New Books in Intellectual History Adair Rounthwaite, "This Is Not My World: Art and Public Space in Socialist Zagreb" (U Minnesota Press, 2024)
Oct 29, 2025
Adair Rounthwaite, a historian of contemporary art and chair at the University of Washington, dives into the interplay of art and public spaces in socialist Zagreb. She unpacks the provocative actions of the Group of Six Authors, exploring how they challenged state ideologies through public interventions. Adair illuminates the concept of intimacy as a framework for understanding the group's work and discusses their strategic use of kitsch to provoke societal norms. Moreover, she contextualizes their practices within the broader global art scene, reflecting on artists' responses to Yugoslavia’s turbulent changes.
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Intimacy Connects Relation And Material
- Rounthwaite links intimacy to both relational dynamics and material fragility in the Group of Six's work.
- Intimacy reveals how small-scale relationships became public critiques of socialist subject formation.
Who The Group Of Six Authors Were
- The Group of Six were six young men from Zagreb who staged public art events between 1975–79 and had varied training and social backgrounds.
- They were well connected to city institutions yet sought spontaneous, less bureaucratic ways to reach non-art publics.
Exhibition Actions Blur Formats
- "Exhibition actions" were legally permitted yet ambiguous public events blending exhibition, action, and conversation with passersby.
- These events varied widely by site and produced different modes of public interaction and misunderstanding.
