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.

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

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

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.

September 13, 2021 - The Museum Practicum Project by the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (MSU) will teach 30 selected young people aged 15-25 about the professions of curator and other museum jobs, as well as contemporary art while giving them a chance to promote their own work.

With the many good practices of additional education and popularising scientific and educational fields for young people (such as the SCOPE Project by the Višnjan Observatory), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) in Zagreb is also making its contribution in line with their field. Their Museum Practicum project that started on September the 1st and will last until June the 30th, 2022, wants to introduce young people aged 15-25 to contemporary art, and to the basics of curator practices and other types of museum work. Thirty selected people will be mentored by the project team, partners, and hired experts and artists.

''The work with these young people will be held via online platforms, and it will include moderated conversations, mentorships, and co-creating virtual exhibitions from MSU holdings and exhibitions of their own work in the medium of photography created within the project,'' says MSU's website.

In this way, the project wants to provide young people with the opportunity to develop their own creative skills and knowledge through a virtual space and open space for both their expression and self-promotion.

''Even though curriculum reforms have already started, the need for young people interested in developing their social and creative skills is strong, as the education system does not provide that enough. Additionally, there is the insufficiency in regional representation and the limited participation opportunity of young people in art and culture activities due to the lack of extracurricular activities, all of which has been additionally worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic,'' says MSU, addressing the importance of the Museum Practicum Project in light of the many issues faced by Croatian schools.

The further recognition of the importance of the project is evident by the financial support of the EU from the European Social Fund, and the total budget of the project is 201,092.83 kuna.

The Museum Practicum Project and its wider goal of educating young people in preparing virtual exhibitions is similar and in line with the Women and Technology Program at the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum, about which TCN previously wrote. Add in the overall challenges in the Croatian education system, from a lack of extracurricular activities to the previously mentioned problems of the straight A epidemic, and projects like these seem like welcome solutions to help young people recognise their worth and find passion in their lives.

Learn more about Zagreb on our TC page.

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

April 4, 2021- Following the 50th anniversary of the death of Većeslav Holjevac, the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition on the former and historically significant mayor is an excellent opportunity to meet the guy who shaped Zagreb in the previous century.

Apart from the horror of the pandemic and earthquakes, 2020 was the 50th anniversary of the death of Većeslav Holjevac – who is considered to be one of the greatest mayors in Zagreb's history.

As ZG Portal reports, last month an exhibition dedicated to Holjevac started in the gallery of the Museum of Contemporary art, and you can view it until May 20.
The Zagreb of Većeslav Holjevac 1952 to 1963 – Urbanist Vision And Architectural Reach is an exhibition that takes a look at the eleven-year mandate of this significant mayor who transformed Zagreb in the post World War 2 era. Fifty themes and representative examples of urban and architectural achievements which were built, projected, or planned in Holjevac's term. This included three key Strategic urbanistic documents which played a key role in the development of Zagreb and were decided at that time.

The authors of the exhibition are architect Ivan Mlinar which conducted Urbanistic research on Zagreb in the time of Holjevac, and historian Hrvoje Klasić who was in charge of biographical research.

The exhibits were donated by the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Zagreb City Museum, Architecture Museum of Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Faculty of Architecture on Zagreb University, Jadran Film, and Zagreb film studio.

The 35th Zagreb mayor and the total number of mayors in Zagreb throughout its history includes 52 names. Today, Većeslav Holjevac has his own avenue at the entrance to Most Slobode (Liberty bridge), which allows citizens to cross the Sava river and enter Novi Zagreb (New Zagreb), and the statue of Holjevac overlooks the area of Zagreb he built in what is commonly known as „Jump Over Sava“.

Apart from being mayor, Holjevac took various different roles in the former Republic of Yugoslavia. Known as a bold person with vision, competence, and bravery, he made Zagreb one of the most developed cities in Yugoslavia, and despite having various rivals, he enjoyed the support of Yugoslavian president Marshall Josip Broz Tito, which allowed him to make his projects a reality.

Learn more about Zagreb on our TC page.

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

ZAGREB, April 6, 2019 - The exhibition about Polish Jews under the title "They Fill No Space: Reviving the Memory of Polish Jews" will be staged outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb on Saturday within the 13th edition of the Festival of Tolerance that officially starts on Sunday.

The exhibition presents a selection of murals that can be found in public spaces all across Poland that speak about the past of Polish Jews, the festival says on its web site.

The exhibition is prepared in partnership of the Jewish Film Festival Association with the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Institute Adam Mickiewicz from Warsaw, Poland and with the support of the Museum of Contemporary Art from Zagreb.

Festival of Tolerance – JFF Zagreb has been developed from the Jewish Film Festival as a unique cultural and educational platform,

"The 13th edition of the Festival will be held from 7 April to 13 April 2019 in the cinemas SC, Kinoteka and Tuškanac, while the ancillary programme will be held from 1 April to 17 April 2019 in public spaces of the City of Zagreb in the form of outdoor exhibitions," according to information on the festival's website.

"Over the past 13 years, the Festival has been fostering critical thinking and the creation of a more tolerant society, in an attempt to open up a dialogue between opposing sides and to contribute to the development of a healthier social environment."

This year, over 70 films will be shown during the event.

Admission is free.

More news about Croatia’s museums can be found in the Lifestyle section.

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

A retrospective exhibition of Vjenceslav Richter works opens next week, October 10.