THE ANTI-EMBARGO "CAGE" MAGAZINE
The following source article was written by Andrej Tisma who had been an active participant in the doings of the CAGE magazine. We are grateful to him for allowing us to publish his text.
Since May 31st, 1992, the date of introduction of cultural blockade in Yugoslavia by the world community, until today, the "Cage" magazine has been the only periodical publication in our country which opposed this act with its content and conception. The magazine is published regularly from December 1992, and it has five issues until now (second in April 1993, third in June, fourth in October 1993 and the fifth one in July 1994). It is arranged, designed and published by the multi-media artist Aleksandar Jovanovic from Odzaci.
The idea for the magazine was established soon after the introduction of sanctions in Yugoslavia, at the Anti-Embargo Congress of Networkers from Serbia, held by the beginning of September 1992 in Sremski Karlovci. That was when Aleksandar Jovanovic, together with seven other colleagues signed the declaration against the cultural embargo, " Deblockade of Creativity ", which circled the world and was published in various magazines. Aleksandar Jovanovic, known as the active visual poet and the author of performance art, publishes the first issue of the "Cage" magazine with the intention to enlarge the existing group of colleagues, who each in his own way fought against the unreasonable and uncivilized isolation of Yugoslavia, and create a greater effect abroad. In the very first issue, published on 24 pages, apart from Jovanovic and domestic networkers making the nucleus, we find the authors from Bulgaria, Germany, Holland, Spain and USA. All of them express their solidarity with the position of our artists under the sanctions, through their visual works and textual messages and this support is of essential importance for appearing of the magazine at the international cultural scene.
By the time, this support becomes stronger, and in the second issue published on 36 pages, there are works also from Japan, Switzerland, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium and France. An international group of artists has been established, the artists sincerely supporting the magazine and its engagement, also writing about it in the international media. In August 1993 Jovanovic has received a letter from the famous London "Tate" Gallery by which he was informed that the "Cage" has been inserted in their artistic collection. He has received the similar letter in May next year from the famous Modern Art Museum in New York. This was not only the confirmation of Jovanovic's successful work and the quality of magazine, but a brilliant action of breaking cultural embargo through the most important cultural institutions in the world.
Apart from publishing the magazine, Jovanovic, in his fight against cultural blockade, establishes live performances and exhibitions, promoting the magazine at the same time. On May 31st, 1993, on the first anniversary of embargo introduction, he organized the exhibition in the “Happy Gallery” of The Students Cultural Centre in Belgrade and the promotion of the magazine. In the street in front of this building there was a program of performances aimed against the embargo. This action attracted the attention NBC television, and apart from Jovanovic among the participants were: Jaroslav Supek, Nenad Bogdanovic, Miroljub Todorovic, Andrej Tisma, Dobrica Kamperelic, Sandor Gogoljak and Anica Vucetic, the artists making the nucleus of the "Cage" and its actions. In the series of actions in which the common accessories was a real Cage, the artists have shown their protest against the embargo in public. Documentation accompanying the actions was the content of the third issue of the magazine which was also presented to the whole world. The first exhibition and promotion of the "Cage" magazine in abroad was on November 11th, 1993, in Vichte, Belgium, organized by the contributor to the magazine Jose Vandenbroucke, on the national Armistice Day. The exhibition of "Cage" was called "Serbian Artists from Cage" and it attracted great attention. It was visited by many people and shown on local TV. Two other presentations followed, on two other continents: in Dallas (USA) in the Modern Realism Gallery of John Held, one of the first contributors to the magazine, till November, 1994, and then in Tokyo, at the Metropolitan Museum, from January 6th, 1995, thanks to the efforts of the contributor Shozo Shimamoto.
About fifty works against the embargo were shown at the exhibitions by the authors from Serbia, by which was not only broken the barrier imposed from the outside, but the messages themselves ment by those works had their own role.
Since the artists and cultural workers in our country showed ambivalent attitude toward the cultural embargo so some of them even supported it believing that in this way they will establish their career in the case of government fall due to the sanctions, and others stopped working because they could not see the possibility of accomplishing their interest, the "Cage" had the task to fight on the inner aspect too, serving as an example of engaged creativity. In the “Golden Eye” Gallery of the Centre for Visual Culture in Novi Sad there was an exhibition and promotion of the magazine, together with the performances of several permanent contributors. On that day January 11th, 1994, the promotion of the fourth issue was held in which new contributors appeared from England, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Estonia, Brazil and Republic of Srpska. Local TV reported about the event and at the time of American open threatening to bomb the Serbian countries it showed a program to millions of people. Articles on it appeared in many newspapers and art magazines.
For the second anniversary of embargo Aleksandar Jovanovic did his own performance "Networker's Spirit" in the Gallery of HIPOL in Odzaci (Jovanovic is employed in HIPOL, the company which is the sponsor of the magazine and all of his actions). During the performance he opened the bottles with the breath (soul) of the artist which he received from all over the world asking for them under the slogan "Spirit cannot be closed in the Cage". Liberated and joined breaths/souls of the artists in this way symbolized the whole conception and engagement of the "Cage" magazine and its publisher. This material, as an installation, was accepted at the exhibition of the First Yugoslav Art Biennial of Youth in Vrsac, winning even greater confirmation and media attention. The fifth issue of the magazine is a document of this action.
In the meantime, cultural blockade in Yugoslavia was suspended (October 5th, 1994). Was it partly due to the "Cage" and the group of domestic and foreign artists who acted for almost three years on all fronts and through different media, it is of no importance now. Aleksandar Jovanovic and his colleagues expressed on the pages of the magazine and through accompanying actions their attitude and engagement. In any case, he won, at least morally, because the world admitted its mistake.
There is no reason for the magazine to be published any more since Jovanovic said in the beginning that it will appear only during the cultural embargo, and it is probably the only magazine whose publishers wanted it to appear in the period as short as possible. The sixth and the last issue of “Cage” will include all the remaining art and textual works done after the fifth one and till the embargo abolishment and it will present a summary of the so far work. The daily current and engaged artists magazine, the "Cage", is now only a history.
Andrej Tisma
Published in "Krovovi" magazine no 36-38, November, 1996, in Sremski Karlovci, Serbia.