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Elvis Berton was born 1970 in Pazin, Croatia. He has been pursuing art ever since 1996. Since 2000, Berton has had many solo and group exhibitions at renown galleries and museums in Croatia and abroad (USA, UK, Austria, The Netherlands, Slovenia). His artwork was awarded with many prizes. Berton is a member of Croatian Association Of Artists and Croatian Freelance Artists Association. He lives and creates in Pazin. Marina Fernežir was born in Zagreb in 1984. She has graduated in February of 2009 from the Academy of Fine Art, Department of Art Conservation and Restoration, Zagreb, Croatia. She is licensed art conservator for wall painting conservation with over five years of experience in the field. She has held several solo exhibitions and has been exhibition in several group exhibitions. She lives and works in Zagreb. Tea Hatadi was born in Croatia in 1980. In the year 2008 she graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb where she started PhD in painting the same year. She studied two semesters at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague- Cezch Republic (CEEPUS grant). She participated in several workshops and performances in Croatia and abroad. She realized several solo and participated nu- merous group exhibitions and won several awards for her work. She lives and works in Zagreb as curator of Ring Gallery and PM Gallery at Croatian Association of Artists. Vojin Hraste was born in 1981 in Šibenik. He graduated in 2006 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Department of Sculpture, in the class of professor Slavomir Drinković. That same year he does the civil service as a teaching assistant with professor Petar Barišić, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Since 2007 has been engaged as a teaching assistant in the department of Sculpture at the Arts Academy in Split. In 2008 he embarked on a Ph.D. course at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, under the tutorship of professor Slavomir Drinković. He has exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions. Mia Orsag was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1983. In the year 2008 she graduated Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb. She exhibited at several group and solo exhibitions, and has participated several workshops and festivals in Croatia and abroad. Lives and works in Zagreb, as professional associate at Croatian Association of Artists. Mirjana Vodopija graduated in 1987 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where she now teaches. She realized 28 solo exhibitions and participated in two hundred group exhibitions, curatorial concepts and residential projects. She has won numerous art awards. Her work has been included in the collections of major Croatian museums and many private collections. Basic characteristics of her work is contemplation, innovation in the use of media through the intertwining of different artistic disciplines and specific approach to the phenomenon of light and movement. Žižić/Kožul is an artistic duo formed by Damir Žižić and Kristian Kožul. They started working on various projects concerned with artistic exploration and collaborating with interdisciplinary experts in 2013. They exhibit since 2014, with first joint project 0,5 in Karas Gal- lery in Zagreb (January) and then in March at T-HT@MSU. Damir Žižić graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the University of Zagreb and from the Art Academy in Zagreb, Croatia, where he studied New Media Studies. He lives and works in Zagreb, asa long-term collaborator and photographer for numerous institutions and groups. Kristian Kožul, born in Munich in 1975, graduated from the Kuns- takademie Düsseldorf, Germany. Kristian Kožul is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists. He lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia. Seven about the reality Exhibition of seven Croatian mid- and young generation artists presents seven different and specific artistic approaches that tell seven stories about present and reality, stories that get close to each other at certain points. Through their visions, interpretations of the media and their own constructed way of perception, they present certain issues to the observer. By using different media approaches they analyze almost all the key aspects of our present, situations we think about on a daily basis, at conscious and subconscious levels – examining ourselves and our own personality, questioning and exploring the details of environment which surrounds us on a day-to-day basis, by setting these details on a new aesthetic level, and above all