Subota | Saturday | Sabato
07 | 09 – 12 | 10 | 2024
Otvorenje | Opening | Apertura | 20h
U subotu, 07. rujna 2024. u 20 sati, u Apoteci – prostoru za suvremenu umjetnost održat će se otvorenje izložbe MLADENA STILINOVIĆA ”BOL”, a ostaje otvorena do 12. listopada 2024. U hrvatskom standardnom jeziku razlikuju se imenica bol muškog roda i ona ženskog roda. Kad u muškom označava osjet tjelesne patnje i trpljenja, a u ženskom osjećaj duhovne patnje i trpljenja. Iako je prošlo više od 10 godina i dalje se sjećam trenutka kad nas je profesorica morfologije učila ovoj distinkciji te svog instinktivnog čuđenja. Tada, još plaha i mlada, moje preispitivanje autoriteta bilo je tiho, no ta je informacija obilježila začetak osobnog odnosa i razumijevanja ideološke podloge jezika. Par godina kasnije, upoznajem Stileta u njegovoj posljednjoj godini života kako stoički podnaša bol (m.r.), a uronjavanjem u njegov rad, biblioteku i prostor, upoznajem i njegovo iskustvo boli (ž.r.).
Iako prisutna i u Mladenovim najranijim radovima (njegovoj poeziji i eksperimentalnom filmu), on temu boli eksplicitno otvara 1970-ih radom Igra Bol. Na svako od 6 polja bijele kockice rukom ispisuje bol te poziva na sedmominutnu igru s vlastitim strpljenjem i pomirenosti s neizbježnim i jednakim ishodom svakog bacanja kockice. Nastavlja u umjetničkim knjižicama u kojima ispisuje dane u tjednu na stranice ili brojeve koje izjednačava s boli, a taj postupak kruni ”redakcijom” Oksfordskog rječnika engleskog jezika (Dictionary – Pain, 2003) u kojem na 523 stranica značenje svake riječi prekriva bjelinom te stvara odsustvo kako bi ju zamijenio riječju – pain. Jer kao što Stile i sam kaže – ponavljanjem ne vježbaš samo ponavljati, već i zaboraviti.
Razmišljajući o boli, on je svoje intimno iskustvo boli, tišine, odsustva i samoće vidio u bijeloj boji. Početkom devedesetih, noseći se s posebnim iskustvom zanijemjele boli i nemoći, producira seriju bijelih radova u kojima svakodnevne objekte prekriva bijelom bojom, bojom zidova koja stvari čini nevidljivima unatoč njihovoj prisutnosti. Prostor obljepljuje praznim papirima i stvara odsustvo informacija. Bavi se nulama kojima dodaje i oduzima nule. Ništa multiplicira i dijeli kako bi se opet svelo na svoju esenciju – nematerijalnost. tišinu. bol.
A polazište boli? Temeljni je konflikt ideološki. Jezični. Početak iskustva – kokoš ili jaje, papir ili novac, sve počinje s jezikom. Pojam bol si naučio s jezikom, kaže L. Wittgenstein, no ona nije u jeziku. Jezik boli. 4 Isključivost postojanja unutar ograničenog sustava stvara elementaran osjećaj bezizlaznosti i bespomoćnosti. Stile kamen omotava u papir s ispisanim stihom Mandeljštamove pjesme u preplitanju težine i lakoće. Pjesnikovo lakše je kamen podići nego ime ti izgovoriti pomalo podsjeća na onu jezičnu razdiobu te pita koja je nemoć teža – ona koja nam ne omogućava slobodu duha i misli ili ona koja nam sužava slobodu kretanja?
Branka Stipančić u vodnjanskoj Apoteci kurira malenu “biblioteku” Mladenovih boli. Na police smješta njegove knjige: Janje moje malo, Oduzimanje nula, I have no time. Iznad polica smješta Stiletove foto serije i knjige, njegov reprezentativan Artist at work i Odnos noga kruh. U ladice u kojima su se nekad skladištili lijekovi pohranjuje fragmente Stiletovih misli i ideja te citate koje je volio, s namjerom da iz njih gotovo čujemo njegov glas. U prvoj nas prostoriji suočava s nemoći na svakom kutku, ona je jasno pred nama, no i skrivena u malim, nepravilnim zakutcima. Publika postaje sudionik, ako se na to, naravno, odvaži, jer tko zna što se može otkriti kad se upusti u otvaranje ladica boli? Proces je i dodatno egzaltiran ogledalima koja nude mogućnost dodatnog obračunavanja sa sobom u tom istraživanju. Dubljim ulaskom u prostor, dobivamo maleni trenutak za predah do posljednje prostorije, gdje smo obračunati i okruženi surovosti boli. Iako se pronalazimo u sličnom procesu čitanja, kao što je to slučaj s knjižicom I have no time, ovdje nam Dictionary – Pain ostavlja dodatan prostor za intimno iskustvo i promišljanje vlastitog odnosa s boli.
Branka izložbom Mladen Stilinović – Bol poetično povezuje prostore boli. Prostor bivše apoteke, iako snažno obilježen konceptom boli, predstavlja i maleno utočište od nje. Trudi se ponuditi rješenja. Sličan postupak možemo vidjeti i u Stiletovom radu, bogatom sjecištu filozofske misli, poetskog nasljeđa i njegovog intimnog iskustva koje sve te segmente povezuje i oblikuje. Razumjevši suštinu ljudskog iskustva i njezine nemoći, on se boli ne suprotstavlja agresivno, previše svjestan apsurda takve borbe, već prihvaća bezizlaznost ljudskog iskustva te se posvećuje njezinoj antitezi koja nije ugoda, užitak ili lakoća. Antiteza boli je sloboda, ideal ljudskog duha lišen hladne i željezne sustavnosti gramatike, nazivlja i definicija. Vrijednosti i tržišta. Svrhovitosti.
Tekst: Sabina Softić
Kustosica: Branka Stipančić
Mladen Stilinović (rođen u Beogradu 1947. – preminuo u Puli 2016.). Od 1969. do 1977. radio je s
eksperimentalnim filmom. Bio je član Grupe šestorice umjetnika u Zagrebu (1975. – 1979.). Vodio je Galeriju PM u Zagrebu (1982. – 1991.). Njegovi radovi uključuju kolaže, fotografije, umjetničke knjige, slike, instalacije, akcije, filmove i video.
