Tome Adzievski with “ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE EAST” in Chifte Amam

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It is with great pleasure that we announce the opening of the latest exhibition by the artist Tome Adzievski “ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE EAST” on the 9th of November (Thursday) at 19.30 at the National Gallery in Chifte Amam.

Tome Adzievski counts as a prominent artist, part of the so-called mid generation of Macedonian contemporary artists, breaking through in the 1990s (he graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1983). His youthful and rebellious character and desire to bring about “revolutionary” and fast changes in art in our country has greatly impacted the modernisation of the Macedonian visual vocabulary, as part of Macedonian post-modernism. Controversial but powerful, luxurious but contested at times, Adzievski has always skilfully created pieces that carry exceptional specifics pertaining to space and aesthetics; however, engaged social and political discourse has dominated and is an important trait of his artistic temperament. He relies on significant events in history of art in the 20th Century, that to this day seem to travel on some cyclical trajectory, marked by landmark revolutionary moments that lead to a change of pace, understanding of art and its role and of course the role of the artist in the social habitus.

The latest creative opus of Tome Adzievski ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE EAST represents a kind of homage to the time of Russian avant-garde and their artistic revolution – a reaction to the social revolution. This was an exceptionally important time for art in the last century and generally for art history and through neo-avant-garde still has reminiscences on contemporary art, in other words the art that is created today however seemingly anachronic the neo-avant-garde may be perceived. Adzievski “adapts” experiences of the Russian progressive artistic intelligence, the advantages of abstract art, constructivism, metaphysic art, suprematism, of art as a theory, neo-avant-garde from the 1970s, post-modern aesthetic, all with the aim to reach to the bottom of some very acute issues still relevant today. Through this visual premise, Adzievski obfuscates the role of the artist in Eastern Europe, of which our country is part geo-politically speaking, tendentiously verbalising the need to elevate the value of eastern tradition, as opposed to blindly following western globalism, which we have witnessed for many decades now.

The artist manages this with a seemingly “easy” and familiar visual matrix, using used and waste materials or materials purposefully obtained for his sculptures, thus creating spatial and formal conglomerates with transgressive and powerful sculptural aspirations that have captured the amam’s space. These are multimedia pieces that contain sheet metal, corrugated paper, plastic, metal, springs from old mattresses, cardboards, silicone, pipes, marble, jute bags, belts, plastic crates, wooden boards, asphalt, paint, tar etc.

The exhibition will be opened until the 29th of November. The curator of the project is Ana Frangovska, senior curator at the National Gallery.

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