analyzing social statuses and events, norms and conventions, which are products of new times. By the balanced power and sensibility Mia Orsag brings insightful work which attempts to examine and analyze some of the key metaphysical questions - life, relationship, identity. Her sculpture 2/4 presents the mathematical formulation, the redistribution of ‘’safe and sound’’, and of what is subject to change due to the impact of a number of everyday factors. Two quarters are the positive energy, stability and eternal brace, while the remaining two quarters are incomplete, undefined and ready for the changes that the future brings and maybe at some point circumstances allow the separate halves become whole. Patinated drawings of spaces and figures, which are here and at the same point they start to disappear, from the series No One No Where, are the result of her preoccupation with the present and the key issues; identity, existence and change, that she wants to share with the observer. The very process of scribbling, drawing, erasing and scratching is very easily associated with time-consuming and painstaking process of knowing the world and ourselves, moreover the result of the search oſten remains vague and undefined. Mia’s drawings are trying to investigate exactly these extreme fields of knowledge and existence. Works of Mirjana Vodopija, from the series Breath and Herbs are the result of research of ordinary, everyday elements of the environment, especially unsightly vegetation, which due to the play of light takes on a new dimension, bringing into question the limit of existence. A great source of inspiration for her work and research, Mirjana Vodopija finds in nature and through her experiments in various medias, such as graphics, drawing, SEVEN ABOUT THE REALITY Konduktorownia Gallery / Częstochowa, Poland Opening of the exhibition on 09th of May 2014. May 09. - May 22.2014. CAPITALIST REALISM In his book Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher claims: “The tiniest event can tear a hole in the grey curtain of reaction which has marked the horizons of possibility under capitalist realism. From a situation in which nothing can happen, suddenly anything is possible again”. To grasp the culture of an area we delineated as a mountain landscape means to grasp the possible hole in the grey curtain. The systemic structure of neoliberal capitalism and culture, regardless of post modern deconstruction, enters a phase of its own auto- cannibalism. The Croatian contemporary art is still in the process of transition; this process is marked by both the continued existence of the folkloric cultural matrix and by a resistance to the McGuggenheim effect, which is perceived as colonial culture. Pierre Guilet de Monthoux describes the moment where art merges with the structures of neoliberal empire in The Art Firm: “Since U.S. president Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, assisted by business-art clubs such as the BCA and ABSA, reoriented art funding toward the corporate world, Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons have replaced Coca Cola and McDonald’s as the brands for this new audience of privatised U.S. and British culture. Aſter inspecting objects in the galleries, they shop for aesthetic philosophy on sale in museum shops”. Croatian culture can be envisaged as a large faded palimpsest. It has to be observed in complexity; cultural heritage has been written out in layers, as on several times reused parchment. The Worlds of the Other only exist in a premodern obsession anyway. Josip Zanki Mirjana Vodopija, Detail, 2009. Berton / Fernežir / Hatadi / Hraste / orsag / Vodopija / žižić/Kožul Publisher: Croatian Association of Artists, Trg žrtava fašizma 16, 10 000 Zagreb, [email protected], www.hdlu.hr | For the publisher: Josip Zanki, president | Executive board of HDLU: Josip Zanki (president), Tomislav Buntak (vicepresident), Fedor Vučemilović (vicepresident), Gordana Bakić, Ivan Fijolić, Koraljka Kovač Dugandžić, Anita Kuharić Smrekar | Director: Gaella Alexandra Gottwald | Texts: Josip Zanki and Sara Čičić | Associate: Mia Orsag | Design: Martina Mezak | Printed by: Cerovski | Edition: 300 Tea Hatadi, Censorship of Happiness, 2012/13. Mia Orsag, 2/4, 2013. Regionalne Towarzystwo Zachêty Sztuk Piêknych w Czêstochowie GALERIA KONDUKTOROWNIA www.konduktorownia.eu Exhibition is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and City Office for Education, Culture and Sport Zagreb. This exhibition is a part of the collaboration between the Akademia im. J. Długosza in Częstochowa /Faculty of Arts/, Gallery Konduktorownia and Croatian Association of Artists. www.hdlu.hr / www.konduktorownia.eu

