As part of the mentorship residency program at GMK, in the 8ica space,
the duration of Kristijan Popović’s residency: 20.06.2025 – 15.07.2025.
Mentor: Niko Mihaljević
Note: Smaller public presentation events will be organized and announced.
The lack of working space, financial resources, and time for focused creation are challenges young artists face as they begin their careers. On the other hand, contemporary gallery spaces today are more than just exhibition venues; they are also places for production, reflection, and collaboration. In response to these challenges, GMK launches the new mentorship residency, dedicated to young artists. The program builds on the long-standing Otvoreno Studiopractice and offers a space for work, along with financial support, technical conditions, and mentorship from experts in the fields of theory or artistic practice, depending on the individual practices of the artists.
The pilot edition of the residency brings together three artists: Rada Iva Sibila, Kristijan Popović, and Mateo Nikola Tonković, who will develop their artistic research through a mentorship process. Their work will be presented to the public. Second resident artist is Kristijan Popović, who will stay in the 8ica space from 20.06.2025 to 15.07.2025, with mentorship support from Niko Mihaljević.
Statement by the Artist:
Residency Residue- Residue; “a small amount of something that remains after the main part has gone or been used.” the duality of the word residue reflecting the nature of artist residencies. Intense temporary periods of making that, more often than not, leave behind a leftover, or at least a gesture. Without that important piece of residue, the importance of the residency itself can often be forgotten. Not wanting that to happen in my first official residency, I will be emphasizing the beloved leftover trace. During the residency, I will engage in a series of performances and actions that generate their own forms of residue – props and materials that, having fulfilled their performative purpose, transition into autonomous art objects. These objects, once tools of enactment, become physical evidence of something already passed. These objects will leave behind their own residue: photographic documentation that captures their post-performance state. Eventually, all of these layers – the performance, the objects, the documentation – will be distilled into artist books.
Photo: Magdalena Biškup
Kristijan Popović (1988, Zagreb, Croatia) graduated from the First Technical School “Tesla” in Zagreb and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2020, where he is currently in the first year of his graduate studies.
Since 2018, he has been actively working in the field of theatre and film scenography, participating in numerous projects. He has held two solo exhibitions at the SC Gallery Kiosk and participated in the Pass It On project exhibition at Lauba in Zagreb. He has also exhibited in numerous group exhibitions, including at Bačva Gallery, Apoteka Gallery in Vodnjan, Putolovac Gallery, and VGA in Zagreb.
He received the Rector’s Award for outstanding team scientific and artistic work in the academic year 2021/2022 for his involvement in music-stage projects: the opera Animal Farm (2021/22) and the opera Amphitryon (2022/23). In 2022, he won third place in the Ivan Kožarić Award for Young Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, and in 2023, he received the Jury’s First Prize in the Starter Prize competition at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
In 2024, he was awarded a Summa Cum Laude commendation from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.
Photo: Maja Bosnić
Niko Mihaljević is an interdisciplinary artist, graphic designer, and lecturer. His interests include the everyday and the otherworldly, sound and performance, pop music and the avant-garde, language and typography, humor and absurdity. Some of his works include: a chamber procedural opera with a libretto composed of an alphabetical list of words taken from an art critique written about an earlier iteration of the piece; a permutational net-art composition with a duration of 130 years; the founding of the Museum of the Crystal Skull; a karaoke performance for improvised whistling; and a philosophical dialogue that proves the island of Prvić is land entirely surrounded by sea. He holds a Master’s degree from Werkplaats Typografie (ArtEZ Institute of the Arts) in Arnhem, the Netherlands. He is the recipient of the Radoslav Putar Award (Young Visual Artists Awards). He works as an independent designer and as an assistant professor at the Department of Media Design at the University Sjever.
The residency is funded through the Special Public Call of the City of Zagreb for financing programs that include young artists, as well as through funds from the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia. The work of GMK is supported by the Kultura Nova Foundation and INA, d.d.
