AVANT-GARDE, KITSCH AND LEFTIST IDEAS

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The subject of this text is the relation between art and politics as it was practiced at the time of the rise of the European political Left, above all in the regions of the pre-war and post-war USSR. The thesis defended in the text is that all the totalitarian social-political systems form, in principle, a uniform attitude to arts as a powerful potential media for the promotion and transmission of their ideological and political messages, which mostly brings artistic creations to the verge of kitsch if not to its very centre. The other part of the thesis deals with events on the ex-Yugoslav post-war political and art scene, highlighting its specific features, especially those contained in the fact that kitsch was present on that scene rather as an (anti)-style of political life – above all of the language of the ruling politics of the time – than as a non-art.

INTERPRETATION METAMORPHOSES OF THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE

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Richard Sennett has analyzed the period from 1750 up to the contemporary time, when the dominance of the culture of intimacy has transformed the political categories into psychological ones. The rise of the culture of intimacy had brought about the downfall of social theatrics, which has in turn caused the disappearance of public life. The family has transcended from a “particular, not-public” area into a haven, a world of its own, with a more stern moral code than the public sphere. Politicians have started to present their character to the public, as well as their feelings and the power of personal convictions. Here the theory of Hannah Arendt is analyzed from the horizon of so-called theatrical dimension of the public sphere and agonistic politics, through which the nature of worldliness is discussed. Some authors have criticized the mixing of internal and external areas (Hannah Arendt and Richard Sennett) while others (such as Peter Sloterdijk) have shown that there are consensuses which precede the separation of the internal and the external.

ON THE VALUE AND THE LACK OF VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES

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One of the most contentious questions in today’s discussions on the educational policies concerns the role and values of the humanities in contemporary society and education. Many see the humanities as empty, unnecessary, inefficient, phony and worthless. This paper offers a rundown of arguments adduced to support this view, followed by an overview of Helen Small’s The Value of the Humanities, which offers an exceptionally critical and insightful analysis into the current debate over the value of the humanities. The paper ends by emphasizing further the need to recognize the contribution of the humanities to the production of knowledge and enhancement of the quality of life, as well as to the much needed sense of purpose and meaning.

TOWARDS NEW FORMS OF COLLECTIVITY

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In the context of “great divides” in which the Belgrade cultural scene reproduces the existing social relations, what is evident is the vast fragmentation and focus on different, more or less, convincing attempts of individual entities to sustain themselves and consolidate regardless, and perhaps even precisely because, of the weakening of the others. Such induced relations resulted in a high degree of disunity; the situation has been radicalised and at this point even maintains the system from which it sprung. In perseverance of many independent organisations we have come to negate the self-organisation in its very domain. Thus, the question of what a self-organized cultural scene is, gets consequently replaced by its conditional form: What could it be? Why should it exist? What would it aim for? On which principles should it function? Can we even begin to imagine it? What would it look like if we tried? Many artists and cultural workers have answered these questions aiming at articulating a new construct. Their answers, along with the analysis of overlapping and differences, were used as a starting point for the analysis in which the focus is on the questioning of the needs of involved participants, as well possible models for self-organized cultural scene in Belgrade.

NEW REALISM IN SERBIAN FILM

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The aim of this study was to verify the hypothesis that in the Serbian cinematography in the period from 2010 to 2014 a new film movement was created for which the most adequate title is the New Realism. As a case study we used the films Tilva Ros (2010, Nikola Ležaić), Clip (2012, Maja Miloš) and Barbarians (2014, Ivan Ikić). As a result of analysis, thematic similarities were found in the production, in treatment of the subject and the language of all three films. These similarities are reflected in the turnaround of the production necessity towards a new film expression that is focused on dealing with the trauma of growing up in Serbia and (self) destructiveness as a response. All three stories were presented in a realistic manner, using loosening of the boundaries of fiction and reality in the service of enhancing the edge of social criticism. New Realism is also characterized by the minimalist stories with deep penetration into the intimate world of their heroes. On the basis of these results, a working hypothesis has been accepted and the identified similarities were denoted as characteristics of a new film movement.

ETHICS AND JUSTICE OF EPICURUS

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The paper gives us a short notice of Epicurean ethics analysed from a contemporary perspective, considering formal conditions under which it is an ethical theory. Assuming that, at least partially, his theory meets the requirements set by modern theorists, our further consideration is a somewhat inconsistent connection between the individual and the egotistic conceptions of ethics on the one side, and a kind of social contract on the other side. Epicurus argued that such an agreement must be respected if we want to ensure proper functioning of people in а community. It seems to us that the conduct of our own lives relaying solely on personal preferences and enjoyment excludes any need for consideration of social circumstances. Insisting on acceptance and respect of the agreement among individuals tells us, in addition to ensuring coexistence, that the Epicurean ethics is not purely individualistic and that the requirements for its hedonism are limited precisely by one such agreement. However, (underdeveloped and incomplete) contractarianism formulated in this way, although tempting, is not sufficient to ensure a complete and universal respect of prescribed norms and rules.

