The Seeing Is (Not) Believing program presents an exhibition of works by Sladjan Nedeljkovic and Roland Schefferski and is accompanied by a Polish-German discussion – Rozmowa/Gespräch (a Conversation) – during which curators, art theoreticians, artists and the directors of both partner institutions will take up issues of contemporary visual culture. The exhbition is organized by the National Museum in Szczecin, in cooperation with Rostock Kunsthalle.
Since the invention of photography and other techniques of mass reproduction, images saturate at our visual reality at an ever-increasing rate. Coupled with the spread of video technology and widespread computerization, the digital revolution that occurred in the 1980s gave rise to an overabundance of digital images, whose unprecedented growth in more recent decades increases the pressure of all that is visual on the environment in which we function.
The influence is visible not only in the change of the way we perceive the world, but also in new models of social relations and individual lifestyles. The power of images and their use by mass media as tools of manipulation, seduction and persuasion is one of the hottest topics in contemporary sociological and psychological examinations.
In the humanities, a subtle theoretical debate is under way. It concerns the need for developing a new concept of the image that recognizes its specific, “iconic” logic. In these spheres, questions arise about the visual competence necessary for consciously navigating through this overproduction of images. Along with them is a rising belief that the dominance of language, word and text in Western culture, will concede to urgent reflections on the perceiving and experiencing of images.
The works by artists Sladjan Nedeljkovic and Roland Schefferski on display in the project entitled Seeing Is (Not) Believing independently take up a series of issues provoked by our intensely mediatizing reality. They refer to what we see and to the mechanisms of interpreting what we perceive in reflections on the influence of visual information on our concept of the world.
Using the techniques of destabilization and paradoxical intervention, Nedeljkovic and Schefferski disturb the meaning of the media messages, unveiling their narrative structures. The artists distract attention from the schemata of perception in works that encourage critical deliberation on the credibility and construction of the content that reaches us.
Apart from several dozen objects and installations made over the last 25 years, the exhibition will present new work created by the artists especially for the Szczecin and Rostock exhibitions. The project also includes a pair of monographs, Framing the Real. Sladjan Nedeljkovic and NieUwidocznienie / UnSichtbarmachung. Roland Schefferski, published by the National Museum in Szczecin in cooperation with Rostock Kunsthalle.
Roland Schefferski was born in 1956 in Katowice. From 1976 to 1981, he studied at the Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław (present Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts). Since 1984, he lives and workes in Berlin.
Sladjan Nedeljkovic was born in 1969 in Zemun in Serbia. From 1994 to 1998, he studied at École Superieure des Arts Visuels in Geneva, and at Goldsmiths College in London in 2001-2002. Since 2004, he lives and works in Berlin.
Seeing Is (Not) Believing is accompanied by a public discussion in which artists, curators and art theoreticians from Poland and from Germany address topics of the exhibition, including the influence of the media messages on the relations between the two countries and the shaping of views held by citizens.
Rozmowa/Gespräch
The National Museum in Szczecin – The Museum of Regional Traditions, ul. Staromłyńska 27
January 28th, 2022, 7.00 P.M.
Participated by: Annabell Burger, independent curator, Berlin; Aleksandra Łukaszewicz, Department of History and Theory of Art, Academy of Art in Szczecin; Lech Karwowski, the Director of The National Museum in Szczecin; Marianna Michałowska, the Director of Institute of Cultural Studies of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań; Sladjan Nedeljkovic, artist, Berlin; Uwe Neumann, the Director of Kunsthalle Rostock; Roland Schefferski, artist, Berlin; Waldemar Wojciechowski, the Head of Department of Visual Communication and Computer Games, Academy of Art in Szczecin
The panel is to be held in Polish and German.
During the Seeing is (Not) Believing exhibition, a series of three classes entitled PLAY WITH CONTEMPORARY ART. SEE, CREATE AND RECREATE, THAT IS, ART IS LOOKING FOR YOU! will be offered in the Polish language for students aged 6-12. Each is dedicated to a different topic and features a tour of the gallery and works.
THE CLASSES ARE HELD IN POLISH. Sessions include:
30.01.2022, 12.00 noon – 1.00 P.M. – What’s Hidden There?
20.02.2022, 12.00 noon – 1.00 P.M. – Create Your Own Motion Object!
20.03.2022, 12.00 noon – 1.00 P.M. – From Szczecin to Berlin – of Studios and Galleries of Contemporary Art
Duration: 60 min.
Location: The National Museum in Szczecin – The Museum of Contemporary Art,
ul. Staromłyńska 1
Workshop leader: Agata Kamińska
Admission: PLN 10
Access is limited and advance reservations are required. Please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to arrange places in the workshops.
Sanitary restrictions apply and face masks are required to participate in the sessions.
The Seeing Is (Not) Believing programme is carried out at the National Museum in Szczecin and Rostock Kunsthalle, and within Mare Articum international programme. Financial support for the event in Szczecin is provided by the Foundation of Polish-German Cooperation and Goethe-Institut.
Seeing Is (Not) Believing
Sladjan Nedeljkovic & Roland Schefferski
Curators: Marlena Chybowska-Butler, Magdalena Lewoc
Organizer: The National Museum in Szczecin
Cooperation: Rostock Kunsthalle
The National Museum in Szczecin – The Museum of Contemporary Art
ul. Staromłyńska 1
exhibitiion available from January 29th to March 27th 2022
vernissage: January 28th 2022 (Friday), 6:00 P.M.
- Roland Schefferski Bild Berlin, 2006 z cyklu Cut Outs
- Author: No Data
- Roland Schefferski Brokening News, 2021
- Author: No Data
- Roland Schefferski Playboy, 2006 z cyklu Cut Outs
- Author: No Data
- Sladjan Nedeljkovic Yesterday's_Hay
- Author: No Data
- Sladjan Nedeljkovic Untitled (Covering)
- Author: No Data
- Sladjan Nedeljkovic Untitled (Repubblica)
- Author: No Data
- Sladjan Nedeljkovic Through this window I look at the world
- Author: No Data
