(re)thinking Space&Place

GROUP EXHIBITION OF CROATIAN FINE ARTISTS IN GERMANY

Flottmann-Hallen, Herne, Germany

March 19 – May 8, 2016.

Opening: March 19 at 5:00pm

Tihomir Matijević – Grounded bust, 2008.

From March 19 – May 8, 2016 a group exhibition (re)thinking Space&Place, presenting 19 Croatian artists, is being held at the gallery space of Flottmann-Hallen in Herne, Germany. The curatorial concept was realized in collaboration with three prominent Croatian curators, who have worked on the concept through various artistic media; Branka Benčić through visual arts, Marijana Paula Ferenčić through painting and Klaudio Štefančić through sculpture.

The exhibition presents the following artists: Grgur Akrap, Barbara Blasin, Matija Debeljuh, Sebastijan Dračić, Ivan Fijolić, Fokus Grupa (Iva Kovač, Elvis Krstulović), Ana Hušman, Ivona Jurić, Kristian Kožul, Nina Kurtela, Tihomir Matijević, Luiza Margan, Mia Orsag, Ivan Prerad, Patricija Purgar, Igor Ruf, Goran Škofić, Marko Tadić.

Goran Škofić – Sector, 2015.

As pointed out by Branka Benčić, the works of the selected artists are focused on the medium of video as a means of expression and the language of moving images. They take different positions on the forms of representation, issues of individual or cultural identity, space and architecture, and explore them by focusing their interest on different topics, artistic strategies and procedures – taking as a starting point monuments, strategies related to performance, body, self-representation, the question of language and cultural context, heritage, the issues of work, production and deindustrialisation, interest in the built or natural environment, by pointing to the fact that the image of a space is always a form of construction and matter of representation, whether it is about abandoned spaces, remnants of modernity, the landscape or artificial and fantastic space of animation.

Patricija Purgar – Surcease of Target’s Activity, 2015.

                                                           – Light-gathering Ability, 2015.

On the other hand, Marijana Paula Ferenčić notes that the whole composed of fragments of painted views, just like a mosaic, connects and separates different subjective narratives created using a rational visual language, but also with artistic intuition. The world of two-dimensional exists thus in the illusion of the three-dimensional, forming the unity of view in all its emotional vastness and performative subtleties.

Kristian Kožul – Untitled, 2011.

Klaudio Štefančić concludes that the artistic value of public sculpture cannot be perceived without the analysis of social relations. It does not suffice anymore to interpret public sculpture within the framework of modernist concept of formal innovation. The selection of works in this exhibition is not based on importance of their volumes, masses or contours, planes and anatomies of the portrayed figures, etc., but on their potential place in a wider social context. However, public sculpture, in any form, is no longer a privileged medium of visual expression.

Opening of the exhibition will be held on March 19 and will be attended by the Consul General for Germany, Düsseldorf Mr. Zvonko Plećaš, Croatian curators Klaudio Štefančić and Branka Benčić, Croatian artists Kristian Kožul and Luiza Margan, president of HDLU PhD Josip Zanki, director of Flottmann-Hallen Gallery Mrs. Jutta Laurinat and chairmain of WKB Ekkehard Neumann.

 

The exhibition is the result of an international cooperation between the Croatian Association of the Fine Artists (HDLU) and the Westdeutscher Kunstlerbund (WKB), of which the previous was the exhibition of WKB in 2014. in the PM gallery at Croatian Association of the Fine Artists.

EXHIBITION CATALOG and detailed curatorial concept is available HERE.

 

Organisers:

  

 

Patrons: