NONUMENT GROUP
ABOUT + CV
METHODOLOGY
FIELD EVENTS
BOOK
ABOUT
The Nonument Group (Neja Tomšič, Martin Bricelj Baraga, Miloš Kosec and Nika Grabar) is an artist and research collective focusing on Nonuments - 20th century architecture, monuments and public spaces that have undergone a shift in symbolic meaning or had lost it as a consequence of political and social changes. The Nonument Group’s artistic and theoretical approach aims to dissect memory and context of selected nonuments. With its artistic interventions, the Nonument Group sets out to explore tensions that could be released through each nonument's re-reading. The group’s research and artistic production address questions of memory, representation, semantics and other aspects of monumentalism, as well as attempts to publicly address the perception of public space and its role in everyday urban life.
In 2017, members of the Nonument Group (Baraga and Tomšič) initiated a two-year collaboration
projects MAPS (Mapping and Archiving Public Spaces) in partnership with six partner organisations
across Europe (CCEA (Prague), WH Media / Beamy Space (Vienna), Tačka Komunikacije (Belgrade), House of Humor and Satire (Gabrovo), ARTos Foundation (Nicosia) and MoTA - Museum of Transitory Art (Ljubljana)). The result of this project is the Nonument database which maps and archives Nonuments across the world. The Nonument Group continues this work building an archive that can be read as a map of tensions embodied in spaces and buildings.
In 2021, the Nonument Group was awarded the Plečnik medal for the enrichment of architectural
culture.
CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Nonument Group: Cabinet of the Future. Railway Museum, Ljubljana. December 2024 –December 2025.
Nonument Group: From Nowhere to Noplace, Pioneer Railway, Construction Festival, Cultural Center Dnipro, Ukraine, June 2021.
Nonument Group: The Exhibition is Outdoors! MAO - Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana, 25 May – 25 July 2021.
Nonument Group: From Nowhere to Noplace, Pioneer Railway. Empathy (re)loaded, curated by Alenka Trebušak and Robertina Šebjanič, Festival Speculum Artium, Trbovlje, October 2020.
From Nowhere to Noplace, Pioneer Railway, Historical Atrium of Ljubljana Municipal Hall, Ljubljana, June – July 2020.
Nonument01: McKeldin Fountain, Concourse Gallery, Rockville, MD. Sep 4 - Oct 20, 2019.
Nonument01: McKeldin Fountain, exhibition. City Museum and Republic Square, Ljubljana, February 2018.
ART IN PUBLIC SPACE
Nonument Group: TGH-48, Nothing can Happen Here, performative sound-drive; commissioned by Cukrarna Contemporary Art Centre, Ljubljana, June 2021.
Nonument Group: From Nowhere to Noplace, Pioneer Railway. Lightning Guerrilla festival,Ljubljana, May 2019.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Nonument Group: Architecture Parlante: Raw Utalitarianism, “Image of a City”, curated by Igor Španjol, Museum of Contemporary Art, Ljubljana. Jan – Jun 2025.
Nonument Group: From Nowhere to Noplace, Pioneer Railway, “Displacements and Torrents –Where Elbe and Dnipro meet”, curated by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez and Sasha Baydal, Galerie Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France, Oct-Jan 2024.
Nonument Group: From Nowhere to Noplace, “Things break down”, MSUM - Museum of contemporary art, Ljubljana, curated by Ana Mizerit, 17 june - 18 jan 2025.
Nonument Group: Exit Through the White Cube, U3 – Triennial of Slovenian Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, curated by Tevž Logar, June-Nov 2024.
Nonument Group: 4 postcards to builders of the future. Kaunas Biennale: Long distance friendships, Kaunas, Lithuania, 25 Aug - 29 Oct 2023.
Nonument Group: German Marks, Pochen Biennale 2020, Chemnitz, Germany, October 2020.
Nonument Group: From Nowhere to Noplace, Pioneer Railway, “Collections for a SolidaryFuture”, Gallery Miodrag Dado Đurić, Cetinje, Montenegro, 5 apr-31 may 2023.
Nonument Group: An archive of what will be, “35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts”, Cukrarna, Ljubljana, 15 sep - 14 jan 2024.
Nonument Group: From Nowhere to Noplace, Pioneer Railway, “Collections for a SolidaryFuture”, curated by Natalija Vujošević and Andreja Hribernik, KGLU, Slovenj Gradec, Dec-Apr 2023. ISEA 2018, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, JAR, Jun 2018.
PERFORMANCES
Circle, Pogon, Zagreb, Croatia, Februay 2025.
Circle, Alcobaça, Portugal, Oct 2024.
Circle, TRIGGER festival, Old Electricity Plant, Ljubljana, Mar 2024.
Circle, Drugajanje festival, Narodni dom, Maribor, Jan 2024.
Circle, Kunstraum Innsbruck, July 2023.
Circle, Drugajanje festival, Narodni dom, Celje, 14 nov 2023.
Circle, performance, Casa Tranzit, Cluj, Romania, Dec 2022.
FIELD EVENTS
Villa Rafut, 4 June 2022
Plečnik Stadium: Free Exercises, 24 June 2022
Villa Bled: Gatherers of Memories, 12 June 2022
TGH-48: Nothing Can Happen Here, 23 June 2021
The Ruined and the Forgotten, the Bloudek Ski Jump, 29 June 2021
Villa Bled, 23 July 2021
SCREENINGS AND TALKS
02_2024, Nonument group: Field events, artist talk, ŠKUC Gallery, curated by Giulia Menegale and Tīna Pētersone, Mar 2024.
Open Cathedra: Nonument Group, AGRFT, Ljubljana, Mar 2024.
Nonument Group: artist talk and screening, Iklectic, London, Nov 2024.
Nonument 01: McKeldin Fountain, exhibition and project presentation. Creative Time SummitX, New York, US. November 2019.
Nonument 01: McKeldin Fountain, exhibition and project presentation. ISEA Durban, JAR,October 2018.
Nonument 01, project at Transmodern festival, workshop and intervention in public space, Baltimore, 2015.
PUBLICATIONS
Neja Tomšič, Miloš Kosec, Martin Bricelj Baraga (ed.): Nonument!, MoTA – Museum ofTransitory Art, 2020.
AWARDS
2021 - Plečnik Medal, highest national award for architecture, for Nonument Group’s contribution to enrichment of architectural culture
SYMPOSIA
Nonument! International Symposium at the City Museum in Ljubljana, 2018
Nonument! International Symposium at CAMP in Prague, 2019
Nonument! International Symposium: The Ruins of Public Space, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, 2020