ARTISTS:
Maja Čule, Kajsa Dahlberg, Katerina Duda, Mihael Giba, Hrvoje Hiršl
CURATOR:
Martina Kontošić
The phenomenon of suffocation of public space by intensely communicated content defines contemporary society, together with the ways in which the very society treats this phenomenon. The precarization of the system is in full force; even those more successful, if they are attempting to preserve full moral integrity, enter exceedingly disadvantageous relations of invested labour, free time and financial compensation.
“Heroic exhaustion” is partly an auto-ironic construct of the protagonist of artistic scene which refers not only to the physical and mental exhaustion of those included, but also to the exhaustion of ways and spaces which are used for greater visibility of artistic activity. An intensive struggle for public space is being fought, both for physical spaces or locations of still existing cultural magazines and papers, as well as for the space for transferring messages and competing for the attention of the audience whose concentration is growing weaker. By analysing approaches to communicating the desired message, the exhibition presents artistic positions of different critical intensities directed towards the system they are a part of. The key element is the control over personal freedom of agency which is endangered by the general precarization of employment. By exhibiting various methods of artistic work, we are influencing not only the interpretation of the notion of heroic exhaustion which becomes ironic, but also an accommodating description of current state of a generation imprisoned within inevitable changes of social and economic relations.
Exhibiting artists are Kajsa Dahlberg, Katerina Duda, Maja Čule, Mihael Giba and Hrvoje Hiršl, and the curator is Martina Kontošić.
Supported by:
Creative Europe Programme of the European Union
Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs
Kultura Nova Foundation
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia
National Foundation for the Development of Civil Society
Office of Culture, Education and Sport of the City of Zagreb
The exhibition is a part of the collaborative project This Is Tomorrow. Back to Basics: Forms and Actions in the Future of What, How & for Whom/WHW, Zagreb, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm and Latvian Center for Contemporary Art / LCCA, Riga, with the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.