Samostalne izložbe: Galerija Nova (Zagreb, 1976.), Muzej suvremene umjetnosti (Zagreb, 2003.), Galerija ŠKUC (Ljubljana, 2005.), Kunstverein (Graz, 2006.), Platform Garanti (Istanbul, 2007.), Vanabbe Museum (Eindhoven, 2008.), Centar za suvremenu umjetnost (Glasgow, 2008.), Galerija u Taxis Palaisu (Innsbruck, 2008.), Index Gallery (Stockholm, 2009.), VOX (Montreal, 2010.), E-flux (New York, 2010.), Muzej moderne umjetnosti (Varšava, 2010.), Sing!, Muzej Ludwig (Budimpešta, 2011.), Zero for Conduct, Muzej suvremene umjetnosti (Zagreb, 2012. – 2013.), 1 + 2 =, MuAC (Mexico City, 2015.), On Work, Academia Moderna (Zagreb, 2018.), Smiles, Galerie Martin Janda (Beč, 2019.), Primer 1, 2, 3, Galerie Frank Elbaz (Pariz, 2019.), Mladen Stilinović: Ako nemaju kruha, neka jedu kolače, Hunt Kastner (Prag, 2020.), Mladen Stilinović: Portret umjetnika kao mladića „Filmovi, fotografije i kolaži“ 1973. – 1978. (Bratislava, 2021.), Word Images: Mangelos – Mladen Stilinović, 1MIRA Madrid (Madrid, 2021.), Mladen Stilinović: Crveno – Rozo: Refleksija o boji, Galerija Nova (Zagreb, 2022.), Mladen Stilinović: Jer sam mogao, Galerija Prozori (Zagreb, 2022.), Nezamjenjivi čovjek – Uvjeti kreativnosti u doba AI, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Kopenhagen, 2024.), itd.
Grupne izložbe: Biennale de Paris (1977.), Works and Words, De Appel (Amsterdam, 1979.), Sydney Biennale (1992./93.), After the Wall, Moderna Museet (Stockholm, 1999.), Aspekte / Positionen, Muzej moderne umjetnosti SLW (Beč, 1999.), In den Schluchten des Balkan, Kunsthalle Fridericianum (Kassel, 2003.), 50. Bijenale u Veneciji (2003.), Sydney Biennale (2006.), Documenta 12, Kassel (2007.), Istanbul Biennale (2009.), Promises of the Past, Centre Pompidou (Pariz, 2010.), Ostalgia, New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, 2011.), Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2013.), Personal Cuts, Carré d’Art Muséee d’Art Contemporain, Nîmes (2014.), 57. Bijenale u Veneciji (2017.), My Sweet Little Lamb (Everything We See Could Also Be Otherwise), The Showroom (London, 2017.), Left Performance Histories, nGbK (Berlin, 2018.), Hello World – Revisions of a Collection: Sites of Sustainability – Pavilions, Manifestos and Crypts, Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, 2018.), … of bread, wine, cars, security and peace, Kunsthalle (Beč, 2020.), Amuse-bouche. The Taste of Art, Museum Tinguely (Basel, 2020.), After the Wall, MoMA (New York, 2020.), Enjoy, MUMOK (Beč, 2021.), How Sleep the Brave, Nest Gallery (Den Haag, 2022.), From Scratch (New York, 2022.), I am only the housekeeper, but I don’t know…, Plečnikova hiša (Ljubljana, 2022.), The Act of Seeing that Unfolds, Colección Susana y Ricardo Steinbruch, Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid, 2022.), The Irreplaceable Human – Conditions of Creativity in
the Age of AI, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Kopenhagen, 2024.), itd.
Podrška: Ministarstvo kulture i medija Republike Hrvatske, Zaklada Kultura nova, Grad
Vodnjan, Istarska županija, TZ Vodnjan, Medea vina.
26/07/2024
Viktor Popović – Bez naslova (Arhiv apoteka)
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27. srpnja – 30. kolovoza 2024.
U subotu, 27. srpnja 2024. u 20 sati, u Apoteci – prostoru za suvremenu umjetnost održat će se otvorenje izložbe VIKTOR POPOVIĆ: “BEZ NAZIVA (ARHIV APOTEKA)”. Prostor napuštene ljekarne – danas prostor za suvremenu umjetnost Apoteka – inicijalna je koordinata umjetničke intervencije. Izložba ostaje otvorena do 30. kolovoza 2024.
Prostor napuštene ljekarne u staroj jezgri Vodnjana – danas prostor za suvremenu umjetnost Apoteka – inicijalna je koordinata umjetničke intervencije Viktora Popovića. Važno je naglasiti fizičku specifikaciju mjesta iako se umjetnik njome u radu ponajmanje bavi i zapravo ga više zanima zorna konstrukcija vlastitog doživljaja prostora nadopunjenog komplementarnim istraživanjem njegova iščezlog sadržaja. Sam po sebi, taj prostor nosi fizički testament svoje negdašnje funkcije, zanimljiv bijeli apotekarski mobilijar, ispražnjen od sadržaja. Naime, u ostakljenim dijelovima ormara, kao i njegovim zatvorenim ladicama, više se ne nalaze karakteristične keramičke ili staklene apotekarske stojnice, mjerni ili kakvi drugi uređaji, specijalističke knjige i ostalo. Ipak, njih se prostor nesumnjivo sjeća. Čini se da je upravo fokus na takvo fantomsko prisuće važna komponenta umjetnikovog vodnjanskog rada. Pitanje arhiva i osobnog čitanja njegova sadržaja odavna je već dio metodologije umjetničkog istraživanja Viktora Popovića, pri čemu umjetnik propituje pojavu i značenje nekog povijesnog mjesta ili dokumenta u zbilji suvremenog trenutka i interesa.
