KONCEPTUALNA UMETNOST I DRUŠTVENA DEVIJANTNOST U SFR JUGOSLAVIJI

Abstract

The paper investigates the relationship between the phenomenon of conceptual art and various manifestations of social deviance in the area of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The first part discusses the general relationship between conceptual art and social deviance, while the second part presents the socio-political context in which Yugoslav conceptual art developed during the 1970s. The third part is dedicated to recognizing and analyzing several socially deviant forms that can be noticed in connection with the mentioned segment of Yugoslav art from the 1970s. Special attention is paid to the category of deviant phenomena which we defined as “anti-system deviations.” In the final, fourth part, the peculiarities of socially deviant Yugoslav conceptual art manifestations are noticed. Among the more significant insights, the considerable presence of anti-system deviations within the activities of one part of the Yugoslav conceptual scene was emphasized. The ambivalence of the Yugoslav regime in terms of its attitude towards the artistic neo-avant-garde was also identified: on the one hand, a significantly more liberal attitude compared to the Eastern Bloc regimes, but also readiness for decisive persecution in case of open encroachment on the ruling order. As one of the primary conclusions, it was noticed that Yugoslav conceptual art (following the fate of Yugoslavia as a state “between East and West”), in terms of social deviance, was also halfway between conceptualists from Western countries and those from the Eastern Bloc. In that sense, the socio-political regime in the SFRY provided a much higher degree of personal and artistic freedoms than was the case in most socialist states, but at the same time vigorously sanctioned anti-systemic and anti-state actions to ensure the ruling order.