{"id":8802,"date":"2026-04-02T15:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/?p=8802"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:59:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:59:41","slug":"karlo-stefanek-cheers-so-she-goes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/news\/karlo-stefanek-cheers-so-she-goes\/","title":{"rendered":"Karlo \u0160tefanek: CHEERS! SO SHE GOES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new exhibition produced by queerANarchive<\/strong>
10ka, GMK, \u0160ubi\u0107eva 2<\/strong>
Opening:<\/strong> Tuesday, March 31, 2026, at 7:00 PM
Duration:<\/strong> until April 4, 2026
Gallery opening hours<\/strong> > Tue\u2013Fri: 4\u20137 PM \/ Sat: 10 AM\u20131 PM
Free admission<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We invite you to the opening of Karlo \u0160tefanek\u2019s exhibition at the Miroslav Kraljevi\u0107 Gallery, produced by queerANarchive. Through an ambient installation that transforms the gallery into a caf\u00e9-like setting, \u0160tefanek explores the feeling of shallow and exhausting digital communication, drawing on Marc Aug\u00e9\u2019s concept of the non-place. Through video works, an audio installation, and spatial interventions, the exhibition addresses alienation, loneliness, and the illusion of connection on social media, while from a queer perspective it critically examines the conditions of identity and togetherness in contemporary digital environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curatorial introduction by Leopold Rupnik<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The sense of continuous, superficial communication\u2014one that takes on a Sisyphean futility\u2014forms the thematic core of Karlo \u0160tefanek\u2019s exhibition Cheers! So she goes<\/em>. Drawing on French anthropologist Marc Aug\u00e9\u2019s concept of the non-place, \u0160tefanek transforms the gallery into a caf\u00e9, while stripping it of its anthropological function as a site of social exchange. In doing so, the space begins to operate as a kind of Aug\u00e9an non-place. Within it, the artist evokes feelings of alienation, exclusion, and solitude through his digital presence. This presence materializes across several interconnected works: video pieces arranged on tables throughout the gallery, a video installation located in the restroom, and an accompanying audio work that reverberates through the space. Such affective states are often articulated by other non-places\u2014airports, subways, and supermarkets\u2014through their architecture and their hauntological qualities of timelessness and identity void. This framework is key to understanding the first segment of the exhibition, in which the gallery is transformed into a caf\u00e9-like interior: tables and chairs are arranged into an ambient whole, and each table is paired with a TV screen displaying a video of the artist seated in an identical position, gazing directly at the viewer. Although the locations of the individual videos vary, the affect they convey\u2014and the interaction the artist invites through these digital works\u2014remains marked by an elusive, muted sense of distance. The interaction between artist and viewer never fully materializes; his gestures and responses to the environment feel like shots fired into the void. Even during the artist\u2019s TikTok Live performance, staged for the exhibition opening, \u0160tefanek appears in the same bodily position from his Amsterdam studio, allowing the audience to communicate via chat. Despite this possibility, the communication feels impersonal and one-directional. In this way, the critical edge of \u0160tefanek\u2019s work toward digital platforms as non-places of connection becomes even more pronounced. Extending this motif of alienation, the second segment of the exhibition consists of a video installation situated in an intimate, selfie-familiar setting\u2014the restroom. Generated in part with the help of artificial intelligence, the video produces multiple looping variations of the artist\u2019s mirror self-portrait. These iterations are accompanied by a textual layer that simultaneously reproduces empty phrases and internet slang, as well as isolated words and exclamations reminiscent of the murmur of caf\u00e9 conversations. Through its looping repetition, the installation simulates the compulsive refreshing of social media notifications, intensifying the anxiety that permeates the exhibition\u2019s atmosphere\u2014one that mimics the mechanisms of alienation characteristic of social networks in everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restroom thus becomes a space no longer reserved solely for privacy, but a liminal site where the conditions of digital space\u2014sharing, confessionality, and (self-)surveillance\u2014spill over into the physical world. The sense of overwhelm produced by digital interactions is further evoked in the accompanying audio work that echoes throughout the gallery. Composed of random audio fragments sourced from TikTok, the piece weaves together disjointed words into a narrative whole, depicting a breakup from the perspective of one interlocutor. Through attentive listening, it becomes apparent that the speaker is an artificial intelligence, personified under the nickname Archie, with whom the artist is ending a relationship. The dissociative quality of breaking up with a non-living digital entity satirically points to another dimension of post-capitalist digital production, in which, amid a sea of failed interactions, the only attentive listener and source of support may be a carefully engineered corporate system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When discussing \u0160tefanek\u2019s artistic practice, the queer dimension is inseparable from it, and the artist sustains it in this exhibition as well. In his approach, this dimension is most strongly expressed in the way he engages with digitality. The creation of online personas, the redefinition of identity, and the uncensored freedom to be oneself have long been embedded in the fabric of the internet as a kind of rite of passage for young people attempting to form themselves outside heteronormative impositions and their temporalities. As the internet expands\u2014gradually becoming fertile ground for profit extraction\u2014queer individuals increasingly find themselves on online battlegrounds, fighting for their share of digital wilderness: spaces where corporations will not coerce them through shameless data extraction, product placement, and censorship wrapped in the guise of protecting marginalized identities. By creating performative alter egos, \u0160tefanek exposes the illusion of togetherness promoted by social media, revealing it instead as an inherently artificial digital complex in which even queer individuals struggle to find the sense of safety once promised by the internet. Queer authenticity is replaced by cunning corporate strategies: in a curatorial gesture of sorts, online personas are selected and commodified as aspirational models for queer users. Much like the various inert queer characters embodied by \u0160tefanek, corporations promote those queer subjects who fit neatly into a heteropatriarchal template of compliant, politically subdued, and homogeneous consumers\u2014subjects who must continuously adapt to the capitalist agenda imposed upon them. Through his use of irony, the exhibition critically interrogates the conditions of queer existence not only within digital environments but also in the real world. At the same time, \u0160tefanek grapples with the question of how contemporary social shifts and attitudes toward queer individuals are reflected across the surfaces of our social media feeds. What further situates the exhibition within a queer register are numerous carefully considered artistic choices that function as tributes to queer culture. For instance, \u0160tefanek pays homage through the use of internet slang actively employed by queer communities, selfies reminiscent of typical \u201cthirst traps\u201d found on gay dating apps, a highly camp staging of a breakup with artificial intelligence, and even the detail of multicolored IKEA tables and chairs. Thanks to memes surrounding IKEA\u2019s inclusive marketing strategies, these have become niche symbols within segments of queer internet culture. \u0160tefanek\u2019s immersion in queer pop culture, coupled with his awareness of the broader issues surrounding toxic online environments, succeeds in bringing together audiences from different vantage points\u2014allowing viewers, regardless of their own level of engagement with digital worlds, to find themselves reflected in his work.

