Exhibition history

Jonas Staal: PROPAGANDA STATION

05.09.2024. - 20.10.2024. / MSU, Black Box

Propaganda is often presented as a relic from the totalitarian past. Only in the case of contemporary dictatorships, such as those of Putin or Kim Jong-un, is the term still used. But as the project Propaganda Station by artist and propaganda researcher Jonas Staal shows, democracy is not free from propaganda either.

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.

Goran Trbuljak If I Were an Artist, I Would Be a Genius*

02.07.2024. - 08.09.2024. / MSU, 1. i 2. kat povremenih izložbi

Goran Trbuljak, one of Croatia’s most significant conceptual artists, has never entered the new building of the MSU until this exhibition. Following a re-invitation to hold an exhibition, he decided to accept it, but only after thoroughly elaborating his ‘pro’ and ‘con’ arguments with a text which he self-published last year: “Some thoughts and doubts on the topic of my current and potential future relationship with the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb”.

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.