in Yugoslavia, 1966-1978

which members of the group took part. We established
contact with people from Belgrade dealing with similar
problems. As a result of these discussions and contacts in
May 1971 a discussion on conceptual art was organized at the
Youth Tribune alongside the exhibition "Examples of Conceptual
Art in Yugoslavia". Taking part in this discussion were: Marko
Poganik, Milenko Matanovi, Andra alamun, Goran Trbuljak,
the group KOD and the group (:). (Also present at the talks
were Raa Todosijevi, Zoran Popovi and Nea Paripovi, who
on that same evening had the opening of their exhibitions in
the Fine Arts Salon of the Youth Tribune, and their participation
in the discussion reflected the artistic activities they were
involved in at the time).
The final discontinuation of the group's activities occurred at
the end of May and the beginning of June. The invitation to
take part in the Biennial Exhibition in Paris initiated new
discussions on the problems of exhibiting new art. Mandi and
Tima were against exhibiting or taking part at the Biennial,
Bogdanovi exhibited individual works, while Vraneevi and
myself together with Cedomir Dra, Vladimir Kopicl and Ana
Rakovi exhibited at the Biennial as group (3 KOD.
Mandi, Bogdanovi and Tima continued to write individual or
joint texts (some of which were written together with Duan
Bijeli). After discussions held in spring with Otto Bihalji Merin,
P. Zaneti, Radomir Damnjan and Radomir Relji, Mandi, Tima
and Bjeli decided to set off on a trip around Europe
establishing contacts with other artists and discussing art.
First they stopped in Zagreb to have talks with Davor Matievi,
Gorki 2uvela, Dalibor Martinis, Sanja Ivekovi, Boris Buan,
Josip Stoi. After that they visited Franc Zagorinik in Kranj
and Mirko Poganik and Milenko Matanovi in empas. In
Milan, after the scheduled meeting with Tommaso Trini, they
broke off the trip and went back to Novi Sad.
Later Miroslav Mandi realized a series of private performances
and luncheons. A series of portraits of his friends mark the
beginning of his work on drawing and painting, which he still
pursues. Many of his works bear elements of process-art:
calendars, the project (on which he has been working for three
and a half years already) to draw one leaf a day during a period
of ten years, or conceptual art: for five years he has been
photographing himself every month in an automatic photo
machine. Besides this, he writes texts regularly.
For a while Slobodan Tima exhibited as a member of the
group (a KOD, wrote and published poems, but his main
artistic activity had a different, more intimate character:
"In October 1970 I did a self-portrait on the quay by the Danube.
That same day I moved to Belgrade and lived there until
March 1972, when I returned to Novi Sad. From that spring my
basic artistic activity consisted in going out every day to the
woods near the Danube.
There was a barely visible cross carved on the bark of a tree
which only I knew of and every time I went into the woods I
would go and have a look at it. Our ng high tide, the Danube
would overflow and flood the surrounding woods. I would wait
for the waters to rise so high as to cover the cross, but this
never happened. When there was a strong wind I would observe
the waves from the woods. At the beginning or end of spring
I would play the flute there. At the time I was under the
influence of the myths on the Arician Grove, Baldur and Atys.
In the woods, there was also a large tree stump which
Svetlana Beli and myself were particularly drawn to. In the
same woods Svetlana Beli made a film in 1973 entitled "The
Wood of Souls" in which I took part as an actor. I regularly
visited the woods until autumn 1976, and after that it was no
longer possible because the trees had been cut down.
One day in October of that same year I went to the Danube and
saw some people cutting down the trees. I asked them who
gave them permission or who ordered them to do that. They just
laughed.
On the other side of the Danube, in Kameniki park (Stone
Park), there was a two-hundred year old oak which I used to
visit during the summer; it was also cut down On the lake, not
far from that oak, Svetlana Beli had made another film in
which I had taken part.
The second basic artistic activity which was pursued
simultaneously with the first one during a period of several
years (1972-1977) was the daily consumption of Coca Cola in
front of the supermarket in Liman. Besides myself, Cedomir
Dra participated in this action. Occasionally Svetlana Beli and
Mirko Radojii would join us.
