September 25, 2019 - One of the most entertaining exhibitions of the year opened at Mimama last night, as the much-loved caricatures of Nik Titanik celebrated 25 years of excellence to a very large opening audience.
Being a foreigner in Croatia means you miss out of most of the fun, especially if you do not speak the language well - just as in other countries I guess.
Although the Brits are famous for their humour, as time goes by, I come to appreciate the local humour in Croatia and the wider region a lot more, but I realise I am still missing out on about 80% of the nuances. For Croatia is a wonderful playground for humour, with so many absurd aspects to daily life here. And while Britain the world champion in absurdity with this Brexit farce, in terms of Absurdistan and longevity, it is hard to beat the Balkans, baby.
But with so much absurdity, it is easy to forget the last crazy thing as there are so many more around the corner. Unless you have a person who can chronicle the absurdities of life - both political and actual - in a visual and entertaining manner.
Such a person exists in Croatia - one Nikola Plecko, also known online by his nom de plume, Nik Titanik.
I got a message yesterday suggesting I come to Mimara for the opening of an exhibition. I get such invitations regularly but rarely attend (time and resources are the common enemies). But this one was different.
Nik Titanik was celebrating 25 years and an astonishing 11,000 caricatures documenting quarter of a century of Croatian absurdity with a month-long exhibition called "Chronicle of Croatian Stupidity."
I had to go. Apart from everything else, I owed the man a thank you - and a blog - from a couple of years ago. As it was, I didn't get to meet Nik Titanik, as there was massive interest in the exhibition, with easily 500 people - including some of the key people in the Croatian media - completely filling the main reception room of Mimara. And there were long queues to get to the basement where 300 pieces of Nik Titanik's work were on display. As my phone had died, no pictures from the evening, but here is a nice overview of some of them in this interview with Nik Titanik in the HINA video report, below. (And click here for a video report of the opening night on RTL).
Apparently Nik Titanik had been expecting about 50 people for the opening, and it was pleasing to see so many people turn up to celebrate his genius over 25 years, as well as to observe how many of them were clearly enjoying the memories of long-forgotten absurdities of the past in the 300 drawings on display. I plan to return again before the exhibition closes on October 24 to take a closer look. If any Croatian speaker would like to join and help me understand some of the contexts of the cartoons, that would be great. You too can visit the exhibition, of course - the event page is here.
So why do I owe Nik Titanik a blog? A couple of years ago, we were searching for a gift for PR guru, Kresimir Macan, on the occasion of 20 years of his PR agency Manjgura (Manjgura is a dialect word for 'girl' in Macan's native Dubrovnik). We wanted to capture some of the highlights of Macan's career, as well as bring out the Manjgura celebration. We suggested three events - President Tudjman calling Macan an idiot for confirming the fall of Vukovar, arguably his biggest success getting Kerum elected in Split, and the anticipation of current Prime Minister Plenkovic who was about to hire him as Communications Director.
And Nik Titanik got to work, producing this gem two days later, which proved to be a big hit at the Manjgura party.
A really fun exhibition that I heartily recommend. You can follow the latest from Nik Titanik on Facebook.