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  • Elvis Berton was born 1970 in Pazin, Croatia. He has been pursuing art ever since 1996. Since 2000, Berton has had many solo and group exhibitions at renown galleries and museums in Croatia and abroad (USA, UK, Austria, The Netherlands, Slovenia). His artwork was awarded with many prizes. Berton is a member of Croatian Association Of Artists and Croatian Freelance Artists Association. He lives and creates in Pazin.

    Marina Ferneir was born in Zagreb in 1984. She has graduated in February of 2009 from the Academy of Fine Art, Department of Art Conservation and Restoration, Zagreb, Croatia. She is licensed art conservator for wall painting conservation with over five years of experience in the field. She has held several solo exhibitions and has been exhibition in several group exhibitions. She lives and works in Zagreb.

    Tea Hatadi was born in Croatia in 1980. In the year 2008 she graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb where she started PhD in painting the same year. She studied two semesters at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague- Cezch Republic (CEEPUS grant). She participated in several workshops and performances in Croatia and abroad. She realized several solo and participated nu-merous group exhibitions and won several awards for her work. She lives and works in Zagreb as curator of Ring Gallery and PM Gallery at Croatian Association of Artists.

    Vojin Hraste was born in 1981 in ibenik. He graduated in 2006 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Department of Sculpture, in the class of professor Slavomir Drinkovi. That same year he does the civil service as a teaching assistant with professor Petar Barii, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Since 2007 has been engaged as a teaching assistant in the department of Sculpture at the Arts Academy in Split. In 2008 he embarked on a Ph.D. course at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, under the tutorship of professor Slavomir Drinkovi. He has exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions.

    Mia Orsag was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1983. In the year 2008 she graduated Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb. She exhibited at several group and solo exhibitions, and has participated several workshops and festivals in Croatia and abroad. Lives and works in Zagreb, as professional associate at Croatian Association of Artists.

    Mirjana Vodopija graduated in 1987 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where she now teaches. She realized 28 solo exhibitions and participated in two hundred group exhibitions, curatorial concepts and residential projects. She has won numerous art awards. Her work has been included in the collections of major Croatian museums and many private collections. Basic characteristics of her work is contemplation, innovation in the use of media through the intertwining of different artistic disciplines and specific approach to the phenomenon of light and movement.

    ii/Koul is an artistic duo formed by Damir ii and Kristian Koul. They started working on various projects concerned with artistic exploration and collaborating with interdisciplinary experts in 2013. They exhibit since 2014, with first joint project 0,5 in Karas Gal-lery in Zagreb (January) and then in March at T-HT@MSU. Damir ii graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the University of Zagreb and from the Art Academy in Zagreb, Croatia, where he studied New Media Studies. He lives and works in Zagreb, asa long-term collaborator and photographer for numerous institutions and groups. Kristian Koul, born in Munich in 1975, graduated from the Kuns-takademie Dsseldorf, Germany. Kristian Koul is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists. He lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia.

    Seven about the reality

    Exhibition of seven Croatian mid- and young generation artists presents seven different and specific artistic approaches that tell seven stories about present and reality, stories that get close to each other at certain points. Through their visions, interpretations of the media and their own constructed way of perception, they present certain issues to the observer. By using different media approaches they analyze almost all the key aspects of our present, situations we think about on a daily basis, at conscious and subconscious levels examining ourselves and our own personality, questioning and exploring the details of environment which surrounds us on a day-to-day basis, by setting these details on a new aesthetic level, and above all analyzing social statuses and events, norms and conventions, which are products of new times.

    By the balanced power and sensibility Mia Orsag brings insightful work which attempts to examine and analyze some of the key metaphysical questions - life, relationship, identity.Her sculpture 2/4 presents the mathematical formulation, the redistribution of safe and sound, and of what is subject to change due to the impact of a number of everyday factors. Two quarters are the positive energy, stability and eternal brace, while the remaining two quarters are incomplete, undefined and ready for the changes that the future brings and maybe at some point circumstances allow the separate halves become whole.Patinated drawings of spaces and figures, which are here and at the same point they start to disappear, from the series No One No Where, are the result of her preoccupation with the present and the key issues; identity, existence and change, that she wants to share with the observer. The very process of scribbling, drawing, erasing and scratching is very easily associated with time-consuming and painstaking process of knowing the world and ourselves, moreover the result of the search often remains vague and undefined. Mias drawings are trying to investigate exactly these extreme fields of knowledge and existence.

