Yugoslav architecture exhibition opens in New York

Boris Magas, Vjenceslav Richter, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Juraj Neidhardt, Milica Steric and Svetlana Kana Radevic are only some of the authors whose works are displayed at a large exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, providing an insight into the architecture and the artistic legacy of the former Yugoslavia to a global audience for the first time.

Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 officially opened on July 15. In the upcoming months, it will explores themes of large-scale urbanization, technology in everyday life, consumerism, monuments and memorialization, and the global reach of Yugoslav architecture.

The exhibition is organized by Martino Stierli, the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, and Vladimir Kulic, guest curator, with Anna Kats, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art.

As Stierli and Kulic explain, Toward a Concrete Utopia focuses on the period of intensive construction from 1948 and Yugoslavia's split with the USSR and 1980, the year of Tito's death. The exhibition includes more than 400 drawings, models, photographs, and film reels from an array of municipal archives, family-held collections, and museums across the region,

– The architecture that emerged—from International Style skyscrapers to Brutalist “social condensers”—is a manifestation of the radical diversity, hybridity, and idealism that characterized the Yugoslav state itself – MoMA announced.

The exhibition is open through January 13, 2019.

Boris Magas

Vjenceslav Richter

Bogdan Bogdanovic

Juraj Neidhardt

Milica Steric

Svetlana Kana Radevic

Toward a Concrete Utopia Architecture in Yugoslavia

MoMA

Martino Stierli

Vladimir Kulic

Anna Kats

Yugoslav architecture