After the grand opening at the Rijeka Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in September 2017 and a guest exhibition in the Ústí nad Labem House of Arts in the Czech Republic in February, on 12 April a retrospective of Tomislav Gotovac’s works “Don’t ask where we’re going” was shown to the Slovenian audience at the Mestna galerija Ljubljana, where it will remain open until 10 June.
The exhibition, produced by the Rijeka Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and curated by Ksenija Orelj and Nataša Šuković, is Rijeka’s cultural “export” and part of the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture programme and its programme line the Age of Power which deals with the interpretation of totalitarian systems. The success of this “export” is emphasised by the fact that Gotovac’s work communicates just as directly and stirs just as much interest wherever it is exhibited, further underscoring the timelessness of Tomislav Gotovac, one of the most significant modern artists from this part of the world.
Through numerous artworks on loan from the Tomislav Gotovac Institute in Zagreb, the retrospective brings insight into sixty years of activity by this artist who was a pioneer in different media, from experimental and structural film to the happening, action and performance.
From his first photographic series, films and collages (between 1960 and 1964) to his late actions and performances in 2009, the exhibition follows Gotovac’s identification with outsiders, all of them eccentric personas, who confirm the artist’s legitimacy on the margins of the social order.
The exhibition in the Mestna galerija Ljubljana has a somewhat different format than the one in Rijeka: several new works are on display, one of which was created in Ljubljana in 1981, said one of the curators Ksenija Orelj at the opening. The question of the artist’s autonomy, his ways of toying with prescribed roles and mechanisms of prohibition, reflection on the relationship between the individual and the dominant majority, struggle with the official narratives and the mass media are all on show in the eight rooms of the Mestna galerija Ljubljana, from the basement room titled “I am innocent!”, to the retrospective inside the retrospective, PARANOIA VIEW ART.
The specific architecture of the Mestna galerija allows a circular tour of the exhibition, singling out the circle as the favorite form of Gotovac’s works and a frequent principle of his practice of upgrading, supplementing and recycling existing works and insisting on the open form of their interpretation.
In addition to his anthological artwork, the exhibition includes a variety of documentation on the artist’s actions, such as court proceedings or newspaper reviews, as ways of extending the artwork to the non-artistic spheres, but also the confirmation of Gotovac’s extended concept of understanding film that goes beyond the limits of film art and confirms the directorial principle as a principle of forming reality itself.
In an effort to present the artist’s filmic notion of reality, the exhibition approaches film as Gotovac’s pattern for art creation, but also a model for directing his own biography, blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction.
The exhibition follows the author’s approach to directing through the use of filmic and non-filmic media – from collages and photographs to actions and performances in intimate, public and media space. It emphasises Gotovac’s preoccupation with the relationship between directing a film and directing reality, starting with seemingly simple issues. How does film shape reality? Who is the lead, and who the assistant director?
Following Gotovac’s approach and his instructions for the reading of his art – his statements, interviews, titles of works and films – the retrospective is captioned with the titles of artworks, artist’s mottos and intimate footings.
