NON. Nemanja Cvijanovic – Ivan Moudov at Galerie Alberta Pane, Paris

NON is the title of an exhibition at Galerie Alberta Pane in Paris / France that brings together two conceptual artists: Nemanja Cvijanovic from Croatia and Ivan Moudov from Bulgaria. On display are a video of a red flag that is actually white; a video with a lawyer, describing the preconditions for a private museum of contemporary art in Bulgaria; barriers that almost completely fill the gallery space; and an entrance door that can only be opened from outside.

Nemanja Cvijanovic was born in 1972 in Rijeka, Croatia. He has exhibited widely in Europe and the US. His solo exhibitions include: No, noi non siamo come Lui, Kjosk!, Public Art Platform in Bassano del Grappa, Italy (2010), and Paying my Electricity Bill at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka (2008). In 2010, he took part in several group shows including: Luc Tuymans: A View of Central Europe at Bruges’ Central Festival; T-HT Award at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, as well as at the 14th International Sculpture Biennale of Carrara, Italy.

Ivan Moudov was born in 1975 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Ivan graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia in 2002. In the same year he participated at the Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt, and has since exhibited widely in Europe and across the globe. In 2005, he took part in the first Moscow biennale, and in 2007 represented the Bulgarian pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. His solo exhibitions include: Ivan Moudov curated by Ulf Eriksson at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2008), Wine for Openings – Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich (2010). In 2010 his shows notably included the exhibition Les vigiles, les menteurs, les rêveurs 1 commissioned by Guillaume Désanges, at the Plateau-Frac île-de-France, as well as the second international biennale of Antakya.

NON has been curated by Daniele Capra. Daniele Capra is a journalist, art critic, independent curator – and piano teacher.

NON. Nemanja Cvijanovic – Ivan Moudov at Galerie Alberta Pane, Paris. Vernissage, January 8, 2011.

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From the press release:

NON challenges the mainstream by exposing the weaknesses and limits hidden behind its facade.
NON seeks to bypass artistic conventions through anarchic thought and criticism, which refuses to adhere to the rules of bureaucratic conformity; harmful not only to art enthusiasts but to society as a whole.
NON challenges space − each artist will create a performance specifically related to the gallery and the viewer, looking for interaction and proposing alternatives to standardized lines of thought. Deconstructing the usual chain reaction of actions and facts, and judging and analysing it in a playful and ironic way, Cvijanovic and Moudov underline the ambiguity of the real, and the inadequacy of our instruments of interpretation. Considered to be two of the most influential artists of their generation, Cvijanovic and Moudov provide a critical and corrosive analysis of political and social conventions, as well as individual behaviour. Their work explores, in an incisive manner, our recent history and the end of 20th Century movements. It uncovers the sterile zones and the void into which we´ve been led by ” isms “, ready made ideologies, and the symbols and values of mass civilization. Without rhetoric, both artists show that we are not in the best of possible worlds, and that it is necessary to dismantle the foundations of the conventions undermining it.

Photo set:
NON at Galerie Alberta Pane

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