The museum of contemporary art in Belgrade and post-revolutionary desire: Producing the art history narrative of yugoslav modern art

Abstract

This chapter discusses the foundation of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, the reinvention of Yugoslav modern art, and the writing of the history of Yugoslav modern art as equally important and interdependent challenges in the construction of the post-revolutionary universe. The initiative to build the new city on the left bank of the Sava River immediately after the end of the Second World War came from the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, while its implementation was left to the federal and the city governmental or administrative authority. The fact that the first urban plans for New Belgrade already included a building intended for the representation of modern art of the “people of Yugoslavia” as one in a series of symbolic verifications of the new order that included the new, socialist Yugoslavhood as well as of the process of generating the future in the present moment, is conclusive as well.