Dženan Hadžihasanović
The Blank Title
24 April – 13 May 2023
EXTENDED DURATION OF THE SHOW UNTIL 19. 5. 2023.
Institute for Contemporary Art
Trg kralja Tomislava 20, Zagreb
Opening of the exhibition: Monday, April 24, 2023 at 8:00 p.m
The exhibition will remain open until May 13, 2023.
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday 1- 7 p.m.
Dženan Hadžihasanović’s painting cycle The Blank Title was initiated by the author’s interest in public gatherings, protests, citizens’ rights and civil liberties. The impetus for its creation was initiated by a large protest by the citizens of Sarajevo and the blockade of the building of the Parliament of BiH in 2013 due to an administrative decision not to grant ID number to newborns, which in the end one baby, due to the inability to go to treatment, paid with his life. The first exhibition under that title was held in 2016 in Sarajevo, and since then it has been held in various iterations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy and Croatia. It is a series of pictures of always different dimensions depicting street gatherings of the masses. At the same time, it is interesting that large gathered groups are painted in such a way that human figures are painted on them according to the iconoclastic principle of Islam. In the case of a protest, the protesters’ banners are empty, white. Although during his career Hadžihasanović often used performances in public space, a medium that most often carries an activist note, for this topic he chose his native medium, painting.
Dženan Hadžihasanović (Sarajevo, 1987) graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, and in 2013 attended the Salzburg International Summer Academy in Austria. During his studies, in 2010, together with Emir Mutevelić and Emina Huskić, he founded the artistic group Color Crew, which attracted a lot of attention in Sarajevo and the region with its socially engaged performances in the style of slapstick comedy in public spaces.
Since 2012, Hadžihasanović and Mutevelić, together with Jusuf Hadžifejzović, one of the most renowned conceptual artists in the area of the former Yugoslavia, have been creating several performances under the name Cheer Up Yours Abroad, which they presented, among other things, at the 16th Bone Performance Festival in Bern and at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Zagreb (2014), and in a slightly modified form under the title Jump into the Unknown as part of the Korean contribution at the Venice Biennale in 2015. (Sandra Bradvić)
He began his study of restoration and conservation in Lugano, Switzerland, and continued his study of conservation-restoration at UMAS, Split.
In addition, Hadžihasanović also participated in the restoration of 15 culturally significant buildings, such as the Ferhat Pasha Mosque in Banja Luka and the Town Hall in Sarajevo, which became a symbol of the war’s destruction of cultural heritage. He lives and works in Split.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Support:
City of Zagreb
Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
The Council of the Bosniak National Minority in Split-Dalmatia County