[spectre] Croatian Pavilion at the Eastern Neighbours exhibition

[Darko Fritz]

Variable Amnesia . Contemporary art from Croatia

Croatian Pavilion at the Eastern Neighbours exhibition
Cultural center Babel, Utrecht, Netherlands, 8th September - 29th 
October 2006

opening Thursday 7th September 20 h
[it is 'invitations only', please feel free to contact Darko Fritz to 
list you at the guest list]

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Variable Amnesia . Contemporary art from Croatia

Artists: Darko Fritz, Andreja Kuluncic, Dalibor Martinis, Ivan Marusic 
Klif, Magdalena Pederin, Slaven Tolj, Goran Trbuljak

Curator: Darko Fritz


In 'Western civilisation' (North America and Europe) there is a 
tendency of rapidly forgetting both social and cultural values. Such a 
process is omnipresent in so-called East / Central Europe probably 
because of often changes of political systems and power-construct that 
are constantly re-writing the history / histories. That phenomena 
extends to field of contemporary art as well. Around the world as well 
as in Croatia the art education system has just started to shape in 
contemporary way over last decade or so. It is little written and 
published on truly international histories of contemporary art as for 
example histories of both conceptual and media art. The academic 
establishment seems to ignore unstable media of an oral tradition that 
is dominant in many places where some forms of contemporary art were 
not institutionaly recognized or there were just other reasons not to 
publish. The new generations of artists both consciously and 
unconsciously tend to repeat over and over same or very similar works 
and processes and as well mistakes that are done by other artists long 
ago. In the same way it seems that respective institutions do not 
recognize achievements from the past what makes any new initiative to 
start form the scretch. In other hand, 'western' art history seems to 
refuse taking into account any histories and canons except the 
'western' ones, and are ignoring with consistency achievements made in 
Other places. Usually a well intendend presenting of the art of the 
Other ends, in repeating the process of 'discovery', clearly states the 
power-position who 'discovers' whom. For example, over the last six 
years there were three big / high-budget exhibitions organized and 
exhibited in 'Western Europe' that 'discovered' the art of the Balkans 
to their next-doors neighbour. Worldwide, there is a same phenomena of 
forgetting histories of digital media art which is often percieved it 
began in late1980's in the 'west', but not early 1960's 
internationally. I dare to call all those processes Amnesia 
International.

In the term of institutional critique the artworks of Goran Trbuljak 
(1948) are done in continuum of four decades expressing both the 
geo-political and individual stages of the artist’s position in society 
and cultural industry. He made series of exhibitions with posters and 
text only as sole exhibits. In 1971 the exhibition consisted of the 
poster that read:'I don't want to show anything new or original’and in 
1973: ‘The fact that somebody is given the opportunity to stage an 
exhibition is more important than what is shown at that exhibition’. In 
‘transition times’ in Croatia of the 1990’s, he made another one: ‘Old 
and bald I search for the gallery’. For this exhibition a new poster 
was produced that reads: ‘Old & depressive anonymous is looking for a 
permanent display place in some nice new art museum space’.

Dalibor Martinis (1947) was developing a project 'Variable Risk 
Landscape'during a whole year of 2004. Heput 37. 310 euros into the ZB 
Trend Investment Fund with an investment term of one year. While the 
project was in progress, the artist / climber / investor went once a 
month up into the hills to hike the amplitudes that were shown by the 
value of the ZB Trend share for the current month. The appropriate 
altitudes were measured with an altimeter. A Web site at 
www.variablerisklandscape.com has been opened up to follow the course 
of the project in the hybrid landscape with constantly updated 
information about the current value of the investment and other 
financial indicators, exchange rates etc. In Dec. 31, 2004 the 
difference in the value of the investment after 365 days was determined 
and the whole annual dividend of the project was paid to all the 
spectators present at the closing event. VRL 2004 Annual Report was 
published in 2005.The selling price of the work ‘Variable Risk 
Landscape’corresponds to the value in euros of 365 shares in the ZB 
Trend investment fund on the day of the sale.

