The Transition of New Tendencies from Neo-Avant- Garde Subculture to Institutional Mainstream Culture

The Transition of New Tendencies from Neo-Avant- Garde Subculture to Institutional Mainstream Culture. An Example of Network Analysis. Kolešnik, Ljiljana Source / Izvornik: Modern and Contemporary Artists' Networks. An Inquiry into Digital History of Art and Architecture, 2018, 84 - 122 Book chapter / Poglavlje u knjizi Publication status / Verzija rada: Published version / Objavljena verzija rada (izdavačev PDF) https://doi.org/10.31664/9789537875596.05 Permanent link / Trajna poveznica: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:254:605097 Rights / Prava: In copyright Download date / Datum preuzimanja: 2021-10-06 Repository / Repozitorij: PODEST - Institute of Art History Repository The Transition of New Tendencies from Neo-Avant-Garde Subculture INTRODUCTION in the canon of new media art history.156 to Institutional Mainstream Culture. An Example of Network Analysis. In the course of that process – lasting from History of international art movement New 2005 to, approximately, 2010 – archival Tendencies, attracted researchers attention documents on New Tendencies earlier his- DOI: https://doi.org/10.31664/9789537875596.05 just recently, following a (re)discovery of tory, on the events and exhibitions held be- the series of discursive events (seminars, tween 1961 and 1965, were also carefully conferences, colloquia), and exhibitions explored, and explained, but in a manner (Computers and Visual Arts, Tendencije 4, which downplayed, or outright neglected Art and Computers, Tendencije 5), held in the ideological presumptions of the move- Zagreb, at the end of the 1960’s, and at ment, and its direct engagement with the the beginning of 1970s. Shortly after they social, and political reality at the time. The were “discovered” – between 2006, and strategy of curtailing and decreasing the 2010 – New Tendencies became the subject importance of New Tendencies’ social ob- of several large international exhibitions,155 jectives,157 and their relation to both Europe’s presenting legacy of the movement in terms new left, as well to the political, social and of an important and forgotten episode cultural practices of Yugoslav socialism, to of new media art history. Art works and make them fit to a predefined requirements printed materials (exhibition catalogues, of the new media art history canon, spar- magazines, working papers), private and kled the interest in the that period in the official correspondence among the artists, history of New Tendencies. The result was curators, and theorists engaged in discus- still another, recently published series of sions on the “computer supported visual monographs and studies on cultural, social Ljiljana Kolešnik research”, a central theme of New Tenden- and political framework of the movement, cies between 1968 to 1973, were carefully which constructed their accounts of New collected, described, and interpreted in Tendencies by closely following the traces order to provided a discursive framework they have left in visual arts and visual culture for the inclusion of that particular episode (graphic design, experimental film, TV), but from the overall story of the movement also in a debates on cultural policies, and political issues at the time.158 Along with the 155 Die Neuen Tendenzen Eine europäische 156 Tobias Hoffmann: Die neuen Tendenzen: Künstlerbewegung 1961-1973, Museum für Eine europäische Künstlerbewegung 1961- konkrete Kunst Ingolstadt, Sept 29. 2006 1973 (Heidelberg: Edition Braus, 2006); – Jan 7., 2007; Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Christoph Klütsch: Computergrafik: Düren, 28 Jan-25 Mar 2007; bit interna- Ästhetische Experimente zwischen zwei tional – [Nove] tendencije Computer und Kulturen. Die Anfänge der Computerkunst visuelle Forschung. Zagreb 1961–1973, in den 1960er Jahren (Vienna/New York: Nueu Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Springer, 2007); Margit Rosen, at al., eds: Joanneum, 28.4-26.8.2007; bit interna- A Little-Known Story about a Movement, A tional. [Nove] Tendencije - Computer und Magazine, And the Computer’s Arrival In visuelle Forschung, Zagreb 1961-1973, Art: New Tendencies and Bit International, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2008/2009; New Tendencies 1961–1973 (Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, and Architecture: Abstraction, Ambience, 2011). Algorithm, International Architecture Exhibition, Venice, Aug 2014. Nowa sztuka 157 See, for example, Rosen, A Little Known. dla nowego społeczeństwa / New Art For 158 Jasna Jakšić, Ivana Kancir, eds.: New Society/, Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław, Nowa sztuka dla nowego społeczeńst- 84 85 2015. wa / New Art For New Society/ (Wrocław: descriptions of working procedures, com- azines, critical studies, polemics), and com- in their history (968-1973), as a phenom- sive discussions on