exhibitions
Here we present the selection of exhibition concepts created in recent years.
Exploitation- Appropriation:
The Case of M.S.
Exhibition concept and curated by: Neva Lukić
Internal curator: Valentina Radoš
Time period and place: Museum of Fine Arts, Osijek, April - June, 2023
The exhibition Exploitation-Appropriation: The case of M.S. through the very direct works of international artists touches on a much more layered range of sociologically intoned topics of contemporary global mass media society, yet seemingly at first glance. First of all, there is the postmodern, and now also the post-postmodern question of citation in contemporary art, and therefore the starting points of the exhibition are two iconic works by Mladen Stilinović - Exploitation of the Dead (1984-1990), completed before the breakup of Yugoslavia, and An Artist Who Cannot Speak English Is No Artist (1992), which was created with the outbreak of globalization, only a few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the first work, Stilinović is the artist who appropriates, that is, exploits, whereas the second work represents one of the globally most exploited works of a contemporary artist from this region, which is what this exhibition concept aims at showing.
Pre- contemporary Action- Postmodern Reaction
The authors of the exhibition concept and setup: Neva Lukić, Vanja Babić
Coordinated by: Željko Marciuš, the National Museum of Modern Art’s museum advisor
Time period and place: National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, April 9 - July 11, 2021
Mostly reliant on the somewhat less frequently exhibited works from the holdings of the National Museum of Modern Art – apart from a few artworks from the Marinko Sudac Collection and a few owned by the authors – the exhibition Pre-contemporary Action – Postmodern Reaction tries to examine how far modernism, and its most radical segment in the form of the so-called historical avant-garde, penetrates the space of contemporaneity and to what extent – especially in the context of art trends in Croatia where many early 20th century art movements have certain hybrid characteristics – can modernism, that is, the discretely expressed signs of avant-gardism, fall under the somewhat more flexible, and in the sense of naming the specific movements or isms, less cumbersome term of pre-contemporaneity.
Crossroads of the View
Time period and place: Nebojša Tower, Belgrade, April 16th- April 19th 2019
Photo credits: Zohreh Deldadeh, Vladimir Nikolić
The exhibition Crossroads Of The View, the second exhibition within the WCSCD course, was opened last week in Kula Nebojša in Belgrade. The exhibition was created at the initiative of four curators, otherwise participants of the WCSCD 2018 course – Neva Lukić (Croatia), Teodora Nikčević (Montenegro), Zohreh Deldadeh (Iran) and Milena Jokanović (Serbia). Through this exhibition, they opposed their views and interpretations of only one piece of art – of one artist, a video “Train Passing” by Vladimir Nikolić. The audience had the opportunity to see that video, that was – for the first time shown in a place where it was created, and several photos inspired by the video, and also to participate in a talk with the artist and curators. Check out some photos from the exhibition made by artist Vladimir Nikolić and curator Zohreh Deldadeh.
(In)constancy of Space: The Spaces of Narration and Imagination
Curators: Vanja Babić, Neva Lukić
Film program: Ivan Paić
Time period and places: HDLU Ring Gallery, Zagreb, July 5 - 22, 2018/ Museum of Fine Arts, Osijek, September 6 - November 10, 2018
Photo credits: Mirko Cvjetko
The exhibition (In)constancy of space: the spaces of narration and imagination, problematizes descriptive, formal, symbolic, psychological and sociological aspects of a text in forming two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces in the works of contemporary visual artists. A text and visual art are two manners in evoking space, both physical and mental, and the exhibition is focused on the different possibilities of their interaction.
(In)constancy of Space - Struggle for Identity
Curators: Neva Lukić i Vanja Babić
Partners: HDLU Zagreb, Arti et Amicitiae Amsterdam
Time period and place: Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, August 26 - October 2, 2016
The space created by man - particularly architecture - and its (in)constancy undoubtedly reflect on the perception of ourselves and our identity. Within the context of the rising migration caused either by work, lifestyles or war, the exhibition (In)constancy of Space - Struggle for Identity confronts various visions of Dutch and Croatian Contemporary visual artists and brings together both national and globalising aspects of human identity. At the same time, Amsterdam audience has a chance to see the largest sample of Contemporary Croatian art so far.
(In)constancy
of Space
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Curators and authors of the concept: Vanja Babić & Neva Lukić
Time period and place: HDLU, The Ring Gallery, September 24 – October 12
The exhibition (In)constancy of Space focuses on the way contemporary Dutch and Croatian artists deal with architecture and the spaces it shapes. In their works of art, buildings are not only attractive themes, but they carry various symbolic, sociological, psychological or ideological connotations. The exhibition also touches on the issue of the position of architecture and its spaces in the mind of modern man.
