On the occasion of the exhibition, MAXXI’s videogallery hosts a series of works by the artists Igor Grubić, Goran Dević, Anja Medved & Nadja Velušček.
The films by Goran Dević selected for the programme all revolve around his hometown of Sisak (Croatia), recounting its past and present, the labour heroes who lived there and the lost generation of today. If Nova Gorica, with its architecture, was the symbol of the modernity of Yugoslavia’s socialist system, Sisak was the symbol of its industry and its workers. Sisak’s main excellence was its steelworks (Željezara Sisak), which in fact plays an important role in some of Dević’s films.
At the time of Yugoslavia, the steelworks employed 14,000 workers, among whom were ‘udarniks’, socialist labour heroes. Dević’s film Two furnaces for Udarnik Josip Trojko (2012) tells the story of one of them. I Have Nothing Nice to Say to You (2006) presents the dark side of Sisak, starting with an unsolved murder. In The Steel Mill Café, the guests of the café near the steel mill dream of escaping and reaching the promised land, in this case neighbouring Germany: it is the story of a change in the city of Dević, through the sense of loss and despair of its generation.
The films in the programme, in continuity with the themes of the exhibition, reflect on the idea of loss and change, both provoked by the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, the end of Socialism, its inclusion in global Capitalism and its integration into the European Union.
header: Goran Dević, Nemam ti šta reć lijepo / I have nothing nice to say to you, 2006, 30′ (still from video).
On the occasion of the exhibition, MAXXI’s videogallery hosts a series of works by the artists Igor Grubić, Goran Dević, Anja Medved & Nadja Velušček.
The films by Goran Dević selected for the programme all revolve around his hometown of Sisak (Croatia), recounting its past and present, the labour heroes who lived there and the lost generation of today. If Nova Gorica, with its architecture, was the symbol of the modernity of Yugoslavia’s socialist system, Sisak was the symbol of its industry and its workers. Sisak’s main excellence was its steelworks (Željezara Sisak), which in fact plays an important role in some of Dević’s films.
At the time of Yugoslavia, the steelworks employed 14,000 workers, among whom were ‘udarniks’, socialist labour heroes. Dević’s film Two furnaces for Udarnik Josip Trojko (2012) tells the story of one of them. I Have Nothing Nice to Say to You (2006) presents the dark side of Sisak, starting with an unsolved murder. In The Steel Mill Café, the guests of the café near the steel mill dream of escaping and reaching the promised land, in this case neighbouring Germany: it is the story of a change in the city of Dević, through the sense of loss and despair of its generation.
The films in the programme, in continuity with the themes of the exhibition, reflect on the idea of loss and change, both provoked by the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, the end of Socialism, its inclusion in global Capitalism and its integration into the European Union.
header: Goran Dević, Nemam ti šta reć lijepo / I have nothing nice to say to you, 2006, 30′ (still from video).