Project ‘Austrians Only’by Andreja Kulunčić (1968) consists of 
advertisements, posters and direct-mail items. In the focus of the 
project there are latent prejudices and the creeping discrimination 
against foreign workers in Austria. With top-quality, well-designed job 
advertisements, the 'inferior' jobs for Austrians are extolled, 
including all the restrictions and disadvantages with which otherwise 
mostly migrants see themselves confronted. In the words by artist: ‘The 
idea of the project is to make job advertisement for only Austrian 
citizens, with jobs and labour conditions they would never accept for 
themselves but see as perfect for the “others” (non Austrian).’In the 
work ‘SIGHT.SEEING’shedelegates the photo recordings of city sights to 
asylum-seekers in Graz, Austria. At the chosen sights they wish to do 
something, but the social situation doesn’t allow them, for instance 
the sight of the University that one could not apply for.

Project ‘Migrant Navigator’by Darko Fritz (1966) develops to question 
notions of home and displacement as well as issues of migration, 
identity and nostalgia. The ‘Home’ button of the Internet browser is 
re-designed as 9 x 9 meters flower bad in the city park in the work 
‘The Future of Nostalgia’. In the work ‘Home’redesigned silver-black 
Home icon is displayed at the commercial billboards placed close to the 
national borders. The poster does not contain any further information 
except the pictorial one, inducing the series of associations in those 
ones crossing the border and at very best it could inspire them on 
rethinking the identity -a national one (as a socio-cultural construct) 
and a personal one.

In artworks by Magdalena Pederin (1968) 16 characters from author’s 
name are displayed in thousands of anagrams making the new (often 
absurd) meanings. Those words are shown in video medium as animated 
written ASCII texts in the work ‘Name is an anagram’and presented as 
machine-spoken text from multiplied robotic-alike video self-portraits 
in work ‘Logorea’.

Another artist who uses the (new) media and expressespersonal matters 
is Ivan Marušić Klif(1969). Interactive DVD ‘Synchronicity’shows a 
registration of the sound performance performed by author in form of 
several simultaneous video screens which user can manipulate alongside 
several layers of subtitles. In performance he uses low-tech sound 
equipment producing semi-improvised flux of noise, feedback and various 
sound sensations.

Slaven Tolj (1964) explores an extreme of juxtaposition of private and 
social issues. The performance ‘Food for survival’that he performed 
with his (of that time) wife Marija took place in war time of 1993. 
 From each others naked bodies they were eating a food supplied to war 
zones by the international humanitarian aid. The original food-can 
(‘ready-made’),as the ‘logo’reads in three languages ‘Food for 
survival’, consists of a shapeless and colourless protein-rich gel. In 
‘Nature and Society’performance from 2002 Slaven crashes the horns 
against the wall which he holds on his head. In the words by artist: 
‘These horns are the only thing that I have inherited from my 
grandfather – The horns are 58 years old and were intended to be a 
present from the Italian governor of Dalmatia to the Fascist Italian 
leader Benito Mussolini. My grandfather, who was working in 1944 at the 
railway post office decided to exchange the gift; he sent a smaller 
pair of horns to Mussolini and kept these to himself. By crashing the 
horns I deliberate myself from all these connotations – to crash them, 
to destroy them is an attempt to fight or to come up against all the 
correlations of nature and society, desire and rules, implicit in the 
symbolism of the horns within society, within family, within 
expectations of one’s own, within projections of one’s own. To crash 
them against the wall is an attempt, a need, a wish, a plea to leave 
behind male ideology of the society and family – to leave behind, to 
stop, to finish, defining one male history (misfortune) that transfers 
from one generation to another.’

Darko Fritz

Exhibition is supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of 
Croatia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of 
Croatia, Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the Netherlands

http://www.culturalaid.com/croatia.htm

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Darko Fritz . http://darkofritz.net . darko at darkofritz.net

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