    Works of Mirjana Vodopija, from the series Breath and Herbs are the result of research of ordinary, everyday elements of the environment, especially unsightly vegetation, which due to the play of light takes on a new dimension, bringing into question the limit of existence. A great source of inspiration for her work and research, Mirjana Vodopija finds in nature and through her experiments in various medias, such as graphics, drawing,

    Seven about

    the reality

    Konduktorownia Gallery / Czstochowa, PolandOpening of the exhibition on 09th of May 2014.

    May 09. - May 22.2014.

    CAPITALIST REALISMIn his book Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher claims: The tiniest event can tear a hole in the grey curtain of reaction which has marked the horizons of possibility under capitalist realism. From a situation in which nothing can happen, suddenly anything is possible again. To grasp the culture of an area we delineated as a mountain landscape means to grasp the possible hole in the grey curtain. The systemic structure of neoliberal capitalism and culture, regardless of post modern deconstruction, enters a phase of its own auto-cannibalism. The Croatian contemporary art is still in the process of transition; this process is marked by both the continued existence of the folkloric cultural matrix and by a resistance to the McGuggenheim effect, which is perceived as colonial culture. Pierre Guilet de Monthoux describes the moment where art merges with the structures of neoliberal empire in The Art Firm: Since U.S. president Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, assisted by business-art clubs such as the BCA and ABSA, reoriented art funding toward the corporate world, Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons have replaced Coca Cola and McDonalds as the brands for this new audience of privatised U.S. and British culture. After inspecting objects in the galleries, they shop for aesthetic philosophy on sale in museum shops. Croatian culture can be envisaged as a large faded palimpsest. It has to be observed in complexity; cultural heritage has been written out in layers, as on several times reused parchment. The Worlds of the Other only exist in a premodern obsession anyway.

    Josip Zanki

    Mirjana Vodopija, Detail, 2009.

    Hrvatsko drutvo likovnih umjetnika | Croatian Association of Artists

    Galerija Karas | Karas Gallery

    Trg rtava faizma 16, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia | www.hdlu.hrRadno vrijeme: srijeda - petak 11 - 19 h, subota i nedjelja 10 - 18 h; zatvoreno ponedjeljkom, utorkom i blagdanom.

    Working hours: Wednesday - Friday 11 am 7 pm, Saturday and Sunday 10 am - 6 pm; closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and holidays.

    CURRICULUM VITAE

    Born 1973 in Split, Croatia.

    In 1997 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Sculpture Department.

    From 2001. 2006. member of Croatian freelance arti-sts association.

    From 2007. works at the Academy of Fine Arts in Split, Sculpture Department.

    He has exibited in many exhibitions in Croatia and abroad.

    He won the one of the tree equal awards at the VII Croatian Sculpture Triennal in 2000 and at the 38th Split Salon in 2013.

    He is represented in the holdings of the Art Gallery in Split and of the Collection of Sculpture of the Croatian Academy of Science and Arts in Zagreb.

    Loren ivkovi Kulji

    Address: Bukoveva 15, 21000 Split, Croatia

    Contact: 091 151 8063, e-mail: [email protected]

    Otvorenje izlobe odrati e se 03. travnja 2014. u 19 sati | Opening of the exhibition on 3rd of April 2014 at 7 pm

    Galerija Karas | 03. travnja - 21. travnja 2014.Karas Gallery | April 3 - April 11, 2014

    loren ivkovi kulji

    Da je cijeli svijet jasan, umjetnost ne bi postojala.Albert Camus, Mit o Sizifu, 1943.

    Osvjetavanje procesa percepcije, razumijevanje iluzija uvjetovanih nametnutim konceptima, preispitivanje pre-dodbi o svijetu koji nas okruuje, neke su od temeljnih odrednica umjetnikog djelovanja Lorena ivkovia Kulji-a. Iza prividne jednostavnosti njegovih radova krije se dugotrajan proces razmiljanja i slojevitost izvedbe. Iako kipar, esto koristi medij crtea, fotogra je ili vi-dea kako bi to slobodnije i to jasnije iskomunicirao

    If the world were clear, art would not exist.Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 1943

