Zlatko Kopljar – K19: A brick tower almost four meters high has been standing disturbingly in the courtyard in front of the Minoritensaal for a few days: the strongest sign of an exhibition that deals intensively with the wounds of the 20th century and is a warning to the present: the bricks were made by concentration camp prisoners in the former concentration camp in Jasenovac.
|
|
ERASION: The brick tower in the courtyard in front of the Minoritensaal is one of the 22 “constructions” by Croatian artist Zlatko Kopljar, which is exhibited on three floors at KULTUM im steirischen herbst 24: The manufacturers of these bricks have long since disappeared. In many cases, the memory that the artist is defending himself against has also been erased: an artistic oeuvre spanning almost four decades that raises the question of the role of art in a contemporary society that is threateningly sawing away at its foundations of coexistence: Kopljar's work deals with the themes of guilt and sacrifice after the experience of war, with values in a post-communist and a capitalist society, with ethics and, above all, with the longing for orientation. Transcendence, sublimity and rituals play a major role here. The artist often defends himself against the erasure of these themes.
ERASION also applies in a specific way to Kopljar's own artistic work: After being staged as a performer, later as a light figure, sculptural models are designed that pose the question and salvage of art in a very fundamental way: The MoMA in New York and the Tate Modern in London become relics in this show. In the end, Kopljar also bids farewell to this form of art and begins a phase as a painter. These paintings, which have been created since 2021, can be seen for the first time ever in this exhibition (in the large exhibition hall): Entitled ‘Disturbances’, they evoke peace, spirituality and sublimity.
The extensive show, which consists of films, performances, photographs, sculptures and large-format paintings, will open on Friday, 27 September at 6 pm.
I cordially invite you to this extraordinary exhibition! It is a very important milestone in our long-established museum concept, which seeks religion in contemporary art. In exhibition rooms, some of which have been completely redesigned in recent weeks, art can now unfold in real life, in a great aura. (Another wing will be renovated in the autumn.) What particularly moves me is that almost all of Kopljar's works will become part of our Museum of Religion in Contemporary Art with this exhibition: I would be all the more delighted to welcome you to the opening.
Yours sincerely
Johannes Rauchenberger
More infos, texts and images:
www.kultum.at/zlatko-kopljar
|
|
K19 as the entrance to the exhibition
|
|
The artist finishing the tower last Tuesday
|
|
|
Immediately afterwards, in the small Minoritensaal, Willi Brandt kneels in front of the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial - in the form of the light figure by artist Zlatko Kopljar (K15).
|
|
Zlatko Kopljar
born 1962 in Zenica (YU), lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and represented Croatia at the São Paulo Biennale in 2004.
His works have been shown at MSU Zagreb, MMSU Rijeka, The Kitchen - New York, among others. He has also had solo exhibitions in Varaždin, Split, Pula, Ljubljana, Graz, Venice, Berlin, Cologne, Lublin, Liverpool, Valladolid, Antwerp and Vilnius. Recent group exhibitions include: MERCY, Vilnius (Politics). Luc Tuymans and Zlatko Kopljar (2022); Sanguine: Luc Tuymans on Baroque, Fondazione Prada, Milan (2019); Glaube Liebe Hoffnung, Kunsthaus Graz (2018) Luc Tuymans, A Vision of Central Europe - The Reality of The Lowest Rank, Bruges and ART WAR TRANSITION (MMSU, Rijeka).
The Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb dedicated a comprehensive retrospective to Zlatko Kopljar (2019/20). His works can be found in important private and museum collections. www.zlatkokopljar.com
|
|
|
A sea of feathers has settled in the attic - a two metre long, heavy needle lies on top: MASTODONT from 1995. photo: J. Rauchenberger
|
|
Dozens of needles were driven into the wall: ‘I BELIEVE’ from 1993, when Zlatko Kopljar was influenced by Andrei Tarkovsky, whose films invoke repetitive rituals. Photo: J. Rauchenberger
|
|
ERASION - or an artist who wanted to change the world: That is his confession at the very beginning (1997). In K2, he bangs wildly on the walls of the gallery. The visitors follow him in this way.
|
|
Sacrifice of Isaac: (1993)
Kopljar's art revolves around the themes of guilt and sacrifice, the resistance to break the cycle of victimisation and violence.
|
|
Sacrifice (1992): This series of pictures was created 30 years before the ‘blood series’ that forms the subject of the exhibition.
|
|
|
LOVE SHOT (1996): Kopljar engraves the word for ‘love’ in Croatian, English and Italian on a projectile. He drives to a wooded hill near Zagreb, where the audience and his gun are waiting for him. The artist loads the gun and fires it blindly into the night.
|
|
ERASION: Zlatko Kopljar's father was killed by a bomb during the war on 23 September 1992: K6 from the year 2000 commemorates the spot. Two weeks later, this marker was also obliterated by the cars driving over it.
|
|
|
Zlatko Kopljar became particularly well known with K9 compassion (2004): He kneels in front of sites of cultural, financial and political hegemony in New York (later also in Washington, Sao Paolo, London, Moscow and Beijing). But his kneeling is an act of resistance. This series was first presented by KULTUM at steirischer herbst 2007 in the former cellar rooms of the Graz seminary. It has been part of our collection since the exhibition ‘MITLEID | compassion’ (2012).
K9 - in the Minoritensaal - is entirely abstract. But a pathetic voice calls for ultimate cohesion.
|
|
With K12, Kopljar thematises the artist's despair on the one hand, even staging his death. And in the second video, he finds himself in front of a ball of light that has fallen to earth: a moving image for life after death.
|
|
From K13 (to K18), Kopljar becomes a figure of light. He goes to the source of the light - a former industrial building (TEZ Tower) that was built as a lamp testing station in the late 1950s. He persuaded the current owner to reactivate the lamps: The work was on display for the first time in 2009 in these very rooms, which have now been completely refurbished and become part of the museum. With this video, Kopljar called for a new ethic.
|
|
K17 - a harrowing commentary on greed after the 2008 financial crisis, again shot in New York.
|
|
And finally, we stand in a newly furnished room in front of architectural models of the MoMA in New York and the Tate Modern - once as a concrete sculpture (K20 Empty) and another time in the form of a reliquary: what role do institutions like the museum still play at all? The picture on the left (K4, 2002) documents a performance in which he had a 12-tonne concrete block placed in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb at night: The entrance was thus blocked... Photo: J. Rauchenberger
|
|
In a time of deeply felt crises and new wars, the work of Croatian artist Zlatko Kopljar stands for an ethical and aesthetic (re)orientation: Kopljar explores the lasting aftereffects of the traumas of the 20th century—fascism, extermination, the Ex-Yugoslav Wars, postsocialism, postcapitalism.
The fundamental questions of ethics, guilt, and sacrifice are a recurring motif in Kopljar’s work. Over almost four decades, he has explored practically all forms of artistic expression, from performance, photography, film, and sculpture to (memorial) art. In his 22 Ks (Constructions), he gradually develops the figure of a man in a reflective suit: the protagonist of his video works, a persona like a lightning rod for human longing. Four years ago, Kopljar decided to paint for the first time—and only paint henceforth. He consistently avoids any obvious message in these “stripe paintings.”
To the opening on Friday, 27th of September 2024, 6 p.m. You are cordially invited!
|
|
|
OPENING: Fr, 27th of September 2024, 6. p.m.
KULTUM, Mariahilferplatz 3, 8020 Graz, Austria
Introduction: Dr. Johannes Rauchenberger, Curator
Tue–Sat 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sun 3 to 6 p.m. (winter: 2 p.m.–5 p.m.)
Curator and Artist-Talk: Sat, 28th of September, 3 p.m.:
Johannes Rauchenberger in conversation with Zlatko Kopljar
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
