Exhibition history

Possibilities for ’24 – Marta Katavić: Where Every Ordinary Activity Is Extraordinary

04.07.2024. - 18.08.2024. / MSU, Black Box

In the fourth year of implementing the Possibilities project, we are presenting the exhibition Where Every Ordinary Activity Is Extraordinary by painter Marta Katavić. The Possibilities project was launched by the MSU curator Leila Topić in association with Zagreb’s Academy of Fine Arts with the aim of strengthening the exchange of knowledge and making new relationships between curators, artists and audience, making it easier for up-and-coming artists to remain in the professional field. The members of this year’s work group, which decided on the selection of artists in deliberative conversations and discussions, are Ivan Slipčević, Josip Zanki and Vlasta Žanić, professors at the Academy of Fine Arts, young independent curator Renata Šparada, and MSU curator and concept author Leila Topić.

Mutual Presence

19.06.2024. - 02.08.2024. / Galerija Art&CeRZe

For the first time, the exhibition Mutual Presence will showcase works by artists from the Collection of Outsider Art of the Museum of Contemporary Art alongside the works of artists with intellectual disabilities who are active within the inclusive gallery Art & CeRZe, Centre for Rehabilitation Zagreb. Although it is still not fully socially accepted in our country to exhibit artists without formal art education, let alone the artists who are users of the Rehabilitation Centre, within conventional exhibition spaces, this exhibition aims to show that art has always pushed boundaries, both in the perception of art itself, as well as in the acceptance of diversity.

IZBLIZA / UP CLOSE Preservation, Protection, and Conservation-Restoration of Contemporary Artworks

28.05.2024. - 25.08.2024. / MSU, 3. kat

The exhibition Up Close offers a new approach to modern and contemporary heritage. It presents visitors with a “behind-the-scenes” look at the processes of research, protection, and conservation-restoration of selected works from the holdings of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb (MSU), the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana (MG+MSUM), the Božidar Jakac Gallery in Kostanjevica na Krki, and the Vasko Lipovac Atelier in Split.

Cinemas of Resistance: Milica Rakić – Red, If You Didn’t Exist…

16.05.2024. - 23.06.2024. / MSU, Black Box

A revolutionary of the code name Red is the central protagonist of Milica Rakić’s experimental film Red, If You Didn’t Exist, We Would Have to Invent You. She is a thwarted fighter and activist, a woman transitioning between two times and two worlds, trapped between non-freedom and a possibility of a new revolution.   

Julije Knifer — from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art

11.04.2024. - 12.05.2024. / MSU, 3. kat

The connection between Julije Knifer (Osijek, 1924 – Paris, 2004) and the Museum of Contemporary Art is long and intense, as testified by a large number of works kept in the Museum, from the earliest to the iconic ones.

Women to Women Collective: The soil remembers. Do you?

28.03.2024. - 01.09.2024. / MSU, 1. kat

المثارات : التراب يذكر .  هل أنت؟

محرک ها: خاک به یاد می آورد.  آیا تو؟

The Soil Remembers. Do You? is a project from the Triggers series with which we present the work, the commemorative action of the Women to Women collective. The project was inspired by the piece Observers by Ivana Popović from the Museum of Contemporary Art Collections, consisting of a large number of small human heads in clay, different in form, but sharing one coherent component – expressive eyes.

Tomislav Gotovac a.k.a. Antonio G. Lauer: Ascending Descending Genealogy

09.02.2024. - 26.05.2024. / MSU, 1. i 2. kat povremenih izložbi

Artistic oeuvre of the multimedia artist Tomislav Gotovac (1937. – 2010.) has been controversial throughout his lifetime. However, today his work is highly appreciated in artistic circles all over the world and his works are held at the most prestigious international collections. Furthermore, Gotovac was and remains a part of Zagreb urban and popular iconography, favoured by wide public due to his provocative art interventions and performances.

Realise! Resist! React! Performance and Politics in the Post-Yugoslav Context of the 1990s

14.12.2023. - 17.03.2024. / MSU, 3. kat

Following the 1990s – the decade of major changes – different countries and historical time zones arose in the small-scale territory of the formerly joint Federation. Created in wars, in more-or-less successful political and economic transitions, they often readily disowned their legacy.

His Supporting Hand – Curating the Curator: Davor Matičević

09.11.2023. - 11.02.2024. / MSU, Black Box

His Supporting Hand – Curating the Curator: Davor Matičević is the latest exhibition from the Triggers cycle, Museum of Contemporary Art’s invitation to artists, curators and curatorial collectives for a critical review or a response to the museum holdings. It opens on Thursday, 9 November 2023 at 19:00, at MCA’s Black Box. The exhibition name is a quote by Ivan Posavec from an interview published in the magazine 15 Dana, explaining how a large part of his photographic work, as well as the work of Mio Vesović, would not exist without Matičević’s support.

Vlatka Horvat: Good Company / “Triggers”

14.09.2023. - 12.11.2023. / MSU, 2. kat

Vlatka Horvat’s Good Company presents a selection of works from the museum's Sculpture collection through the lens of the artist’s practice.

In the space of the exhibition, small groups of works from different eras and artistic movements are placed in dialogue with each other. Figurative pieces and abstract works sit side by side, and their spatial arrangements underscore contrasts and connections between different formal gestures and sculptural materials. Horvat’s selection and presentation of works offers a playful, dynamic view of the grouped sculptures, their relations, connections and possible interpretations.