EXHIBITION
01 - 16/03/2020
GALLERY NOVA, TESLINA 7, ZAGREB

‍An Octopus, A Dolphin and the Others,  Laura Barić, Jakub Danilewicz, Philippa Driest, Vida Guzmić, Larion Lozovoy, Petra Mrša, Jelena Petric and Paky Vlassopoulou
Curated by WHW

After four months of an intensive working process, within the program of WHW Akademija a group exhibition Midterm takes place in the Gallery Nova, presenting the results of an exercise that WHW developed in a close dialogue with the Academy participants. Following the idea of using the Kontakt Collection as a referential point for WHW Akademija, the participants were invited to explore the works and authors from the collection, and to develop their own work in non-hierarchical dialogue with the selected works, using them as triggers for their artistic explorations. Although these processes are presented in the exhibition format, the attempt is to move away from the idea of an exercise as a task that needs to be rehearsed in order to be mastered. Therefore, what is shown are not necessarily final works, but moments of meetings with historical works, the artists’ peers and an imaginary and real audience. This is intended as an open process of both artistic and curatorial production, and collective practice of mutual learning.

Many questions open up in relation to testing the possibility of open form, a notion formulated by Polish architect and pedagogue Oskar Hansen. The concept of open form, which influenced many of the artists included in the Kontakt Collection, was developed by Hansen during late 1950s and 1960s in the context of architecture theory and urbanism. Following the idea that artistic activity can influence spatial and social structures, participants of WHW Akademija individually and collectively initiated gestures, scenarios and actions that are positioning themselves towards the unknown and exhibitions exterior.