INDEX No. 204, 1971, Group KÖD
/4
original issue, print on paper
32 × 47 cm
The newspaper of the sudents of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Year XIII, 4 November 1971
Editor Milan Dobrosavljev
During the hectic year that was 1970, members of the group also produced various textual-visual works on paper, works of concrete poetry, and political statements directed against the cultural and political establishment. The main platform for their textual works was the student journal Index—which they “infiltrated”, becoming members of the editorial board. Although they had collaborated with this journal previously, the first instance of full infiltration was its issue no. 201 (27 May 1970), which was subsequently banned by court order and withdrawn from circulation by the authorities. The troubles around Index became one example of a struggle over limits on the freedom of speech. The journal provoked a dispute between two organizations that operated at the University: the University Committee, which represented the hardline position of the Communist Party, and the Student Union, in which some of Grupa KÔD’s members (e.g.. Slavko Bogdanović, who was also a Communist Party member) were very active. Following an assembly of the Student Union, the decision was made to continue publishing the journal—and from issue no. 202 (21 October 1970) to issue no. 207–8 (29 November 1970), the members of KÔD published a series of texts, poems, drawings, cartoons, and collages as well as descriptions of some of their public actions. In issue no. 206, for example, Janez Kocijančić authored a proposition for the aforementioned environment “Restaurant at KÔD”; it is the most detailed description of this action, which—like other actions of theirs—was scarcely documented. Other works by KÔD printed in the journal range from Bogdanović’s “Report from the meeting of the University Committee of the League of Communists” to Mandić’s text on the gallery system, from drawings and collages to “applied poetry” (e.g. Bogdanović’s poem “Sales Tax”) or film synopses (“A Day in the Life of Pedja Vranešević).
The copies of the issues of the journal Index from no. 201 to no. 208, which the members of KÔD co-edited and contributed to, communicate both artistic and political stances of the group. Their contributions were inserted into this journal’s standard mission of informing students about political and cultural events associated with the University of Novi Sad. The journal was obliged to publish official statements and reports about current issues of the University, but these were accompanied by critical and polemical texts or by reactions of the editors and other contributors. The journal also published a leaked internal document of the University Committee entitled, “Results of the ideological analysis of some politically implicated texts in Index”. Major theoretical texts on political, cultural and sexual issues were translated (Lukacs, Adorno, Bataille, etc.), as were reports on left-wing movements around the world. In the selection held by the Kontakt Collection, the copies of the Index issues are accompanied by a copy of the issue of the journal Új Symposion (no. 77, September 1971) that contains the text by Miroslav Mandić for which he was imprisoned, as well as by a copy of the banned issue of the journal Student (special issue, December, 1971) containing the text “Poem-Underground” by Slavko Bogdanović. B.D.
https://www.kontakt-collection.org/people/438/grupa-kod
32 × 47 cm
The newspaper of the sudents of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Year XIII, 4 November 1971
Editor Milan Dobrosavljev
During the hectic year that was 1970, members of the group also produced various textual-visual works on paper, works of concrete poetry, and political statements directed against the cultural and political establishment. The main platform for their textual works was the student journal Index—which they “infiltrated”, becoming members of the editorial board. Although they had collaborated with this journal previously, the first instance of full infiltration was its issue no. 201 (27 May 1970), which was subsequently banned by court order and withdrawn from circulation by the authorities. The troubles around Index became one example of a struggle over limits on the freedom of speech. The journal provoked a dispute between two organizations that operated at the University: the University Committee, which represented the hardline position of the Communist Party, and the Student Union, in which some of Grupa KÔD’s members (e.g.. Slavko Bogdanović, who was also a Communist Party member) were very active. Following an assembly of the Student Union, the decision was made to continue publishing the journal—and from issue no. 202 (21 October 1970) to issue no. 207–8 (29 November 1970), the members of KÔD published a series of texts, poems, drawings, cartoons, and collages as well as descriptions of some of their public actions. In issue no. 206, for example, Janez Kocijančić authored a proposition for the aforementioned environment “Restaurant at KÔD”; it is the most detailed description of this action, which—like other actions of theirs—was scarcely documented. Other works by KÔD printed in the journal range from Bogdanović’s “Report from the meeting of the University Committee of the League of Communists” to Mandić’s text on the gallery system, from drawings and collages to “applied poetry” (e.g. Bogdanović’s poem “Sales Tax”) or film synopses (“A Day in the Life of Pedja Vranešević).
The copies of the issues of the journal Index from no. 201 to no. 208, which the members of KÔD co-edited and contributed to, communicate both artistic and political stances of the group. Their contributions were inserted into this journal’s standard mission of informing students about political and cultural events associated with the University of Novi Sad. The journal was obliged to publish official statements and reports about current issues of the University, but these were accompanied by critical and polemical texts or by reactions of the editors and other contributors. The journal also published a leaked internal document of the University Committee entitled, “Results of the ideological analysis of some politically implicated texts in Index”. Major theoretical texts on political, cultural and sexual issues were translated (Lukacs, Adorno, Bataille, etc.), as were reports on left-wing movements around the world. In the selection held by the Kontakt Collection, the copies of the Index issues are accompanied by a copy of the issue of the journal Új Symposion (no. 77, September 1971) that contains the text by Miroslav Mandić for which he was imprisoned, as well as by a copy of the banned issue of the journal Student (special issue, December, 1971) containing the text “Poem-Underground” by Slavko Bogdanović. B.D.
https://www.kontakt-collection.org/people/438/grupa-kod