Guided tour / Unfinished modernisations
Guided tour of the exhibition Unfinished modernisations / between utopia and pragmatism
UGM | Maribor Art Gallery, Strossmayerjeva 6
Saturday, 21 April 2012 at 11.00
Guided by: Maroje Mrduljaš, curator
Curator Maroje Mrduljaš will held guided tour of the exhibition Unfinished modernisations / between utopia and pragmatism before its closing. He will present architectural and urbanistic projects in the former Yugoslavia and its successor states. The Unfinished modernisations illuminates spaces that were created by the "socialist progress" in the former Yugoslavia and thus establishes what has happened with these spaces after the collapse of the common state and the disappearance of socialism. During socialist Yugoslavia, modernisation was presented unilaterally like an everyday collective achievement that should reveal the progress of workers' self-management and make people feel proud of it. The life of Yugoslavs was thus marked by megalomaniacal, almost utopian projects in the fields of industry, energetics, traffic logistics, town planning. On the other hand, today this socialist utopianism is often a synonym for or taken as the "original sin" of unsuitable economic structures, ecological problems and social conflicts. The exhibition presents numerous architectural projects, ranging from tourist experiments on the Adriatic coastline, concepts for new cities and presentation pavilions at international exhibitions, to disreputable public edifices and historical memorials in all the former Yugoslav countries during 1948–1980.
Maroje Mrduljaš (1971, Rijeka) graduated at the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb. Author of numerous exhibited, published and awarded architectural and urban-planning competition projects and studies. Awarded second prize at the 38th Zagreb Salon in 2003. Has published essays, outlines and critical texts in the areas of architecture, urban planning, design and visual arts since 1995. He is editor of the 'Plan' collection at AGM, member of editorial board of the journals Život Umjetnosti, Up & Underground and Oris. Member of the Croatian section AICA, and autonomous expert of the Mies van der Rohe Award. Employed as a research assistant at the Faculty of Architecture, Zagreb.
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