forum festwochen Generation (Ex) Yu presents seven works by artists from former Yugoslavia born in the 1970s. While they were all still quite young when their native country broke apart, they did experience Tito’s multinational state as their homeland. Then the war came, and they had to find their way around new national constructs. The forms of artistic expression chosen by these artists are manifold, but they all directly or indirectly address the experience of living in two or more systems and the resulting fault lines of human existence.

In the course of several migration phases, around 300,000 persons from Yugoslavia and its successor states came to Vienna, many of them artists. One of these, Dejan Kaludjerović, invites audiences to join in his game installation Europoly. In My Private Biopolitics, Saša Asentić describes his position as an Eastern European artist in a culture business dominated by Western Europeans. In Will You Ever Be Happy Again?, Sanja Mitrović remembers her childhood. Milena Marković from Belgrade has written Šuma blista, a disturbing play, staged by Slovene director Tomi Janežić, about the lack of perspective at the edge of Europe. And Bosnian Oliver Frljić has created a drastic revue on the turbo folk phenomenon at a Rijeka theatre. All works will be presented at the Schauspielhaus venue, while the project Bed and Breakfast by artist and activist Alexander Nikolic will take place at several locations across Vienna. In Generacija 1992-1995 shown at Dschungel Wien twelve boys at the age between 15 and 19 represent the next generation, having heard about the war only in stories.

Discussion Generation (Ex) Yu
Venue Looshaus, Michaelerplatz 3, 1010 Wien, Eingang Herrengasse
Date 5 Juni, 1 p.m.
Free admission
Saša Asentić, Oliver Frljić, Tomi Janežić, Dejan Kaludjerović, Sanja Mitrović, Alexander Nikolic and Borut Šeparovićin discussion with Rujana Jeger
In co-operation with KulturKontakt Austria