    Becoming aware of the process of perception, under-standing the illusions that depend on imposed con-cepts, questioning the ideas of the world that sur-rounds us these are some of the basic tenets in the artistic activity of Loren ivkovi Kulji. The apparent simplicity of his artworks conceals a long process of re- ection and a multilayered quality of his performance. Even though a sculptor, he often uses the medium of

    Skica za podsvjesnu povorku / Sketch for a Subconscious Procession, 2012., 2 fotogra je u boji / 2 colour photographs, 150 x 390 cm

    vrt 1 / garden 1, 2012., detalj / detail, ljani pastel / platno /oil pastel canvas

    IMPRESUM

    Nakladnik / Publisher | Hrvatsko drutvo likovnih umjetnika / Croatian Association of Artists, Trg rtava faizma 16, 10 000 Zagreb, [email protected], www.hdlu.hr | Za nakladnika / For the publisher Josip Zanki | Upravni odbor HDLU / Executive board of HDLU Josip Zanki (predsjednik / president), Tomislav Buntak (dopredsjednik / vicepresident), Fedor Vuemilovi (dopredsjednik / vicepresident), Gordana Baki, Ivan Fijoli, Koraljka Kova Dugandi, Anita Kuhari Smrekar | Umjetniki savjet Galerije Karas / Artistic board of Karas Gallery Branka Beni, Martina Mezak, Sara ii, Ivana Vuki | Ravnateljica / Director Gaella Alexandra Gottwald | Struna suradnica / Associate Mia Orsag | Predgovor / Preface Jasminka Babi | Gra ko oblikovanje kataloga / Catalogue Design Zdravko Horvat | Fotogra ja / Photography Zoran Alajbeg | Prijevod / Translation Marina Miladinov | Lektura / proofreading Sinia Labrovi | Tisak / Printed by Cerovski | Naklada / Copies 300

    Izloba je realizirana uz nancijsku potporu Gradskog ureda za kulturu, obrazovanje i port Grada Zageba / The exhibition is nancially supported by the City Of ce for Culture, Education and Sports Zagreb.

    IVOTOPIS

    Roen 1973. u Splitu.

    Diplomirao kiparstvo na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti u Zagrebu 1997. godine.

    lan je Hrvatske zajednice samostalnih umjetnika od 2001- 2006. godine.

    Od 2007. radi na Kiparskom odjelu Umjetnike akade-mije u Splitu.

    Izlagao je na brojnim izlobama u Hrvatskoj i inozem-stvu.

    Dobitnik je jedne od tri jednakovrijedne nagrade na VII. trijenalu hrvatskog kiparstva 2000. te na 38. Splitskom salonu 2013. godine.

    Zastupljen u stalnom postavu Galerije umjetnina u Spli-tu i Gliptoteci Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti u Zagrebu.

    Loren ivkovi Kulji

    Adresa: Bukoveva 15, 21000 Split

    Kontakt: 091 151 8063, e-mail: [email protected]

    drawing, photography, or video in order to communi-cate his message as freely and clearly as possible.

    In his artworks Sketch for a Subconscious Procession and Background - Reproductions, the artist used the visual content of the mass media as his starting reference point and transposed it into the world of art. Each photograph cut out from a newspaper or magazine is joined by its counterpart a drawing or sculpture modelled in clay. By means of such appropriation, the artist takes the presentation out of its original context and deprives it of its original function as an adver-tisement or illustration transforming it into a model for drawing or sculpture. When he decides on its nal appearance, he photographs the newly created piece, merges it with the original by means of collage, and eventually exhibits it as a computer print of collaged photographs. In his own words, he experiences the nal act of photographing as a disruption of the pos-sibility of acting further in that speci c space. How-ever, this disruption is not the end. All artworks by Loren ivkovi Kulji, without exception, are a result of prolonged re ection and persistent work. They always consist in materializing an idea that evolves, in re ect-ing upon its various aspects, including the artistic ex-pression through different types of media. It is impor-tant to note that Loren is one of those rare artists who write down their re ections and processes, besides sketching them, so that the puri cation of the art-work takes place on more than one level. He often con-tinues and develops the subject in a series of intercon-nected artworks. Such is the case with the Sketch for a Subconscious Procession. It can be viewed as an elabo-rate variant of the processes initiated with the Back-ground - Reproductions. This highly unusual piece con-sists of two large computer prints produced according to the aforementioned principle, but with a multitude

    odreenu poruku.

