We are announcing the 6th reading and discussion circle: Reading Palestine, decolonial and transnational solidarity (Wednesday, October 2nd, 5 p.m., MSU) organized by the Free Palestine Initiative.
Apply HERE: https://forms.gle/FEfJi1EYWq4pCKrKA
We are reading and discussing selected parts from the book The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by the Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi and The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World by the journalist Antony Loewenstein.
Both texts are originally in English, but we have also translated them both to Croatian.
Before the discussion, we will read both texts aloud, together so reading in advance won't be necessary, but if you wish to do so, both texts in the original English and in translation are available here:
Mladen and Sven Stilinović, Exhibitions–Actions by the Group of Six Artists: 1975 – 1979
MSU, Black Box / October 2, 2024, 19 p.m.
We cordially invite you to the launch of the photobook Exhibitions–Actions by the Group of Six Artists: 1975 – 1979 by Mladen and Sven Stilinović, edited by Branka Stipančić. The book features photographs taken by the Stilinović brothers during exhibitions-actions of the Group of Six Artists, which they were part of, along with Boris Demur, Željko Jerman, Vlado Martek, and Fedor Vučemilović. The documentary photographs in the book were selected with the intention of emphasizing the group’s activist spirit, atmosphere, and situations in the different environments where they exhibited, the key actors and their artistic works, the visitors, the passers-by, and, not least, the context in which these events took place.
The Group of Six Artists organized their exhibitions-actions in Zagreb, Belgrade, Venice, on the beach in Mošćenička Draga, and elsewhere, spontaneously, as an informal group of artists realizing their ideas and carving out a new kind of exhibition context for themselves. They placed their works on the grass, laid them on the road, projected slides and films onto house walls... Their works often challenged aesthetic and ethical norms, and they performed actions that disturbed passers-by. The sudden, usually one-day exhibitions-actions of the Group of Six Artists adopted a guerrilla style, using constant provocation as a tactic. These were "fragmented," continuous rebellions – a resistance imbued with critical spirit and imagination that was both mocking and joyful. They resisted all forms of ideological influence, and each of them fought this battle in their own way.
The creation of this publication was inspired by the book This Is Not My World – Art and Public Space in Socialist Zagreb (2024) by Adair Rounthwaite, researcher and professor of contemporary art at the University of Washington in Seattle. Conceived as a photo album of the Stilinović brothers, this book, which contains 199 black-and-white photographs, aims to complement Rounthwaite's work. It is also worth noting that 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first exhibition-action of the Group of Six Artists, organized at the Sava River bathing area in Zagreb, making this the right time to revisit these dynamic and significant events.
The book is bilingual (in Croatian and English), with an introductory text by Branka Stipančić about the exhibitions-actions and their context, and it was designed by Boris Greiner. It was published by the artistic organization PETIKAT, with support from the Kontakt Collection and ERSTE Foundation.
The book will be presented by Irena Bekić, and the discussion moderated by Petra Galović. Participants: editor Branka Stipančić; members of the Group: Sven Stilinović, Vlado Martek, and Fedor Vučemilović; and publisher and designer Boris Greiner. Other artists, researchers, friends, and anyone who might have witnessed the exhibitions-actions is invited to join the discussion about the Group of Six Artists.
On this occasion, as part of the Comradeship exhibition, display cases showcasing documentation on the exhibitions-actions collected and organized in his particular way by Mladen Stilinović, will be presented alongside the works of the Group of Six Artists.
The book of photographs Exhibitions-Actions of the Group of Six Artists: 1975 - 1979 by Mladen and Sven Stilinović will be available at the book launch and later at the MSU Shop.
