KU Linz visits partner university in Montenegro.
For one week in June 2021, Dr. Karolina Majewska-Güde, Assistant Professor at the Institue of History and Theory of Art at the Catholic Private University Linz (KU Linz), was visiting University ofDonja Gorica, (UDG) in Montenegro on the invitation of Dr. Irena Lagator-Pejovic, an artist and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Design and Mulimedia of the University ofDonja Gorica, (UDG).
The visit was designed as a research and network visit to initiate joint projects between the two universities, with a special focus on the local contemporary art scene, exhibition spaces and artistic archives. This included visiting several cultural and educational institutions in Podgorica and Cetijne as well as establishing contacts with important cultural producers (artists, curators, archivists) in Montenegro. In addition to many network and research events, there were also several meetings with students and colleagues from the UDG. Dr. Karolina Majewska-Güde discussed art history at the KU as part of the presentation organized by Angelina Kratschanova, Head of International Relations and Project Services, KU. Dr. Karolina Majewska-Güde gave a lecture on Neo-avant-garde Art Practices in East Central Europe for students of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Donja Gorica UDG.
In addition, together with Dr. Irena Lagator-Pejovic she organized and conducted an interview with performance artist Ilija Šoškić (1935) and attended Šoškić's first retrospective in Montenegro, curated by Nela Gligorovic. This also included taking part in a book presentation Mikrokozmi Ilije Šoškića, edited by Nela Gligorovic.
In Podgorica, Majewska-Güde and Lagator-Pejovic held several meetings with curators of the Art Gallery of Non-Aligned Countries "Josip Broz Tito", which is part of the Center for Modern Art (Centar savremenih umjetnosti). In addition to the discussion on collecting and exhibiting nonalignment in socialist Yugoslavia and in present-day Montenegro, they visited two exhibitions organized by the Center: Modern African Art in the NAM Gallery and Jugoslav Art in the NAM Gallery.
A very important aspect of the visit was researching the archives of the Cetinje Biennale and meeting with researchers from the Institute of Contemporary Art in Podgorica, an independent institution dedicated to promoting critical contemporary culture in Montenegro.
Majewska-Güde and Lagator-Pejovic also visited sites of importance for Yugoslavian modernism including works by Svetlana Kana Radević: Hotel Podgorica, (1967) and Memorial to the Fallen of the Lješanska Nahija Region in Barutana, Podgorica (1974-75), as well as the Museum of Modern Art in Cetinje, a building which was designed by Petar Vulović in 1959.