    U radovima Skica za podsvjesnu povorku i Pozadina - re-produkcije umjetnik kao poetnu referencu koristi vi-zualne sadraje iz masovnih medija i transponira ih u svijet umjetnosti. Fotogra ji izrezanoj iz novina ili a-sopisa pridruuje njezin par crte ili skulpturu mode-liranu u glini. Ovakvom aproprijacijom umjetnik prikaz izmjeta iz izvornog konteksta, oduzimajui mu izvor-nu funkciju, reklamnu ili ilustrativnu, te ga pretvara u model za crte ili skulpturu. Kada donese odluku o ko-nanom izgledu, fotogra ra novonastali rad, spaja ga s izvornikom tehnikom kolairanja i u konanici izlae kao raunalni ispis kolairanih fotogra ja. Kako sam navodi, zavrni in fotogra ranja doivljava kao pre-kid mogunosti daljeg djelovanja u tom konkretnom prostoru. No, prekid ne znai i zavretak. Svi radovi Lorena ivkovia Kuljia, bez iznimke, rezultat su du-goga razmiljanja i ustrajnog rada. Tu je uvijek rije o materijalizaciji ideje koja se razvija, o promiljanju koje sagledava razne aspekte, ukljuujui pritom i umjet-niko izraavanje kroz razliite medije. Vano je na-pomenuti i da je Loren jedan od rijetkih umjetnika koji svoja razmiljanja i procese, osim to skicira, i zapisuje, tako da se proiavanje rada odvija na vie razina. esto temu nastavlja i razrauje u povezanim radovi-ma. Takav je sluaj i sa Skicom za podsvjesnu povorku. Nju se moe sagledati kao razraenu inaicu procesa zapoetih s Pozadina - reprodukcije. Vrlo neobian rad sastoji se od dva velika raunalna ispisa raena po ra-nije navedenom principu. No, umjetnik koristi mno-tvo gura koje postavlja u perspektivu. Ipak, grupa je samo uvjetno homogena: osim perspektive, drugih prostornih odrednica nema. Neke gure su modelira-ne u glini, a neke u crteu. Jasan je privremeni karakter rada i otvorena mogunost njegove daljnje promjene.

    Pozadina reprodukcije / Background Reproductions, 2011., fotogra ja u boji / colour photograph, 86 x 115 cm

    B e r t o n / F e r n e i r / H a t a d i / H r a s t e / o r s a g / V o d o p i j a / i i / K o u l

    Publisher: Croatian Association of Artists, Trg rtava faizma 16, 10 000 Zagreb, [email protected], www.hdlu.hr | For the publisher: Josip Zanki, president | Executive board of HDLU: Josip Zanki (president), Tomislav Buntak (vicepresident), Fedor Vuemilovi (vicepresident), Gordana Baki, Ivan Fijoli, Koraljka Kova Dugandi, Anita Kuhari Smrekar | Director: Gaella Alexandra Gottwald | Texts: Josip Zanki and Sara ii | Associate: Mia Orsag | Design: Martina Mezak | Printed by: Cerovski | Edition: 300

    Tea Hatadi, Censorship of Happiness, 2012/13. Mia Orsag, 2/4, 2013.

    Regionalne Towarzystwo Zachty Sztuk Piknych

    w Czstochowie

    GALERIA KONDUKTOROWNIA

    www.konduktorownia.eu

    Exhibition is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and City Office for Education, Culture and Sport Zagreb.

