/ 1968

ABOUT ISLAM

/ 1968

ADHERENCE TO RESISTANCE IN THE MUSIC OF POPULAR CULTURE

A division of cultural events to high and low, as well as differences

between the established and popular culture, are subject to a number

of interpretations of cultural theories. The right-wing critical thought

defended the “real” culture from the crude culture of the lower

social classes, while the leftists found mass culture positive for its

democratization. Thanks to the impact of the global media, position

of music occupies a high place in the hierarchy of industry and market

culture. The opposed relationship of art and popular music is being

relativized in terms of class identification. The ideology of taste, which

is also related to the possession of a larger or smaller cultural capital,

has adapted to the requirements of populism and market. Agreeing to

concessions is a kind of democratization of elite musical forms (for

example opera), and movement of various musical forms in the system

of two-way (higher / lower) and circular (from one form to another)

forms representing both resistance and compliance in mutual encounter

and permeation of classical and popular music, both in practice and

in theory. With the exception of the avant-garde “outages” in classical

music or lowest genres of folk, all other types of music (classical, jazz,

rock, pop, folk) have found some sort of balance in their relationship.

Along with the general crisis of the spirit of criticism, this certainly

contributed to value relativism, as one of the essential features of

popular culture.

/ 1968

THE WORDS TAKEN AWAY: DEFENCE OF CREATIVITY AND THE CONDITIONS OF RADICAL IMAGINATION

This paper examines contemporary interpretations of creativity and

instrumentalisation of the concept itself, both in neoliberal discourse

and in public policies that have become the driver of ever deeper

society inequalities. A review of divergent production research from

the second half of the 20th century, as the foundation of all further

psychological studies, and the analysis of implicit social agendas

reveal three controversial points of theoretical starting points in which

creativity was viewed exclusively as adaptive ability validated by the

product – the outcome of individual achievement. A response to this

simplified concept of creativity has arrived from researchers focused

on emerging processes within the collective. In new studies, they have

confirmed the primacy of social interaction in a cognitive development,

shifting the research focus from adaptive to transformative function,

from productivity to processuality, from individual to group level of

creativity. Therefore, at this moment, it seems to be fully justified to

examine creativity in the light of wider social changes, considering the

conditions of Castoriadis’s concept of radical imagination, especially

because the neglected features of creativity are a common resource, as

well as a requirement of change.

/ 1968

OLGA KEŠELJEVIĆ BARBEZAT: INVISIBLE PARTICIPANT AND WITNESS TO AN EPOCH

In this paper, for the first time in national historiography, the life and

work of Olga Kešeljević Barbezat, an art historian and actress, are dealt

with in more detail. Having arrived in Paris in 1936 with the intention

to defend her PhD thesis in art history, she established relations with a

circle of Yugoslav artists: Ljubica Cuca Sokić, Ivan Tabaković, Bora

Baruh, Petar Lubarda etc. During the Second World War she married

Mark Barbezat, a young intellectual who would soon launch L’Arbalète,

the publishing house well-known for the works of Jean Genet, Antonin

Artaud, Albert Camus, Lana Leclercq, Sartre, Eluard etc. Considering

the published correspondence between Barbezat and Genet, numerous

dedications in the books owned by the Barbezat family, Olgaʼs portraits

painted by some of the most influential Serbian twentieth-century

artists, the testimonies of the successors of their families, postcards

and letters sent to painter Nedeljko Gvozdenović (kept in the Archive

of SASA in Belgrade), as well as other material traces, this paper

discusses the role of Olga Kešeljević Barbezat on the cultural scene

of France, as well as the intelectual relations she had with the Serbian

artists whose works were part of the Barbezat art collection. At the

same time, knowing that the family heritage was put up for auction in

2016, after Olga Kešeljevićʼs death in December 2015, it is important

to think about the availability of any new material and possibly existing

personal correspondence with Serbian artists that would contribute to

the results of this research in the future.

/ 1968

POSSIBILITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF VISUAL ECONOMY AS A SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE

