EXHIBITION: INTO THE MOUNTAINS

INTO THE MOUNTAINS
BAČVA GALLERY
HOME OF HDLU
January 24 – February 17, 2019

The opening of the exhibition: Thursday, January 24 at 7 pm at the Home of HDLU

Exhibition Into the Mountains will be opened on Thursday, January 24 at 7 pm at the Home of HDLU (Trg žrtava fašizma 16, Zagreb). At 7.30 pm there will be a performance by Nicola Genovese, called When S.H.T.F..

The exhibition at the Bačva Gallery is the next stage of the project Into the mountains, which consists of a conference, a group residence on Velebit mountain and residences in the Swiss and Austrian Alps. The project ends with two exhibitions at the Shed im Eisenwerk Gallery and in the Bačva Gallery of Home of HDLU.

Foto by: Vanja Babić

Within the first stage of the project, the group of artists (Vanja Babić, Nicola Genovese, Ivana Pipal, Jovana Popić and Andri Stadler), curators (Katja Baumhoff, Bojan Mucko and Josip Zanki) and students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (Ivan Barun and Katrin Radovani), The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb (Maja Flajsig) and the University of Zadar (Aleksandar Tomaš) stayed on the southern part of Velebit (partly in the Paklenica National Park and on the mountain tops), conducting contemporary art research in situ in the mountainous context.

On the last day of the project on Velebit, on June 17, 2018, a professional conference was held in cooperation with the The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and the Department of Anthropology and Ethnology of the University of Zadar. Besides our students and artists, our distinguished ethnologist and anthropologist, Mario Katić, P.h.D., held a speech on the conference. Nevena Škrbić Alempijević, P.h.D. and Jelena Kupsjak participated also.

Mario Katić, P. h. D., a professional conference held in Starigrad; Foto by: Martina Miholić

From September 8 till October 9, 2019, an exhibition titled Withdraw – Into the Mountains at the Shed im Eisenwerk Gallery in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, as a result of a seven-day research residency in the Gallery.

Exhibition Withdraw – Into the Mountains, Gallery Shed im Eisenwerk, Frauenfeld (Switzerland); Foto by: Almira Medarić

The project through residencies on Velebit, Austrian Alps and Swiss Alps practically and artistically analysises concepts such as: living utopia, free shelters, Joseph Beuy’s backpack, walks as a performative and artistic instrument, mountain as a life style, mountain as an existential minimum, free and working time relationship and landscape as an images, experiences and public good. Also, the project tries to answer the question of how today’s artistic, precarious work escapistically, utopistically, dystopically or mimicrically fits into everyday mountain life.

Velebit, emptied by the migrations of the second half of the 20th century, has historically been characterized by transhumance cattle-breeding (seasonal movements of people and livestock between summer and winter pastures at different altitudes). It is interesting to compare the legacy of the coastal ethnic group Bunjevci in today’s context of the rapid disappearance of of cattle-breeding on Velebit and Swiss, alpine examples of “conservation” of traditional cattle-breeding models – comparable to the concept of a living open-air museum.

Unlike Velebit, which is interlaced with free shelters for hikers, staying in Austrian and Swiss mountain lodges is part of elite tourism. Throughout history, Velebit was the place where rebels like hajduks, uskoks, and loners, who seek escape from civilization, stayed. Therefore, the utopian aspect of the mountain is present even today as a model of escape into the imagined Utopia (to paraphrase Hakim Bey – the mythical Croatan).

Artists:
Vanja Babić, Nicola Genovese, Luise Kloos, Esther Mathis, Ivana Pipal, Jovana Popić, Andri Stadler, participative work: Ivan Barun, Katrin Radovani i Josip Zanki

Curators:
Katja Baumhoff, Bojan Mucko i Josip Zanki

WORKING HOURS:

Wednesday to Friday: 11.00 AM – 7.00 PM
Saturday and Sunday: 10.00 AM – 18.00 PM
Closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and holidays.

Working hours during the Long Night of Museums, on February 1, will be from 11 am till 1 am.

At 6 and 7 pm there will be a guided tour through the exhibition held by curators Josip Zanki and Bojan Mucko.

The exhibition will remain open until February 17, 2019