Renowned artist Marina Abramović to present new project at 54th Venice Biennale Montenegrin Pavilion

• Montenegrin Pavilion at the 54th Biennale of contemporary art in Venice will be inaugurated by President of Montenegro Filip Vujanović at Palazzo Malipiero on 1 June at 19:00

• Other distinguished guests at the opening of Montenegrin Pavilion and exhibition “The Fridge Factory and Clear Waters” will include Culture Minister Branislav Mićunović and performance artist Marina Abramović

• On June 2 at 10:00, Minister Mićunović and Ms Abramović are scheduled to meet at the Malipiero with the media and representatives distinguished art institutions

Montenegro’s appearance at the 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, entitled “The Fridge Factory and Clear Waters”, forms part of the international presentation of the concept of MACCO Cetinje – Marina Abramović Community Centre Obod Cetinje – a future international multimedia centre which will occupy the 140,000 sq.m. space of the former Obod refrigerator factory in Cetinje, old royal capital of Montenegro. The Biennale presentation features the works of Montenegrin artists Ilija Šoškić and Natalija Vujošević, a video made by Marina Abramović presenting the idea of future art centre and a multimedia presentation of MACCO Cetinje including printed and electronic informational material.

The starting point in defining the Biennale presentation concept was the transformation of the quondam Yugoslav industrial giant, the Obod refrigerator factory, into a state of passivisation of the immediate and broader communities; in other words, the story of how the function of freezing became the fate, the misfortune or the “grand metaphor” of a multilayered state of frozenness, hibernation and being-out-of-function centred on a particular town at a particular time.

The Marina Abramović Community Center Obod Cetinje will be a place for the production, presentation, distribution and development of different art forms, including performance art and visual arts, dance and theatre, music and opera, film and video, educational and ecological programs and a space for fostering interest in architecture, science and new technologies.

In organisers’ words, “MACCO Cetinje is envisioned as a generator of change, a massive driving force for reanimation, revitalisation, thawing, ‘clearing’ and ‘airing’, for the ‘confluence of clear waters’, as a motivator of cultural development in Montenegro.” The idea is to create a network for linking-up of “individuals, groups, institutions, ideas and initiatives in the contemporary international cultural context”; in other words, to enable for MACCO Cetinje to “champion a vision of wide-ranging connections between people who think and perform positively through meaningful ideas and actions.”

In addition to cultural activities, the multi-functional MACCO Cetinje centre will also develop an entire series of economic and service ventures which should provide a significant contribution to both the reanimation of the Obod factory compound and the revitalisation of the entire town of Cetinje.

Exhibition visuals and Marina Avramović’s statement are available in the download section above.

 
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