In an effort to determine certain basic principles of Visual Economy,

it is natural and quite logical to first consider it in the context of

traditional media. This implies that we will have a smaller number of

media available, which enables us to better understand and define the

problems they deal with. In its further structuring and defining, a wide

range of the media and new visual aspects and possibilities that are

available to us in the modern age can be very helpful. Anthropologist

Deborah Pool defines the Visual Economy as a political, economic and

social matrix in which photos operate, and defines their production,

circulation, consumption and possession. Before any attempt to

determine visual economy framework, it is necessary to consider the

crucial and revolutionary role of the Internet today. The economy and

all the other phenomena that accompany it are inevitably included in

this vast network of computers. Also, visual perception is unimaginable

outside the context of the Internet. Even if we tried to do this we

would weave into that network, or at least we would feel something

was missing and that the whole was not completely rounded up. In

its primary sense, the Internet Economy refers to the basic economic

qualities of the Internet, and how the Internet service providers share

costs and provide services. However, many of the issues that appear in

the Internet Economy look similar to those in the traditional industrial

economy. The Internet Economy covers more and more areas of

the economy, and at the same time, every industry is not under the

influence of the Internet in the same scope. This secondary significance,

which is more important to us, refers to visual content on the Internet

(photos, pictures, films, etc.) and their consumption and affect on

the consumers from different cultures. Visual Economy is in some

way connected with Visual Culture, and there are many touch points

with Visual Anthropology. This is especially expressed in the field of

cinematography, which is a rich field for research, from both visual and

economic aspect.

/ 1968

PRINCIPLES OF FORMING PUBLISHING SERIES

A publishing series is formed as a outcome of various activities and

regulations dealing with literary, editorial and publishing decisions

and contents, as well as cultural processes related to readers’ practices,

readers’ competences and audience development strategies. We

approach the understanding of publishing series considering four main

principles: (1) historical, (2) editorial, (3) paratextual and (4) readeroriented. In this paper, we have analyzed these four main principles

following the example of Croatian publishing series – Biblioteka HIT

(HIT Library of modern literature) edited by Zlatko Crnković – as one

of seven publishing series in Croatia between 1968 and 1991. Biblioteka

HIT had dominated the publishing scene in Croatia and Yugoslavia

during the 1970s and 1980s, both in commercial and cultural sense.

/ 1968

EVENT MANAGEMENТ IN THEATRE ARTS

Cultural events are very important for a community and its cultural

and economic development. Theatre performances as cultural events

are studied as a distinctive social phenomenon. In this article we will

observe theatre art and its development from religious rituals and poetic

plays to Broadway. Organization of an event such as theatre performance

is a very complicated process which requires the organizers to have

specific set of skills and knowledge. In addition to coming up with the

idea for the theme of a cultural event, it is necessary to consider a range

of convenient places and always have in mind the budgetary and other

limitations. Event management has become a special field of research

in a large number of educational institutions.

/ 1968

GRAFFITI – THE ART OF RESISTANCE

There is no consensus when it comes to graffiti. The fact that we

balance between considering them art and considering their invasion

of our public space vandalism, tells mainly about our fear of inability

to control the messages they send. But whether consisting of an artist’s

name or a high quality drawing, graffiti messages carry a common

meaning. Following the trail of Monsieur Chat, a graffiti cat smiling

from Paris rooftops at the protestants during the social upheaval of

2001, the French director Chris Marker reflected on these post 9/11

events, reminding us that, just like in 1968, poetry gets born in the

streets. Graffiti initially emerged out of necessity, as a language of those

deprived of other, more conventional means of expression. They serve

a social function by expressing the society’s shared values, instead of

individual beliefs of their creators. By invading our public space they

alter our perception of reality, provoke critical thinking and awake our

social conscience. Regarding graffiti as a mean of communication, this

paper reflects on this phenomenon by analysing different segments of

communication process.

/ 1968

ART AND MONEY: THEATRES IN BELGRADE OVER THE PERIOD 1945–1980

During the examined period, the state exercised ideological control

over all segments of public life including artistic creation. This control

was particularly pronounced in the years following the Second World

War, even though it was present throughout the entire period. In

theatres, it was expressed through various forms, of which the most

significant were political censorship on the one hand, and on the other,

their dependence on state financing. Since a lot has already been

written on the significance of the ideological factor, we will instead

focus on the influence of the financial circumstances on the formation

of theatre repertoires in Belgrade, between 1945 and 1980. Roughly

speaking, two major phases were identified. The first one, the period

of centralization, was the period of strong state control of the theatre

repertoires in Belgrade, also accompanied with firm financial support.

The other period, the period of decentralization, allowed theatres to

create their repertoires more freely, but also meant that they had to

partly obtain financing from other sources. 

/ 1968

TAYLORIZATION MOTIFS IN FRITZ LANG’S FILM METROPOLIS

The Fritz Lang’s cult film Metropolis seen in the context of ideas

presented by Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of scientific

management, reveals a powerful message that the modern cult of

efficiency, according to which things can be done “in one best way”,

dehumanizes labour and turns humans into machines thus preventing

their spiritual accomplishment. The paper examines the presence of

Taylor’s ideas in Germany during the 1920s, as well as their global

impact on the art and culture trends, underlying their dystopic potential.

Through intersemiotic references to other literary and cinematographic

works, primarily Yevgeny Zamyatin’s novel We and Aldous Huxley’s

Brave New World, this interdisciplinary study confirms conclusions

of certain authors about the crucial importance of Taylor’s ideas in

understanding the world we live in.