Yugoslav Aesthetics II: Surrealism’s Uncharted Territory: The Belgrade 13, and Counting

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

An article published in 1930 in the daily newspaper Politika and signed by 13 poets, critics, and painters is commonly taken as the formal launch of the Belgrade Surrealist group. The group of artists, writers, thinkers and activists that history calls “the Belgrade Surrealist Circle,” operational as a proto-surrealist enclave from roughly 1922 and a surrealist grouping from 1924, was one of the most vibrant early surrealist collectives, yet it is far less known internationally than other such groups. This panel throws light on some of the major aspects of the aesthetic, philosophical and social activities of the group, including its theoretical engagement with Hegel and Freud, its members’ active participation in antifascist struggle during WWII, children’s poetry written by its members, and their activities in post-war socialist Yugoslavia. The papers in this panel draw on the major exhibition and symposium that took place in Belgrade in November 2024, marking the centennial of the Surrealist movement.

Sub Unit

• Arts I: Visual Culture, Material Culture, Applied and Fine Arts

Chair

• Dejan Vasic, Stanford U

Papers

• Aktivitet: From an Active Concept to an Active Exhibition - Sanja Bahun, U of Essex (UK)

• The Surrealist Art of Partisan Warfare - Branislav Jakovljevic, Stanford U

• Desires and Wishes: Aleksandar Vučo's Work for Adults and Children - Ainsley Morse, UC San Diego

• Mushroom: Irregulatory Traffic Signs - Pavle Levi, Stanford U

Discussant

• Aleksandar Boskovic, Columbia U