Big retrospective exhibition Love and Resistance by Ivana Popović opened last week, on March 21st, at the Zagreb’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) with the aim to shine a light on a number of art disciplines Ivana Popović was active in.
Ivana Popović was one of the Croatia’s most intriguing and most controversial contemporary artists, who sadly passed away at the end of 2016. The exhibition at the MSU for the first time shows her work in the various fields such as performance, theatre, costume, fashion design, sculpture, painting and product design.
Ivana Popović was born in Gorski Kotar in 1968. and attended the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb, before graduating in sculpting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. As a student she was active on an independent contemporary theater scene as a theater group leader and she was already declared the star of the Zagreb off-scene because of her extremely original and unconventional approach.
As a fashion designer, from the very beginning Ivana was unbothered by the local fashion scene and unburdened by world trends. She was sewing all the clothes herself, emphasizing the natural materials. He was afraid and painted textiles with which he approached as a sculpture. Her first fashion performance was in 1993 at Ban Jelačić Square when the participants acted like they have fainted on the sidewalk. Two years later her fashion parade Madonna, I’m pregnant! that was held at the MSU caught the attention of MTV and was broadcasted on their TV show PULSE.
Humans were at the center of her work, but Popović was also deeply inspired by nature. In visual arts, her work ranged from paintings, collages, drawing, sculptures and installation. She was not interested in exploring the form, but wanted to show the moment and the experience, the transfer of emotions and stories.
The exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art will stay open until April 28th.
Photo source: Museum of Contemporary Art, John Pavlish
