The Organizing Committee of the Museum of Fine Arts in Osijek
issues a
CALL FOR ENTRIES
for the 29th Slavonian Biennial.
Slavonian Biennial is a juried group exhibition at which
contemporary visual art is presented,
chosen by the Jury composed of the following members:
Janka Vukmir, president,
Ana Knifer,
Matej Knežević,
Dalibor Prančević,
Valentina Radoš, exhibition curator,
titled
INSTITUTE OF THE INVISIBLE - spaces of perception
Through the title of the exhibition, we want to inquire into and present art as a life-long commitment and destiny, approached without compromise, and very often without the understanding of one's environment. Within the title, we also connect two occurrences that significantly influenced the conceptual direction of the 29th version of the Slavonian biennial: in 2024 we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of artist Julije Knifer in Osijek, and the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Gallery (now the Museum) of Fine Arts. Both of these anniversaries form the backbone of the exhibition concept: the life and work of Julije Knifer as an unquestionable example of an uncompromising and far-sighted artistic persistence, while the emphasis on the museum jubilee is an opportunity to comment on the role of different heritage and exhibition institutions and their perpetuating effect on the (mis)understanding of (contemporary) art. As curators, we ask ourselves the question of how to set up an exhibition within the theme of the invisible (and most often misunderstood) artistic will, in a museum as a bastion of fine culture, which in its jubilee year becomes invisible itself, i.e. closed for reconstruction of the physical exhibition space? In the exhibition Institute of the Invisible - Spaces of Perception, we also ask the artists a question about the true nature of their work - how to make visible what is invisible, intangible, untouchable... Through the answers offered by the artists, we want to confirm the vital idea of artistic autonomy with often invisible contours but with an eternal duration, and about art as a social and personal need entrusted to us to preserve, evaluate and interpret.
Valentina Radoš
It is in the nature of a work of art to suggest a different image of reality. A work of art can turn visible reality into an immaterial, imaginative image, or it can, as Julije Knifer writes in his Diaries, take the opposite route: The work I do is absurd in every way. And for that very reason, I have to turn that absurdity into a certain reality. [1.1.1985, 21:20] Therefore, he materializes the absurd through the realization of his works. And where do we look for invisibility? We look for it in work, in perception, in the process, in that space which is liminal, borderline, which is the interstitium between reality and (non)object, in the space of transformation, in the space of initiation, in the space of freedom. In the gap, where there may be the least space, but the most meaning.
It is similarly so with the medium of the exhibition and the symbolic meaning of the museum institution. The fact that somebody has gotten the possibility of an exhibition is more important than what will be shown, writes Goran Trbuljak in 1973, pointing to the process of affirmation of a work of art without its visibility or appearance making a difference, making this statement the actual work.
In both cases, invisibility is really a focus on the subtlety of insight, on perception, on thinking and acting. The subtlety of poetics is almost the only thing that can oppose the brutality of reality. In Slavonia, which is literally fading in its physical appearance, and Osijek, which has begun to develop increasingly, it is precisely in what is not yet clearly seen as an imbalance in everyday life that we should look for a mutual solidarity of politics and poetics; and artists are often the best researchers in this field.
Janka Vukmir
CALL FOR ENTRIES AND SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR THE 29TH SLAVONIAN BIENNIAL
All entries must include the following:
- personal information: first name, family name, date of birth, address, phone number, e-mail address;
- professional résumé;
- complete documentation on the submitted work, including the technical data about the display and making of the work (name, year, technique, dimensions, exhibitions to date);
- high-resolution photograph or draft, and in the case of performance art a detailed synopsis is also required;
- artist’s statement about the artwork;
- signed consent for personal data usage
Artists may enter only one work. All submitted works must be exhibition-ready.
Only works created after 1 July 2022 may be entered. The call is open for entries from its announcement until 31 August 2024. The exhibition will be held in several exhibition spaces in Osijek (while the Museum of Fine Arts is closed for reconstruction) from November 2024 to February 2025.
Works must be entered in digitally. The Jury may ask for additional information or to see the work. In addition to the selected works, works by artists invited to participate may also be included in the exhibition.
The artists grant the Museum the right to use and reproduce submitted materials for the purpose of promoting the Slavonian Biennial in all media, as well as for the catalogue. The abbreviated artistic statements will be used in the exhibition setting and on the Museum's web-site and Facebook pages for the duration of the exhibition. By submitting to the open call, the artist also gives consent for the work to remain in the Museum for the entire duration of the exhibition.
The works exhibited at the Slavonian Biennial will be returned in the same way they were received, i.e. the authors will retrieve the works delivered in person, and the works received by post will be returned in the same way, unless the artists and the Museum agree otherwise. In case of returning the works by mail, the postal costs are borne by the Museum.
Entries, containing everything required, is to be sent by e-mail to:
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For additional inquiries please call:
00385 31 – 251 280
00385 31 – 251 284
00385 91 522 1416
The entry is valid if it is received by e-mail before midnight of the deadline day.
Incomplete or late entries will not be considered.
