{"id":8713,"date":"2025-12-12T14:39:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T13:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/news\/luka-pesun-are-you-clean\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:10:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:10:05","slug":"luka-pesun-did-you-prep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/news\/luka-pesun-did-you-prep\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Pe\u0161un: “Did you prep?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

solo exhibition
Space 10ka, GMK, \u0160ubi\u0107eva 29<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening:<\/strong> Tuesday, December 16, 2025, 7:00 PM
Exhibition dates:<\/strong> until January 13, 2026
Gallery hours:<\/strong> Tue\u2013Fri: 4\u20137 PM \/ Sat: 10 AM\u20131 PM
Free admission<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galerija Miroslav Kraljevi\u0107 invites you to the opening of “Did you prep?”, a solo exhibition by Luka Pe\u0161un, the winning project of the Tvornica 2025 open call for production and exhibition. The exhibition opens on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at 7 PM. The exhibition explores the practice of douching as a complex, often unspoken intimate ritual that circulates within the queer community through experience, conversation, and collective learning. Pe\u0161un approaches the topic without sensationalism, foregrounding knowledge, preparation, vulnerability, and bodily autonomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is the exhibition foreword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Foreword<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Luka Pe\u0161un\u2019s exhibition “Did you prep?”<\/em> explores the practice of douching\u2014an intimate, often hidden and informally learned cleansing ritual that precedes anal sex, particularly prevalent among gay men. Although widely known, this practice exists outside institutional knowledge: it takes place behind closed doors, without clear instructions, and is most often shaped through improvisation. Early experiences are almost always marked by clumsiness, fear of making mistakes, shame, and the sense that the practice belongs to the realm of the unspoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within queer communities, the seemingly simple question\u2014“Did you prep?”<\/em>\u2014functions both as a practical check and as a symbol of an entire system of unarticulated norms. Behind it lies invisible preparation, both physical and psychological, that precedes intimacy. This opens up a series of questions: who bears the responsibility of preparation, how standards of \u201ccleanliness\u201d are formed, how knowledge circulates when it is fragmented and rooted in experience rather than formal education? Initial encounters are often awkward and confusing\u2014and it is precisely these experiences that become the starting point for an artistic articulation of learning through doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the artist primarily works with photography, in this exhibition he deliberately moves away from his dominant medium. This shift is not a rejection of photography, but rather a selective activation of its principles: the concept of mise-en-sc\u00e8ne<\/em> and carefully constructed framing is translated into the gallery space. The environment functions almost like a photographic set\u2014a space designed to be inherently photogenic, inviting visitors to document it and become part of their own visual narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the center of the installation is the relationship between signifier and signified: what photography is to its subject, casts of sex toys become to the toys themselves. These forms\u2014often exaggerated, disproportionate, or abstracted into imagined organic shapes\u2014are stripped of their original function and transformed into fragile sculptures. They are no longer tools of pleasure, but their symbolic doubles. In this way, Pe\u0161un engages with the semiotics of intimacy: what does an object mean once it ceases to function as an object and becomes a sign? What remains when function is removed and only a trace is left\u2014a space for reflection and discussion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition is conceived as an ambient installation that approaches its subject not through taboo, but through the affective atmosphere of first encounters with douching: a sense of hazy confusion, lack of knowledge, vulnerability, and curiosity about one\u2019s own pleasure. The process, imbued with a certain mystique, resembles a labyrinth\u2014where the goal is known, but the path remains uncertain. The artist creates a space that connects childhood and adult play: the gallery transforms into a kind of labyrinth made of towels, reminiscent of those we built as children. This imagery of shelter and safety allows visitors to relax, evoking playfulness and excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bed functions as an interactive element within the exhibition. Visitors are invited to lie down or sit on it, using it as a place of rest and reflection on their own bodily rituals. Next to it is a diary\u2014a space for recording personal experiences, doubts, questions, or anonymous confessions. Like an analog, interactive questionnaire, the diary invites dialogue: each new entry responds to previous ones, and visitors can read, reflect on, or learn from others\u2019 writings. In this way, the community itself generates the knowledge it lacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire environment\u2014the presence of water as a reference to rinsing, the bed as an installation subtly referencing F\u00e9lix Gonz\u00e1lez-Torres, a series of white towels, the scent of \u201cfreshly washed,\u201d and fragile casts of toys\u2014forms a choreography of ritual: a spatial language of douching. Within this space, fissures open between private and public, spontaneity and ritual, cleanliness and \u201cuncleanliness.