Tell Me What You Do and I’ll Tell You If You’re Young – Youth Biennial (1960–1991)

The exhibition Tell Me What You Do and I’ll Tell You If You’re Young – Biennial of Young Artists (1960–1991) brings together around sixty works from the MMSU collection, alongside archival materials documenting three decades of this important Rijeka-based event dedicated to young artists. The exhibition opens on Thursday, 22 October at 7:00 p.m.

On 22 October, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art opens the major central exhibition of its autumn programme, entitled Tell Me What You Do and I’ll Tell You If You’re Young – Youth Biennial (1960–1991), which will occupy all of the Museum’s exhibition spaces. This is the first retrospective exhibition dedicated to the Youth Biennial, an event that was held at Rijeka’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (then the Modern Gallery) for three full decades and brought together around 1,500 artists.

Between 1960 and 1991, the Modern Gallery in Rijeka organised one of the most significant events for young artists across the cultural landscape of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – the Youth Biennial, an exhibition that brought together artists up to the age of 35. The Biennial in Rijeka not only provided an overview of the current work of younger generations of artists, but was also a vibrant place of gathering and enthusiasm for several decades, bringing numerous young artists to Rijeka. By organising the Youth Biennial, the Museum’s programme concept and strategy were clearly directed towards creating a space of opportunity for young artists, as well as organising an extensive biennial exhibition following the Rijeka Salons and alongside the International Exhibition of Drawings.

The exhibition Tell Me What You Do and I’ll Tell You If You’re Young – Youth Biennial (1960–1991) draws on works from the Museum’s collection that entered the holdings as acquisition awards. The exhibition thus includes selected works by artists from the MMSU collections, produced in various media, from painting, sculpture, drawing, photography and video to installation, as well as a selection of posters from the Poster Collection. It is further developed through documentation, photographs and archival materials, television reports and educational texts, offering a contemporary perspective on the Biennial exhibitions.

Thirty-five years after the last Youth Biennial, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s exhibition Tell Me What You Do and I’ll Tell You If You’re Young – Youth Biennial (1960–1991), developed as part of its programme interest in “exhibition studies”, offers a retrospective view of three decades of the Youth Biennial in Rijeka, contributing to its research, presentation, evaluation and contextualisation. The exhibition aims to examine the relationship and legacy of the Biennial, the city and the Museum in order to reveal narratives that extend beyond the local context. The exhibition Tell Me What You Do and I’ll Tell You If You’re Young – Youth Biennial (1960–1991) provides an opportunity to revisit this event through works held in the Museum’s collections, create a meeting place for documentation and memory, and at the same time reflect on the current artistic production of young artists today.

The exhibition presents some sixty award-winning works from the MMSU collection, which were selected and awarded prizes at the time by committees consisting of prominent Yugoslav art critics and art historians.

Participating artists: Nada Alavanja, Srđan Apostolović, Breda Beban, Janez Bernik, Đanino Božić, Jakov Brdar, Jože Brumen, Franc Curk, Vlasta Delimar & Željko Jerman, Josip Diminić, Mirjana Đorđević, Nenad Dogan, Sandro Đukić, Jadranka Fatur, Eugen Feller, Igor Fistrič, Mladen Galić, Tomaž Gorjup, Klas Grdić, Herman Gvardjančič, Jusuf Hadžifejzović, Tomislav Hruškovec, Image Liberation Organization, Đorđe Jandrić, Andrej Jemec, Vasilije Jordan, Ljubo de Karina, Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač, Nives Kavurić-Kurtović, László Kerekes, Milan Kešelj, Željko Kipke, Dragoslav Krnajski, Tomaž Kržišnik, Ante Kuduz, Ivan Kuduz, Ivan Lacković Croata, Vlastimir Mikić, Zdravko Milić, Marijan Molnar, Milija Nešić, Dobrilo M. Nikolić, Marino Paliska, Stanko Pavleski, Zoran Pavlović, Ratko Petrić, Ivan Picelj, Vesna Popržan, Rene Rusjan, Bojan Salaj, Brane Sever, Željko Serdarević, Dorian Sokolić, Damir Sokić, Predrag Spasojević, Mauro Stipanov, Krunoslav Stipešević, Bojan Štokelj, Jože Šubic, Miroslav Šutej, Slobodan Trajković, Vladimir Trbojević, Vinko Tušek, Miroslav Urošević, Žaneta Vangeli, Vladimir Veličković, Žarko Vrezec, Šime Vulas i Xhevdet Xhafa.

The exhibition’s title, Tell Me What You Do and I’ll Tell You If You’re Young, taken from an article by art critic Darko Glavan, recalls the debates among art critics of the time about what constitutes youth in artistic practice and whether it should be insisted upon as a defining characteristic. The title also serves as an invitation to revisit youth as a subject and examine it through artistic and curatorial practice. We have therefore devised a varied accompanying programme which, alongside guided tours on Thursdays, includes audio walks, workshops, quizzes, lectures, discussions, and meetings between artists, members of the public and curators.

The exhibition opening on 22 October will be accompanied by Đorđe Jandrić’s performance The Fifth Sculpture.

The exhibition remains open until 31 January 2027.

Exhibition curatorial team: Kristina Barišić, Branka Benčić, Ksenija Orelj, Sabina Salamon and Diana Zrilić.