Please see all other information and Rules for the Slavonian Biennial Exhibition or follow us on https://www.facebook.com/mlu.osijek/
Visual identity of the 28th Slavonian Biennial: Igor Kuduz
Jury for the 28th Slavonian Biennial:
Matej Knežević is a visual artist whose work revolves around themes drawn from everyday life, manifested through multimedia installations. He is the winner of the Radoslav Putar award 2017 for the best young contemporary artist. He runs the “Ligatura” , a hybrid art-medical space in Zagreb. He works as a medical doctor, urology specialist in Clinical Hospital Center Sestre milosrdnice in Zagreb.
Ana Knifer has been keeping the legacy of her artist father Julije Knifer for over ten years. During that period, she has participated in the realization of numerous exhibitions of Knifer's work and also publications. In Haus Konstruktiv (Zürich) she curated a large exhibition with Sabine Schaschl in 2017; in 2021 she curated an exhibition in MUWA (Graz) in collaboration with Eva Fürstner. She is the author of the exhibition Gecan, Knifer, Petercol at the Galženica Gallery in 2022 and Gecan and Knifer at the Vodnjan Pharmacy in 2024. She studied Art History in Montpellier and Zagreb, was a collaborator at the CRAC Occitanie exhibitions in the 90s. She has worked on the Croatian National Tv (HTV) and as a journalist in Croatian print media: Globus, Jutarnji list, T-portal...
Dalibor Prančević is an art historian whose research interest focuses mainly on the issues of art and visual culture of the twentieth century and today. He started his professional career in 2001 as a museum curator at the Meštrović Gallery in Split, and in 2008 he secured a professional position in the Department of Art History at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split, where he remains employed to this day as an associate professor. He spearheaded and authored the scientific research project “Sculpture on the Crossroads Between Socio-political Pragmatism, Economic Possibilities and Aesthetical Contemplation” (1 March 2017 – 28 February 2020) funded by the Croatian Science Foundation. As an associate, he has participated in the scientific project “Modern and Contemporary Artist Networks, Art Groups and Art Associations: Organisation and Communication Models of Artist Collaborative Practices in the 20th and 21st Century” (2014–2018; project leader: Ljiljana Kolešnik, PhD, Institute of Art History, Zagreb, Croatia; funding source: Croatian Science Foundation). He has been awarded by several prominent scholarships (The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles), the last of which is The Fulbright Post-doctoral grant for the project “Ivan Meštrović and the Anglophone Cultures / Example of the Cross-cutting of Various Cultural, Historic and Artistic Experiences” (USA, 2018). He regularly publishes scientific articles and essays related to the modern and contemporary art and visual culture. He is an author of many monographic exhibition catalogues. He curates independent exhibitions on contemporary art and writes about it.
Valentina Radoš is a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, where she is the head of the Collection of Paintings of the Second Half of the 20th Century (from 1945 to the present), the Collection of Drawings and Prints of the Second Half of the 20th Century (from 1945 to the Present) and the Collection of New Media (video, DVD, digital graphics, installations). Her professional interests include artistic practices of the 20th and 21st centuries and visual communication. Since 2010 she has been the curator of the Slavonian Biennale. Some of her recent significant projects are: 24th Slavonian Biennale – Once Upon a Time There Was a Traveler; (MLU, 2014-2015); I was call you tomorrow – Krunoslav Stipešević; (MLU, 2015); Borders of Visibility – 25th Slavonian Biennale, (MLU, 2016–2017), Ivan Faktor – A Film that Only I Watch, (MLU, 2017); Tarwuk - 20170621_141332 (2)., (MLU, 2017–2018); 26th Slavonian Biennale – Flat Earth (MLU 2018-19); Davor Sanvincenti – The Earth Shalll Once Be the Sun (MLU 2020); 27th Slavonian Biennale – The Image as a Virus (MLU 2020); East of Eden (MLU 2021); How Fruk's Works Continued to Live (MLU 2021); Alignment – Miran Blažek (MLU 2022); 28th Slavonian Biennial, New Paradigms of Happiness – from Osijek Dada to Contemporary Chaos (MLU 2022). She is a member of the Association of Art Critics AICA
Janka Vukmir is an art historian, curator and art critic based in Zagreb. She is the co-founder and president of the Institute for Contemporary Art (1998). She was deputy director (1993 – 1996) and director (1996 – 1998) of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art - Zagreb. She is the organizer of a series of projects, initiatives and events in the field of contemporary art in Croatia and abroad, in cooperation with various organizations, or as an independent curator. She is the editor and author of a number of books and publications. She is the co-founder of the Radoslav Putar Award (2002). Previously, she was the executive director of ZGRAF 10 (2008), co-founder and president of HNN - Croatian Independent Publishers. In the field of cultural management, she collaborated in several programs of the European Cultural Foundation and the City of Zagreb, and as a lecturer (on exchange) in the Cultural Management course at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Zagreb. She started the Transcription of the Diaries of Julije Knifer project. She is currently working on the research of the first happening in public space in Zagreb.
