Visita Interiora Terrae: Myth and Alchemy as Art Practice
Prsten Gallery
August 27 – September 16, 2021

Tomislav Buntak, Manolo Cocho, Frnacisco Fernández Taka, Kristian Kožul,
Mia Maraković, Leonardo Martínez, Antonio del Rivera, MarkoTadić
Kustosi: Manolo Cocho, Maja Flajsig and Josip Zanki

 

 

The project Visita Interiora Terrae: Myth and Alchemy as Art Practice is based on the works of Croatian and Mexican contemporary artists who question and redefine the ideas of manifestation of the sacred – hierophany. The artworks deal with the fact that an ordinary space can be transcended into a sacred one and that ordinary, material objects can be transformed into works of art. The artists appropriate everyday objects, create new works (or show the existing ones) using the alchemical process of achieving the Philosopher’s Stone. The Stone embodies and transcends the infinite field of time and space, as well as the possibility for the works of art to become or be in simultaneity with the same. Through their work, the artists develop an awareness of material objects, metamorphosis and the forms of transformation of the world of appearances into the world without forms. The project aims to open up the spaces of artistic limitations and expand the field of discussion to the ontological status of objects and events as part of the sacral.

The curators of the project, Manolo Cocho, Maja Flajsig and Josip Zanki, have selected artworks rooted in interdisciplinary research; focused on the issues of establishing a relationship between contemporary art and sacred space, where sacred space is a place that enables the realization of rituals (the process of achieving the Stone) and the experience of reliving myth. The exhibited works touch upon the leitmotif that forms the outline of myth and alchemy, exploring the limits and possibilities of liberation from the positivist mind and the pragmatic world. The project is conceived in two parts, in Zagreb and Mexico City. The first part of the project consists of the eponymous exhibition at the Prsten Gallery of the Croatian Association of Artists from 27 August to 16 September and an academic conference at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb on 2 September 2021. The exhibition will feature the works of Marko Tadić, Kristian Kožul, Mia Maraković, Tomislav Buntak, Manolo Cocho, Francisco Fernández Taka, Leonardo Martínez and Antonio del Rivera. The academic conference will feature the works of Maja Flajsig and Josip Zanki, Miguel Vassallo, Ana Ortiz Sánchez Renero and Rodrigo Fernández de Gortari. The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Centro de las Artes de San Luis Potosí, Kronal, Aurora Co-Lab and Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad.

 

Visita Interiora Terrae – predgovor – Maja Flajsig i Josip Zanki

MY+H ”vista interiora” – Manolo Choco, Josip Zanki