The exhibition “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980” looks at the architecture of former Yugoslavia. A first major US show that explores these works will open on July 15, 2018, and run through January 13, 2019, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.The display features more than 400 drawings, models, photographs, and film reels collected from different municipal archives, family collections, and museums. “It introduces the exceptional built work of socialist Yugoslavia’s leading architects to an international audience for the first time,” the museum says. “Tasked with constructing a socialist society based on ‘self-management,’ modern architecture was a key instrument in the implementation of a utopian vision in a perpetual state of emergence; many of the featured visionary projects and executed buildings speak to architecture’s aspirational role in terms of both design and social impact.”Apart from architectural work, the display contains three video installations by filmmaker Mila Turajlić, newly commissioned photographs by Valentin Jeck, and contemporary artworks by Jasmina Cibic and David Maljković.The exhibition showcases work by architects such as Bogdan Bogdanović, Juraj Neidhardt, Svetlana Kana Radević, Edvard Ravnikar, Vjenceslav Richter, and Milica Šterić. “It explores themes including large-scale urbanization, technological experimentation and its impact on daily lives, consumerism, monuments and memorialization, and the global reach of Yugoslav architecture,” the museum writes. The installation consists of galleries devoted to topics such as Modernization, Global Networks, Everyday Life, and Identities. “It also examines the unique range of forms and modes of production in Yugoslav architecture and its distinct yet multifaceted character,” the museum adds.“Toward a Concrete Utopia” focuses on the period when Yugoslavia broke away from the Soviet bloc in 1948 until the death of the country’s leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980. This was a period of intense construction and went hand in hand with the emergence of postmodernism in the country. “Given the country’s diversity, Yugoslavia’s architects responded to contradictory demands and influences, developing a postwar architecture both in line with and distinct from the design approaches seen elsewhere in Europe and beyond,” the museum says. “The architecture that emerged — from International Style skyscrapers to Brutalist “social condensers” — is a manifestation of the radical pluralism, hybridity, and idealism that characterized the Yugoslav state itself.”The exhibition aims to examine how architecture was used in socialist Yugoslavia to shape a common history, collective identity, and vision for community in what was an essentially multi-ethnic state.“Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980” runs from July 15, 2018, through January 13, 2019, at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019, USA.For details, visit: http://www.blouinartinfo.com/galleryguide/museum-of-modern-art-(moma)/overviewClick on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the exhibition.http://www.blouinartinfo.comFounder: Louise Blouin Read more