Fokus Grupa
November 29, 2014 @ 6:00 p.m.
Fokus Grupa will present works that are being created as a result of a research of cultural forms related to the image of Croatian nationalism and the construction of the Croatian national identity. A special place in the works will have the natural beauty and monumental plastics that in Croatian imagery are inextricably linked to national identity.
Taking over and transforming elements of famous monuments, media images, archive material and texts, the collective creates temporary space installations, which are trying to soften and bring into question the solid contours of a monumental national narrative.
“A Proposal for the Monument to New (Inter)Nationalism” consists of film recorded in national parks and auditorium to watch a movie that was modeled based on the form of the monument The Altar to the Homeland.
P.H.S.H.N. is a sculpture that takes the purified form of the homeland’s altar which in this interpretation becomes intermedia archive.
“People Love Monuments” consists of a segment of the monument to Ban Josip Jelačić and documentary photographic material, and puts in relation nationalism and the process of film editing.
The works displayed in the exhibition; “31st May 1994″and “Blueprint for a portrait of a person K.K. “, are part of the archive installation P.H.S.H.N.
Welcome!
Fokus Grupa is an artist collective based in Rijeka, Croatia. Borrowing their name from a contested research method, used equally for independent research as for PR purposes they point to the social, economical and political frames of the art field. Their practice is collaborative and interdisciplinary, and they work across the fields of art, design and curating. Artistic strategies they use, take political shape, without becoming a representational form of ‘political art.’. Fokus Grupa concentrate on the relations between art and its public manifestations, in terms of working culture, aesthetics, and social and economic exchange values. Their work investigates the inherent power structures of the art-system. To this effect, they explore its economic, spatial and legal implementations. The collective tries to expand the boundaries of their artwork, using printed matter, films and installations, works on paper, discussions, workshops and texts.