Yane Calovski and Hristina Ivanoska, Oneness, 2016, 9 canvases, graphite, gold thread and textile paint on linen, 100 x 60 cm each. Photo: Damir Žižić.
Group exhibition “Museum Yet To Happen,” Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, curatеd by: Milica Bezmarević (MoCA Montenegro, Podgorica); Jovanka Popova (MoCA Skopje, North Macedonia); Mišela Blanuša (MoCA Belgrade, Serbia).
Exhibitions - Muzej savremene umjetnosti Crne Gore
Oneness is a collaborative installation that incorporates the conceptual text by Ad Reinhardt and the graphic design by Bridget Riley, published in 1966 in Poor.Old.Tired.Horse No. 18, a magazine dedicated to concrete poetry, edited by Ian Hamilton Finlay. The work originally consists of eleven hand-woven linen panels with embroidery, graphite and textile paint. They represent an ongoing exploration of the relationship between text, visual structure, and materiality.
Ivanoska and Calovski recognise the simplicity of the text and the metaphysical dimension of the design as a foundation for further interpretation. Reinhardt’s text functions as a concrete poem with a tone of urgency that strongly corresponds to the themes present in their practice: institutional critique, contextualization of artistic production, and personal politics. His affirmative, almost mantra-like statements, such as “There is one fine art, one museum of fine art, one art system”, open a space for critical reflection on the structures that shape the contemporary artistic and social context. In combination with Bridget Riley’s rhythmic graphic language, these elements create a continuum of conceptual and aesthetic values.
The materiality of the work is essential. The linen is of Eastern European origin, dating from the early 20th century, and was originally produced for the burial rituals of the upper social classes. As a material that organically connects past and present, the linen functions as a traditional surface on which social ritual practices are reimagined and reinterpreted. Part of the material research was carried out in collaboration with the Monastery of the Holy Mother of God (village of Matka, North Macedonia), which provided deeper insight into traditional weaving and embroidery techniques.
Working with hand-woven linen and with embroidery techniques traditionally carried out by women, most often in isolation and silence, the artists emphasise the dualities between the private and the public, the spoken and the unspoken, the written and the vocal — dualities that generate different forms of knowledge and resistance across various cultural contexts.