Towards a Theory of Political Art: Cultural Politics of 'Black Wave'

JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH 511 Sezgin Boynik Towards a Theory of Political Art Cultural Politics of ‘Black Wave’ Film in Yugoslavia, 1963-1972 JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH 511 Sezgin Boynik Towards a Theory of Political Art Cultural Politics of ‘Black Wave’ Film in Yugoslavia, 1963-1972 Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston yhteiskuntatieteellisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston Agora-rakennuksen Alfa-salissa joulukuun 13. päivänä 2014 kello 12. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Jyväskylä, in building Agora, Alfa hall, on December 13, 2014 at 12 o’clock noon. UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2014 Towards a Theory of Political Art Cultural Politics of ‘Black Wave’ Film in Yugoslavia, 1963-1972 JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH 511 Sezgin Boynik Towards a Theory of Political Art Cultural Politics of ‘Black Wave’ Film in Yugoslavia, 1963-1972 UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2014 Editors Jussi Kotkavirta Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä Pekka Olsbo, Ville Korkiakangas Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä URN:ISBN:978-951-39-5980-7 ISBN 978-951-39-5980-7 (PDF) ISBN 978-951-39-5979-1 (nid.) ISSN 0075-4625 Copyright © 2014, by University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2014 ABSTRACT Boynik, Sezgin Towards a Theory of Political Art: Cultural Politics of ‘Black Wave’ Film in Yugoslavia, 1963-1972 Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2014, 87 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research ISSN 0075-4625; 511) ISBN 978-951-39-5979-1 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-5980-7 (PDF) The point of departure of my thesis is to discuss the forms of ’Black Wave’ films made in Yugoslavia during sixties and seventies in relation to political contradictions of socialist self-management. Instead of explaining filmic forms as representation of social and political dynamics; my aim is to propose a distinct methodology and conceptual apparatus that would enable to grasp social dynamics through their inscription inside the art form. The new methodological reading that I am proposing is largely based on actualization of certain theses proposed by Russian Formalists, Walter Benjamin and Louis Althusser. Combining these distinct theoretical positions my aim is to propose a model of including contradictions in researching the political art without reducing formalism to a mere representation. Basing largely on the work of Dušan Makavejev I have showed that political engagement of avant-garde artists and film makers contribute to the richness of artistic forms. My aim is to find the ways to detect these contradictions. By attentively looking at concept of slogans and cultural policy in the writings and artistic work of Makavejev my aim is to show that the conceptualization of political terms in artistic production has a distinctive characteristic. Advancing this observation my aim is to propose different reading of cultural politics and artistic practices during socialist Yugoslavia. By addressing theoretical and historical debates concerning representation of politics, nationalism, transformation of style, the realism and relation between philosophy and art I have showed the advancements of Formalist approach in understanding of ‘Black Wave.’ Also in my dissertation I have dealt with ideological consequences of various other readings of Yugoslavian ‘Black Wave’ and tried to delineate them from Formalist reading which I am proposing. Yet on another level, in my text on ‘New Collectives’ in post-Yugoslavia I am applying this methodology to contemporary art scene pointing at some formal transformations that occurred in discourse on art in transition from socialist to neo-liberal conditions. Keywords: political art, cultural policy, Black Wave cinema, Yugoslavia, self- management, Louis Althusser, Formalism, contradictions, ideology, realism, historicism. Author’s address Sezgin Boynik Sturenkatu 5a 32 Helsinki [email protected] Supervisors Professor Anita Kangas Department of Social Science and Philosophy University of Jyväskylä Professor Kia Lindroos Department of Social Science and Philosophy University of Jyväskylä Reviewers Professor Anna Schober Faculty of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies Justus-Liebig University Kimmo Laine Department of Media Studies University of Turku Opponents Professor Milena Dragiþeviþ-Šešiþ Faculty of Dramatic Arts University of Arts in Belgrade FOREWORD In the mid-nineties when it would have been the time for me and many from my generation to engage with interesting avant-garde and experimental art productions of the Socialist Yugoslavia, that country was devastated in bloody civil war. At that time for me and many from my generation it was impossible to engage with any question regarding Yugoslavia that would not have had an already historically inscribed answer. Logic of that historical explanation was simple: everything from self-management to punk music, just to name two ex- amples, of socialist Yugoslavia, indicates that the civil war, the nationalist neo- liberal plundering, and break-up of the country was inevitable. This was my understanding of Yugoslavia in the nineties, when I was engaging with Situa- tionist International, with Godard, with Michael Haneke, rock-in-opposition, free jazz and other things. The name Yugoslavia was at the time nothing more than a suspicious construction based on certain mythologies which would soon confirm to be false. In this falsity there was no room for serious engagement. Waking up from the historical dream of Yugoslavia, to paraphrase Walter Benjamin, was for me a painful and contradictory process. Slowly I started to understand that the historical logic which I had shared with many about Yugo- slavia was not so distinct from the elitist logic of nationalist and conservative discourse. This ideology had many different forms; but what seemed to be common to most of them was truism in these apparent and obvious claims. It was argued that the multi-national and self-managing Yugoslavia was in con- tradiction to inherent nationalism and to residual elements of feudalism. These contradictions, as proponents of this logic tirelessly repeat, are the main reason why the country stopped to exist. As I said, in the nineties it was impossible to resist this logic; everything seemed fitting to what we were seeing in our everyday life brutality. The official discourse at the 90s always reminded us that this was a reprise of the thir- ties, or of the First World War, or even earlier periods of Yugoslavian history, where wars were happening almost as natural catastrophes, as film director Emir Kusturica once said about the recent war in Bosnia. What we start to realize is that the logic of inevitability was not a product of the nineties. It had always been there, from the very beginning of the Second Yugoslavia, from 1945. This was the case especially in argumentation that the self-management is alien to Yugoslavian context, or that multi-national co- existence is generally alien to human nature. But also we started to realize that parallel with this logic, in Yugoslavia there existed yet another position that could be described as the internationalist, avant-garde position (the core of anti- fascist Partisans in the Second World War), which was the driving force in the theory and practice of self-management. It was this position that struck my in- terest, especially how this avant-gardist and internationalist position related itself with art and culture. My thesis is a product of this engagement, which is not result of only a personal endeavor. It was a long journey of collective engagement in many different intellectual and especially artistic platforms in post-Yugoslav spaces (in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje and Prishtina), it is a result of many harsh debates (both public and private, some still continuing), spirited discussions, exciting random discoveries (in archives, flea markets, personal collections of people), exhibitions, film screenings, editorial meetings, etc. Just thinking of how many people I can name who contributed to all these discussions makes me excited and at the same time hopeful that we are not only a few isolated artists and researchers who do not want to believe in the official historical hypothesis on the legacy of Socialist Yugoslavia. But especially I am in debt to discussions and friendship with Slobodan Karamanic and others from journal Prelom, Gal Kirn, editorial board of Journal Kino! (Andrej Sprah, Jurij Meden, Nil Baskar, Maja Krajnc), Branimir Stojanovic, Nebojsa Jovanovic, Vla- dan Jeremic, and many others. Also I have to mention how I have initially started my dissertation in Jyväskylä University. I was spending the winter 2008-2009 in Belgrade where I used my free time, actually then I had nothing but a free time, in Archive of Al- ternative Film at Culture Hall “Studentski Grad”, which was run by cinephile and film maker Ivko Šešiþ. After realizing we have many common interests he introduced me to his partner, Milena Dragiþeviþ-Šešiþ, whose book Art and Al- ternative I already knew. She recommended me to get in touch with the Cultural Policy Unit at Jyväskylä University. This is how I met with one of my supervisors Anita Kangas, who from the beginning understood and supported my research. The second supervisor Kia Lindroos, then from Political Science department, gave a very different and productive twist to my research. I am really grateful to both of them. The reason why I was in Belgrade in winter 2008-2009 is yet another interesting circumstance. It was artist-residency stay of my partner Minna Henriks- son, originally based in Helsinki, who at that time was working on artistic pro- ject to map the art scene of Belgrade. The “artistic” side of my research on Black Wave thus follows me from the beginning of my research. Even at the most dif- ficult period when I was dealing with methodology and other scholarly work, my research on film was never separated from artistic practice.

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