Toward a Concrete Utopia at MoMA

Through “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980“, the MoMA introduces the exceptional work of socialist Yugoslavia’s leading architects to an international audience for the first time, highlighting a significant yet thus-far understudied body of modernist architecture, whose forward-thinking contributions still resonate today.

Edvard Ravnikar, Revolution Square (today Republic Square), 1960-74, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Photo: Valentin Jeck, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2016

“Toward a Concrete Utopia” explores themes of large-scale urbanization, technology in everyday life, consumerism, monuments and memorialization, and the global reach of Yugoslav architecture.

Stojan Maksimović, Sava Center, 1979, Belgrade, Serbia. Photo: Valentin Jeck, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2016

The exhibition includes more than 400 drawings, models, photographs, and film reels from an array of municipal archives, family-held collections, and museums across the region, and features work by important architects including Bogdan Bogdanović, Juraj Neidhardt, Svetlana Kana Radević, Edvard Ravnikar, Vjenceslav Richter, and Milica Šterić.

Janko Konstantinov, Telecommunications Center, 1972-81, Skopje, Macedonia. Perspective drawing of the counter hall. Ozalid and tracing paper

From the sculptural interior of the White Mosque in rural Bosnia, to the post-earthquake reconstruction of the city of Skopje based on Kenzo Tange’s Metabolist design, to the new town of New Belgrade, with its expressive large-scale housing blocks and civic buildings, the exhibition examines the unique range of forms and modes of production in Yugoslav architecture and its distinct yet multifaceted character.

Mihajlo Čanak, Leonid Lenarčić, Milosav Mitić, and Ivan Petrović. Building B9, Block 21, 1959-65. New Belgrade, Serbia. Photo: Ivan Petrović

Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980
15.07.2018 – 13.01.2019

Image 1: Miodrag Živković, Monument to the Battle of Sutjeska, 1965-71, Tjentište, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo: Valentin Jeck, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2017

Discover: www.moma.org