In an informal conversation on about what their works mean to us today, and what we have inherited from their artistic practice, as how they now see earlier and present times and other topics participate Vlado Martek, Mladen Stilinović, Sven Stilinović, Fedor Vučemilović, Suzana Marjanić and Marko Golub. Converstaion will moderate Janka Vukmir & Darko Šimičić

Monday, May 11, 2015 @ 7:00 p.m.

Institute for Contemporary Art,
Trg kralja Tomislava 20, Zagreb

40 years and one hour after the end of “The first joint exhibition” held at the site of the Municipal Bathinghouse at the river Sava in Zagreb, a group of artists and their friends, later known as the Group of Six Artists, the Institute for Contemporary Art will host the gathering and conversation marking this anniversary.

Today, the Group of Six Artists is known better than it was twenty years ago, with a contribution to this by the Institute of Contemporary Art, as we organized their 1998 retrospective exhibition, gathered documents and published a number of printed and electronic publications. At the time of the exhibition, many of today’s students of art and art history have not yet been neither born, and many of our colleagues were too young to remember the exhibition.

Projection: The Group of Six Artists: Movies and Actions (2 x 70 ‘).
On that occasion only will be possible to purchase publications related to the work of the Group of Six Artists and members individually, those published by the Institute for Contemporary Art.

Admission is free. We recommend that you announce your arrival on info@scca.hr

11th of May, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
The exhibition was shown at the site of the Municipal Bathinghouse at the river Sava by Boris Demur, Željko Jerman, Vlado Martek, Mladen Stilinović, Sven Stilinović, Branka Stipančić, Matko Štajcer and Fedor Vučemilović. The exhibits were displayed on the sunning boards, about the embankment and the lawn, and the whole site was used for the production of actions. First joint exhibition. It appeared that this way of displaying without the mutual agreement upon the whole exhibition works (cat Bgd 77).
Demur showed a series of drawings (marker pen on paper) and collages. He produced an action in a boathouse: while Matko Štajcer played the cello, Demur pushed a handcart over the uneven ground, in a dark and acoustic space, making noise. The action was closed by his breaking the door with the handcart.
Jerman exhibited the poster of the solo exhibition Subjective Photographs with the interventions in it: the idea was to bring the reproduction close to the original. He showed the imprint of his body executed by means of chemicals applied on photographic paper and also performed an action: he laid for about 1 hour on a large piece of photographic paper, leaving the natural imprint of his body on it. Alongside the exhibits came the text with the explanation of the action: The term photography is derived from the Old Hellenic words foto – light and grafo – I write, draw, and accordingly photography is drawing by means of light. The simplest drawing by means of light is the imprint of an object on paper. When technically worked out on photographic paper, such imprint is called a photogram. As much about that – just for the record. And now a word or two about the creation of visual art and one, at the first sight bizarre, analogy. The most crucial, primary motif and the simplest act in creativity is the desire to give a part of the lost self, to leave a trace behind. I draw a parallel between the likeness in the fundamental elements of creating and photography, and I use photographic paper as especially gratifying material for leaving behind a trace of myself. I could have made the same photogram in the laboratory, by means of developing and fixing, but as I am presenting the most essential and the simplest act in creating, I execute photography thematically by the simplest method of natural print. The exhibit by the side of this one is a half-photogram. While working on it I got the idea for this action. (manuscript, the archive of D.Š.)
Martek showed a horizontal poster poem (a poem inscribed on a piece of paper in large format) and one of his dairies.
Mladen Stilinović displayed seven paintings from the series Hand of Bread and several books of photographs. He performed an action: he drew a line on the grass in red paint.
Sven Stilinović showed the four photographs in large format (the enlarged photographs of a miniature collage), and a sequence of photographs The comparison between the development of painting and non-development of photography. In this sequence Sven compares the subjects from the history of painting and photography, with the thesis that photography takes on the subjects from painting to the injury to its own development.
Vučemilović contributed a sequence of eight photographs in space.
Branka Stipančić produced an action (throwing flowers into the Sava), while Matko Štajcer played cello here and there during the exhibition.
This exhibition contains all basic elements of the future exhibitions-actions: the authors show their individual work executed in various media, they are present at the exhibition since communication with the public presents an integral part of the concept of exhibition, the site of the exhibition is a public site and outside of the system of galleries.