3. ART INTERVENTIONS
The Gallery of Contemporary Art, the institution which grew into the Museum of Contemporary Art, was located on Katarina’s Square. From the late 1960s through the 1970s the protagonists of Nova umjtnička praksa (New Artistic Practice) performed various subversive actions which can be interpreted as criticism towards the system of art. We bring a short chronology of these events.
* In 1969, Goran Trbuljak would occasionally stick his finger through the hole in the door of the Gallery of Contemporary Art. He named the work “I would occasionally stick my finger through the hole in the door of the Gallery of Contemporary Art, without the management knowing it”.
* In 1970, Braco Dimitrijević performed the first action from his Ali Baba cycle, frustrated by the impossibility for young artists to integrate into the existing structures of culture. Dimitrijević makes a diversion and without the Gallery’s management knowing it, includes his action in the Gallery’s program. He comes to the Gallery during the Soto exhibition opening, and gives out pop-corn, which results in a peculiarly funny situation: people grabbing pop-corn, asking where they can get more, pop-corn falling to the ground, people stepping on it, it affects the way words are pronounced…
* Trbuljak broke into Lotrščak Tower, where there used to be family homes before the authorities moved them out of the tower, giving the apartments to artists as studios. Trbuljak, as well as other young artists, did not get a studio, so he breaks in, revolted. The exhibition that arose from the action took place in the Nova Gallery in 1978. The work is about Trbuljak’s existence in the artistic and cultural environment, and his inability to ensure a work and living space during that period.
* Action Mogućnosti 71 (Possibilities 71) took place on Gornji grad in 1971. The initiative came from the curators of the Gallery of Contemporary Art, and the idea was to liven up this numb part of the city. Boris Bućan, Sanja Iveković, Goran Trbuljak, Dalibor Martinis, Gorki Žuvela, Slobodan Braco Dimitrijević, Jagoda Kaloper and Davor Tomičić took part in the action. Night and day environments were installed in the streets of Gornji grad.
Croatian/english version of the catalogue Mogućnosti 71 is available in the appendix.
* In 2 Tomićeva Street, Ida Biard organized two exhibitions, or, as she calls them, communications of works, within “Galerija stanara” (Tenants Gallery). The unusual gallery had no walls, no permanent location (exhibitions were held in Paris, New York, Milan, in private flats, in the street, in cafés, banks, movie theatres), and avoided to adhere to the established norms of exhibiting. In Zagreb, works by Daniel Buren (Nov 30 – Dec 5, 1973) and Bernard Borgeaud (1974) were exhibited in the Tomićeva Street showcase. Exhibitions were also held in Balkan movie theatre in Varšavska Street.
* Podroom Gallery
In a basement room in 12 Mesnička Street, on May 24th 1978, an exhibition of twenty artists was opened. It was the official start of the Podroom Gallery. The exhibition was called “Za umjetnost u umu” (For Art in Mind), and it gathered an informal group of artists known to the public as “Radna zajednica umjetnika” (Work Community of Artists). During the brief period of their activities (a little less than two years), the artists demanded the right to independently determine the conditions of their work. Demur, Trokut, Galeta, Gotovac, Šestorica (the Six Authors Group), Trbuljak, Gudac, Ivekovic, and Martinis were active in Podroom, among others.
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After 2000, in the post-socialist context, several artists did performances and actions which we can interpret as reminiscent of the heroic period of criticism towards the system of art, and as a provocation towards the state whose administrative center is in Gornji grad.
* Enigma objekta (Enigme de la Modernite) 2005 – artist Gordan Karabogdan and art historian Nikica Klobučar performed an action in which they stole, i.e. temporarily borrowed, a video by Joseph Beuys, which was a part of a Centre Pompidou exhibition visiting Zagreb. They copied the video and distributed it without charge to everyone who answered an the add they published. Their action was successful in starting a discussion about the function of art institutions in the 21st century.
Commenting on the action, Gordan Karabogdan said:
For the more ambitious part of the audience, or people who like to think about this act, I would like to offer the idea that it’s a ready-made detourne. It’s a fun moment when the artistic work itself can be used as a ready-made. It becomes inverted, which makes it twice as relevant because it’s Beuys.
*Marko Marković: Superevolution “On the day of the performance, I bring thousands of previously collected bottles and cans, marked with the label SUPEREVOLUCIJA, in big garbage bags, and dump them in front of the Parliament buiding on St Mark’s Square, while the Parliament members and Government officers are at work.
