Zlatko Kopljar

Museum of Fine Art, Varaždin, Croatia

14.10-15.11.2020
Curated by Branko Franceschi

After a successful retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, and according to the curatorial concept of art historian Branko Franceschi a befitting selection of Zlatko Kopljar’s works will be presented in accordance with the architectural style and smaller size of Varaždin’s museum’s exhibition halls. The name of the exhibition is a reference to the dramatic painting style of the same name introduced by the greatMichelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, which marked the beginning of the Baroque period. Varaždin known as Croatia’s baroque city and the baroque Sermage Palace converted into museum of fine art are an ideal setting to introduce tenebrism as a significant quality of Kopljar’s oeuvre. The exhibition presents works marked by the strong contrast of light and darkness, fierce action, and intensity of his worldview and art. It includes all the media Kopljar has employed during the three decades of his career, from an expanded understanding of painting, performance, objects and installations to photography and video.

Read More “Zlatko Kopljar – TENEBROSO”

29.7.–10.10.2020. MMSU / RIJEKA / CROATIA

Usred dramatičnih okolnosti pandemije „coronavirusa“ i neizbježnih promjena u realizaciji programa Europske prijestolnice kulture – Rijeke 2020., riječki Muzej moderne i suvremene umjetnosti odlučio je realizirati radikalan izložbeni projekt prezentacije ključnih momenata, segmenata, poetika, „medijalizacije“ i inovativnih umjetničkih praksa koje su se „prelamale“ i „križale“ na novijoj i suvremenoj riječkoj Art – sceni u posljednjih tridesetak godina.

Otvorenje izložbe i izmjene u postavu odvijaju se u fazama: 29. srpnja – 29. kolovoza – 29. rujna – 10. listopada.

Read More “ART / WAR / TRANSITION (1990 – 1991 – 2000 – 2010 – 2020 – 2021)”

1.6.–15.7.2020., MMSU / RIJEKA / CROATIA

The exhibition ‘Who Summoned the Silence’, whose opening is scheduled for June 1, offers a selection of works by local artists created over a period of a hundred years. Works created in media of painting, print, sculpture, photography, and video are connected by the same common thread – the notion of silence.

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SMALL GESTURES, GREAT SYMBOLIC POWER

Zlatko Kopljar (born 1962 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina; lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia) critically examines contemporary history in his performances, video works, and installations. He calls his works “constructions” because they question and reconstruct patterns of memory, both during the performative creation process and in their reception. In the photo series K9 Compassion, his act of kneeling in front of places such as New York’s Wall Street, the EU Commission in Brussels, or the Duma in Moscow is a compelling pose of powerlessness against global power structures. With this clear and potent gesture of humility, Kopljar symbolically calls for reflection.

The catalog Constructions accompanies Kopljars eponymous exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb and reviews nearly 30 years of artistic creation.The texts were written by Sanja Cvetnić, Ory Dessau and Kate Christina Mayne.

Publisher: DISTANZ Verlag GmbH, Berlin

https://www.distanz.de/en/buecher/zlatko-kopljar/constructions

Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb

14.12.2019 – 16.02.2020

History, Architecture, Performance: On Zlatko Kopljar’s Body of Work

Ory Dessau

In 2002 Zlatko Kopljar blocked the main entrance to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. He did so with a twelve-ton block of reinforced concrete, corresponding in size to the measurements of the building’s doorway. Titled K4(1998–2002), the action was part of the group exhibition Here Tomorrow, in which curator Roxana Marcoci offered an examination of the contemporary Croatian art scene seven years after the end of the war in former Yugoslavia. However, since it kept the museum closed and inaccessible, the protective concrete shield of Kopljar’s K4implied that even in 2002 the war was not over yet. By sealing its entrance Kopljar referred to the museum as if situated in a stage prior to demolition. He marked the museum’s building as a future ruin among already existing ruins. Likewise, Kopljar’s sealed entrance also suggested that the premises were being purged, purified of the near past sediments and ghosts of the war.

Read More “CONSTRUCTIONS / ZLATKO KOPLJAR RETROSPECTIVE”