curator: Branko Franceschi
The "Lover Towards Subversion" exhibition spans over 80 years, more precisely from 1932 to 2012, and it presents artists and art group whose art was marked by social activism with the goal of igniting change in the domain of institutional culture and socio-political surroundings or, at the very least, to change its audience's minds. This is about the artists who understood their social position and artistic practice as a platform to promote programmes and strategies whose goal was to undermine the found level and form of the governing authority, including positions of political power, civil morality and hierarchical structure inside of which the artistic creation occurs. Their activism in the domain of artistic expression was parallely manifested as a radical distancing and confrontation against traditional art and, foremost, the art which has as its goal the artistic object, and the art market as its regulator.
The exhibition presents the continuity of activist art practice in our region. The topic of this exhibition has been present with photo and video documentation of performances, an audio installation, experimental and author films.
Chronological start of the exhibition is the film scrip of "Heads in Bags", written in 1932 by Jo Klek (Josip Seissel) for the tenth anniversary of the creation of the almost forgotten Traveleri group.
A special section is dedicated to the experimental film programme "Tune in Screening", which encompasses films by Yugoslav authors which were inspired by Western rock music, filmed in the period between 1966 and 1976. The chronological end of the exhibition are recenty-made films by Željko Kipke, one of the most notable representatives of Neo-Avant-Garde artistic practices since the end of 70s, which clearly show that individual subversive strategies still represent the contemporary aspect of the current artistic practices.
The chronological end of the exhibition are recenty-made films by Željko Kipke, one of the most notable representatives of Neo-Avant-Garde artistic practices since the end of 70s, which clearly show that individual subversive strategies still represent the contemporary aspect of the current artistic practices. Simply put, it is about love which neither the artists or the audience should forgo.
Presented artists:
OHO group, Crveni Peristil, Bosch + Bosch, Group of Six Authors, Željko Kipke,Josip Seissel (Traveleri), Gorgona, Tomislav Gotovac, Bogdanka Poznanović, Ivan Martinac, Slobodan Šijan, Marina Abramović...
The works are loaned from the artists, Marinko Sudac Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, and the Croatian Film Association.
