Vienna, 21 April 2023 (MIA) - 'No Feeling is Final. The Skopje Solidarity Collection' put Macedonian contemporary art in the focus at the Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier on Thursday.

During the next nine months the European and world's public will have the opportunity to see the dialogue created by the artistic teams of the Museum of Contemporary Art - Skopje (MoCA) and the Kunsthalle Vienna through their curatorial project, the Ministry of Culture said in a press release. 

The project was inspired by MoCA's Solidarity Collection and realized on the 60th anniversary since the devastating earthquake in Skopje. 

"Presenting the collection created through worldwide solidarity and the new works from the artists who are part of the exhibition, the curators raise questions still relevant today - is solidarity possible in general, and is solidarity possible between artists? They talk about unity of opposing political blocs through art, as was the case after the Skopje earthquake in Skopje. The exhibition makes current the issue of architecture, city planning and how we got to "Skopje 2014" from a Skopje Solidarity project," said Culture Minister Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska.

This cooperation, she noted, shows that we have always created art that is attractive and engaged in responding to the highest world standards and currents in contemporary art. This is shown by the authors in the Solidarity Collection, as well as by the authors who art are part of the European scene today with their conceptual and are involved in this project.

"This exhibition shows that we are part of the current artistic moment in Europe, and encourages us to focus on future similar collaborations that will certainly contribute to a greater openness of the world to new Macedonian art creations," Kostadinovska-Stojchevska said.

The Minister of Culture believes that the exhibition will result in new lasting creative friendships with artists from Melbourne, Berlin, Istanbul and Vienna. 

Mira Gakjina, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, said the cooperation with the Kunsthalle Vienna is the most complex project for the museum so far, and an event of national interest for the country. 

The project was conceived and curated by the artistic directors of Kunsthalle, the curatorial collective What, How & for Who/WHW (Ivet Ćurlin, Natasha Ilić, and Sabina Sabolović).

From the total collection of MoCA Skopje, which counts nearly 6,000 works, 94 works and about 50 works by contemporary artists, involved in this project, are exhibited in Vienna. 

Part of the exhibition also contains a documentary section about Skopje, the transformation of the city, and the story of MoCA and its collection, documents, and the model of Kenzo Tange, borrowed from the archives of the Museum.  

Ahead of the opening of the exhibition, architects Jovan Ivanovski, Ana Ivanovska Deskova, and Vladimir Deskov, whose architectural models of post-earthquake Skopje are also displayed, delivered a lecture on Skopje. 

The exhibition at the Kunsthalle Vienna will be open until January 28, 2024.