Zdenka Badovinac

Alternative forms of curatorial and institutional work suitable to our novel conditions, when the relationship between physical and online work must be revised. In our current era of global pandemic and violent political upheaval, the question must be asked: What is our future and whose voices will announce it? These can only be situated voices, each with its own body and space, formed through dialogue within their own communities and in reaction and resistance to dominant discourses. Museum director, curator, and writer Zdenka Badovinac argues that these situated voices of people, artworks, and exhibitions, rooted in the local, can bring incisive, productive change. The call of these voices, in rethinking art, curation, and institutions, is the subject of this powerful essay , the second volume of the series Thoughts on Curating, edited by Steven Henry Madoff.

This catalogue for an exhibition at MAXXI Museum in Rome brings together 50 contemporary artists from ex-Yugoslavia whose work explores the history of the region through the action of contemporary heroes, and reflects on issues of acceptance and peaceful coexistence. In thematic sections (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Hope, Risk, the Individual, Otherness, Metamorphosis), the show asks if the legacy of Socialism can help to recover the concept of “common good” in a complex region which has recently endured the tragedy of a civil war and the rise of Nationalism. Text in English and Italian.