Spaces of conjunction in the Cultural Information Center of the Republic of Macedonia in Istanbul, Turkey

After Sofia and Belgrade, the third destination of the traveling exhibition “Spaces of Connection” is the Bosphorus city of Istanbul. On October 8, 2025, the Director of the Cultural Information Center Dime Ratajkovski and the Director of the National Gallery Ali Sinani will open the exhibition at 7:00 PM in the Center’s space.

The project “Spaces of Connection” positions art as a dynamic space where intimate and personal fragments intertwine with collective memories and cultural matrices, as a theater of tension and symbiosis. This exhibition explores the fragile boundary between small stories from the intimate world of the individual and large narratives – a vast and complex network of grand historical and cultural narratives – a concept derived from Jean-François Lyotard and his critique of “metanarratives.”

According to Lyotard, in the postmodern era we lose faith in “grand narratives” (metanarratives), so the space for truth opens up through “small narratives” (petits récits). Through this prism, the works in this exhibition reflect the potential tension between the social and the individual, not as a conflict, but as a conjunction – in search of new frameworks where individual memories make their contribution, without being overwhelmed by collective memory.

Through graphics, drawing, photography, video, object, collage, artists not only narrate stories, but build multimedia platforms where each medium becomes a separate channel for conjunction. The different techniques do not function only as formal choices, but as active strategies to connect the personal and the collective.

Borders – as physical and symbolic lines – appear through different materials and mediums. They are distinctions, but also gates. We live in a culture where collective memory often casts a shadow over individuality. Repetitive shapes, textures and cloned forms almost “collectivize” personal experiences. This is an intriguing exploration of homogeneity and its limitations, through a visual language that provokes a sense of sameness in local and global memory.

The artists represented in the exhibition are: The artists represented in the exhibition are: Robert Jankuloski, Kristina Pulejkova, Velimir Zhernovski, Monika Moteska, Shqipe Mehmeti, Irena Paskali, Mihaela Jovanovska, Slavica Janeshlieva, Đorđe Jovanovic, Aco Stankoski, Ivancho Talevski, Zhaneta Vangeli, Marija Sotirovska, Kristijan Jovanoski, Marigo Iseini and Igor Sekovski.

The curatorial team: Gorancho Gjorgievski, Maja Nedelkoska-Brzanova and Maja Cankulovska-Mihajlovska.