DIALECTICS OF THE BODY – FEMINIZATION OF THE FILM LANGUAGE

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Film as a language system, selecting and crossing certain elements, uses special connotations and forms its own meanings. Female body on the film, however, can be viewed and studied as a specific platform within the cinematic language through which new and different meanings can be read and also communicated as relationships between them. For decades have art theorists speculated about a possible feminist film language, as a new cinematic language that would open and set free а space for the representation of the female subject outside the socially coded form. Is such a discursive space in the area of film as a media possible, and what has the art of cinema offered to date these are the questions answered in this study. A particular research challenge is the issue of the inability of the feminist representation of the subject in the movie as a stereotyped signifying system. The autonomy of art as a practice framed in terms of ideological discourse production is reorganized and transformed thanks to the influence of materialist approach to semiotics – a concept which involves erasing established social differences and transformation of signifying structures in language. Post-structuralist theories of the twentieth century, including “Semiotics” by Julia Kristeva, launched a revision of the study and interpretation of the film, with a special contribution to the feminist studies of images, linking semiotic with the female, trying to reach out to the language independent symbolic structures and oppressive, eroticized view of the female body. What both these theoretical streams are trying to signify is a field in which a woman appears as a signifier of the female subject, regardless of the dominant masculine discourse in the visual field of communication: the one that constructs the view, the subject and the object and the language itself. Such examples can be found among the directors of primarily surrealist, experimental and feminist films, such as Men Rey, Cocteau, Maya Deren, Lora Malvi, or contemporary ones like David Lynch, Lars von Trier and Wim Wenders, whose poetics examine the limits of operation of such a language using a variety of art approaches and technologies, giving priority to the extension of the semiotics into a symbolically established reality.

ANIKA AND THE BIG OTHER

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According to Lacan (1996), “the big Other” (le grand Autre) is a world of language where the self is constituted. It is often a space of empty signifiers in which the subject, deprived of any solid reference and radically decentred with endless slips of the “symbolic order”, is caught in the narcissistic reflections of the mirror, dispersed and totally overcome by the very force of desire. Lacan believes that desire can be satisfied only with active engagement with “the big Other”, in a “successful” interpersonal communication which is only possible in rare flash-like moments. This communicative situation is, hence, conceived as a location where desire can be satisfied, but also as a process of division, a necessary excuse which covers up an endless search for the missing object. Accordingly, based on Lacan’s theoretical postulates, the paper analyses the functioning of the discourse of love, and the strategies of constituting the intimate self in the imperial social orders. By interpreting “full” and “empty” speech in Andrić’s novella Anika’s Times (1931), the paper attempts to show the ways in which the self, torn between desire for and deficiency of the Ottoman “big Other”, is realised.

MUSEUM AS AN INSTITUTION OF SOCIAL INCLUSION

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In contemporary society, the museum is being increasingly focused on new roles and it is no longer oriented only to the traditional ones such as grouping, preserving and exhibiting collections. Having that in mind, the aim of this paper is to understand the possibilities of the museum in the area of social engagement, and to consider the potential of the museum as a socially inclusive institution. The paper discusses the concepts of social exclusion and social inclusion, and analyses the possibilities for the museum in the realization of equality, diversity, social justice and human rights. It is ascertained that education represents a central activity of the social inclusion process in a museum. Serbian museums perceive with increasing understanding their function in the society. However, the perception that museums are institutions intended only for cultural elites still seems to be widespread. Following world trends, museums in Serbia should perceive their potential in the areas of social engagement, social inclusion and education, and should try to connect both with the society and the public.

CULTURAL BASIS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN YUGOSLAVIA 1945-1990

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Partisans’ Square in Užice, designed by architect Stanko Mandić, opened in 1961. The project was designed in many layers which were deeply integrated into the life of the city. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse the fundamentals that were set before drawing the first line. This paper analyses the philosophical, ethical, aesthetic and sociological grounds which the author defined before he started designing. The paper analyses the following elements identified in the written sources of architects: the habits of the population during reconstruction of the city, inconsistency and disrespect of the adopted urban solutions, urban experience of the population and modern solutions, removing traces of Oriental and European dreams of the population, generators of change in space, architecture as the image of society, preserved and respected cultural heritage, engaging of vernacular tradition in the language of the Modern, local materials, local natural heritage, a new technical approach to design, topography of the terrain as a compositional anchorage, avoiding absolutist atmosphere of the market, appropriate measure of the memorial layer, careful creating of the vision and the atmosphere.