Leopold Rupnik<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Biography<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Karlo \u0160tefanek<\/strong> is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores how identity is constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed through the mediums of self-portraiture and performance. At eighteen, \u0160tefanek moves to Amsterdam, where he begins laying the groundwork for his artistic methodology. The series Self-titled (2022-), which integrates both visual and performative elements, has become a cornerstone of his practice, challenging evolving notions of selfhood and perception.

\u0160tefanek has been showcased at CC Amstel, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2022); Stedelijk Museum, Rietveld Uncut, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2023); Treehouse, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2024); 2nd Floor, Groningen, Netherlands (2024); La Biennale, Venice, Italy (2024); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sounded Bodies, Zagreb, Croatia (2024); The Holy Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2024); SerformanceP Festival, S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil (2024); Echo Studio, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2024); KIC, Zagreb, Croatia (2025); Vagon Gallery, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2025); Multimedia Institute MaMa, Zagreb, Croatia (2025); ARL, Dubrovnik, Croatia (2025); HDLU Istok, Osijek, Croatia (2025); HDLU, 60th Zagreb Salon, Zagreb, Croatia (2025); EMAD, Perforations, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2025); Performance in Flux, Immerse, Orlando, USA (2025); Youth Biennial, Belgrade, Serbia (2025); Biennale del Vesuvio, Naples, Italy (2025), amongst others. The artist lives and works between Zagreb, Amsterdam and New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Programme Information<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

qEXHIBITIONS<\/strong> is a program run by collective queerANarchive that opens queer discourse in the town of Split.\u00a0Since 2010 queerANarchive works as a collective that develops, researches and questions queer culture. Its curatorial and educational programs deal with particularities of queer culture at the time of LGBT normalisation and re-traditionalization of society.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the international level the collective participated at Queer Art Lab Space ID Madrid, Madrid (2013), Activist in Residence at Baltic Art Center, Visby (2014), Young Queer Europe (2015 \u2013 2016), What\u2019s masc, Berlin (2022), W\/ri\/gh\/ting Archives through Artistic Research, Vienna (2023), Doing history – methods of artistic historiography, Bauhaus University, Weimar (2023) and conferences Unstraight Museum Conference, Stockholm\u00a0 (2016), Organ Vida, Zagreb (2017) and Queering Memory ALMS Conference, Berlin (2019).\u00a0The collective is a member of Youth Center Platform, Clubture Network and LGBT center Split platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exhibition title:<\/strong>\u00a0Cheers! So She Goes<\/em>
Artist:<\/strong>\u00a0Karlo \u0160tefanek
Exhibition curator:<\/strong>\u00a0Leopold Rupnik
Duration:<\/strong>\u00a031\/03\/2026 \u2013 04\/04\/2026
Design:<\/strong>\u00a0Nikola Kri\u017eanac
Translation:<\/strong>\u00a0Leopold Rupnik
Acknowledgements:<\/strong>\u00a0Vedran Grladinovi\u0107 (technical installation), Val Ma\u010dukatin (technical installation), Mia Laura Jur\u010di\u0107 (producer), Luka Pe\u0161un (photographer), Noa Lon\u010dari\u0107, Tomislav Pavi\u0161a, Rada Iva Sibila, Kruno \u0160tefanek, Noa \u0160tefanek, Snje\u017eana \u0160tefanek
Programme under which the exhibition was realised:<\/strong>\u00a0qEXHIBITIONS
Programme curators:<\/strong>\u00a0Ton\u010di Kranj\u010devi\u0107 Batali\u0107, Leopold Rupnik
Production:<\/strong>\u00a0queerANarchive 2026
Donors:<\/strong>\u00a0Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, City of Split, City of Zagreb, Kultura nova Foundation
Partners:<\/strong>\u00a0Miroslav Kraljevi\u0107 Gallery (curators Tea Matanovi\u0107 and Antonela Soleni\u010dki)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We invite you to the opening of Karlo \u0160tefanek\u2019s exhibition at the Miroslav Kraljevi\u0107 Gallery, produced by queerANarchive. Through an ambient installation that transforms the gallery into a caf\u00e9-like setting, \u0160tefanek explores the feeling of shallow and exhausting digital communication, drawing on Marc Aug\u00e9\u2019s concept of the non-place. Through video works, an audio installation, and spatial interventions, the exhibition addresses alienation, loneliness, and the illusion of connection on social media, while from a queer perspective it critically examines the conditions of identity and togetherness in contemporary digital environments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802"}],"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=8802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8806,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8802\/revisions\/8806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-mk.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}