October 8, 2021 - The Optic Show Exhibition by Predrag Pavić set to be held at MSU Zagreb is a critical, interactive, and really fun artistic experience that is critical of today's consumerism habits.

From Sisak photographer Miroslav Arbutin Arba's exhibition to the education of young people who want to become museum curators, the Zagreb Contemporary Museum (MSU Zagreb) constantly has an interesting offer for its visitors.

One of them is the recently opened ''Optic Show'' exhibition by Predrag Pavić. Opened on October 6, the exhibition will last until October 26.

MSU rated Pavić as a type of artist who is becoming more and more in this day and age. He's an artist who turns his work into a game that is subversive, intriguing, and from time to time, even not all that serious. Pavić's work is already noted for being critical of consumerism and the modern society in which ''every weird little thing'' can earn the status of a fetish. The ''Optic Show'' at MSU Zagreb is no different, as it is a light show installation featuring an archive of no less than women's socks.

''It's true that women's socks entered the erotic-fetish domain long ago, but Pavić has since turned them into an art project which keeps being developed and added to, just like any archive. All the while, he amazes people with performance, participation from the visitors and his end effects,'' writes MSU Zagreb on its website.

The women's socks from Pavić's archive are placed within reversal films frames. The texture of a woman's sock becomes magnified and unclear in terms of what exactly it is from the observer's point of view. Observers are invited to pick through the archive, select reverse films, and put them into the projector. From that point on, what the exhibition brings, is everyone's guess and it differs from individual to individual.

''Predrag Pavić is one of the most interesting Croatian authors of his generation (born in 1982 in Zagreb). He freely expresses himself in various forms and mediums, from sculptures, installations, videos all the way to multimedia work, with his conceptual spirit being the starting point. In the process, his themes are the acceptance of the absurdity of the social surroundings in which he lives and works, and always with a discrete dose of humor,'' concluded MSU.

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September 23, 2021 - The Sisak earthquake photo exhibition titled "Between Two Waitings" by Miroslav Arbutina Arba shows the horror of the 2020 earthquake in Sisak through documentary photos with an artistic touch.

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake on December 29 that severely damaged Petrinja and Sisak has traces which haven't faded as repairs and re-construction are still very much needed, and the Sisak earthquake photo exhibition will surely highlight the stark reality of post-earthquake life.

With Prime Minister Andrej Plenković promising earlier in September to accelerate post-earthquake reconstruction, a return to normal life in Sisak (architecture-wise) is yet to happen.

Meanwhile, as suffering is known to produce art, citizens of Zagreb (who also are not strangers to earthquakes) can closely observe the damage Sisak went through at Zagreb's Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU). In honour of European Heritage Day (September 18), MSU is hosting the Sisak City Museum by presenting the exhibition ''Between Two Waitings'' by famous Sisak photographer Miroslav Arbutina Arba. The exhibition opened on September 20, and it can be viewed until October 10.

The showcased photos which are part of the Sisak earthquake photo exhibition are a product of Arbutina being hired by the Culture Ministry to document the damage caused to cultural heritage for the purpose of evaluating the damage and producing documentation. As TCN reported earlier, the quake damage to cultural heritage in Central Croatia is estimated at €640 million.

''Arbutina gave a significant contribution to reconstruction efforts after the earthquake. His photos are, first and foremost, a witness to what happened, but with a clear artistic context. Photographing for the sake of documenting damage, he also found other motives that a regular observer does not notice. These motives, although they may exist in the documentary context, are nonetheless part of the same mosaic,'' wrote Vlatko Čakširan of the Sisak City Museum, who is also the curator for the exhibition on the MSU website.

''Those who haven't experienced this catastrophe probably think that losing your house is the worst thing, but it isn't. To me, the worse thing was expecting another new earthquake, that time of uncertainty between the two strikes,'' said Arbutina explaining the name of his exhibition.

Arbutina was born in Sisak on January 5, 1959. He took an interest in photography in the '80s when he got a Russian camera, a Lubitel, as a gift. Like many people in Sisak, he worked in a local ironware factory until he decided to try his hand at making a living solely from photography, taking industrial photos for brochures, etc.

During the Homeland War, he started working for various newspapers and other agencies. Enrolled in various projects (such as ''How Fish See Us'' where he took underwater photos of fish and plants in the Kupa river), his work received various rewards, and he moved from digital photography to experiment with the older technics of photography.

Learn more about Croatian Art Galleries in Zagreb, Dalmatia, Istria and Slavonia on our TC page.

For more about art in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

Art lovers have plenty of reasons to rejoice as the new year kicks off with impressive cultural events in the Croatian capital

The Museum of Contemporary Art is having a birthday party – and we’re all invited

Imagine seeing unknown faces on billboards that are not trying to sell you anything.

The best highly acclaimed Croatian rock bands alongside an exciting exhibition of neo avant-garde art will be found in the new season of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) summer concert series, held from June 16 to July 23 on the rooftop terrace of MSU.