Dalibor Martinis
I Don´t Have Time
Bačva Gallery, Home of HDLU (Meštrović pavilion)
March 1 – March 26, 2023

The opening of the exhibition by Dalibor Martinis, I Don´t Have Time will be on Wednesday, March 1 at 7 pm, in Bačva Gallery, Home of HDLU (Meštrović pavilion).

“Dalibor Martinis titled his video installation, with strongly ambient characteristics – specially designed for the Bačva Gallery – I Don´t Have Time. Such a title is by no means surprising to anyone familiar with his work. Namely, we are talking about an author in whose artistic strategy the time factor plays a very important – some would say a key – role, from his formative years about half a century ago until today. For Martinis, time represents a physical dimension, to which he will often attach formal and substantive connotations. In extremely simplified terms, his relationship with time represents a kind of multimedia, or rather transmedia, conditioned equivalent to the way classical painters and sculptors approach color or volume, as well as eventual motifs or content.  (…)

(…) As one of the basic motifs of the video installation I Don´t Have Time, the shape of a circle, but also of circular movement, is unmistakably imposed. The projections are thus dominated by different aspects of such movements, the space of the Bačva Gallery is also circular, and the same applies to the entire Meštrović pavilion in which they are placed. In addition, the building of Meštrović pavilion as such is very much present in the projection – the name of that part of it is HdluhdluldH – and there is also a continuous car ride around the Arc de Triomphe on Place Charles de Gaulle called the Champs Elysees… Recalculating! (The GPS system has the Champs Elysees avenue as its default destination, so it will persistently and in vain, repeat the instructions with its electronic voice where and when to turn and thus leave the circular traffic flow) and video displays on the rotating stage of the installation/scenography And I’m Not Here even for a minute. The motif of the circle, just like the movement, in Martinis’s video-installation I Don´t Have Time also has an emphasized symbolic meaning. Namely, the circle represents a perfect shape without beginning and end, that is, without any direction, which undoubtedly suggests the artist’s non-linear approach to time. On the other hand, it is movement that defines the space-time continuum. Speed (which means movement) is determined precisely in such a way that the distance travelled (through some space) is set in relation to the time spent for that purpose. And to conclude: Martinis’s latest video installation I Don´t Have Time does not only refer to an everyday and pert phrase, but opens up numerous scientific and philosophical questions from which he generates a large part of his amazing oeuvre. Who knows, maybe the name of Martinis’s next project will be I Don´t Have Space…”

Vanja Babić

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

DALIBOR MARTINIS was born in Zagreb in 1947. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He has been exhibiting since 1969 and since 1973 he has been working as a video author. He has held numerous solo exhibitions, performances and screenings and participated in numerous international exhibitions. (Biennials in Venice, São Paulo, Kwangju, Thessaloniki, Cetinje, Cairo and Ljubljana; Documenta Kassel, Triennale Riga, etc.). His films and video works were shown at video festivals in Berlin, Tokyo, Montreal, Locarno and at international short film festivals in Oberhausen, Bogotá, Vienna, Seattle, Nice, Montreal, Ljubljana, etc. He was a Canada Council/Canada scholarship holder in 1978. Jaica/Japan 1984, Artslink/USA 1994 and 2010.
He taught at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb (1987/91), at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto 1991/92. and at the Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka (2007-2012). He holds the title of prof. emeritus of the University of Rijeka.
He won several international awards (Tokyo Video Festival 1984, Locarno 1984, Alpe/Adria Film Festival Trieste 1996, Short Film Festival in Bogota 2014). He is the winner of Vjesnik’s award “Josip Račić” in 1995, the City of Zagreb Award in 1998, the HDLU Annual Award in 2009, the 1st T-HT Award in 2013, and the “Vladimir Nazor” Award in 2016.
His works are in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art/Zagreb, The Museum of Modern Art/New York, Stedelijk Museum/Amsterdam, ZKM/Karlsruhe, New York Public Library, Kontakt/Erste Bank, Vienna and others.
He lives in Zagreb.

 

PREFACE

 

EXHIBITION WORKING HOURS:

Tuesday – Sunday: 11am – 7pm
Mondays and holidays closed.

Exhibition will be opened until March 26, 2023