Photo: Viktor Popović
Popović pristupa arhivu kao aktivnoj materiji, okidaču propitivanja različitih problematika, što bi ovdje u vrlo širokom smislu bio koncept zdravlja i higijene u moderno doba. Ovo novo specifično istraživanje ljekarničke povijesti – i manjak inventara vodnjanske stare apoteke – umjetnika je dovelo u Povijesni i pomorski muzej Istre u gradu Puli gdje u stalnom muzejskom postavu zatiče cjelokupni inventar apoteke Carsko-kraljevske Mornaričke bolnice (namještaj, stojnice, knjige i ostalo), zaštićen i muzealiziran još od početka 1990-ih godina. Od cijelog inventara on odabire dvadeset najzanimljivijih apotekarskih stojnica, fotografira ih te tehnikom sitotiska otiskuje na crne grafičke listove. Već u nekoliko posljednjih svojih izložbenih nastupa, Viktor pokazuje specifikum svoga grafičkog eksperimenta. Naime, on kao pigment rabi materijal koji nosi neposrednu referencu na prostor ili motiv koji obrađuje. Dosad je to uglavnom bila prašina prikupljena na mjestima izlaganja iz koje bi, potom, ekstrahirao pigment koji upotrebljava kod otiska. Sada je to prah djelatnih tvari koje se koriste u proizvodnji lijekova, a koje čine temeljnu „boju“ za prikaz apotekarskih posuda u kojima su nekoć stajale izolirane biljne supstance označene preciznim naslovima i podacima o obradi.
Nadalje, kroz niz vlastitih fotografskih snimaka u lightboxovima Viktor interpretira višeslojnost prostora same apoteke. Na njima dominiraju fragmenti umjetnikova pogleda, mjestimice usložnjeni višekratnim refleksijama. Poradi usredotočenosti na prazninu i vremensku patinu, umjetnik stari apotekarski prostor zagrće ozračjem metafizičnosti te nam svojom minuciozno dorađenom estetikom pripovijeda o onome što je onkraj osjetilnog iskustva. Taj je dojam podjednako prisutan, kako u jasnim siluetama fotografija u svjetlosnim kutijama, tako i u prozračnoj teksturi grafičkih otisaka fantomskoga apotekarskog posuđa.
Viktor Popović je umjetnik koji živi i radi u Splitu. U svojim instalacijama i objektima često koristi pronađene predmete, arhivsku građu i sirove industrijske materijale pritom istražujući odnos umjetničkog djela i publike, te povijesnog i fizičkog konteksta izložbenog prostora. U recentnim radovima istražuje modernističko nasljeđe Hrvatske iz socijalističkog razdoblja, te se fokusira na rekontekstualizaciju arhitekture iz 1960-ih i 1970-ih godina. Popović je diplomirao na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti u Zagrebu i izlagao je u mnogim galerijama, muzejima kao i u alternativnim izložbenim prostorima u Europi i SAD-u. Dobitnik je više uglednih stipendija i nagrada a njegovi radovi nalaze se u kolekcijama značajnijih javnih institucija u Hrvatskoj, uključujući Muzej suvremene umjetnosti u Zagrebu, Galeriju umjetnina u Splitu i Galeriju umjetnina u Zadru. Osim vlastite umjetničke prakse, Popović predaje kolegije slikarstva i crtanja na Slikarskom odsjeku Umjetničke akademije u Splitu, gdje 2018. godine promaknut u trajno zvanje redovitog profesora.
Photo: Darko Škrobonja
back to exhibitions10/07/2024
Cinemaniac 2024. – Misliti film / Think film
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Stéphan Crasneanscki: Ono što ostavljamo za sobom – Iz arhiva Jean-Luca Godarda / What We Leave Behind – From the Archives of Jean-Luc Godard
Otvorenje / Opening 12.07.2024., Galerija Novo (Laginjina ulica 7, Pula)
U petak, 12. srpnja 2024. u 20 sati, u Galeriji Novo održat će se otvorenje izložbe Cinemaniac 2024. – Misliti film, Stéphan Crasneanscki: Ono što ostavljamo za sobom – Iz arhiva Jean-Luca Godarda. Nakon premijernog predstavljanja u MMSU – Muzeju moderne i suvremene umjetnosti u Rijeci, te izložbe u Apoteci – prostor za suvremenu umjetnost, izložba se nastavlja u Galeriji Novo u sklopu Cinemanica 2024. – Milsiti film, a ostaje otvorena do 21. srpnja 2024.
Cinemaniac – Misliti film na Pulskom filmskom festivalu novo je mjesto izlaganja nadopunjene i proširene izložbe višemedijskog umjetnika Stéphana Crasneansckog nakon razotkrivanja Godardovih kutija, izložbom koja je započela u Muzeju moderne i suvremene umjetnosti u Rijeci.
Izložba okuplja seriju fotografija koje uokviruju knjige, kolaže, filmske i video arhivalije iz osobnog arhiva antologijskog redatelja, uz predstavljanje foto-knjige Ono što ostavljamo za sobom, te istoimenog filmskog djela, u dijalogu s video radom Četiri kardinalna vremena. Naslov knjige, videa i zvučne kompozicije Ono što ostavljamo za sobom | Iz arhiva Jean-Luca Godarda slijedi tragove rizomatskih međuprostora umjetničko-kustoskog istraživanja Stéphana Crasneansckog i njegova eksperimentalnog Soundwalk Collective nakon što ga je 2014. Godardov snimatelj zvuka François Musy uveo u nepregledno čuvalište Godardova filmskog stoljeća, smješteno u francuskom Cantalu. Beskrajne serije kartonskih kutija klasificirao je i zapakirao sam Godard, bez naziva i bez brojeva. Kutije je rastvorio Crasneanscki transparencijama i sjenovitim zrcaljenjima teksta, slojevitim pretapanjima i višestrukim ekspozicijama, izrezivanjem i paranjem nađenih slika. To je sfinga nepomične fotografije, pisao je Serge Daney o Godardovim zaustavljenim slikama. Rastvorene klapne dupkom punih kartonskih kutija otkrivaju gornje slojeve gustih naslovnica knjiga, bilježaka, izrezaka, kutije filmskih rola, videokazeta, magnetofonskih vrpci, kutije spisa i skica, transparencija i kolaža, fotografija i mapa, blago artefakata koji su bili materijali filmskih (pri)povijesti poslije filma. Godardove sfinge supostavljaju kolažne transparencije povijesti filma i povijesti umjetnosti, od Goyine Gole Maje (La maja desnuda), do Georgesa de la Toura, premontirane mizanscene Botticellijeve obrade Apelove Klevete (Calunnia), ili Munchova crteža. Stéphan Crasneanscki je francuski multidisciplinarni umjetnik, razvijajući konceptualne, transnacionalne, izvedbene, diskurzivne umjetničke prakse u različitim medijima – od umjetničkih instalacija, plesa, glazbe i filma do knjiga, analognih i digitalnih nosača zvuka. Među suradnicima bili su: Patti Smith, Abel Ferrara, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Luc Nancy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nan Goldin, Willem Dafoe, Wim Wenders, Jean Nouvel, Isabelle Adjani, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert. Izlagao je u međunarodni institucijama poput Opéra de Lyon, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Barbican Centre, Berghain, Centre Georges Pompidou, MUDAM, MuCEM, Museo Madre, New Museum, Palazzo Reale Milan, documenta14 u Ateni i Kasselu, Manifesta 12 Palermo i dr.
