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kustos: Branko Franceshi

In February 2012 Croatian avant-garde art introduced itself to the Turkish audience through the “Permanent Avant-garde” exhibition held at the “KUAD” gallery in Istanbul.

Turbulent history of the region which used to be called Yugoslavia was fertile ground for radical art movements and practices, long censored, ignored, neglected and misunderstood. Radical artist movements of the region which used to be referred as the “arts of the other line”, especially in post-WWII socialist Yugoslavia which produced so-called state modernism focused on the formal aspects of creativity. Meanwhile, art practices that aimed to enhance social change towards participatory democracy were marginalized. Finally, with the general comprehension of avant-garde legacy of the modern era as a direct connection with the West we have been aspiring all along, second-line art became first-line art.

The exhibition presents 59 works of Boris Demur, EXAT 51, Ivan Kožarić, Mladen Stilinović, Tomislav Gotovac, Red Peristyle and many more.