Symposium “Distant Gaze: New Objectivity and Realisms in Central Europe (1925-1933)”

5-6 March 2025

Xcenter, Nova Gorica

International symposium Distant Gaze: New Objectivity and Realisms in Central Europe (1925-1933) will enable in-depth insights into the art, culture and society of the 1920s and 1930s in Central Europe and beyond. It is based on the exhibition of the same title at Galerija Božidar Jakac – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (22 November 2024 – 23 March 2025), which showcases key shifts and developments in visual art and visual culture in the restless interwar period. The symposium will present contributions of a diverse and interdisciplinary group of experts and creators from fields such as visual arts, literature, history, anthropology, philosophy and other areas of the human sciences. The central focus will be on the historical and social circumstances of the politically divided, yet closely connected cultural milieus of Central Europe.

The symposium will further deepen the insights that have already been opened and analysed by the exhibition and accompanying publication Distant Gaze: New Objectivity and Realisms in Central Europe (1925-1933), which focuses on the historical period of the 1920s and 1930s, when completely new artistic tendencies started appearing and developing. The style and manner of expressionism, that was dominating art scene up to that time, was replaced by a cluster of related styles based on realism and classicism. After the traumatic experience of the World War I, the 1920s saw a major turning point, not only in politics and economy but also in arts and culture. Visual arts of the 1920s developed the style of “new realisms”, whose objective, resigned and ironic expression corresponded with the Zeitgeist of that era.

*the symposium will be in English language.

PROGRAMME OF THE SYMPOSIUM:

Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Xcenter – Centre of Creative Practices,
[Delpinova ulica 20, 5000 Nova Gorica]

10:00 / arrival and coffee

10:30 / welcome speech
dr. Stojan Pelko, Head of Programme GO!2025

10:40 / welcome speech
Goran Milovanović, director of Galerija Božidar Jakac – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Kostanjevica na Krki

10:50 / welcome speech
mag. Marko Rusjan, state secretary, Ministry of Culture of Republic of Slovenia

11:00 / ”Modern Classicism by Margherita Sarfatti. The Novecento Italiano Exhibitions in Italy and Abroad”
Daniela Ferrari, curator at MART – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto

11:40 / “Ideological Marking of Space along the Slovene-Italian Ethnic Border: Art between Catholicism, Fascism and Slovene Irredentism”
dr. Egon Pelikan, academic researcher and head of Institute of Historical Studies, Science and Research Centre Koper

12:15 / coffee break

12:30 / “A Period of New Objectivity and Realism in Central Europe between 1925 and 1933. What About Film?”
Majda Širca, publicist, journalist and author of documentaries, Ljubljana

13:10 / “Women’s Art Club (1927-1940) in Zagreb and its Impact on Recognition and Professionalisation of Female Artists”
dr. Darija Alujević, academic researcher, Fine Arts Archives of Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb

13:45 / lunch break

15:00 / “New Sounds and New Lives: Popular Music, Jazz and Radio in Slovenia between 1922 and 1941”
dr. Rajko Muršič, professor at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana

15:40 / “Avant-Gardes on the Periphery: Yugoslav and Central European Avant-garde Networks in the 1920s”
dr. Kristina Pranjić, associate professor at the School of Humanities and Research Centre for Humanities, University of Nova Gorica

16:20 / “Transformations of Realism: The Concept of Objectivity and Reality in the Context of the Inter-war Period”
mag. Marijan Rupert, curator of the Manuscript Collection, NUK – National and University Library, Ljubljana

17:00 / conclusion

Thursday, 6 March 2025

Xcenter – Centre of Creative Practices,
[Delpinova ulica 20, 5000 Nova Gorica]

10:30 / arrival and coffee

11:00 / “Industrialisation of the Image: Photography as a New Medium in the 1920s and 1930s”
Miha Colner, curator at Galerija Božidar Jakac – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Kostanjevica na Krki

11:40 / “Realisms in Hungary – From Neo-Classicism to New Objectivity”
dr. András Zwickl, professor at MOME – Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Institute for Theoretical Studies, Budapest

12:15 / coffee break

12:30 / “Grupa Zemlja in the Perspective of the 1920s: From Cesarec to Krleža”
Ivana Hanaček, assistant at the Department of Art History, University of Zadar

13:10 / “Roman Monuments and the Urban Transformation of Pula Between the Two World Wars”
Emil Jurcan, architect and activist, Pula

13:45 / lunch break

15:00 / “The Influences of the New Objectivity in Bulgarian Art and the Artistic Exchange between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in the 1930s”
dr. Neda Zhivkova, curator at the Sofia City Art Gallery

15:40 / “New Realisms in Central Europe: Painting, Photography, Design”
dr. Julia Maria Secklehner, postdoctoral researcher and assistant, Masaryk University, Brno, fellow at Constructor University Bremen

16:20 / “Realism, from the Painting Studio to Paranoia”
dr. Lev Kreft, sociologist, philosopher and publicist, Ljubljana

17:00 / break and walk to Cultural Centre Gorica

Cultural Centre Gorica
[Ulica I. Brass, 34170 Gorizia]

18:00 / “What is the New Objectivity Today?”
Miljenko Jergović, writer, publicist and critic, Zagreb

19:00 / conclusion

The symposium and exhibition offer a closer insight into artistic production in the period 1925-1933, within the wider cultural milieu of Central Europe, and an opportunity to analyse the sociopolitical processes of the time through art, which always mirrors the Zeitgeist.

The symposium is co-organised by EPK GO!2025.

Photo: Vladimir Varlaj, Dalmatian Landscape, 1926. Collection NMMU.