*Siniša Labrović: Protest, action in which the artist, holding a megaphone, leads a group of protesters, who carry white flags and banners with nothing written on them.
*Igor Grubić: Handprint (2009), action performed by Grubić on the Croatian Parliament façade on St Mark’s Square. The action was a part of his work “366 Liberation Rituals”, whose starting point is the 40th anniversary of 1968. Rebellion, idealism, youthful enthusiasm, and the belief that a different world is possible are implied in the actions.
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In the synopsis for the documentary Invisible Galleries, Željko Kipke, one of the protagonists of Nova umjetnička praksa, brings his memories of the Gallery of Contemporary Art and the Podroom Gallery. Donosimo ih u cijelosti:
About the Gallery of Contemporaryrt:
The official decision to change the name of the Gallery of Contemporary Art into Museum of Contemporary Art arrived at its Gornji grad address in 1998. However, the word “museum” instead of “gallery” has been in use since mid-1980s, as a special strategy of pressuring the city authorities. It eventually resulted in the construction of the new museum building – far from Gornji grad, in Novi Zagreb (New Zagreb), on the southern bank of the Sava river. Artists of diverse profiles would come to the building on 2 Katarinski Square (St Catherine Square). They would spend much of the morning discussing in a small room, on the right side of the narrow corridor, to which a spiral staircase led. Božo Bek ruled there, a man who understood the need for informal gatherings and discussions with artists. He considered them an important part of the Gallery’s strategy. At that time, during the 1970s and later, the Gornji grad Gallery spread an optimistic atmosphere.
In the early 1980s, the Gallery’s Studio hosted my only one-man exhibition in that building. The Studio was the seventh room in a sequence, which was typical for luxurious city apartments. It was directly connected to the narrow corridor which also led to the office for informal meetings. The contemporary art strategy was carved in the narrow corridor, the access staircase, which was later replaced by wooden stairs, and the adjoining little room, and anecdotes about its key participants were created. I remember clearly how Dimitrije Bašičević, a former employee of the institution, got frightened by my story about death on the very staircase, even though he used to self-confidently announce his own, and it was an important part of his artistic strategy. I also remember Julije Knifer, talking about immortals in the narrow corridor during an exhibition opening, about eternally beautiful women in the company of successful industrialists and artists – he talked about art growing old, galleries and museums going bust, everything changing, industrialists and artists turning grey, only the women in their company remaining beautiful. In the 1990s, the Gallery employees reduced the gatehrings with artists, which soon had its effect on the number of the Gallery visitors. I follow the construction of the new museum building on the other side of the river with considerable scepticism. I don’t believe that the monumental edifice itself will improve the lack of interest for the contemporary art practice.
About Podroom Gallery:
Before they moved to the building at 6 Starčević Square, the artists gathered in Podroom Gallery, in 12 Mesnička Street. Light barely came into the basement room through several narrow windows which rose above the sidewalk in the upper part of the room. However, that didn’t prevent the company of artists from exhibiting there, from having heated discussions, from holding meetings about future strategies, or from quarreling. Some of the members of Radna zajednica umjetnika (Work Community of Artists), which was the name the group went by in public, would sometimes even sleep on the floor of Podroom. For a couple of nights in a row I too had a chance to experience the advantages of the gray carpet. That was in the summer 1979, upon coming back from Zadar, where I went with the intention to carefully, using a photo camera, observe the transition of fluids in my body. Worn out by the journey back, and having cancelled my room in a rented flat, I decided to sleep on the Podroom gallery floor. I exhibited the photo series on one of the collective exhibitions in Podroom, or was that a part of an independent project? I can’t remember any more. I misplaced the series in the meantime, and I accidentally discovered it only recently, among the hand-made catalogues, in a heap of schapirograph paper and old photographs. The Lady Šram restaurant is in the place of Podroom today, and I doubt that the staff are aware of its 1970s and 1980s history. I don’t think they are interested in the fact that the blend of the contemporary art practice in Croatia was fermented there.
Although registered, the galleries on Starčević Square and in the Mesnička Street basement left the impression of illegal activity. The champions of the conceptual practice in Croatia practically enjoyed that right – they firmly believed that working in the shadows, illegally, was the real strategy that will definitely ensure them a place in history. They were right, but the places where they carved their radicalism are now gradually disappearing from the map of Zagreb.
Source:http://www.hfs.hr/hfs/zapis_clanak_detail.asp?sif=32592