Education Department: Ivana Golob Mihić, Ana Žarković

Public Relations: Jelena Milić

Technicians: Marko Marčelja, Vanja Pužar

PUBLIC PROGRAMME
Đorđe Jandrić’s performance The Fifth Sculpture (as part of the exhibition opening)
Date: 22 October 2026

Time: 7 pm, as part of the opening

Venue: MMSU, Krešimirova 26c, Rijeka

Đorđe Jandrić first performed The Fifth Sculpture as part of the 16th Youth Biennial in 1991 and now, 35 years later, performs it again. The performance consists of an almost imperceptible gesture by the artist – walking through the Museum in shoes with protective metal plates nailed to the heels and engraved with the word sculptura. In the spirit of conceptual practices, Jandrić questions what sculpture can be, opening up the possibility that anything – even a living person – can become a sculpture.

Meeting with the artists and guided tour of the exhibition
Date: 23 October 2026

Time: 12 noon

Venue: MMSU, Krešimirova 26c, Rijeka

The day after the opening, a meeting will be held with around ten of the artists whose works are presented in the exhibition and who are returning to the Museum after more than three decades. The joint guided tour will provide an opportunity to discuss the exhibited works and recall their experiences of participating in the Youth Biennial.

Roundtable Can We Be Satisfied with the Youth Biennial?
Date: 5 November 2026

Time: 6 pm

Venue: MMSU, Krešimirova 26c, Rijeka

The roundtable is dedicated to the impact of biennials on the development of the visual arts scene, with a focus on the events that were held in Yugoslavia, those that survived, and new initiatives that emerged following the dissolution of the shared cultural space. The discussion brings together curators, art historians and cultural workers from across the former Yugoslavia.

Participants: Aleksandar Bassin (Ljubljana), Nada Grozdanić and Živko Grozdanić (Vršac), and Berislav Valušek (Rijeka).

New Generation: Encounters, Experiences and Opportunities
Date: 12 November 2026

Time: 3–6:30 pm

Venue: MMSU, Krešimirova 26c, Rijeka

The programme brings together artists and curators of the younger generation through short presentations, discussion and informal gathering, concluding with a guided tour of the exhibition.

3–4:30 pm | Tell Me What You Do and I’ll Tell You If You’re Young

Around ten artists who have recently graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka will present their work in a short PechaKucha format. Curators and gallery directors from Rijeka, Istria and Zagreb will also take part. The programme is intended to foster introductions, connections and opportunities for collaboration and exhibition, followed by informal conversation and socialising.

5–6 pm | New Generation Construction Site – Opportunities and Prospects for Young Artists Today

The discussion with curators of the younger generation focuses on opportunities available to young artists today: new exhibition formats, platforms and models of production, as well as opportunities for visibility and professional development. Drawing on concrete experiences and current practices, the discussion will consider the needs of young artists and curators and the kinds of opportunities that should be developed.

Participants: Sabina Oroshi, Lea Vene, Lovro Japundžić, Marta Radman (NMMU, Zagreb).

Following the programme, a guided tour of the exhibition will take place at 6:30 pm.

Lecture by Dejan Vasić: Archival Revisit of the 1991 Youth Biennial
Date: 28 January 2027

Time: 6 pm

Venue: To be announced.

Speaker: Dejan Vasić (Serbia/USA).

Guided tours on Thursdays
Guided tours of the exhibition will take place on the following dates:

29 October 2026 at 5 pm

12 November 2026 at 6:30 pm

26 November 2026 at 5 pm

10 December 2026 at 5 pm

17 December 2026 at 5 pm

Guided tours are free with a valid exhibition ticket.

Guided tours for primary and secondary schools
Adapted guided tours for primary and secondary school pupils will be organised alongside the exhibition.

Through a variety of research tasks, primary school pupils will explore different types of artworks, techniques and artistic movements, accompanied by a guided tour offering insights into this important event in Rijeka’s art history.

Guided tours for secondary schools can also be adapted, by prior arrangement, to curriculum topics in the field of visual arts.

Registration required: https://forms.gle/hvHnu22i7S8c4CNS8

Quizzes
An interactive digital quiz accompanies the exhibition and is available to visitors via QR code. Through selected works, questions and short interpretative content, it guides visitors through the artistic tendencies and changes that marked the Youth Biennial from the 1960s to the early 1990s, providing an accessible introduction to the context of the event.

Audio walk
From November, an audio walk through the exhibition will be available on the official MMSU website, the Museum’s Spotify platform and at the Museum. MP3 players and headphones will be available to borrow at the information desk.

Jelena Androić will speak with one of the exhibition’s curators, Sabina Salamon, about the exhibition concept and installation, as well as interesting discoveries made during the research process.

BENI Museum Fanzine
The eighteenth issue of the Museum’s fanzine BENI will be dedicated to the exhibition on the Youth Biennial. Produced through a participatory process, the fanzine brings together the voices and responses of the public. This issue is being developed in collaboration with the high school “Prva riječka hrvatska gimnazija”, specifically with a group of pupils gifted in visual arts and their mentor, teacher Dajana Rosatti.

The pupils will explore their school’s connection to this important event and, under the mentorship of Tanja Blašković, who is also the fanzine’s graphic editor, will become acquainted with the artistic styles represented in the exhibition.

The issue will also include the voices of young artists and curators participating in the exhibition’s other public programmes.

The exhibition is supported by the City of Rijeka, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.