Exhibition history

Possibilities for 2023 – Arcades Project by Željko Beljan

04.07.2023. - 06.09.2023. / MSU, Black Box

In the last few years, in his artistic practice, Željko Beljan has been focusing almost exclusively on handicraft and its position in contemporary artistic practices, where he explores craft techniques as an artistic medium. Traditional handicraft techniques have been rooted in his family for generations, and have been present in his life from his early years. But it was only through his research of the contemporary craft that he realized its strength and interesting position at the dividing line between everyday functional objects and artistic objects. The Arcades Project arose as a result of his interest in a wide range of materials in the context of a practice dedicated to handicraft—in addition to his work with textiles, while creating board games, he works with wood by hand, where he explores the relationship between handiwork and amateur, hobbyist participation in sports (and games in general), placing an emphasis on the participation and involvement of the audience in the realization of his works.

Modern Contemporary

04.07.2023. - 03.09.2023. / MSU, 2. kat

Modern Contemporary / Collection as a verb: Triggers

Modern Contemporary builds upon the first exhibition from 1955 with which the City Gallery of Contemporary Art (today's Museum of Contemporary Art) started its exhibition activity. It was an exhibition from the holdings which presented a selection of the first acquired works.

The exhibited works had been purchased from exhibitions and studios during 1954 and 1955. The gallery’s acquisitions strived, in line with their possibilities, to follow, i.e. document the dynamics of contemporary art life. The exhibition was complemented by several older exhibits, which laboured towards contemporary European painting of the time or spoke about individual authors’ typical stages.

Works of Heart (1970-2023)

15.06.2023. - 07.01.2024. / MSU, 1. i 2. kat povremenih izložbi

Works of Heart (1970-2023) is the first major museum survey of one of the most important Croatian artists, Sanja Iveković, in her city. The exhibition is a collaboration of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb with Kusthalle Vienna, where it premiered last year. Although the two exhibitions share the same title, the Zagreb exhibition is larger and adapted to the specific space of the Zagreb museum. It also includes a new part conceived as an archive entitled Meeting Points: Documents in the Making, 1968-1982, specially curated for the occasion by Ivana Bago. 

Arseny Zhilyaev: In the Days of War

23.05.2023. - 27.08.2023. / MSU, 2. kat

The title of the exhibition, "In the Days of War," was taken from a painting by the prominent socialist realist Geliy Korzhev (1925-2012). The artwork, also titled "In the Days of War," marked a significant milestone in the artist's career was completed in 1954. It was during this year that the City Gallery of Contemporary Art (later known as the Museum of Contemporary Art) was established in Zagreb by a group of artists and cultural innovators. These events occurred one year after the death of Joseph Stalin and two years prior to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR, which is renowned for Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" denouncing the personality cult and dictatorship of the former Soviet leader.

The Visible Ones

18.05.2023. - 01.10.2023. / MSU, 3. kat

The inter – institutional project and exhibition The Visible Ones represents more than eighty female authors, studies and indicates the pronouncedly low representation of women artists in art collections of museum institutions, and also presents certain aspects and mapping of the contemporary artistic practice of women artists in Croatia.

With this project, we seek to indicate the contemporary fine art production of women artists, which is marked by great achievements, but is nevertheless insufficiently visible.

Nika Autor in cooperation with Newsreel Front presents Red Forests

16.05.2023. - 25.06.2023. / MSU, Black Box

The razor wire is one of the most gruesome symbols of fortifying the borders of the European Union. Unlike barbed wire which is designed to prevent movement, the razor wire was created using galvanized steel with the sole intention of maiming. Thousands of people on the move have lost their lives while trying to bypass the borders of the European Union by drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, suffocating in the trucks of smugglers or perishing on the razor wire that surrounds Europe.

Malčić Goes to MSU

06.04.2023. - 03.05.2023. / MSU, 1. kat povremenih izložbi

A selection of paintings from Ivica Malčić’s new cycles is a result of his ongoing activity and painterly transformation of daily life. It is also part of Malčić’s long-time artistic concept – his attempt to make at least a hundred new paintings every year. 

Jasmina Cibic: The dreams we call our own

04.04.2023. - 07.05.2023. / MSU, Black Box

Jasmina Cibic’s artistic practice spans across film, performance and installation and rigorously interrogates the aesthetics of politics. Her works are situated within architectural settings of national pride and power, from state assemblies to cultural monuments, and draw on historical events and individuals that determine shared conceptions of identity. She continuously examines artistic production in terms of its relationship to propaganda and ideology. Through this she identifies the ways in which culture is instrumentalised and who it is intended to serve. In her recent projects, Cibic has been investigating political gifting of cultural objects, artworks and architectures that personified hope and solidarity during the plight of self-determination of nations and emerging political identities.  

MAJA SMREKAR, JONAS JØRGENSEN !brute_force: Soft Resilience

04.04.2023. - 30.04.2023. / MSU, 1. kat povremenih izložbi

*Opening hours of the exhibition are Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

!brute_force is an ongoing research platform interrogating forms of governance instituted by AI through structured models of reality. Established in 2019 by Maja Smrekar, the project stemmed from the premise that humans and nonhumans are no longer embedded in a dualist frame, but levelled within the global infrastructure of the market economy and the techno-capitalist commodification of life.  

A Walk with Tošo

29.03.2023. - 30.09.2023. / Zagreb

Small black and white photos were placed at 12 different locations in Zagreb as part of the project – A Walk with Tošo. They are an invitation to explore both the collection of Zagreb's great photographer and the city.