COURAGE

savienojot kolekcijas

The FV 112/15 Group Collection is a blend of artistic materials representing the time, social movements, and lifestyle of young people in Slovenia in the 1980s. It documents a central part of Ljubljana’s subculture and the alternative youth movement through the work of an amateur theatre group called the FV 112/15 Theatre and through the activities of three alternative clubs. The group cultivated an ironic attitude toward socialism and deconstructed bourgeois stereotypes.

István Bibó (1911–1979) was a Hungarian political scientist, sociologist, and scholar on the philosophy of law. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Bibó acted as the Minister of State for Imre Nagy’s second government. When the Soviets invaded and crushed the revolution, he was the last minister left at his post in the Hungarian parliament building. Rather than flee, he remained in the building and wrote his famous proclamation, “For Freedom and Truth,” until he awaited arrest. Bibó became a role model for dissident intellectuals in the late communist era and a symbol of non-violent civilian resistance based on a firm moral stand.
Since Bibó’s death in 1979, the family collection of his bequest, which includes personal documents, photos, manuscripts, books, and video and sound recordings, has been in the care of art historian and educator István Bibó Jr., who keeps the materials in his home in Budapest.

The exhibition BACK: Božidar Mandić and The Family of Clear Streams (1969 – 2015) (NATRAG – Božidar Mandić i Porodica bistrih potoka [1969 – 2015]) presented the life and work of Božidar Mandić, one of the most prominent representatives of avantgarde art practiced by members of Youth Tribune (Tribina Mladih) in Novi Sad during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition took place in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina (Muzej savremene umetnosti Vojvodine) in Novi Sad from 17 September to 18 October 2015. Movies and artwork dating from Božidar’s Novi Sad period and photo-documentation were shown at the exhibition, as well as a range of artwork made from natural materials in the commune. In the words of Božidar Mandić “The Family of Clear Streams is a small utopia. The opportunity for humankind is in small, rather than big utopias.”

Having been sent to the provinces of Lithuania in 1966, the ex-Soviet political prisoner and Catholic priest Fr Stanislovas made Paberžė an attractive place for the intelligentsia and people who shared non-Soviet attitudes. Fr Stanislovas became widely known in Lithuania for his deep sermons and his ability to attract and engage people through various initiatives, like collecting, repairing and restoring old things, his philosophical attitude towards things (similar to that of Rainer Maria Rilke), and the importance of activity. The items (material objects) in the collection are a testimony to the environment in which the cultural opposition led by Fr Stanislovas discussed political, religious and social issues during Soviet times.