    This exhibition is a part of the collaboration between the Akademia im. J. Dugosza in Czstochowa /Faculty of Arts/, Gallery Konduktorownia and Croatian Association of Artists.

    www.hdlu.hr / www.konduktorownia.eu

  • tHe Worlds oF tHe otHer

    ANTHROPOMETRIESThe attitude of artists towards their own physical body has been changing over time, conditioned by various cultural frameworks. In the twentieth century, defining body as an art tool, but also as a work of art per se, culminated within the medium in which the artist, not producing a work of art any more, turned his body towards the viewer (Belting). The path was defined by the modern and industrial revolution, by enabling a technical reproduction of a work of art. The purpose of a work of art was now to be an aesthetic object accessible to all. Walter Benjamin says: The mass is a matrix from which currently all customary responses to works of art are springing newborn. Quantity has now become quality: the very much greater masses of participants have produced a changed kind of participation. The ritual character of a work of art, as well as its aura that, according to Walter Benjamin, disappeared in the age of mechanical reproduction and modernism, was in time replaced by the physical body as a tool of the artist. In 1960, twenty-four years after Benjamins essay, Yves Klein created Anthropometries, the work based on imprinting naked female bodies on canvas, which were previously covered in blue paint (monochrome). During the performance and the imprinting process Yves Klein was giving the instructions, thus changing the concept of a tool of the artist. The most important incentives for the change in the attitude towards the body definitely came through the classic anthropological researches of the cultures of the others, especially of what we call shamanic and totemic practices in the so-called primitive societies; from Bronislaw Malinowskis research in the Trobriand Islands in 1918, Margaret Meads research in Samoa in 1924 and Claude Levi Strausss research in Brazil in 1935.

    photograph or object, she is able to successfully articulate her ideas and gives the opportunity to the observers, by broadening their horizons and possibilities of perception. Quite common elements appear in new forms and take on new characteristics. With the help of photography, the artist presents to us already naturally and clearly defined objects, which by the help of the limited light moments she transformed into her final idea - the border area where something exists and disappears. Her works as a result of patient research, conscious and unconscious moments where ideas develop, educate the view and raise issues about the infinite possibilities of perceiving the world around us.

    Questioning of the border worlds, and her own personality and reality are brought in the works of Marina Ferneir, which she created in the last two years, as part of the cycle Alchemy of dreams. Marina Ferneir has a specific artistic style, built on the foundations of her conservation and restoration activities. Through the works in this cycle we follow development of her inner worlds, which are the images blended with elements of reality, but still remained on the border between dreams and reality. It is a combination of concrete and familiar elements in the picture, figures and landscapes, with

    stylized elements of architecture and unexpected motifs, that allows Marina Ferneirs paintings to transcend the banality of everyday life scenes. What was at the beginning an exploration of the basic elements of artistic creativity, resulted in a transformation of the motifs into visual language similar to the visions of dream worlds.

    Elvis Berton presents works from three different cycles, moving from intimate Istrian porches over the stylized interpretations of the nature and the actual artistic perception of objects in it, to the criticism of todays shifted society. The work from the series Porches, brings a touch of Istrian atmosphere, setting styled porch in the landscape of great tension, constantly waiting for the relief. Landscapes and plants in Bertons paintings are styled almost to the limit, tending to represent his personal visions and perceptions of the living nature. At first seemingly only lovable lemon motif, defined by the artists bold and specific visual expression, can be considered as a motive from everyday life, but Bertons Lemons assume in this case another function - disclosing putridity, acidity and decadence of modern consumerist society.

    Artistic tandem ii / Koul directly and clearly present their work, which is based on the relationship between modern art and marketing of high class fashion and luxury industry. They are opening the question of recycling elements and phenomena of the contemporary art in marketing propaganda and what happens when contemporary art appropriates the aesthetic norms and rules of major marketing giants. They question the quality of the products that are on a daily basis served to consumers and the manipulation of advertising campaigns, which has found an ideal breeding ground in todays time of impersonality of submission, apathy and dullness of modern society. Good taste of the elite representatives of such society has long ago become questionable, and thus the taste of the vast majority of the world - a whole series of ordinary people who often by all means go beyond their possibilities, in order to follow the dogma of aggressive and manipulative marketing.

    The works of the young sculptor Vojin Hraste are the excellent continuation of questions that opened ii / Koul, but Hraste turns it to the perception of himself. Twisted perception of his own personality manifests itself in a self-portrait increased by 50 % compared to the natural size, filled with plastic hair, which transforms him beyond recognition, while subtly alluding to the popular ventures of installing silicone implants, which can change (distort) a man from head to toe.

