NEW RIJEKA SCENE

INSIDE – OUTSIDE, curated by Branko Cerovac
SNAPSHOT, curated by Natasa Ivancevic

10-30 July 2006, Art Gallery Split, Croatia

INSIDE – OUTSIDE
Authors / Performers: Milijana Babic, Lara Badurina, Sinisa Lenac, Kreso Mustac; performance "Reddies - Skinscraper" (concept, script, scenography, staging: Kreso Kovacicek / Damir Stojnic; video, animation: Edvin Sabanovic / Manuela Paladin; performance participants: K. Kovacicek, D. Stojnic, I. Vecerina , S. Sabanovic, N. S. Bozinovic)
INSIDE – OUTSIDE is a title of the exhibition's segment conceived by Branko Cerovac, a senior curator at MMSU. One certainly needs to consider the fact that whole of Rijeka "emerging" scene is continuation of the situation Cerovac promoted by the middle of the 90ies throughout Croatia by means of an exhibition, organized by Modern gallery Rijeka, that was titled "Contemporary Rijekan artists – a part of new Croatian art" (Osijek, Zagreb, Rijeka, 1995). The same subject was also covered in a series of his texts headlined "Made in Ri – New situation in Rijeka's visual arts", comprising reflections on the authors and the actual phenomenon. Regarding the above said and the fact that many of then spotted artists (Lara Badurina, Lada Sega, Damir Stojnic, David Maljkovic...) will be present at the Art Gallery Dubrovnik, Cerovac especially paid attention to a rise of new performing and multimedia scene around the Multimedia Centre Rijeka, a cult venue of Palach Club ( Kreso Mustac, Kreso Kovacicek, Damir Stojnic, Edvin Sabanovic, Igor Vecerina and a whole team around The Poet Theatre). He also devoted attention to a possibility of dynamizing the setup which includes installations by Lara Badurina ("Souvenirs Made In") and Milijana Babic ("Flame") and sculpture by Sinisa Lenac (whose recent production has been shown at the last year's exhibition in Mali Salon). Multimedia performance "Reddies – Skinscraper" will be happening during the show's opening along the "vertical" communication line of a three-storey villa: from top to bottom of the attractive staircase of a beautiful neorenaissance – neogothic edifice, presently hosting Dubrovnik Art Gallery. The aesthetic aim is to relativize interactive relations between psychosomatic – spatial "outsidership" and "insidership" at a level of plastic sign and body-art action transposed from the underground context of Beat literature and pertaining to a Palach-oriented segment of Rijeka scene into the shiny elite premises of Dubrovnik's ex-villa.

SNAPSHOT
Authors: Nemanja Cvijanovic, Tomislav Curkovic, Tanja Dabo, Igor Eskinja, Ana Grubic, Iva Gobic, Dejan Kljun, Melinda Kostelac, David Maljkovic, Danica Mracevic, Nadija Mustapic Natasa Radovic, Dunja Sablic, Lada Sega, Damir Stojnic and Nikola Ukic
SNAPHOST is a part of the exhibition NEW RIJEKA SCENE that will introduce recent art production of younger Rijeka artists selected by Natasa Ivancevic, a senior curator at MMSU. It is a kind of extension of the exhibition "Emerging Authors – Rijeka Situation" organized by the same curator in 2003 at MMSU large hall. The exhibition at the Art Gallery Dubrovnik will include a multimedia installation by Nemanja Cvijanovic, collages and objects by Tomislav Curkovic, a video by Tanja Dabo, a site-specific wall application by Igor Eskinja and Ana Grubic, objects by Iva Gobic, an installation by Dejan Kljun, graphics by Melinda Kostelac, a video by David Maljkovic, a multimedia installation by Dunja Sablic, paintings by Damir Stojnic, sculptures and foil prints by Nikola Ukic. The show also includes works by Rijekan authors living abroad - whose art activity is insufficiently known in Croatia - such as video projection by Nadija Mustapic and Natasa Radovic and site specific installation by Lada Sega.
Their appearance in such a large number is a phenomenon of a strikingly vital and recognizable Rijeka scene, which up to this moment (judging by a rate between number of artists and quality of their works) has not been seen in this region yet. The scene is characterized by artworks featuring wide range of media expression, thematic and formal structural characteristics and individual poetics. These are the artists who have already assumed a recognizable position at the Croatian contemporary art scene, while some of them achieved significant presence at the international scene (Dabo, Maljkovic, Eskinja, Cvijanovic, Ukic, Radovic, Mustapic). Their activity expresses fresh, deliberated and innovative approaches in questioning modern art practice.

See "Urbana obnova" od 13. do 17. veljace u Malom salonu, by N.O. Valerjev (PDF article in Croatian), NOVI LIST, 15 February 2006.