The exhibition „Constructions“ is the first retrospective overview of the oeuvre of the internationally acclaimed multimedia artist Zlatko Kopljar. The exhibition will present a selection of his most significant works starting with the documentation of early performances from the 1990s in which the artist questions the possibility of understanding the other, the position of the artist in a war-ridden society, and the enduring nature and fragility of human existence – leading up to the multimedia installations made last year.

The exhibition will also show the works that brought the artist into the international spotlight like the K9 Compassion and K9 Compassion+ series in which the artist took on the role of a modern-day pilgrim as part of a performance and kneeled in front of institutions that represent political and artistic power. Furthermore, the retrospective will present a selection of Kopljar’s most important video works shot from New York, to Varsaw and all the way to Zagreb. It will feature recent installations and sculptures with embody the artist’s thoughts on collective memory, the possibility of forgiveness and reception, and ultimately his doubts in the emancipative power of art and art institutions.

The intention of the exhibition is to reassess the artist’s work, that is, to put it in a wider social context given that his oeuvre defies categorization into desirable cultural perspectives. His position in the classification of art is precious precisely because it is undetermined, and the works provide for multilayered interpretation.

The “Constructions” exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensively illustrated book of the same title with texts by Sanja Cvetnic, art historian and professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ory Dessau, freelance curator, and American curator Kate Mayne, while curator Leila Topić will serve as editor. The book will be co-published by the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb and Distanz publishing house.

 Curator: Leila Topi