Between 25 May and 25 July 2021, the Nonument Group organised an exhibition of its artistic interventions and the Nonument archive in the MAO project space. The exhibition was a comprehensive presentation of the group’s artistic and research work on the subject of nonuments over the last ten years. For the last three years, the research on Nonuments has been carried out in the framework of the European project M.A.P.S. – Mapping and Archiving Public Spaces (2016-19) in collaboration with four organisations from the EU and outside the EU (W24, Vienna, Tačka komunikacije, Belgrade, House of Humour and Satire, Gabrovo, Artos, Nicosia). In the MAO project space, we presented the nonument.org archive, with a focus on a selection of Slovenian nonuments, as well as the artistic production on the Buzludzha object in Bulgaria.

In the MAO project space, the Nonument Group presented an overview of proposals for the Slovenian nonumental landscape. The research on nonuments has been carried out by Danica Sretenović over the last two years, and the exhibition at MAO presented an extended research focusing on social perceptions and tensions in nonuments. The main part of the exhibition was dedicated to the presentation of the research on nonuments in Slovenia, based on which we have compiled a list of 20 nonument proposals. The exhibition details a selection of up to 10 nonuments through testimonies, photography and polemical texts, as well as through an overview of the ownership and changes in the status of the selected nonuments. The first public archive of its kind to be presented at the MAO as an art installation, it sought to answer the question of why a particular object became a nonument. What internal tensions and conflicts that it symbolises contribute to its unchanging status, which usually leads to its erasure? In what ways could the conflicting views be dissolved, transformed and addressed? In what ways could the voices of these different communities be taken into account and included in community art actions?

The second part of the exhibition premiered Nonument Group’s work on the Bulgarian nonument Buzludzha: a 3 channel video essay, art objects and a reconstruction of the monument in 3d space, juxtaposing the abandoned Buzludzha with the current situation of isolation and reflecting on the changes in urban environments and the role of monuments in two different contexts. Buzludzha, also known as the ‘flying saucer’, is a former Communist Party headquarters built on top of the Shipka mountain in the centre of Bulgaria, where the Communist Party was founded. An outstanding work of architecture, it has been left to decay since the fall of communism, mainly for ideological reasons. In a video work that interweaves documentary footage with 3d and virtual reality elements, Nonument Group deals with the notion of erasure and the solutions that erasure may or may not bring. Is erasure a relief, is renewal possible? The project involves diverse voices representing the complex perception of an architectural object.

By researching, collecting, mapping and archiving forgotten, decaying and otherwise overlooked architectural gems, monumets and public spaces, the Nonument Group makes a significant contribution to the preservation and revitalisation of cultural heritage, and to creative and diverse artistic approaches, aiming to produce cutting-edge works of art.