Kustosice: Tanja Vrvilo, Branka Benčić
Realizirano u suradnji: Muzeja moderne i suvremene umjetnosti Rijeka i Filmskih mutacija:
Festivala nevidljivog filma – EVIDENCIJE (Film-protufilm)
Partneri: Pula Film Festival, Soundwalk Collective, Studio Naegeli, Udruga Metamedij
Organizacija: Apoteka – Prostor za suvremenu umjetnost, Udruga Metamedij
Podrška: Grad Pula, Ministarstvo kulture i medija Republike Hrvatske, Hrvatski audiovizualni
centar, Zaklada Kultura nova, Istarska županija.
29/05/2024
Julije Knifer / Tomo Savić-Gecan: Bez naziva / Untitled / Senza titolo
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01-06-2024 – 13-07-2024
Postponing time and place is the fundamental theme of the exhibition Untitled… by Julije Knifer and Tomo Savić-Gecan. Although generationally almost half a century apart, both find the starting point of their artistic activity in absurdity and void, as well as in the freedom defined by the infinity of temporal and spatial duration. They are objective, precise and consistent in the minimalist visual expression, but every work entails complex preparations and duration of the execution. Apoteka is presenting their third joint exhibition. The first was curated by Miško Šuvaković at Ješa Denegri’s initiative at HDLU in Zagreb, early in 2005, soon after Knifer’s departure. Savić-Gecan, Knifer and Goran Petercol exhibited at the Galženica Gallery in Velika Gorica in 2022 on the topic of void. At previous exhibitions, Gecan’s object directly obstructed the view of Knifer’s paintings or followed up on his work distantly. Gecan’s every piece is accompanied by a statement which is an integral part of the work.
In Apoteka, Tomo Savić-Gecan directly intervenes into Knifer’s work. Gecan’s work is based on the data he received for the needs of representing the Croatian pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022. Exactly two years later, using the same data, a new algorithm was made; in Vodnjan it will define the pace of the changes, the arrangement and number of Julije Knifer’s works in Apoteka’s gallery space. Over the course of one month of the exhibition’s duration, the arrangement of Knifer’s works, whose number will also vary, will change. A total of twelve drawings will be exhibited. The changes in the set-up will be announced on Apoteka’s website. The starting point of the Vodnjan work is the same as the one in Venice two years ago. In executing the series of drawings in an A4 format mathematical notebook, Knifer uses classical materials and means, while Gecan for his works uses technological tools and AI. However, both focus on calculations and postponement, making time the subject of their expression.
In 1988 in Tübingen, Knifer used pen and paper to draw the outlines of a model for his future paintings. A year later, with a remark of the time and place of the making, he upgraded the ‘sketches’ by shading, which then no longer serve just as models, but become a work in their own right. He on occasions even draws more works on the same piece of paper. The artist returns to these works once again, marking the exact date and time of transferral to the canvases.
In the case of these two artists, postponement means the deferment of the end and the transferral of action through time, by no means the deferment of the action itself. In his journal from 1986, Knifer writes about work on graffiti, and his multiply repeated idea is applicable to other areas of his work: “I began working. Finishing a drawing is not my goal. Sounds absurd, because simply these drawings cannot be finished.”
Although both Knifer and Gecan are reserved in visual expression, this is a very dynamic project addressing seemingly marginal, but in fact very significant segment of their activity, a specific treatment of time.
Ana Knifer
“During the exhibition ‘Untitled’ at Vodnjan’s Apoteka, in 2024, the work process data results “Untitled (Croatian Pavilion) 2022” will affect the set-up of Julije Knifer’s works, including the time of change, the number of exhibited works, the choice of works and their arrangement.”
Tomo Savić-Gecan, Untitled 2024
Julije Knifer was born in Osijek, Croatia in 1924 and died in Paris in 2004. His work was focused over the exploration of a single form-the meander which started in the late 1950’ and later developed into the single central point of his artistic production. He was a member of Croatian artistic collective Gorgona. Knifer represented Croatia in the 1976. and 2001. Venice Biennale, and, in 2014, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb mounted a major retrospective exhibition of his work. He has exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; MAMCO (Musée d’art moderne et contemporain) in Geneva and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. His works are in numerous private and public collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Tate, London; the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the National Gallery, Berlin.
Tomo Savić-Gecan was born in 1967 in Zagreb and lives and works in Amsterdam. He studied at the School of Applied Arts in Zagreb and the Academies of Fine Arts in Venice and Milan, followed by postgraduate studies at Ateliers Arnhem, the Netherlands. In 2020 he was the subject of career-spanning retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. Solo shows have taken place at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (2017); Zuidplein, Amsterdam, and Van Abbemuse- um, Eindhoven, the Netherlands (2016); Jeu de Paume, Paris, and Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2010); Etablissement d’en face, Brussels (2005); De Loge, Haarlem, the Netherlands (2000); Gallery PM, Zagreb (1998); Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana (1994); and Gallery SC, Zagreb (1994), among others. Selected group exhibitions have taken place at Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2017); Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2011); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2011); Apex Art, New York (2007); De Appel, Amsterdam (2006); MoMA PS1, New York (2004); Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (2003); Arti & Amicitiae, Amsterdam (2002); National Gallery of Art, Tirana, Albania (2002); and Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna (2001). He has participated in major perennial exhibitions, including the Sculpture Garden Biennale Geneva (2020), the Taipei Biennial (2012), the 51st Venice Biennale of Art (2005), and Manifesta, Ljubljana (2000), and various artist residencies, including Art Explora, Paris (2021); Accelerate Croatia with Arts, CERN, Geneva (2017); 1646 Experimental Art Space, The Hague (2012); and PS1, New York (2004).