The exhibition puts the artworks into 4 categories: Life, Power and Death; On the Boundary between Utopia, Fantasy and Dystopia; Claustrophobia and Phases; Visions and Boundaries.
To the Sea a Lake or Another River
Exhibition location: Pogon Jedinstvo, Zagreb
Year: 2017
Authors: Sara Rajaei and Neva Lukić
Photography: Jasenko Rasol
This media triptych, the work of authors Sara Rajaei (1976) and Neva Lukić (1982) – active
in both the Netherlands and Croatia – was held in November of 2017 at Galerija 90-60-90
Pogon Jedinstvo, Zagreb. This exhibition opens a series of artistic solutions, describing
timeless causal and fundamental global shifts such as war conflicts, refugees, exile, semivisible
and obvious brutality – perpetuated by the powerful elite – and the desperation of the
individual faced with the sinister historical force of the movement of beings and the
rearrangement of space. This media-text-visual research, consisting of active, reductive works
composed of three simultaneous projections submerged in a dark space, results in the viewer
becoming both mentally and physically trapped. The hypnotic reality of the works,
occasionally abstract and minimalist and veiled in symbolism, is founded on the slow passing
of time, a rhythmically slow tempo of visuality that is synchronously, unassumingly, post-
Satieesquely (ed. Erik Satie, French composer, 19th-20th century) and impressionistically
accompanied by minimalist electronic music (Milan Gatarić, composer). The camera is nearly
imperceptible, giving the works – except for their abstract passages – a high dose of
documentary authenticity.
Ivan Paić
Excerpt the slightest trace of something here.
Excerpt a composition in blue, red & other colors here.
The Seventh Heaven - The Selection grom MMSU Collection
Curators: Nadežda Elezović, Neva Lukič i Ksenija Orelj
Time period and place: MMSU Rijeka, July 14 - August 14, 2016
I wanted to be free from all restrictions and limitations, said Julije Knifer at the Venice Biennale in 2001. The Seventh Heaven follows Knifer’s thought and breaks free from the limitations of a traditionally conceived exhibition. It celebrates the circle and the spiral, with its circular pattern, dedicated to different philosophical, mystical and religious systems, concepts and wisdoms referring to this particular form. In contrast to linear time and linear settings that usually entail reflections about decades and their styles, this exhibition, encompassing the works created over the past sixty years, offers a comparative approach.
Saudade Noumenon Video
Curator: Neva Lukić
Artist: Sara Rajaei
Time period and palce: MMSU Rijeka, March 22 - April 10, 2016
Photo credits: Tomislav Čuveljak
Saudade Noumenon is a semi-retrospective of works created between 2001 and 2015, highlighting Rajaei's constantly changing approach to video and film making.
Active in the art scene since early 2000s, Sara Rajaei is an artist with unique literary sensibility which results with works that remain in-between storytelling and imagery. In her work she deals with the notion of time in relation with the function of memory, narrative techniques, space and absence.
The Story Within and Beyond
Part 1: Historiae, Roman Ermolaev & Tommy de Moor, February 2 - 18, 2018
Part 2: The Other Side Of The Story, Barbara de Morree & Elske Verdoorn, March 2-18, 2018
Part 3: Remote Passages, Annija Muižule & Katarina Petrović, April 6 - 22, 2018
Part 4: All The World Is A Stage, Emilie Ruitinga & Nienke Sikkema, May 4 - 20, 2018
Part 5: All The World Is A Stage, Natalie Fyfe & Katerina Sidorova, May 30 - June 1, 2018
Photo by: Anke van den Berg
The Story Within and Beyond examines the manifestation and the potential of a “narrative” from various perspectives and throughout different media. It took place from February until June 2018 and brought four duo exhibitions and two performances of mainly Hague young emerging artists.
Words
Fail Me
The project Words Fail me uses the LANGUAGE as a starting point of the interplay within different media, such as a text (poetry, short story, philosophical text), performance and installation. The stories which deal with problematics of language of Neva Lukić and Philosophical Investigations of Ludwig Wittgenstein, are seen as a basis, „podium of the project.“
On that podium, performances of Katerina Sidorova, Cathleen Owens and Masaaki Oyamada take place. They are all connected to the Neva Lukić stories and to the problems with which Wittgenstein dealt, such as symbolics and the meaning of words, limitations of the language, language as a social practice, etc.