IHT/New York Times: Belgrade Art Scene, Waiting For Its Moment

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BELGRADE, SERBIA–Ever since the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade closed for renovations in 2008, the chief curator

Dejan Sretenovic has been asked when the museum will reopen.

Sitting in the museum’s temporary administrative digs earlier this spring, Mr. Sretenovic said that, unfortunately, he doesn’t know.

The museum, which opened in 1965 and is one of Europe’s oldest contemporary art museums, has a fantastic collection of modern and contemporary art spanning the 20th century, including works by artists like Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Joan Miró, as well as some of the former Yugoslavia’s most important artists and sculptors, including Marina Abramovic, Rasa Todosijevic and Milica Tomic. Read more

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IHT/New York Times: Reasserting and Redefining Jewish Culture in Poland

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WARSAW, POLAND — Zuzanna Ziolkowska — sitting at a Warsaw sidewalk café with her long dreadlocks wrapped in a colorful turquoise and orange scarf — said she first learned of her Jewish roots about a decade ago.

Her mother told her casually over lunch one afternoon that Ms. Ziolkowska’s father, with whom she has no contact, was Jewish. Though she was a bit shocked by the news — and her mother’s offhanded mention of it — she said even as a young girl she had been keenly interested and felt a connection to Jewish history and literature. Read more

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IHT/New York Times: A Makeover for Contemporary Art in Sydney

SYDNEY — Few contemporary art museums can boast of having both a breathtaking view and a superb location in the heart of a city. But the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) here is doubly blessed.

First constructed for the Maritime Services Board in the 1950s with a faux 1930s façade, the museum is located in Circular Quay, in the heart of Sydney Harbor. “Its location has been central to its success,” said Elizabeth Fortescue, an art critic for the city’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. “And that will attract some people who think that contemporary art is not for them.” Read more

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IHT/New York Times: Ukrainian Art World Get Political

KIEV — The shutting down of an exhibition in Kiev last month became something of a performance art piece in its own right. The show, “Ukrainian Body,” which opened Feb. 7 at the Visual Culture Research Center at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, aimed to explore corporality in contemporary Ukrainian society. Alongside pieces like Oksana Briukhovetska’s picture book of the elderly and destitute in Kiev and a trident shield (the symbol of Ukraine) hand-carved by Vova Vorotniov were Sasha Kurmaz’s photographs of nude women, a few drawings of naked men by Anatoliy Byelov and a video installation by Mykola Ridnyi that looped contrasting images — one of a vagina and one of the Ukrainian Parliament — and asked viewers which image was more irritating. Read more

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IHT/New York Times: New Museum for the Avant Garde

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LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA — Borut Vogelnik had long been looking forward to the opening last week of the Muzej Sodobne Umetnosti Metelkova (Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova) in Ljubljana. “I would say that for Slovenia, this museum is going to be very important and of major value,” said Mr. Vogelnik, who with four colleagues is part of IRWIN, a Slovenian artistic collective that shares the museum’s focus on the role and relevance of contemporary art from Eastern Europe and Russia. Read more

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