Drawing: Julije Knifer, Bez naziva 1988-90
Technical production lead: Ela Đimoti
Thank you: Martijntje Hallmann, Tomislav Pokrajčić
Supported by Ministarstvo kulture i medija Republike Hrvatske, Zaklada Kultura nova, Grad Vodnjan – Dignano, Istarska županija – Regione Istriana, TZ Vodnjan – Dignano, Medea vina.
back to exhibitions22/03/2024
STÉPHAN CRASNEANSCKI: GODARD’S BOXES
30/03/2024 - 04/05/2024
Film Mutations and Apoteka – Space for Contemporary Art are opening the second part of the exhibition trilogy of multidisciplinary artist Stéphan Crasneanscki –GODARD’S BOXES with photographs of books, collages, film and video archivalia from Godard’s personal archive and the presentation of the photo-book What We Leave Behind | From the Archives of Jean-Luc Godard. Stéphan Crasneanscki appropriates and artistically reactivates Godard’s personal museum of the film century as a case study of radical cinematic self-archiving by repeating some of the infinite jump cuts and reframings.
The title of the book, video and sound composition What we leave behind | From the Archives of Jean-Luc Godard follows the traces of the rhizomatic interstices of the artistic-curatorial research of Stéphane Crasneansky and his experimental Soundwalk Collective after being introduced in 2014 by Godard’s sound engineer François Musy to the vast repository of Godard’s film century, located in Cantal, France. Endless series of cardboard boxes were classified and packed by Godard himself, with no names and no numbers. The boxes were unfolded by Crasneanscki for a photographically remedialized kino-eye of Godardian pedagogy that theorizes and terrorizes with the vertigo of spacing, interstices and superimpositions, transparencies and the shimmering shadows of text, layered dissolves and multiple exposures, cutting and tearing of found images. It is the sphinx of still photography, as Serge Daney wrote about Godard’s still images.
We are standing in front of 9 frames of Godard’s sphinxes behind museum glass in photographs by Stéphan Crasneanscki. Some undecidably reflect 2 or 3 cinematic or erotic questions. But most retain the viewer’s look holding on desire to blow-up the shadows of ripped images. We are witnessing the practices of slow motion, condensation, simultaneity of leafing through a false continuities to the embryos of images. Godard’s sphinxes juxtapose transparencies of Goya’s The Nude Maja (La maja desnuda), the doubled ecstasy of Guido Cagnacci’s The Death of Lucretia (La morte di Lucrezia), the interventional frame of Hope (L’Esperance) by Pierre Puvis de Charannes, the disembodied The Penitent Magdalen (La Madeleine pénitente) by Georges de la Tour, the re-cut mise-en-scène of Botticelli’s reconstruction of The Calumny of Appelles (Calunnia), and the lower segment of Munch’s drawing Death and Woman (Jenta og dødsfallet). Beneath the glass text, the photographic mise-en-abîme awaits to be blown-up by the viewer’s eyes.
Separation of functions. Radio-ear – the montage I hear! Kino-eye – the montage I see! – Dziga Vertov reminds us in the Kinoks manifesto from one of the photo-boxes.
In the search of Stéphane Crasneansky’s radio-ear for sound without an image from Godard’s collection of unused sound recordings, before and after the shot, his photo-eye captured arhivalia from 43 stored boxes. And then, a film – the moving image for the recorded sound. Opened flaps of hole-filled cardboard boxes reveal the upper layers of dense book covers, notes, clippings, boxes of film reels, video cassettes, tapes, boxes of files and sketches, transparencies and collages, photographs and maps, a treasure of artifacts that were the material of cinematic histories after the cinema.
The third function. Photo-book – the montage I touch! The artist’s photo-book What We Leave Behind | From the Archives of Jean-Luc Godard unfolds four precisely structured series of photographs: BOXES-COLLAGES-STILL LIFES-NOTES. Stéphan Crasneanscki and Abel Ferrara talk between BOXES and COLLAGES, and between COLLAGES and STILL LIFES we read Antoine de Baecque’s essay Godard Inventory: How He organizes His Library. The book opens with the poetic prologue The Reluctant Master by Patti Smith. An artist book of photo-archivalia is edited and designed by Tony Cederteg in spirit of Godardian politics of open packaging. The book provides an insight into the exhibition of the same name in Paris in 2016, where Crasneanscki exhibited 164 photographs from Godard’s yet-to-be-discovered archival stratum. Godard did not package all the times. Filmic time from 1980 to 2000 is preserved in Godard’s boxes.
Boxes do not protect in space but postpone in time, as Roland Barthes wrote in his Empire of Signs about the Japanese art of packaging. One of Godard’s transparencies in Stéphan Crasneanscki’s photo-book, next to page 115, is a torn out black-and-yellow newspaper photogram from Oshima’s Empire of the Senses. In the depth of the frame, the text is mirrored, with the French title L’Empire des sens and the handwritten inscription Harmonica at the top, and a pinched cut floating at the bottom and on the right side of the paper. Stéphan Crasneansky’s living archive for Godard’s boxes of the postponed times.
Tanja Vrvilo
Stéphan Crasneanscki is a French multidisciplinary artist based in New York.
In 2000, he founded the audio-visual platform Soundwalk Collective, joined by the producer and sound artist Simone Merli and a wide group of artists and musicians on long-term projects that are related to specific places and develop conceptual, transnational, performative, and discursive art practices in different media – from art installations, dance, music, photography and film to books, analog and digital albums. The approach to composition combines anthropology, ethnography, non-linear narrative, psycho-geography, landscape politics and explorations in recordings and synthesis. Their collaborations include: Patti Smith, Abel Ferrara, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Luc Nancy, Sasha Waltz, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jesse Paris Smith, Mulatu Astatke, Nan Goldin, H.E. Hussain Al Jassmi, Willem Dafoe, Zhou Dongyu, Nina Kraviz, Wim Wenders, Jean Nouvel, Isabelle Adjani, Elodie Bouchez, Laetitia Casta, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Isild Le Besco, Anna Mouglalis, Charlotte Rampling. They have exhibited and performed at the Opéra de Lyon, CTM Festival, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Barbican Centre, Berghain, Centre Georges Pompidou, Florence Gould Hall, Mobile Art by Zaha Hadid Hong Kong, MUDAM, MuCEM, Museo Madre, National Museum Singapore, New Museum, Palazzo Reale Milan, La Triennale, Radialsystem V, documenta14 in Athens and Kassel, Funkhaus Berlin, Manifesta12 Palermo, and elsewhere.
