The New Art Practice in Yugoslavia, 1966-1978

preoccupation. He set out his attitudes on his post-conceptualist
activities in a short text published in the catalogue for the
exhibition "Spans 73" in the Gallery of Contemporary Art in
Zagreb: "There is no crisis in art. Art does not exist beyond
the artist. There is a crisis within artists. If we sit and talk,
and everything centres around the fact that most of what we
manage to see of the "unambitious" (ambitious) art does not
appeal to us, then my artist friends and myself we can say:
crisis in art ... the artist confronted with a crisis, especially it
he has theorized and produced non-obligatory objects d'art,
can 1) abstain, 2) finally realize art as a way of life, 3) try to
anticipate the emergence of a new trend which he will adopt,
while until then he represented an artist-ludens and clung to old
ideas. My own attitude is that given under no. 3). February
1973.
As members of the group KOD we thought of setting up a
commune and when in 1971 we became group (3 KOD and
even later when the groups were no longer in existence, we
tried to put this into practice. The commune was realized by
Boiidar Mandi, who considers himself a disciple of KOD, who
collaborated with us, worked with Vladimir Mandi and did
independent work (actions, books, films).
The Commune is situated on Mount Rudnik, in the village of
Brezovica and is called "Clear Brook".
P. S.
When I accepted to write a text for the present publication on
the work of the groups KOD, (3, (.3 KOD and other artists in
Novi Sad, we organized a few meetings to talk about individual
and joint attitudes on this type of exhibition and publication.'
S. Tima, M. Mandi and C. Dra were opposed to any kind of
of participation in the exhibition, they thought a different form
of participation should be found: Slavko Bogdanovi and myself
were in favour of taking part in the exhibition, and this view
was also held by P. Vraneevi. V. Kopicl proposed a thorough,
serious approach that would adequately represent our activities.
C. Dra, M. Mandi, S. Tima, S. Bogdanovi and myself agreed
that instead of the text and documents on our work we should
send a recorded tape of our last conversation, and instead of
the works themselves, as a kind of documentation, we thought
we should repeat in a different way some of the works and
actions (Mandi for instance suggested that a luncheon be
organized in the gallery during the exhibition). Another idea,
which we also discussed later, concerned invisible art. Elements
of this idea were already present in the work of M. Mandi
which was not realized in Polia No. 156 (two blank sheets) and
which since it was not realized continued to exist as an
invisible work.
Since there was no global attitude shared by all members, it
remained for me to write the kind of text I had anticipated
when I was first asked to do it.
I hope that an important part of the text was taken up by
invisible art.
46
The exhibition «The New Art Practice« at the Gallery of Contemporary
Art. Zagreb 1978.
GROUP (.3
Like the members of the group KOD, the future members of the
group (3 also studied literature at the Arts Faculty in Novi Sad
and wrote poetry. The study of linguistics in the first year
covered problems of language and linguistic schools, with
particular emphasis on de Saussure's structural linguistics,
semantics and semiology. The information theory was the
linking element between linguistics and the problems of
language, on the one hand, and art, especially some of the
most recent trends in art (i. e. visual and concrete poetry, new
media), on the other hand. Thus, some of the first individual
works of the future members of the group, works which meant a
break with the traditional practice, actually developed in the
sphere of visual and concrete poetry and were based on some
of the principles of the information theory, the ludic element
playing an important part. The first joint works by Ana Rakovi
and Cedo Dra were no doubt influenced by Ana's study of
mathematical logic and the set-theory, as well as her one-year
study of physical chemistry before she took up the study of
literature. Vladimir Kopicl was interested in visual poetry, the
American avantgarde, Cage and they studied Wittgenstein
together.
The future members of the group (3 (Ana Rakovi. Cedomir
Dra, Vladimir Kopicl and Mia 2ivanovi) studied with
Miroslav Mandi, who was a member of the group KOD. The
regular Sunday meetings held during the autumn of 1970 were
first attended by Rakovi, Dra, Zivanovi and Mandi and
later by Kopicl: the discussions covered previously agreed
topics on the problems of art. The first works which transcended
the traditional art limits were soon to be carried out.
The first work by Kopicl was Basic Essay a critical,
apologetic review of Slobodan Tima's Square. Amy Golding's
words were quoted in the introduction: "... a critic attempts,
often at all costs, to interpret a work of art "through itself", i. e.
he strives to diagnose the extent to which the artist makes use
of the possibilities of the media." This is followed by a complete
statistical analysis of Square, and the last part of the work
contains Regulations for the reader of "Basic Essay", in which
relations between creator-work-critique-critic-consumer are
analysed. The essay as a whole has thus become a work of
art with its own logic, which already anticipates Kopicl's later
analitical, textual works. Before the group (3 was founded and
colectiv-e work undertaken, Kopicl produced a number of works
which represented a transition from visual poetry to conceptual
art. In one of the works, words and clippings from an English
Dictionary for children were used: another one consisted of a
certain number of small squares forming a regular surface and
on each one words were written out which could be combined
and brought into different relations.
During this same period Mia Zivanovi produced his first work
Non-Semantic Field (Fig. 188,) in which the different forms of
non-semantic fields, by being commented upon separately and
included in the work as a whole, became the carriers of its
meaning. 2ivanovi never actually realized a work jointly with
the other members of the group, thus he was only briefly and
formally a member of the group.
Ana Rakovi and Cedomir Dra worked together from the start,
and their first works were based on the set-theory. A red circle
was given with three ways of conceiving its position and relation
in space (the gallery). A certain number of table-tennis balls
were arranged in such a way as to form a rectangle, the balls
had letters written on them and beside the work there were
reading instructions (according to the set-theory). The work
Sight Entropy was realized in a similar way, laying out the
possible effects which could be produced by circles.
Collaboration was soon established between these artists and
the group KOD, followed by the first joint appearances in Novi
Sad and Belgrade (January and February 1971).
The group (a was founded at the end of February (the same
evening when the decision was made that KOD would no
longer exist as a group), some time before the exhibition
"Examples of Conceptual Art in Yugoslavia". Works produced
until then as a result of individual endeavour were presented
at the exhibition. 2ivanovi was a member of the group only
during the exhibition, so that joint activities were later pursued
by Dra, Kopirl and Rakovi.
As group (.3 they worked together until May 1971, when a new
group, (3 KOD was founded. During this time Kopicl, Rakovi
and Dra realized several joint works immanently marked by a