Pogačnik, Marko, Milenko Matanović, Tomaž Šalamun, Andraž Šalamun, David Nez, and other artists.

[THE OHO GROUP OR ART AS PHENOMENOLOGY – YUGOSLAV NEO-AVANT-GARDE BETWEEN ARTE POVERA, LAND ART, AND PROCESS ART] Three exhibition catalogs by the OHO group.

Belgrade and Ljubljana: Galerija Doma Omladine, Študentski kulturni center, and Salon Muzeja savremene umetnosti, 1969–1979. Octavos (between 20 × 19.7 and 22 × 21.7 cm). Original printed wrappers, two of them staple-stitched and one with blind embossing ("OHO"). Glue binding of catalog (b) slightly loosened; else very good. Item #55548

Rare group of three exhibition catalogs by the Yugoslav neo-avant-garde group “OHO”. The name is derived from a combination of the Slovenian words for "eye" (oko) and “ear” (uho). The neologism was first used as the title of a self-published book by Marko Pogačnik and Iztok Geister in 1966. In its first two years, the group focused on publishing various printed materials, such as artist books, cards, ephemera, experimental poetry, theoretical texts, etc., under the OHO imprint. The self-published OHO editions were less at risk of censorship. Nevertheless, the cultural and social climate in Yugoslavia at that time was characterized by liberalism, leading to the formation of various avant-garde groups in the 1960s and 1970s. Unlike the other socialist states in Europe, the republic on the Mediterranean did not belong to the Eastern Bloc, but remained neutral during the Cold War. Despite the economic system, there was freedom of travel and a liberal cultural life.

Unlike with solo exhibitions, the group was also able to reach a larger audience with its own ideas in a shorter period of time through various publications. In the process, they also coined their own terms, which are often associated with the philosophical reflections of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. One of these terms is “Reismus,” derived from the Latin “res” (thing). In 1968, other forms of artistic work became more important for the group. Performances were organized in urban spaces. The iconic performance “Triglav” (a play on words with the name of Slovenia's highest mountain, which means “three-headed”) is well documented photographically. Against the backdrop of the snow-covered Zvezda Park in Ljubljana, Milenko Matanović, David Nez, and Drago Dellabernardina stuck their heads through a black cloth and became a three-headed mountain.

When the group became concentrated around the four artists Pogačnik, Nez, Matanović, and Andraž Šalamun in 1969, the focus shifted even more toward public space and landscape. Matanović, for example, tied a series of sticks together and hung them under a window in order to make the otherwise invisible air currents visible. The group's interest increasingly turned to the different relationships that things (“res”) have with each other and the forces that act between them. Pogačnik, for example, produced a series of works intended to show the relationships between the four elements (earth, air, fire, water) in static and dynamic modes. David Nez, who hails from the USA, placed mirrors in the landscape on which fragments of what lay outside the section he photographed could be seen. Another project that made the invisible visible was a map that not only documented the locations of the ephemeral actions and installations that OHO produced in the Zarica Valley in May 1970, but also related them to a Neolithic settlement and a medieval church, for example. After only a few years, the artist group disbanded in 1971 to reunite as a rural commune. "OHO’s work as an artist collective had an important impact on Yugoslav culture at the time and resonates in Slovene culture up to the present day." (Ksenya Gurshtein, From the MoMA Archives: Works and Materials by OHO Group, >ht ps://post.moma.o rg/from-the-moma-archives-works-and-materials-by-oho-group/<, February 16, 2025.)

The convolute contains the following titles in detail:

a) Denegri, Ješa and Pavle Stefanović (introductions). Grupa oho. [Belgrade]: Galerija Doma Omladine, 1969. Octavo (20 × 19.7 cm). Original printed, staple-stitched wrappers; [8] pp. text, [12] pp. reproduced photographs of installations, exhibition spaces, etc., 8 pp. text.

b) Brejc, Tomaž. OHO 1966 – 1971. Ljubljana: Študentski kulturni center, 1978. Octavo (22 × 21.7 cm). Original printed wrappers; 99, [1] pp. reproduced photographs of artworks, installations, exhibition spaces etc.

c ) Brejc, Tomaž and Marko Pogačnik (texts). Grupa Oho. 1966 – 1971. Belgrade: Salon Muzeja savremene umetnosti, 1979. Octavo (21 × 21.2 cm). Original printed, staple-stitched wrappers; [10] pp.

As of February 2026, KVK and OCLC list four copies of (a) and two copies of (b) in North America; no copies of (c) are listed worldwide.

Price: €1,200.00

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