Curators: Tanja Vrvilo, Branka Benčić
Production : Film-protufilm (Zagreb), Apoteka – prostor za suvremenu umjetnost (Vodnjan)
In partnership with: Studio Naegeli (Gstaad)
Curatorial support: Anna Högl (Studio Naegeli)
In collaboration with: Simone Merli, Douglas Pisterman – Soundwalk Collective, Christian Högl – Studio Naegeli, Tony Cederteg – Libraryman
Texts, notes, translations: Stéphan Crasneanscki, Patti Smith, Antoine de Baecque, Marina Schumann, Tanja Vrvilo
Transportation: Tomislav Crnković (Panda Wheels)
The programme is taking place as part of FILM MUTATIONS – EVIDENCES, a long-term project of art organisation Film-protufilm on the politics of film curatorship and modes of migration of the cinematic dispositive in digital era, curated by Tanja Vrvilo.
Supported by: Hrvatski audiovizualni centar, Ministarstvo kulture i medija Republike Hrvatske, Zaklada Kultura nova, Grad Zagreb – Gradski ured za kulturu i civilno društvo, Language Barrier Productions, Grad Vodnjan, Istarska županija i TZ Vodnjan.
Photographs, sound composition and book courtesy of: Stéphan Crasneanscki, Soundwalk Collective, Libraryman, Studio Naegeli.
soundwalkcollective.com
libraryman.se/stephan-crasneanscki-what-we-leave-behind/
filmskemutacije.com
23.3.2024. (subota)
Apoteka – prostor za suvremenu umjetnost
Trgovačka 20, Vodnjan
Multimedijalna radionica Cadavre exquis temelji se na istoimenoj igri odnosno nadrealističkoj crtačkoj metodi, a osmišljena je kao kolektivni, suradnički eksperiment polaznika/ca pod vodstvom Ane Labudović – dizajnerice (digitalni mediji, RISO tisak, grafički dizajn) i edukatorice te dizajnerice i vizualne umjetnice Dorotee Škrabo. Poznatu igru voditeljice prevode u jezik multimedije s konačnim (teško predvidljivim) rezultatom u animiranom video formatu.
Sudionici/e radionice međusobno crtanjem, kolažiranjem i/ili izvedbom komuniciraju u sekvencama odnosno frameovima na zadanu temu ili osnovnu ideju, preispitujući koncepte suradnje i pripovijedanja. Multimedijalna radionica spoj je analognih i digitalnih tehnika.
Radionica se održava u subotu u dva bloka od četiri školska sata s pauzom. Voditeljice će upoznati polaznike/ce s metodom Cadavre exquis i primjenom na druge medije. U grupama i samostalno razrađivati će se koncepti, teme, digitalne tehnike videa, animacije i montaže, a rezultati dinamične radionice biti će kratki video formati.
Radionica je namijenjena mladima i svima koji se tako osjećaju.
Prijave su otvorene do petka, 22.3.2024. u podne.
Prijavite se putem maila apoteka.info@gmail.com te navedite dosadašnje iskustvo u radu s videom, zvukom slikom, premda iskustvo nije presudno.
Program se realizira uz podršku Odjela za kulturu i zavičajnost Istarske županije.
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Natječaj za izlaganje u 2024. godini
Otvoreni termin je programska jedinica koju Apoteka provodi u želji za stvaranjem novih mogućnosti za izlaganje, realizacijom programa, otvorenog za različite umjetničke medije, pozicije i prakse.
Program Apoteke realizira se direktnim pozivom i programskom jedinicom Otvoreni termin – otvorenim javnim pozivom za izlaganje. Usmjeren je prema svim zainteresiranim umjetnicima i kustosima, povjesničarima umjetnosti, posebno mlađoj generaciji i lokalnim umjetnicima, te studentima likovnih akademija, kako bi u okviru programa Apoteke mogli upoznati, pratiti i javno predstaviti njihov rad. Ovom gestom Apoteka želi postati otvoreni prostor i pružiti podršku mladim umjetnicima za izlaganje te produkciju rada i izložbe. Na taj se način umjetnicima, umjetničkim projektima i ostalim sudionicima omogućava i osigurava, u nedostatku financijskih i prostornih uvjeta, adekvatna financijska i tehnička podrška. Otvoreni termin ne mora nužno rezultirati izložbom, već prezentacijom, predavanjem, razgovorom, performansom.
NAČIN SUDJELOVANJA
Prijave su otvorene od 24. siječnja do 24. veljače 2024., a šalju se isključivo u elektronskom formatu, NE većem od 20 MB na adresu apoteka.info@gmail.com s naznakom Otvoreni termin 2024. Videozapisi mogu biti dostavljeni putem wetransfera ili drugih aplikacija za prijenos većih podataka. Prijave s nepotpunom dokumentacijom, kao i one koje pristignu nakon naznačenog roka, neće se razmatrati.
PRIJAVA MORA SADRŽAVATI:
● Kontakt informacije (ime i prezime/naziv kolektiva; e-mail adresa; broj tel/mob)
● Ažurirani portfolio s izjavom umjetnika/ce, i životopisom
● Naziv i prijedlog projekta
● Sažeti opis i koncept projekta, sažeti tehnički opis projekta i zahtjeve postava
● Vizualnu dokumentaciju: skice i/ili foto/video dokumentaciju projekta
● Link na projekt (video i sl. ako je primjenjivo).
Tlocrt i fotografije prostora možemo dostaviti na zahtjev.
Apoteka će u okviru mogućnosti snositi troškove honorara umjetnika/ce, dio produkcijskih troškova i organizaciju/realizaciju izložbe (transport radova, postav, smještaj, deplijan, promocija) u dogovoru s odabranim prijaviteljem i potrebama projekta.
O rezultatima natječaja odabrani/a prijavitelj/ica bit će obaviješten/a krajem ožujka 2024. godine.
Program Apoteke – prostora za suvremenu umjetnost provodi se uz financijsku podršku Ministarstva kulture i medija RH, Istarske županije, Zaklade Kultura nova i Grada Vodnjana.
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U srijedu, 17. siječnja 2023. u 19 sati, u Apoteci – prostoru za suvremenu umjetnost u Vodnjanu, održat će se projekcija filma Silvi Naçi The Bow Wake [Vala e Harkut], u sklopu programa Kino Apoteka. Kustos filmskog programa je Lorenzo Lazzari.
Kino Apoteka je program filmskih projekcija i predavanja koji uključuje suradnju nekoliko nezavisnih sektora okupljenih oko ideje filma. Takva je suradnja planirana za različite dispozitive, suradnike i publike pokretnih slika, a koji uranja u isprekidane prostorne politike pokretnih slika (na) zemlji, njihove afilmske (svesnimljive) i profilmske (snimljene) stvarnosti, istražujući zapostavljene prostorne mutacije filma.
