International Symposium is a part of the International research and exhibition project Bauhaus - Networking Ideas and Practice (BauNet), which involves four cultural institutions from four European countries: Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (Croatia), Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz (Austria), Academy of Fine Arts,Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Škofja Loka Museum, Škofja Loka (Slovenia). BauNet intend to explore and present the activities and interrelations of artists from South-East Europe, who were schooled at the renowned international school of architecture, design and visual arts – Bauhaus and its influences on art practices during the fifties of the 20th century in South-East Europe and also the legacy of avant-garde movements. The mainstay of the two years project (oct.2013-sept.2015) are the aesthetic and pedagogic concepts of the Bauhaus school, which were applied to all visual art disciplines.

In the light of this BauNet topic, Symposium with the title Avgust Černigoj and the Legacy of Experimental Practices will focus on Avgust Černigoj, the only Slovene artist who studied at the Bauhaus school. Černigoj (b.1898 in Trieste –d. 1985 in Sežana)is known for his avant-garde experiments in constructivism. He attended the Bauhaus school in Weimar one semester in 1924. This had a profound impact on his development as an artist, as he came there into contact with the Russian avant-garde and particulary with constructivism. Černigoj's main contribution to the Slovene fine arts consists in his broadened understanding of art and artistic work. This professional and public convention is expected to bring together, for the first time, different aspects of Avgust Černigoj's work in the context of Bauhaus and adresses his influence on the Slovene avantgard movement. Experts from the Slovenian and other European museums,universities and other institutions involved with the subject of the Symposium will present and discuss various topics concerning the life and work of Avgust Černigoj. The Target audiences are curators, researchers, professors, students and others interested in this topic. The Symposium will be simultaneously translated into English and followed by the publication of a bi-lingual volume of proceedings (Slovene–English).

Participants:

dr. PETER KREČIČ, Faculty of Arhitecture, Ljubljana, NADA ZORAN, Art Historian, Ljubljana, BARBARA STERLE VURNIK, Škofja Loka Museum, DRAGAN ŽIVADINOV, Zavod Delak, Ljubljana, dr. IRENE MISLEJ, Art Historian, Ajdovščina, dr. LOVORKA MAGAŠ BILANDŽIĆ, Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb, dr. JANEZ VREČKO, Faculty of Philosophy, Ljubljana, dr. AIDA ABADŽIĆ HODŽIĆ, Faculty of Philosophy, Sarajevo, TATJANA ROJC, Literary Critic,Trieste.

Concept and organization:

-Jana Mlakar, director (ŠLM)

-Barbara Sterle Vurnik, project coordinator for Slovenia and museum consultant (ŠLM)

Additional information:
barbara.sterle@loski-muzej.si

PROGRAMME:

10.00 – 12.00

Jana Mlakar, Director, LM Škofja Loka
Words of welcome and opening of the symposium

Miha Ješe, Major, Municipality of Škofja Loka
Words of welcome

Barbara Sterle Vurnik
On the Path of Historicizing the Heritage of Avgust Černigoj – A Museological Aspect of the Significance of Preserving the Collective Memory

Nada Zoran
The Untimely Responses to the Exhibitions of Avgust Černigoj

Aida Abadžić Hodžić
Bauhaus from the Weimar of Avgust Černigoj, to the Dessau of Selman Selmanagić: From the “New Structures of the Future” to the “Art for People’s Needs”

Peter Krečič
Avgust Černigoj, the Weimar Bauhaus and the Slovenian Historical Avant-Garde

12.00- 12.30
Coffee break

12.30 – 15.00

Dragan Živadinov
The Metaphysical Materialism of the Architectural Studies for “Teater-Masse” by Avgust Černigoj

Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić
Rethinking the Stage in the 1920s: the Influence of the Bauhaus and International Theatrical Avant-garde in Croatia and Slovenia

Tatjana Rojc
Avgust Černigoj and the Trieste “isms”: irredentism, interventism, nationalism, futurism, constructivism

Janez Vrečko
Černigoj’s and Stepančič’ Constructivist Ambience in Trieste

Irene Mislej
Trieste and the End of the Avant-Garde

Discussion

The international research and exhibition project Bauhaus - Networking Ideas and Practice (BAUNET) continues with an international scholarly conference on “Bauhaus in the Life and Work of Selman Selmanagić,” which will take place on October 23, 2014 in Sarajevo, at the Academy of Fine Arts.

The main aim of the BAUNET project is to explore and present the activities and interrelations of various artists from South-Eastern Europe who were trained at the international school of architecture, design, and visual arts Bauhaus, including their impact on the art practice of the region during the 1950s and the legacy of avantgarde movements. The project has been sponsored by the EU funding programme “Culture 2007-2013” and involves four cultural institutions from four European countries: Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (Croatia), Universalmuseum Joanneum in Graz (Austria), Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Loka Museum in Škofja Loka (Slovenija).

Architect Selman Selmanagić (b. 1905 in Srebrenica – d. 1986 in Berlin) was the only student from Bosnia and Herzegovina who graduated at the Department of Architecture, Bauhaus in Dessau (1932). The life story of Selman Selmanagić embodies the Bauhaus ideal of “living-in-time”: a young man from a small town in Bosnia and Herzegovina, without any knowledge of German and no financial support, only a completed training in carpentry, arrived early in the 20^th century to an unfamiliar city and managed to graduate at the leading art school of the European avantgarde. In the process, he also became a passionate antifascist and freedom fighter, and then also one of the most distinguished persons in the field of architecture and design in the GDR, as well as an esteemed professor, known for his engaged approach to architecture, art, and the social reality.

