The second half of the twentieth century was marked by the politically frozen conflict between the Western and Eastern blocs. The Cold War brought not only competition in economic growth, armament, and technological supremacy, but also the formation of new geopolitical relations. Between the two centres of power, the Non-Aligned Movement emerged, with Yugoslavia as one of its founding members. Its aim was to create space for pursuing an independent foreign policy agenda.
In the exhibition Practices of Nearness, Serbian-Slovak visual artist Olja Triaška Stefanović draws on extensive archival research to examine the mechanisms through which international alliances were built, showing how political relationships were shaped during official diplomatic ceremonies as well as through subtle gestures of partnership and friendship.
Olja Triaška Stefanović (1978) is a visual artist, associate professor, and Head of the Department of Photography and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. Her work has been presented in numerous exhibitions in Slovakia and abroad. She was a finalist for the NOVUM Foundation Award in 2019 and a Fulbright Fellow from 2023 to 2025. Her practice is characterised by archival research into Cold War-era sources, photography, and video. In her work, she confronts collective memory with her personal experience of growing up in the former Yugoslavia.
An active part of the exhibition is the studio space connected to Olja Triaška Stefanović’s exhibition Practises of Nearness. It is open to all visitors as a place where the themes of the exhibition are explored in a playful and accessible way.
Through objects, props, and artefacts that visitors are free to interact with and manipulate, they can create their own version of a landscape that no longer exists today and explore its stories and contexts. In this way, they can gain a deeper understanding of the themes addressed by the exhibition.
Visitors also have the opportunity to encounter objects that are no longer commonly used today, such as an overhead projector, and in doing so become part of the stories presented throughout the exhibition.
