Igor Grubi膰: Gestures of Activation 鈥� Works in Public Space
Under the title Gestures of Activation 鈥� Works in Public Space, Igor Grubi膰鈥檚 large-scale solo exhibition presents a retrospective overview of the artist鈥檚 multimedia creativity spanning the period from the late nineties until today. The works ranging from minimal gestures such as text, photography or performance, to projects aiming at goals beyond art, will be set up in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje. Public engagement is one of the fundamental stimuli of Grubi膰鈥檚 work, as underlined in the title of his first retrospective solo exhibition in Rijeka, and also his first solo show in Skopje. He is preoccupied with the subject of social turmoil in the nineties, paying special attention to the processes of transition and privatisation, the burden of wartime destruction and responsibility of individuals in active social changemaking. His critically directed considerations are thus closely related to empowering civil disobedience, the implementation of different activist strategies of agitation and infiltration into the public space. Penetrating the soft tissue of pacifist yet unnerving critique, Grubi膰 represents a peculiar example of artistic activism relying on the spirit of guerrilla-anarchist actions, in the wake of the legacies of historical avant-gardes and conceptual practices from the sixties and seventies, which stepped out into the streets to express institutional critique and desire for direct communication with the public.
The selection of works at the exhibition Gestures of Activation includes some of Grubi膰鈥檚 pivotal works, such as the iconic Black Peristyle (1998) or the action Book and Society 22 %, directed against VAT on books, with which he mobilized many of his fellow artists the same year in a unique event with a specific goal. In addition to Book and Society, with his actions Call for the Removal of the Student Center Management (2000) and No-ki-teka (1997/1998) Grubi膰 lobbied for the changes of cultural policies in the nineties, and the photo-performance Breathless from 1999, presented for the first time, is a comment on back then inexistent institutional support to independent culture. The two-channel video installation East Side Story (2006-2008), included in the collection of Tate Modern in London, uses dance choreography to unmask the violence of ultra-right-wing nationalist groups in Zagreb and Belgrade, and the monumental photo series 366 Rituals of Liberation (2008) consists of micropolitical actions the artist performed daily over the course of a year. The exhibition includes the works conducted outside the usual post-transitional Easter European context, in which Grubi膰 expands the view of the neuralgic points on the global horizon with interventions like The Missing Architecture (2021), as well as the latest series Another Green World (2021), a series of political-poetic statements and quotes, textual interventions on classical historicist sculptures in the city park of Villa Comunale in Naples.
Under the title Gestures of Activation 鈥� Works in Public Space, Igor Grubi膰鈥檚 large-scale solo exhibition presents a retrospective overview of the artist鈥檚 multimedia creativity spanning the period from the late nineties until today. The works ranging from minimal gestures such as text, photography or performance, to projects aiming at goals beyond art, will be set up in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje. Public engagement is one of the fundamental stimuli of Grubi膰鈥檚 work, as underlined in the title of his first retrospective solo exhibition in Rijeka, and also his first solo show in Skopje. He is preoccupied with the subject of social turmoil in the nineties, paying special attention to the processes of transition and privatisation, the burden of wartime destruction and responsibility of individuals in active social changemaking. His critically directed considerations are thus closely related to empowering civil disobedience, the implementation of different activist strategies of agitation and infiltration into the public space. Penetrating the soft tissue of pacifist yet unnerving critique, Grubi膰 represents a peculiar example of artistic activism relying on the spirit of guerrilla-anarchist actions, in the wake of the legacies of historical avant-gardes and conceptual practices from the sixties and seventies, which stepped out into the streets to express institutional critique and desire for direct communication with the public.
The selection of works at the exhibition Gestures of Activation includes some of Grubi膰鈥檚 pivotal works, such as the iconic Black Peristyle (1998) or the action Book and Society 22 %, directed against VAT on books, with which he mobilized many of his fellow artists the same year in a unique event with a specific goal. In addition to Book and Society, with his actions Call for the Removal of the Student Center Management (2000) and No-ki-teka (1997/1998) Grubi膰 lobbied for the changes of cultural policies in the nineties, and the photo-performance Breathless from 1999, presented for the first time, is a comment on back then inexistent institutional support to independent culture. The two-channel video installation East Side Story (2006-2008), included in the collection of Tate Modern in London, uses dance choreography to unmask the violence of ultra-right-wing nationalist groups in Zagreb and Belgrade, and the monumental photo series 366 Rituals of Liberation (2008) consists of micropolitical actions the artist performed daily over the course of a year. The exhibition includes the works conducted outside the usual post-transitional Easter European context, in which Grubi膰 expands the view of the neuralgic points on the global horizon with interventions like The Missing Architecture (2021), as well as the latest series Another Green World (2021), a series of political-poetic statements and quotes, textual interventions on classical historicist sculptures in the city park of Villa Comunale in Naples.
Artists on show
Contact details
What's on nearby
