THE ORGANISATION is a multimedia, radical and conceptual experiment that entails the process of turning an artistic organisation into a religious one, as well as its documentation on film. Through personal contacts on social networks, citizens were invited to participate in the founding of a new, secret religious community in search of spirituality within a topsy-turvy world. The fundamental question of this artistic experiment was – If we have lost faith in art, can we find new art in faith?
The basic narrative is the story of transformation of an artist collective (MONTAЖ$TROJ) into a religious organisation that breaks with artistic practices and dedicates itself to different methods of action. The process gave rise to the question of the differences between these two types of action, the extent to which they are truly separate and, conversely, their common ground. The goal of the experiment was to gather 500 “believers” and, in the period of five to seven years, register the new organisation with the Ministry of Public Administration under the name “Vjerska organizacija” (“Religious Organisation”) (VO).
THE ORGANISATION can be described as an interactive game that stops being a game. The game becomes reality with the gathering of the followers of the new religion that has entirely new rituals, liturgies, texts, epistles and other spiritual-performative elements. The project yielded detailed documentation on the transformation of an artistic organisation into a religious one – its statute and decision on founding a religious organisation “Vjerska organizacija,” an architectural analysis of the “temple“ of the new religious organisation based on motifs from the set of the film “La Chinoise“ by Jean-Luc Godard and the shaping of the visual identity of “Vjerska organizacija” (VO).
The first assembly of the “believers,” together with a partial disclosure of secret procedures, protocols and communications to the public, was held in a secret location on a symbolic date – the 28th anniversary of MONTAЖ$TROJ’s activity, December 22, 2017.
The entire process was filmed for the purposes of a documentary that will make the secret processes and events public in order to contribute to the understanding of the structure of such organisations which shape the political, social and intimate lives of our fellow citizens and us.
