100 Years Of Zenit
The exhibition “IT NEVER HAPPENED!” currently at Cinema Balkan In Belgrade, celebrates 100 years since the founding of ZENIT magazine. ZENIT was the most important avant-garde magazine published in the former Yugoslavia and one of the most significant publications of the European avant-garde movement of the early 20th century. It began in 1921 and was published monthly by Ljubomir Micić (Љубомир Мицић -1895-1971) in Zagreb and Belgrade until December 1926, when it was banned. A total of 43 issues were published, as well as one poster, ‘Zenitismus’, and one issue of a daily Zenit newspaper on September 23, 1922. ‘Zenitism’ was an avant-garde movement born around the magazine. The Zenitist Manifesto of June 1921 proclaimed humanist and anti-war ideals, and called for the creation of a new and united Europe. Besides Micić, noteworthy contributors to Zenit included Miloš Crnjanski, Dušan Matić , Stanislav Vinaver, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Blok, Jaroslav Seifert, Wassily Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin, Kazimir Malevich, Tommaso Marinetti, Marc Chagall, Ilya Ehrenburg, and many others.
The followng images outline my (invited) contribution to the exhibition IT NEVER HAPPENED!
pureland_press/footnote also contributed to the English translation of the programme notes which included details of the opening night dadist cabaret:
19.20 Marquise DE SADA and DECADENCE in “By a Hundred Gods…!”
– In which two half-blind, shilly-shallying ladies and well-known Belgrade nightlife stars oppose everything!
The capricious duo – known for their Ephemeral Confessions, solo performances and extravagant spectacles, develop the gossip the epoch of Zenit inspired. Maybe they will sprinkle some tea around the exhibition, maybe they will add few noble words. These two impersonators evoke the spirit of Barbarogenia and, alas, show why Europe is dying – and which of the two of them is the more fashionable. hashtag#europe hashtag#journalism hashtag#translation hashtag#publications hashtag#books hashtag#art hashtag#contemporaryart # # # #