CARTE BLANCHE

LOVE AT LAST SIGHT/MONEY IS ETERNAL AND HUMAN LIFE IS EPHEMERAL

The exhibition of previous laureates of the contrapunct award Vladimir Dodig Trokut & Iva Vraneković – artists to artists, awarded by an Anonymous Philanthropist

26.1.-19.2.2023.

Bačva Gallery

Opening: Thursday, January 26, 7 pm

 

On Thursday, January 26, 2023, in the Bačva gallery, Home of HDLU (Meštrović Pavilion), at 7 pm,  we are opening the exhibition of the laureates of the contrapunct award Vladimir Dodig Trokut & Iva Vraneković – artists to artists, awarded by an Anonymous Philanthropist under the name CARTE BLANCHE / LOVE AT LAST SIGHT/MONEY IS ETERNAL AND HUMAN LIFE IS EPHEMERAL.

The Vladimir Dodig Trokut, Iva Vraneković – artist to artist award was inaugurated in 2016 as a selfless incentive for artistic creativity and financed with private funds from an anonymous donor and philanthropist, in the amount of around EUR 20,000.00 (net) or EUR 25,000.00 (gross), and is institutionalized in the form of an award within the framework of the Youth Salon and Biennial of Painting. The artistic council of the award, which consisted of Nikola Albaneže †, Vladimir Dodig Trokut † / Ivan Posavec, Tomislav Buntak and Anonymous Philanthropist (artist), has awarded a total of 17 awards to by now.

The exhibition LOVE AT LAST SIGHT/MONEY IS ETERNAL AND HUMAN LIFE IS EPHEMERAL presents the current production of the prize laureates, creates the foundations for continued cooperation and encourages the idea of greater involvement of natural persons as donors of fine artists in the public space.

It is also an opportunity for open advocacy to undertake adequate efforts to improve the general atmosphere and the legal and fiscal framework for the development of philanthropy.

In Croatia, natural persons cannot support artists with tax-free philanthropic donations because such receipts are considered second income and are subject to income tax, surtax, health and pension insurance. Thus, based on the example of the Anonymous Philanthropist’s previous contributions, the amount of fiscal contributions paid into the public treasury could be used for as many as 3 donations of around EUR 1,600 and support for prominent artists in need. In addition, there is no fiscal incentive in the form of relief for donations by natural persons for philanthropic purposes.

The same issue occurs with institutional awards to artists, such as the Zagreb Salon, Youth Salon, Biennale of Painting awarded by HDLU through sponsorship funds. Unlike workers who are entitled to a tax-free award for work achievements in the amount of EUR 1,000.00 per year, rare artists, who achieve monetary awards perhaps once in their working life, such an award is taxed as other income. In the last year, HDLU awarded prizes in the amount of 26,000.00 EUR gross and 21,000.00 EUR net within the framework of 3 art manifestations, and the funds it awarded were exclusively sponsored or donated, so not from the public budget. The difference of EUR 5,000, which was the amount of fiscal benefits, would be an extremely encouraging reward for the fine artist, and a negligible deduction to the state budget.

Therefore, it is not surprising that according to the Giving Index (the British organization Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) publishes the results – CAF World Giving Index) Croatia is only in 82nd place.

“The two strongest polarizations that create a synergy of space and time – human life, are certainly love and money, with the fact that homo sapiens did not invent love or decide that it exists, but feels, experiences and interprets it.

As for money, there is a diametrically opposite situation. Man invented money and decided that money exists. It is his deed or misdeed. In the entire system of nature, money does not exist. Nature in this world has a different logic, not to say genius. It is in nature, or more precisely in imposed nature, that man earns and spends money. The genius of nature does not need money to realize the miracle of life, nor does the whole series of cycles that arise from that miracle. We can, and not so hard, agree with the conclusion that man lives for love, but lives for money.

Just as nature needs the sun to live, man needs money to pay the primary costs of his own existence, but also to ensure self-realization beyond the framework of basic needs, which leads to the polarization between essence and existence. Essence equals love, and existence equals money. Well, welcome man to the planet Earth, inhabited by people!

What is philanthropy in Croatia? Is it just a romantic utopia or an achievable reshaping of the current society for a better future for artists and a path to a sustainable cultural system?”

Anonymous Philanthropist

Artists: Grgur Akrap, Lora Elezović, Lucija Jelić, Luka Kušević, Marija Matić, Mak Melcher, Andrea Musa, Pavle Pavlović, Lea Popinjač, Jurica Pušenjak, Josip Rončević, Đuro Seder, Andrej Tomić

 

Anonymous Philanthropist – Preface

Tomislav Buntak – Preface

Artists´ biographies

 

The exhibition remains open until February 19, 2023.

Working hours of the exhibition:

Tue-Sun 11am-7pm

Closed on Mondays and holidays.