On Tuesday, May 13 at 7 PM, Lucija Krizman’s solo exhibition Notes on Dispersion opens at the Miroslav Kraljević Gallery.
In the encounter of flame and fume, in the process of decay and reformation, materials begin to lose their solid forms. Glass flows, ceramics crack, and ash writes new textures. It is precisely there – where form becomes uncertain and meaning begins to slip – that the space of research begins for Lucija Krizman.
Notes on Dispersion unfolds as a series of experiments at the edge of material properties and their symbolic potentials. Through sculptural installations and performative gestures, Krizman pushes materials to their limits – testing them with fire, water, and the passage of time. At the core of the project is an installation imagined to float on bodies of water, constructed from steel and ceramics, shaped after archetypal structures like the labyrinth and spiderweb – symbols of movement enriched with mythological and ritual connotations that evoke ideas of self-discovery, transition, and creation.
A video recording of a durational performance, during which the work is made, reveals an open flame transforming materials, drawing us closer to the synergy of fire and water, whose sounds provide the foundation for a visual narration. The sound follows movement, creating pulsating rhythms that suggest what we might call the primordial. The video is conceived as a meditation on the object of inquiry, a space for unknowing and reflection. Rather than directing the gaze, it guides the viewer toward a state of dispersion and inner wandering, while the performance acts as the starting point of the entire process, an experiment offering insight into the making of the installation and the meanings that gradually emerge from it.
The process of transformation continues through what remains – the ash produced by fire becomes material for further experimentation. In this way, the work carries on beyond the performance, expanding into unpredictable directions, where every residue holds the potential for a new beginning.
In a parallel body of work, the artist uses window panes from an old family house, melting and reshaping their glass into new forms. Windows – clear and tangible boundaries between inside and outside, now become sites of lost function and released materiality; their new forms fuse distorted, distant memories. Krizman does not attempt to preserve objects; she brings them to the point of rupture, documents transitional states, and opens up space for a different kind of presence. Here we approach what Žižek, following Lacan, calls the Real – referring to the cracks in the symbolic order.
Notes on Dispersion is a work about limits – of materials, and of memory – and their ongoing reshaping. It does not offer a straightforward narrative, but rather constructs a space of uncertainty and unpredictability, where through subtle destruction and an openness to chance, both material and symbolic transformation is allowed to occur. This is a process in which sculptures and installations do not retain their previous states but instead embrace change, inviting us to reflect on the cyclical processes of creation and destruction. Lucija Krizman’s intervention avoids the trap of nostalgia and does not aim at restoration; instead, it gently but resolutely embraces fracture, uncertainty, and loss as fertile ground for creation, showing us that new meanings emerge precisely in those moments when we consciously allow the known to yield to the unknown.
Antonela Solenički
Lucija Krizman (born in Zadar, 1985) is a Croatian artist working primarily in sculpture and interdisciplinary installation. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art (2022) and a BA from Central Saint Martins (2017). Her practice explores themes of absence, material memory, and spatial perception, often drawing from personal and collective narratives.
Krizman has presented her work in solo and duo exhibitions across Europe, including “Strangers Anew” at Somers Gallery (London, 2024), and “Master of Voids” at Galerija Karas (Zagreb, 2022). In October 2023, Krizman presented a solo exhibition at the National Museum in Zadar, featuring her largest installations and site-specific works to date. She has also participated in numerous group shows, such as IN-SONORA 12 in Madrid, Art Biesenthal at Wehrmuehle Museum (Berlin, 2022 and 2019), and and “I Object” (2021), a group exhibition of RCA students in collaboration with the Freud Museum in London.
Her work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Frankopan Scholarship, which is awarded to outstanding Croatian students studying in the UK. She was an artist-in-residence at the Freud Museum’s online program in 2021 and is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists (HDLU).
Prefacet: Antonela Solenički
GMK Managers: Tea Matanović, Antonela Solenički
Production: Generator of Multidisciplinary Co-productions (GMK)
Visual identity design: Agnete Morell
GMK’s program is supported by: the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Zagreb
GMK’s work is supported by: Kultura nova Foundation, INA d.d.
