A Slow Burning Fire The Rise of the New Art Practice in Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia's diverse and interconnected art scenes from the 1960s to the 1980s, linked to the country's experience with socialist self-management.

In Yugoslavia from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, state-supported Student Cultural Centers became incubators for new art. This era's conceptual and performance art--known as Yugoslavia's New Art Practice--emerged from a network of diverse and densely interconnected art scenes that nurtured the early work of Marina Abramović, Sanja Iveković, Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), and others. In this book, Marko Ilić offers the first comprehensive examination of the New Art Practice, linking it to Yugoslavia's experience with socialist self-management and the political upheavals of the 1980s.

Marko Ilić is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Introduction
Chapter One. A Draft Decree on the Democratisation of Art
Chapter Two. A Taster of Political Insult
Chapter Three. The International Strike of Artists
Chapter Four. Artists at Work
Chapter Five. What is the Alternative?
Chapter Six. The Miracle of Miracles
Conclusion