29 November – 09 December, 2007
– paintings
– 2-channel video-installation (in collaboration with Ivana Bago, Antonia Majača and Ivana Mance)
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Ivica Malčić, ‘the long distance painter’, as he wittily dubs himself in one of his paintings, has been showing 100 new paintings on solo exhibitions over the course of almost ten years now. These exhibitions have been manifestations of the artist\’s commitment to creation and daily studio work, as well as documents of the very process of creation, the moments of exhilaration and crisis which this process entails. Malčić’s painting also involves is a constant, and always also self-ironic, questioning of his own identity as an artist, the feeling of power and powerlessness, euphoria and doubt in front of the painting canvas but also in relation to the world of art and his position within it. Up to the present, Malčić has always held the function of both author and selector of his shows, retaining complete control over what would be presented to the public as his new painting cycle. In a way and by a the very concept of regular, seasonal presentations of his work – which are always at the same time a new exhibition but also a necessary precondition for the continuation of the unique life-long artistic project – Malčić poses an ultimatum and enters into a negotiation and dialogue with the world of art, in order to ensure his continuous presence inside it. Presumably speaking, if the exhibition fails to be realizes within a certain year, the whole project is put to question, which is a risk that the artist faces continuously and by which the responsibility is not only his, but that of the entire system of art institutions. At the exhibition ‘MUTUALITIES: Shown & Found’, it is exactly this dialogue (with himself and with the world of art) that comes to the fore after so far being only implicit in such an approach. Renouncing control of the space within the artwork and its public presentation, Malčić ‘submits’ himself to a jury, the space of curatorial intervention and a radical selection which reduces the presentation of 100 paintings as results of the year long work (of 1762! paintings made altogether) to presenting the work done over the course of two years by merely 10 paintings, selected by curators who, as Malčić notices, painting is not a primary area of interest and competence.
Ivana Bago, Antonia Majača & Ivana Mance
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10 NEW PAINTINGS
Since 1998 I have been presenting 100 paintings every year at solo exhibitions in Zagreb. In 2003 I didn’t have a solo exhibition but in 2005 I therefore showed 200 paintings. In 2007 I didn’t show paintings but instead, I presented 365 diary-based drawings made during the previous year. This is how the paintings from 2006 and 2007 remained un-exhibited. Of these, I decided to present only 10 and I decided that I shouldn’t be the one to make the selection but to leave it up to someone else. I wanted to find someone who was not primarily into painting but dealing with more contemporary media such as performance, actions, installations, video etc. as well as someone who did not know much about my work. I found my ‘selectors’ in Galerija Miroslav Kraljević, curators Ivana Bago, Antonia Majača and Ivana Mance. I imagined this selection as a typical jury convention, such as those that are convened for the Zagreb Salon or the Youth Salon exhibitions. I ‘presented’ the paintings along with some comments and the three-member jury decided on the paintings that passed the selection. My idea of a jury was complemented by the girls’ idea to place two cameras to document the whole process. One was recording me showing and presenting the paintings at the easel and the other was recording them discussing the paintings. Of the 134 new paintings that were in my studio, 32 were selected for the first round of which finally 10 paintings were selected. I am extremely satisfied with the professionalism and the approach by which the selection was made as well as the paintings that were finally selected. After all, they are all ‘my children’.
Ivica Malčić
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Ivica Malčić – CV
I was born in 1964 in Zagreb. In 1996 I graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, in the class of prof. Miroslav Šutej. From 1992 until today I have had 16 premiere solo exhibitions in Zagreb (they are the only ones I count and the only ones that are important to me). Of group exhibitions, the most important are:
1993 – Zagreb, Moderna galerija /New Croatian Art/ (one of 107 artists)
2005 – Zagreb, HDLU /End of Century, End of Painting – Croatian painting in the 1990s/ (one of 24 painters)
2005 – Zagreb, Moderna galerija /100 Years of Moderna galerija – new permanent setup/ (one painting of 670 exhibited works)
11/30/1991 – 11/24/2007 = 1762
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X Mutualites – Introduction
I SINIŠA LABROVIĆ: ‘Punishment’
III PASKO BURÐELEZ: ‘Untitled’
IV ŽELJKO BADURINA: ‘Coffee & Cakes’
