MoMA announces an upcoming exhibition on Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980

18/01/2018. MoMA [NYC] USA
metalocus, TEODORO GONZÁLEZ

The Museum of Modern Art has announced their summer exhibition exploring architecture of the former Yugoslavia. "Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980" will be the first major USA presentation of the work developed within the country's 45 years of existence.

Mihajlo Čanak, Leonid Lenarčić, Milosav Mitić, and Ivan Petrović. Building B9, Block 21, 1959-65. New Belgrade, Serbia. View of IMS Žeželj the construction site. Photograph by Ivan Petrović. Image courtesy of MoMA

Mihajlo Čanak, Leonid Lenarčić, Milosav Mitić, and Ivan Petrović. Building B9, Block 21, 1959-65. New Belgrade, Serbia. View of IMS Žeželj the construction site. Photograph by Ivan Petrović. Image courtesy of MoMA

Edvard Ravnikar, Revolution Square (today Republic Square), 1960-74, Ljubljana, Slovenia. View of the Square. Photograph by Valentin Jeck, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2016. Image courtesy of MoMA

Stojan Maksimović, Sava Center, 1979, Belgrade, Serbia. View of conference room. Photograph by Valentin Jeck, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2016. Image courtesy of MoMA

Janko Konstantinov, Telecommunications Center, 1972-81, Skopje, Macedonia. Perspective drawing of the counter hall. Ozalid and tracing paper. Image courtesy of MoMA

Miodrag Živković, Monument to the Battle of Sutjeska, 1965-71, Tjentište, Bosnia and Herzegovina. View of the western exposure. Photograph by Valentin Jeck, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2017. Image courtesy of MoMA

The exhibition will include over 400 drawings, models, photographs, and film reels from various municipal archives, MoMA introduces the exceptional built work of the former country's leading socialist architects.

The Museum of Modern Art will explore the architecture of the former Yugoslavia with Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980, the first major USA exhibition to study the remarkable body of work that sparked international interest during the 45 years of the country’s existence. The exhibition will include more than 400 drawings, models, photographs, and film reels culled from an array of municipal archives, family-held collections, and museums across the region, introducing the exceptional built work of socialist Yugoslavia’s leading architects to an international audience for the first time.

The architecture that emerged during this period—from International Style skyscrapers to Brutalist “social condensers”—is a manifestation of the radical pluralism, hybridity, and idealism that characterized the Yugoslav state itself. Exploring themes of large-scale urbanization, technological experimentation and its application in everyday life, consumerism, monuments and memorialization, and the global reach of Yugoslav architecture, Toward a Concrete Utopia will feature work by important architects, including Bogdan Bogdanović, Juraj Neidhardt, Svetlana Kana Radević, Edvard Ravnikar, Vjenceslav Richter, and Milica Šterić. From the sculptural interior of the White Mosque in rural Bosnia, to the post-earthquake reconstruction of the city of Skopje based on Kenzo Tange’s Metabolist design, to the new town of New Belgrade with its expressive large-scale housing blocks and civic buildings, the exhibition will examine the unique range of forms and modes of production in Yugoslav architecture and its distinct yet multifaceted character.

Organized by Martino Stierli, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, and Vladimir Kulić, guest curator, with Anna Kats, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art.