In the recent years, with the 100^th anniversary of its foundation approaching, the most influential art school of the 20^th century has launched a series of important exhibition projects throughout the world. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the transformation of the political map of contemporary Europe, the legacy of Bauhaus in terms of its educational artistic, and intellectual values has been reassessed, which has also brought the artistic settings of South-Eastern Europe into the focus of attention, as its students have likewise contributed to the school’s multicultural and open profile, with its basic pedagogical values shaped precisely in an encounter between various cultural and intellectual traditions. The issue of Bauhaus’ legacy is very much alive in its source localities: in Germany, it has become topical particularly after the reunification, whereby special attention was paid to the reception of Bauhaus in the GDR. All this has shed new light on the place and role of Selman Selmanagić in the European modern and contemporary architecture, opening up various possibilities for its reassessment in a wider thematic context. In 2014, Sarajevo has also been strongly involved in the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of WWI, with a considerable number of scholarly conferences, round tables, and exhibitions.

The conference dedicated to Selman Selmanagić and Bauhaus approaches these events from a somewhat different angle. Bauhaus was also linked to WWI, as it evolved, as its founder Walter Gropius (1883-1969) remarked in a letter from 1963, from a “blend of profound depression resulting from the lost war with its breakdown of intellectual and economic life, and the ardent hope and desire to build something new from these ruins.” This new vision, filled with optimism and future projections, which formed the basis for Bauhaus, has left a deep impact on its present-day image, as it has been remembered as something more than just a school. All these issues will be discussed and presented at the first international scholarly conference on Selman Selmanagić in Sarajevo, as well as at the exhibition planned for 2015 as a part of the BAUNET project, likewise taking place in Sarajevo. Our aim is to emphasize the particular significance of the pedagogical opus of Selman Selmanagić and will therefore include workshops organized by the students of design and architecture at the University of Sarajevo, which will reflect on the legacy and challenges of Bauhaus in our present age through a series of art projects and presentations.

Participants: Aida Abadžić Hodžić (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Sarajevo), Leonie Baumann (Kunsthochschule, Berlin-Weißensee), Andrea Contursi (Cologne), Fehim Hadžimuhamedović (Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo), Antonija Mlikota (Department of Art History, University of Zadar), Vesna Meštrić (Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb), Peter Peer (Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz), Steffen Schuhmann (Kunsthochschule, Berlin-Weißensee), Barbara Sterle Vurnik (Loka Museum, Škofja Loka), Karin Šerman (Faculty of Architecture, Zagreb), Jadranka Vinterhalter (Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb)

Concept: Aida Abadžić Hodžić, coordinator of the BAUNET project for Bosnia and Herzegovina

For additional information, please contact: Jasmina Gavrankapetanović Redžić, Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo, Obala Maka Dizdara 3, 71000 Sarajevo, Tel: + 387 33 210 369  Email:  j.gavrankapetanovic@alu.unsa.ba

Partners: Goethe-Institut in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Regional Austrian Department of Scholarly and Cultural Cooperation (Sarajevo), and Bosnian Institute of Adil Zulfikarpašić Foundation

The conference has also been sponsored by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports – Foundation for Music, Performance, and Visual Arts, Allianz Kulturstiftung, and BH Post

The international symposium Hubert Hoffmann From the Bauhaus to Graz is concerned in the first part with the biographies and œuvres of Bauhaus students from Central and South East Europe with the focus on the former Yugoslavia. The Croatian architectural scene was marked by the relevant Bauhaus influences in the interwar period, as was the Group EXAT 51 as the most important artists’ initiative in Zagreb immediately after the war, and besides, August Černigojs as the central representative of the Slovenian avant-garde as well as Selman Selmanagić, who – like Hubert Hoffmann – was also involved in planning the reconstruction of the destroyed city of Berlin in the 1940s and 1950s among other things. The second part of the symposium is devoted to Hubert Hoffmann. In this, the foundations and realization of his urban-planning ideas are treated. A podium discussion will tackle his role in and for Graz.

Conference participants/speakers :  Dr. Aida Abadžić Hodžić, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo,  Dr. Dubravko Bačić, Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, Markus Bogensberger, Head of House of Architecture (Graz), Dr. Andrea Contursi, Freelance architect (Cologne), Arch. Eugen Gross, Freelance architect (Werkgruppe Graz), Em. O. Univ.-Prof. Arch. Dr. Heiner Hierzegger, Former Head of the Department for Spatial Development, Infrastructure and Environmental Planning at the Technical University of Vienna, Dr. Nataša Jakšić, Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, Vesna Meštrić, senior curator, Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), Dr. Peter Peer, Head of Department Modern and Contemporary Art, Universalmuseum Joanneum (Graz), Heinz Rosmann, Former Head of the Office for Urban, Development (Graz), Prof. Dr. Karin Šerman, Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, Dr. Marion Starzacher, Faculty of Architecture, Technical University Graz, Barbara SterleVurnik, Museum Škofja Loka, Jadranka Vinterhalter, museum advisor, Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Anselm Wagner, Head of the Institute for Theory of Architecture, Art and Cultural Studies, Technical University Graz.