The promotion of the Vujičić Collection's book “To Live a Quiet Life”, published by the Viennese publisher Verlag für moderne Kunst, will take place on February 1, 2024 at 7 p.m. in the Gorgona Hall at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb.
The Vujičić Collection represents a continuous process of discovering visual art practices in Croatia and other countries in the region from the 1950s to the present with the aim of establishing a permanent dialogue between artists, curators, institutions and private collectors, and this publication is its first comprehensive presentation to the public after previous individual exhibitions. works from the collection at collective exhibitions in Zagreb, New York, Warsaw, Sao Paolo and Moscow.
The bilingual book (Croatian, English) is conceived as a visual essay that gives a comprehensive overview of the collection, which from beginning to end follows the conversation between the collector, Denis Vujičić, the curator from MoMA New York, Ana Janevski, and the editor of the book, Tevž Logar, with formative and structural contributions of Ivana Andabaka and reproductions of more than 250 works (paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs, collages, objects) signed by photographer Damir Fabijanić. Rafaela Dražić's design interweaves and balances visual and textual elements, striving on the one hand to avoid the standard "catalogue" method of presenting the collection, and on the other hand to allow readers to view artworks, practices, movements and ideas that have largely shaped the way we see our common recent history.
In examining the current topics of contemporary art, the book compares the works of emblematic figures of the post-war avant-garde such as Vojin Bakić, Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos, Julije Knifer, Ivan Kožarić, Ivan Picelj and Vjenceslav Richter with important works of artists from the New Art Practice movement, such as Marina Abramović, Braco Dimitrijević, Tomislav Gotovac, Sanja Iveković, Katalin Ladik, Mladen Stilinović and Goran Trbuljak, but also more contemporary artists such as Dora Budor, Jasmine Cibic, Igor Grubić, Šejla Kamerić, Hana Miletić, David Maljković, Damir Oček, Marko Tadić, Nora Turato and many others.
As an important determinant of the creation of the collection, the collector Denis Vujičić cites the text of Vera Horvat-Pintarić* in which he points out the "unsustainability of local evaluation criteria" and emphasizes the importance of the context according to which "in the foreground is the question of how the art of local environments is included in contemporary events on the global stage".
At the promotion in the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) on February 1st at 7 p.m., in conversation about the book:
Tevž Logar, independent curator and editor of the book,
Ana Janevski, curator at MoMA NY and collaborator on the book
Ph.D.Sc. Leonida Kovač, art historian and theoretician
Vesna Meštrić, director of MSU Zagreb
Denis Vujičić, collector
*VERA HORVAT-PINTARIĆ, Suvremena jugoslavenska umjetnost, u: Razlog, Zagreb, 5 (1964.), 455–465
