MARGARETA LEKIĆ

WOODS

October 5-23, 2016

Exhibition opening: Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at 7pm

By asking questions about the relationship between the nature and technology in the present civilization (post-industrial age focused on the control of technology), the artist creates works in which she mimics the reality-nature, by producing another reality which aims to represent artificial nature. In doing so, she uses installations made of artificial materials and ready-made, industrially manufactured objects of the non-art origin, video projections and technologically advanced electronic devices, by which she tries to emphasize the use of technology in contemporary, technologically advanced society, for the purpose of man’s mastery over nature. (…) Ludic moments also manifest themselves through the interactive character of other installations and works. Visitors interact with the work by passing near the installation, at which moment they become mobile (Leaves 1, Leaves 2, “which grow in vitro, in a sterile laboratory environment with controlled temperature and illumination“) or by a direct physical contact (Pumping Plants). This interactive feature; inclusion of the viewer/audience into the work, their involvement in the artistic experience, is one of the specific properties of Margareta Lekić’s artistic expression. (…) The installation called Blowing Dandelion is made of two electronic devices with video playback capability that can play two different video sequences in a loop. Opposite the mobile phone, which reproduces a loop recording of a slightly moving dandelion, there is a tablet, which repeatedly plays back a video of the author trying to blow the same dandelion, but without success. In this paradoxically constructed (simulated) battle of man versus nature, nature wins. (…) The symbolic connotations of this work – technology that saves nature from destruction – the author sets as a leitmotif of the entire exhibition. (…) With her new works, Margareta Lekić wants to encourage reflection on the meaning and purpose of life in a world dominated by modern technology by making one understand the inseparability of the man, as a being of nature, and the nature of technological progress. The exhibition is marked by the artist’s attitude on the technological process as necessary and indisputable, that is, something that does not lead to dehumanization: The human and nonhuman are no longer seen as opposites, but as parallels: the modern man has realized that technology can destroy him and therefore works on improving the positive attitude towards nature, his own being and culture, and on developing a positive outlook on the possibilities of technological creations. (…) Fear of technology is unfounded; man is a natural being and his attempt to completely replace nature with technology is meaningless, because technology will always be at the service of man, and not vice versa. The advancement of technology will not lead to the disappearance of Being, and thus the disappearance of art, philosophy, poetry or dehumanization of society.  

From the foreword of Daniel Zec

Margareta Lekić was born in 1982 in Osijek where she now lives and works. She is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists Osijek, Croatian Association of Artists in Zagreb and Croatian Freelance Artists Association. She has graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Department of Sculpture, where she is currently pursuing a PhD, also at the Department of Sculpture. She works at the Art Academy in Osijek. She has won numerous awards and scholarships and taken part in study visits to the USA, Austria and France. Since 2005 Margareta has exhibited in nineteen solo and more than forty group exhibitions.

 

The realization of the exhibition was financially supported by the City Office for Education, Culture and Sports of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.

 

WORKING HOURS

Wednesday to Friday 11am – 7pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am – 6pm
Mondays, tuesdays and holidays – closed

Dom HDLU
Trg žrtava fašizma 16
10000 Zagreb