its potential to outgrow munication practices, personal, and pro- paration with similar artistic tendencies at enological, artistic, and – in terms of the such format, were already underway.161 In fessional relationships among artists, art other European locations. engaged approach to the existential re- that respect, describing New Tendencies as groups, and cultural professionals involved As a consequence, some previous expla- ality of modern, industrial society – cultur- just another, although important “biannual with the movement, they also provided a nations of the important turning points and al entity on its own right, which is, as such, exhibition” of the Cold War era, might be detailed, theoretically informed analysis of well-known events from the overall history also included in the historic narratives on unjustified, but it is – from my point of view – New Tendencies’ ideological, and social as- of the movement were proven to be ideo- kinetic and programmed art of the 1960s. as inappropriate, as it is a widely accepted pirations, presented on the background of logically biased, and superficial. The same Although inscribed in those narratives as an signifier “international art movement”. the global Cold War politics, and in relation could be claimed for the contact points, international art movement, the insistence Gathering, over the period of twelve years to the transition from industrial to post-in- divergences and borderlines among certain on self-imposed theoretical, and formal rig- a several hundred artists from three conti- dustrial, information society. Descriptions of political and aesthetic choices constituent or, and on the “ideological concentration nents, and from both sides of the Iron cur- New Tendencies as an attempt in formulat- to its programmatic orientation, seeming and commonality of goals”, typical for the tain, New Tendencies were simply too big, ing a socially progressive artistic practice to be quite different if approached from organization model of art movement, was and lasted too long, to maintain the level engaged with science and technology, also the perspective informed by the social and apparent only in period between 1963 and of formal coherence, poetic integrity, and assumed explanations of its inner conflicts, political history of the 1960s, and 1970s. 1965. What New Tendencies were before that theoretical rigor implied by the term “artis- and contradictions grounded in a thorough In other words, those recent findings, and short-time interval, and after 1965, how they tic movement”. There were, however – as in examination of historical documentation accounts made it clear that it is necessary were organized and which was their modus the period between 1963 and 1965 – some (publications, private and official letters, to conduct a thorough reexamination of operandi is another, serious question. serious attempts in defining a common pro- manuscripts), public responses (exhibitions both poetic and political configuration of Some authors as, for example, Piotr Pi- gram, shared goals and rules of conduct in- reviews in daily press and specialized mag- on New Tendencies. otrowski, perceive New Tendencies as an tended to provide New Tendencies with the The attempt in describing process of articu- ambitious, periodical exhibition of contem- prerogatives of an art movement. However, :Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław, 2015); Armin lation, and dissemination of the discourse on porary art,160 which managed to transcend both the nature of these prerogatives, that Medsoch: New Tendencies. Art at the art and technology created in the context of national and ideological borders estab- have been too formal, and restrictive, and Threshold of the Information Revolution that art movement between 1961 and 1965, lished by the Cold War politics. Preferring the oppressive manner of the attempts of (1961 - 1978) (Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2016); Ljiljana Kolešnik, “Zagreb that is, the attempt in describing series of the signifier “New Tendencies biennale”, their impositions were met with the resist- as the Location of the New Tendencies exhibitions, and discussions comprising for and basically referring to the rhythm of Za- ance. The response to such an attempts in International Art Movement (1961–73)”, in the chronology of the movement’s transition greb exhibitions, such approach tends to a wider cultural context sympathetic to the Art beyond Borders: Artistic Exchange in from the framework of neo-avant-garde ar- overlook the overall meaning and effects of concept of “art as research”, was a mix- Communist Europe (1945-1989), eds. Jérôme tistic subculture to the realm of institutional numerous discussions, working meetings, ture approval and restrain, or as American Bazin, Pascal Dubourg Glatigny, and Piotr culture, grounded on the reconstruction and publications, international

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