    Hraste clearly, directly and literally questions the giant of the film industry, Hollywood, which from day to day imposes a multitude of aesthetic norms and rules, whose correctness and logic is truly questioned just by few people. Entire film and media industry, bring to the individuals countless possibilities of correction of their own personality, behavior, attitude and style, where it becomes clear that very benign is physical, and more worrying is its mental transformation.

    Artworks of Tea Hatadi, complete this joint exhibition of seven Croatian artists, who in different ways and by various methods talk about the present and immediate preoccupations. By specific aesthetic approach, Tea Hatadi seductively attracts us to focus our attention on her work, disclosing clearly and directly her private information, with a defined and specific attitude talks about her position of a contemporary artist, criticizing moments of the struggle for survival while taking her place on the artistic scene.Contradiction is one of the foundations of Teas works, skillfully balancing between the composition of seductive and gentle, and strong, sharp, direct and to a certain extent negative elements.Teas work Censorship of Happiness, clearly articulated artistic achievement, that is visually striking and attractive, brings a look at a relative term of happiness. Her colleagues, artists talk about happiness, which is closely related to their artistic creativity, sometimes it is a spark of happiness that came in an unexpected moment, and sometimes their luck is a result of negative situations. Teas censorship comes down to the visual aspect, using silhouettes in the background in sepia tone, draws the viewer to listen to them closely and examine their own perceptions of happiness.This goes back to the starting point of personal analysis and analysis of abstract philosophical concepts, thus seven stories become the whole.

    Sara ii

    The world of a romanticized savage, which we came to know in Huxleys novel Brave New World in 1935, disappeared during the time which M. Hardt and A. Negri defined as biopolitics in their book Empire. It is not just about replacing the mode of production defined by the assembly line (Fordist society) with production processes defined and controlled by the computer programmes, but also about creating new forms of industry based on leisure, such as film, computer and entertainment industry. Romanticized savage was replaced with the age of a completely organized reality and spectacle, described by Guy Debord in The Society of the Spectacle. Guy Debord defined it in his book The Society of the Spectacle: Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudoworld that can only be looked at. Fragmented reality created an improved visual perception, which can adopt more visual contents. In the Middle Ages, scenes on altarpieces were the only visual world besides nature and landscape. The world of images transformed the whole reality, becoming more trivial, just like its heroes. Back in the seventies, Andy Warhol said that in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. Social networks enabled complete exposure of privacy, transforming it into a spectacular series of images. At the same time, this privacy is stylized in such a way that it becomes completely fictional, parallel second life, similar to the computer game Second Life. In such society Debord defined culture in the following words: In the struggle between tradition and innovation, which is the basic theme of internal cultural development in historical societies, innovation always wins. Precisely this idea of innovation and progress is one of the foundations of modernism, which in postmodernism was pushed to the absurd. The last exhibition that shocked the public with its innovativeness was the exhibition of British art called Sensation, organized under the patronage of Charles Saatchi in 1997. The exhibition also showed Damien Hirsts installation which consisted of a shark in formaldehyde, or the famous My Bed by Tracey Emin, on which one could see semen stains. There are two reasons why this exhibition was the last one that truly shocked the public. The first reason is because within the western culture there is a complete saturation of sensations based on questioning the body, sexuality or death. The second reason is that after the year 2000 the transfer of information was accelerated by the use of the Internet. The speed of information transfer itself led to limitless distribution of shocking images and films into almost every home. This produced indifference towards any form of physically explicit, and on the other hand, it opened up new processes in artistic practices. Unlike in Modernism, when due to its technical revolution the artwork lost its romantic addition defined by the divine inspiration of the artist, the postmodern processes imposed new references on the act of creation and the work of art.

    Elvis Berton, Before Rain, 2013. Kristijan Koul/Damir ii, Shape 1A, 2013. Martina Ferneir, Time to Go, Time to Stop, 2013. Vojin Hraste, Imagining Hollywood, 2014.