\u201d The exhibition emphasizes that douching is neither a prerequisite for anal sex nor a guarantee of a \u201cclean\u201d experience. Unpredictability is always part of the body\u2014shit happens<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than romanticizing or focusing on taboo, “Did you prep?”<\/em> approaches douching as a complex practice that can be awkward, chaotic, impractical, yet deeply intimate. It is an act that involves preparation, planning, a relationship with one\u2019s own body, excitement, and a desire for connection\u2014even with oneself. In doing so, the exhibition contributes to a discourse on sexual education that is largely absent from institutions and instead transmitted within queer communities through conversation, trial and error, and experiential learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Did you prep?” thus becomes an invitation to openness and destigmatization. The exhibition advocates for the right to knowledge, safety, and bodily autonomy, approaching sexuality as a space of curiosity, learning, exploration, and community. Luka Pe\u0161un creates a space of understanding in which hidden and intimate experiences become visible and shared\u2014and above all, acceptable. Without shame and without compromise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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About the Artist<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Luka Pe\u0161un<\/strong> (Zagreb, 1990) works primarily with photography to explore themes of identity, family, and belonging, focusing on how shifts in context transform meaning and interpretation. He studied fashion design at the Faculty of Textile Technology and graduated in photography from the Academy of Dramatic Art in 2019. He is a recipient of the Rector\u2019s Award (2016).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His diploma project Do It Within Your Own Four Walls<\/em> was exhibited in 2019 at Gallery f8 (Academy of Dramatic Art) and as part of the Pore\u010d Dox festival, and again in 2022 in Pula within the Proces 2022<\/em> program. A photograph from the diploma series was displayed on a billboard in Zagreb in 2020 as part of the Ploha\/Povr\u0161ina 6<\/em> program. Works from his broader photographic cycle Domestic<\/em> were exhibited in Split (qIZLO\u017dBE, 2021) and later that year in Pula at the invitation of the association Proces. In 2022, the same work was presented to the Zagreb audience at the 36th Youth Salon within the thematic section Parasites<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, he presented the work Touch<\/em> at the group exhibition Then and Again. Rethinking Ritual in Contemporary Balkans<\/em> in Thessaloniki, Greece. The same year, he exhibited the multimedia interactive work Wiped Clean<\/em> at Gallery Spot, using VR technology and archival and medical imagery. Wiped Clean<\/em> won the 13th edition of the international Different Worlds 2025<\/em> competition, as part of which it was included in the finalists\u2019 group exhibition at Gallery Photon in Ljubljana, Slovenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Programme Information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Title:<\/strong>\u00a0“Did you prep?”<\/em>
Artist:<\/strong>\u00a0Luka Pe\u0161un
Foreword:<\/strong>\u00a0Antonela Soleni\u010dki
Curators: <\/strong>Antonela Soleni\u010dki, Tea Matanovi\u0107
Production & creative collaborator:<\/strong>\u00a0Ivana Prodan
Technical setup:<\/strong> Stipo Smilj\u010di\u0107<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dates:<\/strong> December 16, 2025 \u2013 January 13, 2026
Programme:<\/strong> Tvornica 2025
Acknowledgements:<\/strong> Davor Luli\u0107, Ivan Gaborovi\u0107
Production:<\/strong> Generator multidisciplinarnih koprodukcija (GMK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Programme supported by:<\/strong> Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb
GMK supported by:<\/strong> Kultura Nova Foundation, INA d.d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Galerija Miroslav Kraljevi\u0107 invites you to the opening of Luka Pe\u0161un\u2019s solo exhibition \u201cAre You Clean?\u201d, the winning project of the Tvornica 2025 open call for production and exhibition. The exhibition opens on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at 7:00 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[91,165,78,166,167],"class_list":["post-8713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-exhibition-en","tag-galerija-miroslav-kraljevic-en","tag-gmk-en","tag-luka-pesun-en","tag-tvornica-2025-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8713"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8774,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8713\/revisions\/8774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}