Program se realizira uz potporu Grada Vodnjana
Silvi Naçi
Bow Wake [Vala i Harkut], 2019
HD video / dvokanalna HD video instalacija, boja, zvuk, 77 min.
Rad Silvi Naçi bavi se temom patrijarhata i nacionalnog identiteta, ilustrirajući opipljive napetosti između dviju LGBTQIA+ zajednica u Albaniji: drevne (kulturne) tradicije virdžina (zavjetovanih djevojaka) koje su obožavane, i romske trans zajednice iz Tirane koja se opire državnom nasilju na dnevnoj bazi.
Uz potporu Zaklade Felix Gonzalez-Torres (2017.-2018.), Naçi putuje u Albaniju i dokumentira dvije LGBTQIA+ zajednice: Burrneshu i Aleancu, aktivističku organizaciju protiv diskriminacije LGBTI osoba, koju je osnovala Xheni Karaj u Tirani. Rad koji je 2019. godine nastao u tom procesu – The Bow Wake [Vala i Harkut] – poprima formu dvokanalne instalacije i dugometražnog filma, ilustrirajući veze i napetosti između ovih zajednica. Uz to, Naçi kreira i široki portret Albanije, njezinih gradova i ljudi koje posjećuje u svom putovanju, iznoseći na vidjelo složene problematike koje okružuju izraze i percepcije roda kroz povijesti i kulture. Zadubljivanje u živote Iali i Xhenifer predstavlja pothvat koji zahtijeva ustrajan ali delikatan pristup, osobito jer se rad fokusira na izrazito intimnu i kontroverznu temu. U tom pogledu, jukstapozicija snimaka u dvokanalnom videu poziva gledatelje na nijansirani interkulturalni dijalog.
Biografija
Silvi Naçi (Albanija, 1987.) radi s različitim izražajnim sredstvima, uključujući fotografiju, performans, pokretne slike, tekst, tekstilna vlakna, crtež i instalaciju. Interes je usmjeren prema suptilnim i nasilnim modalitetima kojima dekolonizacija i migracija utječu i oblikuju ljude, jezik i rodni identitet, kao i društvenu i kulturnu dinamiku. Uz diplomu likovne umjetnosti i dizajna, specijalizira fotografiju i medije. Radovi Silvi Naçi predstavljeni su u brojnim izložbenim kontekstima, uključujući Manifestu 14 (Priština), Nacionalnu galeriju umjetnosti (Tirana), MAK Center (Los Angeles), MoCA Geffen (Los Angeles), Other Places Art Fair (Los Angeles). Za svoj rad dobiva nagradu Tim Disney Excellence in Storytelling Award i Felix Gonzalez-Torres Travel Grant. Također, sudjeluje i u nekoliko rezidencija, poput Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art (Berlin), Elsewhere Museum and Residency (Greensboro) i Évora NAU (Évora).
Lorenzo Lazzari, istraživač i kustos, živi u Trstu. Doktorirao je povijest umjetnosti, kinematografije i novih medija na Sveučilištu u Udinama. Kurirao je izložbe s brojnim umjetnicima, uključujući Érica Baudelairea, Danila Correalea, Evu Giolo, Sofiju Caesar, Giuliu Iacolutti, Noémie Goudal. U Udinama surađuje kao kustos na projektu Mind the Gap. Predaje multimedijsku umjetnost na IUAV u Veneciji, gdje je također odgovoran za magistarski studij MOVIES – Moving Images Arts.
23/11/2023
Maja Marković: How we used to inhabit
25/11/2023 - 01/03/2024
The Probing of Housing
Giving a space to Maja Marković’s book Kako smo stanovali at Apoteka – Space for Contemporary Art converges private and public – the artist’s work on listing the samples remaining from old-day, planned and organised housing policies enters the space marked by a, probably, private practice, but of an extremely important public use. Both of these issues – housing and medical care – pertain to fundamental human rights – the right to home, the right to health, but also the policies of managing one’s body, taking care of its state, its work capability, and consequently its adaptability and movability.
A specific trait of Apoteka is the preservation of the old furniture, which evokes some even pre-modern times, classifying and arranging medication, tinctures, preparations, powders and creams, and is in itself a time capsule of sorts. Maja Marković introduces into this time-marked space her registries, paper samples for graphic designs, old abstract wooden toys and ceramic tiles, staging thus the prototypes for a possible exhibition of archaeology of modern-day housing. All these material traces of life out of which the author compiles her spatialised collages are all around us, in derelict houses, emptied apartments and closed down factories and plants.
The author’s probing of the nostalgia over a time of urban planning, quality mass production which created jobs and shaped the long-lost world of progress and, finally, objects with longer durability, happens through – ceramic tiles. A simple object, not manufactured in Croatia anymore, is inevitable in residential premises requiring more intense and frequent maintenance – such as kitchen, bathroom, floors, hallways. It is also inevitable in institutions treated according to highly standardised protocols, such as hospital, which also demand high sanitary standards.
As the book Kako smo stanovali is a visual essay on socially organised housing and its traces, the spatial installations in Apoteka, including a photograph set as a three-dimensional object, function as a laboratory of a retrospective utopian assumption. Regardless of a better past and uncertain future, they connect ancient plans, projections, ideas and utopias with their material traces – in the form of fictional product catalogues, samples of forgotten papers and tiles that never found their place on the wall. Staged photographs, as well as micro-narratives arising from the found samples and arrays of objects whose sketches are long-discarded elegiac view of a long-mislaid and abandoned idea of a better future.
Jasna Jakšić
Maja Marković holds MA in Painting (Academy Of Fine arts, Zagreb).
Her practice is focused on drawing technique, but these drawings are enhanced into spatial installations consisting of several parts. Investigating and interpreting space possibilities, in the attempt to reach its integrality, she stays devoted to the aesthetics of modernism and the ambiguous character of architecture and city-planning of that period. She investigates structures, combines them by highlighting their particular portions in color, with the aim to direct the viewer’s gaze and force him to form an attitude. Seemingly devoid of content, often neglected, the landmarks of modernism are interpreted as places where content is expected.
