Thematic Exhibition in the MAU Dome
NON-ALIGNED WORLD – 1961/1989
From 29 August to 2 September 2026, Belgrade is hosting the Commemorative Conference marking the 65th anniversary of the First Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement. On this occasion, the Museum of African Art is presenting the exhibition Non-Aligned World in its dome.
On a global level, the Non-Aligned Movement was committed to the struggle of peoples for freedom and emancipation from external control and economic exploitation, as well as to mutual support among member states through a shared process of decolonization. At the First Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in Belgrade in 1961, key elements of a new political platform were established, advocating peace and disarmament and opposing the division of the world into economic, military, and political blocs. The non-aligned alternative opposed imperialism, racism, apartheid, all forms of racial segregation, and economic and political domination, advocating anti-colonialism, emancipation, equality, peace, cooperation, and solidarity.
The significance of the exhibition is further enhanced by the space in which it is presented. This very space, the dome of the Museum of African Art, was intended to host part of the programme of the Ninth Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in Belgrade in 1989. The dome was added to the building for this purpose, but was never completed, and the envisioned meeting space for the Non-Aligned countries never fulfilled its intended function. Today, more than three decades later, Non-Aligned World is presented precisely in this unfinished part of the Museum – as a symbolic space that had been waiting for the Non-Aligned.
In this way, the exhibition establishes a bridge between 1961 and 1989, when two important Non-Aligned Movement summits were held in Belgrade, as well as between this historical legacy and its contemporary interpretations – through the exhibition first presented at the MAU in 2021 and its reactivation in 2026. Offering an insight into the forms taken by the summits in 1961 and 1989, while at the same time activating the Museum’s dome – an unfinished part of the building – Non-Aligned World reflects on the weight, significance, and pathos that these concepts continue to carry today. Whether reduced to protest slogans or examined analytically as socio-historical and cultural categories, they continue to resonate strongly in the contemporary moment.
The exhibition Non-Aligned World was conceived in 2021 by the curatorial team of the Museum of African Art, comprising Emilia Epstein, Ana Knežević, and Milica Naumov, together with Dr Nemanja Radonjić, Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. Documentary materials for the exhibition were provided by the Historical Archives of Belgrade, the Archive of Yugoslavia, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade, the Museum of the City of Belgrade, the Museum of Yugoslavia, Radio Belgrade, Radio Television of Serbia, and Filmske novosti.
Guided tours of Non-Aligned World will be offered as part of the MAU’s regular Sunday at MAU programme on 13, 20, and 27 September at 11 a.m.
