NABA is glad to announce its presence within “Bigger than Myself Heroic Voices from ex-Yugoslavia”, the exhibition curated by Zdenka Badovinac at MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts, from May 5th to September 12th.
The exhibition collects almost one hundred works of art created by more than sixty artists from the many different Yugoslavian countries to tell not only the difficult history of an area crossed over the centuries by conflicts, tensions, instability, but also the utopia of a country - socialist Yugoslavia - initially built on an ideal of brotherhood between nations and unity among workers.
The project “I won’t let you down So please don’t give up on me” by Serbian artist Darinka Pop-Mitić, who in her work explores the relationship between history and the space of memory in the former Yugoslavia, has been possible thanks to the collaboration of the students of the BA in Painting and Visual Arts, in NABA Rome’s campus, Chiara Nicoletti, Catalina Palamarciuc, Tanvi Swapnil Shaha, Roberta Argenta, Mateusz Gabriele Dalla Torre, Romina Guerrero, Alessandro Sorrentino, Eleonora Del Bene, coordinated by artist and NABA lecturer of the BA Pesce Khete and with the support of Jacopo Rinaldi.
The wall painting was designed by Darinka Pop-Mitić specifically for the MAXXI’s exhibition space. The work, realised by the students of the Academy is dedicated to the story of the life of one woman, Didara Djodjević (1930-2006), an unknown hero of the XX Century, an icon of the history of Yugoslavia. Through the form of comic book storytelling, the artist shows the various phases of Didara’s life, explores the development of socialist modernity in relation to the emancipation of women, and narrates the period of politicisation and the escalation of the inter-ethnic tension.
NABA Faculty was involved as well, directly into the exhibition with a work of art by artist and NABA lecturer Marko Tadić and within the dedicated catalogue with the essay by Marco Scotini, Visual Arts Department Head “Memory as a common. Scenes for a new heritage in the art of ex-Yugoslavia”.
Cover: backstage of “I won’t let you down So please don’t give up on me” by Darinka Pop-Mitić, possible thanks to the collaboration with the students of the BA in Painting and Visual Arts within the exhibition “Bigger than Myself Heroic Voices from ex-Yugoslavia” curated by Zdenka Badovinac at MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, ph. Vittoria Bozzarelli