To mention yet another of S. Tima's activities: he wrote and
sent several letters to himself by post.
In the autumn of 1971 Slavko Bogdanovi went back to his
village whilst he was completing his studies at the Law Faculty.
Together with Miroslav Mandi he set up the review L.H.O.O.Q.
(according to Duchamp), which was to come out as part of the
other official reviews, since it was impossible to publish it
independently. It first came out in Hungarian in the May issue
(1971) of Uj sympos;on. A few more issues were brought out
until the end of 1971 in a very limited number of copies, typed
by hand. After that Bogdanovi started another publication
Intimate Circle, strictly limited to the group KOD: Tima, Mandi,
Bogdanovi and myself. In a number of issues published in only
four copies. we developed some of the ideas arising from our
joint activities and from some of Bogdanovi's works. Our later
work is characterized by the study of hermetic systems,
psychoanalysis and symbolism; this can also be said of my own
later work and of that of Tima.
After the group broke up and we discontinued group work,
I carried out several works on my own. One was an attempt to
determine my sensibility and that of the members of the group
KOD which had discontinued activities, as well as my sensibility
compared with that of the members of the group (3 with whom
I was to work in the group Ci KOD. On papers with squares
drawn on them, everyone was to trace his own projection of the
square; in, the case of KOD one square was obtained, and in
had done quite a lot of work
the case of group (a four. Since I
on conceptual art and had many discussions w.th friends on the
subject, I decided to prepare comprehensive material which
would give the general public an insight into the problems
opened by conceptual art, especially since the term had been
subject to misuse and misunderstanding. For this I chose the
conceptualism which was more closely related to our work and
to the work of some other artists (OHO, Goran Trbuljak), textual,
theoretical conceptualism which raised the problems of art and
the language of art. In May 1971 the editor of Polja agreed to
have this material printed in one of the forthcoming issues.
Owing to various technical problems the work was considerably
delayed, so that the special issue on conceptual art did not
appear until February 1972. Since, in the meantime, the group
KOD was founded, part of the work on preparing and
translating the material was carried out jointly. The material was
to have been much more extensive, but owing to technical and
financial difficulties and lack of cooperation from the editors, it
had to be reduced. Among the work left out was that of
presenting two blank sheets in the middle of the review.
From the end of 1971 till July 1973 I worked as organizer for
the Fine Arts Salon and Art Centre of the Youth Tribune in Novi
Sad. Creative work was thus replaced by work on preparing
exhibitions on new art. In addition to conceptualist works, other
forms of the new artistic practice were presented, as well as
paintings which bore traces of conceptualism or of other related
practices. Among the authors who exhibited their works were:
David Nez, Goran Trbuljak, Zoran Popovi, Vladimir Kopicl, Mio
2ivanovi, Janez Kocijani, Szombathy Balint, Slavko Matkovi,
the section for conceptual art from the "7th Biennial Exhibition"
in Paris, body-art. Mangelos, Paul Pignon, Vladan Radovanovi,
Andra alamun, Tugo unik, and others. We also asked for
contributions from Joseph Kosuth and Art-Language. Of the
planned publications only the Manifesto of Zenitism (phototype
setting) and The Artist's Body as Subject and Object of Art
came out, while funds were not obtained for the publications on
the symbol of mandala (on the occasion of David Nez's
exhibition) and for the texts of Art-Language.
I occasionally got involved in work on design: posters and
layouts for "The Body of the Artist ...". Mia 2ivanov''s
catalogue, and others, and I also worked on serigraphy.
I started creative work again in the summer of 1975 when I
became involved in photography and realized several of my
earlier ideas. I was interested in the possibilities of using
photography as a medium and document in art. I was also
interested in slides. The central problem of both is nature, its
phenomena and typology.
I would like to note that during this time I was in touch with
my friends in Novi Sad, empas and with Andra alamun.
As early as February 1971 Peda Vraneevi started working on
film and pop music and this has continued to be his main
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