The exhibition The End of Language – Wittgenstein Re-imagined was opened on Friday, March 15th in the Milica Zorić and Rodoljub Čolaković Legacy Gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art, in presence of number of artists from Serbia and Austria who participated in online art competition that was held during 2022 under the auspices of the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Art and Science website Lichtfelder.org.
Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Marijana Kolarić, Director of Austrian Cultural Forum Amadeus Faltheiner, author of the project and representative of the web platform Lichtfelder.org Milica Lapčević, and curator and exhibition coordinator from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade Miroslav Karić, addressed the guests, on the official part of the opening.
Director Marijana Kolarić pointed out that this exhibition is a result of a long-term cooperation between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Austrian Cultural Forum in Belgrade. “With great pleasure, tonight we are opening the exhibition “The End of Language – Wittgenstein re-imagined”, which is based on the ideas of the great Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein as well as on the idea of a new perception and language research. Bearing in mind that the language of visual arts carries its universal potential of expression and can overcome all sorts of barriers – it seems indeed it is possible to declare “the end of language” as the beginning of new visual communication age over differences and borders, and as a framework for exciting interactions, exchanges, dialectics and connections. I would like to thank everyone who supported the exhibition – to the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Ministry of Culture and the main sponsor of the exhibition, Wiener Städtische Insurance.” – concluded Kolarić.
Director of Austrian Cultural Forum in Belgrade Amadeus Faltheiner, emphasized in his opening speech that the exhibition is about to be opened has a number of meanings: “It was born out of a wonderful initiative in 2019 to preserve the memory of the artist and mathematician Marica Radojčić, who was very dedicated to networking and connecting artists from all over the world. This initiative triggered the creation of the website LICHTFELDER.org and further events including exhibitions in Graz and Belgrade, gradually becoming a generator of energy for connecting artists from Austria and Serbia and their creative exchange.
A competition for artists initiated in 2022 inviting for interdisciplinary and multimedia research inspired by the ideas of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who worked in the field of logic, mathematical philosophy, philosophy of mind and language, undoubtedly confirmed the new relevance of his philosophical reflections, inviting us to challenge what we know or believe we understand.
I wish for this exhibition to contribute to further connecting and strengthening cooperation between the Austrian and Serbian art scene, as well as to provide the audience with new experiences in viewing artistic ideas about significant aspects of our life that Wittgenstein dealt with, such as words, experience, and the human cognitive and perceptive possibilities, which today encompass even wider range of questions within the latest development of technology and AI.“ – Faltheiner pointed out.
One of the initiators and coordinator of the project and web platform Lichtfelder.org, Milica Lapčević referred in her speech to the great Serbian dramatist Jovan Ćirilov and his belief that the inventions of all times continue to exist together at every moment of history, offering us a multitude of paths through reality to explore. One of those paths is certainly philosophical proposition of Ludwig Wittgenstein, which was the main guiding light for this exhibition. Starting from the title itself and the play on words between “The End“ and “End of language” and communication in digital age, to the overall prospects of the development of civilization based on speech, linguistics and semantics. From fascination with technology to genuinely creative breakthroughs, from our awareness of nature to its articulation in scientific or spiritual terms, or both. Many more inventions and ideas are hidden in the works of art in front of us, which we have a unique opportunity to explore tonight”.
Curator and exhibition coordinator from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade Miroslav Karić said about the concept of the exhibition: “Today, in the circumstances of new geopolitical challenges accompanied by radical technological changes, the return to Wittgenstein initiates in reflections on how the legacy of his philosophical views can be re-actualized in understanding our place in the world, the complexity of the relationship between language, meaning, communication, nature of reality. Exhibition in the Gallery – legacy of Milica Zorić and Rodoljub Čolaković through the works of thirty artists of different poetics, mediums and expressions in Wittgenstein’s style do not defines problems but opens numerous questions, confronting us with what we know or believe that we understand especially in contemporary social contexts, in our daily and frequent transitions from the real to the virtual and vice versa.
Professor Dr Nina Mihaljinac, member of the jury of the competition of Serbian and Austrian works selection, on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition, said: “This is one of the rare exhibitions of this kind of format and concept – with a large number of exhibitors from Serbia and one foreign country. As such, it is an opportunity to see parts of the scene of contemporary visual arts in Serbia and Austria – those with the foundation of artistic practices in the theory of art, initiating also the collaboration of artists and curators from two countries. I think it will be important for the biographies of these renowned artists from Austria that they have been exhibiting in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade and I congratulate the authors on this great show.”
The artists whose works are exhibited are Ana Maria Lima Dimitrijević, Anita Witek, Arnold Reinthaler, Astrid Schwarz, Barbara Hoeller, Boris Burić, Daniel Rothbart, Danica Bićanić, Daniela Fulgosi, Dea Džankovic, Doris Theres Hofer, Dragana Žarevac, Dunja Trutin, Ernst Miesgang, Irena Simić, Isabella Kohlhuber, Gerda Lampalzer, Goran Despotovski, Jochen Höller, Lana Vasiljević, Michael Heindl, Miljana Niković, Nikola Radosavljević, Roswitha Weingrill/Stevan Kojić, Sonja Meller, Stefan Wirnsperger, Vanja Novaković, Werner Jauk/Laura Sophie Meyer and Žarko Aleksić.
The competition included proposals and interdisciplinary research inspired by ideas Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who worked in the field of logic, mathematical philosophy, philosophy of mind and language.
The exhibition is open until May 6th 2024. The initiator of the exhibition is Austrian Cultural Forum Belgrade, responsible for the concept and management of the project was Milica Lapčević (Lichtfelder.org) while Miroslav Karić is the curator and coordinator from Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade. The curators of the online exhibition are Daniela Wageneder-Stelzhammer and Aleksandra Lazar, and the members of the jury of online exhibitions were Doris Jauk-Hinz, Dr Nina Mihaljinac, Dr Aloizia Mozer and Jelena Glišić Matović. The website Lichtfelder.org was designed by Nikola Korać. The official insurance of the exhibition is Wiener Städtische osiguranje.
