Normalities

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York is pleased to present Normalities, a show starring artists from the Western Balkan region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia), Croatia, as well as from Austria and the United States. Artists include Flaka Haliti, Armando Lulaj, Damir Ocko, and Irena Lagator Pejovic, whose works were featured at the 55th and 56th Venice Biennials in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

For philosopher Slavoj Zizek the very name “Balkans” is almost synonymous with “otherness” and deliberately used to distinguish oneself from one’s very neighbor. In the past century, the region was a laboratory of extraordinary political circumstances, and still is by all means a place in constant transition. In recent times, Southeastern Europe has gone through a massive transformation in an economical as well as political sense. Migration has made Vienna the fastest growing European capital, the city with the third-largest Serbian population, and home to many emerging artists. The integration of the Western Balkan countries into the European Union is a clear goal, but still an ongoing process. Apart from these political aspects of normalization, the concept of ‘normality’ becomes all the more attractive within various different

theoretical frameworks and disciplines, from philosophy and psychology to sociology and, of course, the arts.

Normalities sets out to explore the concept of normality from a number of different angles—focusing on the Balkans, but extending outwards. What does it mean to be an artist almost a quarter of a century after the fall of Yugoslavia in a globalized world? How can identity collectively and individually be preserved? These questions are crucial, for artists from the region but also beyond. They are similar to those that are being asked all around the globe, in a world that has changed so quickly in the last few decades. The term ‘normality’ defies any attempt at a concise—let alone exhaustive—definition. Its meaning is in constant flux, changing in the most unpredictable ways, as the Balkan region has over the past century.

Curated by Marko Lulic and Christine Moser, Normalities initiates a new narrative and dialogue that unites the artists on view through their disparities within the confines of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York’s unique exhibition spaces.