21/09/2023
Alma Gačanin: Personal Best
23/09/2023 - 20/10/2023
Alma Gačanin’s works can be read as a journal of sorts, primarily a work log. As she regularly emphasizes in her biography, Alma lives and works as an artist, regardless of the job she is currently performing. Is this a roundabout way of saying that one does not make a living from art, that usually another job is needed? A euphemism? Created over a relatively long period, from 2018 to date, the works reflect her various production positions: from living in her parents’ home, where I could indulge in excellent self-care, snug as a bug, to becoming independent; I had to ruin it all and venture into the world of adventures, that is, of the precariat (As my mom would say!), and accepting various odd jobs, such as being a flight attendant, all through taking up a residency in New York, one of the world’s art centers. Although journalesque, the works are not of an intimate nature; they are more in line with what Annie Ernaux calls auto-socio-fiction: a story about oneself through essential social optics. Therefore, they reflect the contexts in which they were created more than the author herself. She is, after all, unrecognizable.
The exhibition features the works created over the past five years, within a relatively long period but with a short production time, done swiftly, as is customary when journaling. Most drawing ideas originate from daily notes, sometimes from just a word in the Notes app… they are often symbolically charged in accordance with the social environment, like in the new American series. In the most recent works, those created during the New York residency, we notice: imperialism, the military-industrial complex, symbols of MAGA patriotism. Even the technique used in her works is imbued with meaning. Watercolor, known from feminist interventions in art history, is marked as a “female technique;” it’s quick, does not require large formats or studio conditions, can be created in small spaces, often in a domestic setting, alongside socially reproductive labor, as it used to be the only accessible technique for female artists. Watercolor is a poetic technique, most similar to writing. I used to paint with oils and acrylics for a long time, and it influenced my perception of time; it confined and slowed me down. I can create drawings and watercolors very quickly, which suits my impatience! And it also works well for me as a treatment because I work without a sketch.
In Alma’s works, we encounter monstrous creatures, half-women half-animals, sometimes missing limbs, sometimes with multiple arms and legs, often with a tail. These queer beings walk on all fours, sometimes on their hands; they always have strong muscles, claws, and hairy legs. They are exaggerated, somewhat eerie, but fundamentally humorous. Humor is an essential element of Alma’s work, her central strategy, as it is crucial for camaraderie and feminism, and therefore for my own work through which I communicate a wide range of ideas stemming from everyday struggles. However, we cannot escape the impression of the grotesque, the ambivalence between comedy and horror, the real and the fantastic. Are we looking at a world turned upside down or a terrifying reality? At some point, I recognized my alter ego in the drawings that I named Djevina and realized that in doing so, I am seizing freedom constantly and repeatedly.
This queer body can also be read as an antipode to representations that we identify with classical art: the pure, polished, perfect, and, of course, white body. In contrast to that sublime depiction, we observe an unfinished body, a body that rearranges and constantly dissolves itself. The emphasis is on its parts that are open to the external world: the mouth, the vagina, breasts, the anal opening. The special sexual emphasis attributed to female legs is here destabilized, challenged, threatened by claws, hair, strong quadriceps. The grotesque erotic body thus escapes into the unknown, the uncontrolled, as an aesthetic alternative to conventional representations. “This nakedness is not an expression of her own feelings; it is a sign of her submission to the owner’s feelings or demands. (The owner of both woman and painting),” we recall Berger’s observations on the nude. It is essential to me that they are somehow altered and monstrous. That’s why I give them those qualities that herald trouble, threat, and danger. It is almost certain that the protagonists of my drawings will cause some harm, create chaos, fulfill their purpose.
The body is an important feminist theme and often a significant medium in feminist art. The question of body representation in art and its role in reproducing gender divides were at the center of feminist interests in the 1970s. Monstrosity was precisely one of the key operative concepts for feminist interventions in art, criticizing the so-called male gaze and seeking to redefine gendered aesthetics. Monstrosity as a feminist aesthetic strategy, unruly bodies that matter, has been analyzed most recently by Lauren Elkin, whose book titled “Art Monsters: On Beauty and Excess” is to be released next month. In my work, I have created a female body that is constantly transforming, but in a negative sense, embodying the Freudian unheimlich. However, I want to draw special attention to another aspect of monstrosity here: (monstrous) bodies under the pressure of productivity. The monstrous nature of capitalism, whose basic characteristics, as Marx noted, are invisible. Many have already pointed out Marx’s frequent use of monstrous figures in Capital to describe how capitalism works. One of the most cited figures is the one related to the appropriation of surplus value: “Capital is dead labour, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.” Therefore, every discourse on labour in capitalism is also a discourse on coercion, compulsion, discipline, subordination, and alienation. The same goes for the imperative of self-work. The figures in the works (the character Djevina, or perhaps Alma herself) have claws to climb the social ladder better and hold on tighter once they ascend, they walk on all fours if necessary, if the ceiling is too low, they have strong muscles, sometimes with multiple arms and legs, two pairs of breasts to handle all the daily tasks. The titles of the works are painfully clear: #useyourpotential, No pain no gain, Fighter, Work hard play hard, I will make it… The everyday suffering, through Alma’s aesthetic treatment, transitions into S&M, delving into the realm of sexual practices (sexual labour?). I use the visual play with S&M to question power relations and the concept of obedience in the workplace. However, it also allows me to criticize the capitalist hierarchy and the insidious relationships within work collectives, where elements of adult play are present and where a safe word often does not exist.
Turning established notions upside down and grotesquely connecting diverse and even contradictory elements are at the core of Alma’s artistic process. The monstrous beings, Djevina, Alma, Kentaurica, leave us with conflicting impressions: they comfort us when we recognize ourselves in certain situations, they evoke laughter, but not without a certain level of apprehension. Turning the world upside down also results in a reversal of power dynamics, albeit briefly and imaginary, but enough to remind us that the history of subjugation, alienation, and discipline has also been a history of formidable resistances.
Vesna Vuković
Alma Gačanin (Sarajevo, 1988) lives and works as an artist, regardless of the job she might have at any given time. She holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts Education from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, specializing in Art Education. She creates drawings, photography, video, and performance art. In 2022, she received the ZVONO Award for the best artist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean in Milan in 2015. Her work is based on exploring the specificities of labour and the precarity of certain occupations, with a particular focus on the position of women in capitalism and gendered division of labor. She identifies as a feminist in her personal life and in the roles she assumes as an artist-worker. Alma also writes poetry and has been published in magazines, anthologies, and online portals in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.
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