MARTA DIJAK / PARK/FOREST

Solo exhibition

FROM THE PREFACE OF THE EXHIBITION

"When we talk about a park-forest, we usually think of a real or imaginary space that simultaneously connects and separates the natural and urban worlds. These are places of "green islands" within the city, which offer residents, at least temporarily, the opportunity to move away from the noise of the city. In the title of the exhibition Park/Forest , Marta Dijak deliberately does not use a hyphen that would connect two terms – park and forest – but a slash, i.e. a dividing sign. In computer science, a slash marks the boundary between directories, separating different levels within the structure of the system, while in everyday communication this sign often refers to the relationship between two opposing, alternative or mutually exclusive concepts. The author's choice of this sign can be read as the need to point out a certain semantic tension between the park and the forest as two, at first glance similar, but still different spatial and cultural categories. A park represents an urban space, shaped by human planning, while a forest is a space of autonomous and wild, i.e. natural, growth. However, the slash here does not only act as a sign of separation, but also as a place of negotiation between the urban and the natural, cultivated and wild. It is in this interspace that hybrid landscapes and "third places" are created, spaces that do not fully belong to either the city or the forest, but continuously question their boundaries and meanings. At the Šira Gallery, starting primarily from her own need for frequent escape to nature, Marta Dijak embarks on an artistic reflection on her ambivalent relationship to the very concept of park/forest. In the gallery, she exhibits acrylics on MDF that depict motifs of stumps, felled trees and logs, neatly arranged on truck trailers, ready for removal. These scenes of felled trees testify to the processes of exploitation and transformation of the landscape. The motifs of processed wood – a bench and a garbage can, which we assume are located in a park-forest, remind us of the colonization of nature, anthropocentrism and the need to conquer and control the wild. The works do not offer a romantic image of nature as an untouched sphere outside of human activity, but rather deceive the space for reflection on the contradictions that arise from its simultaneous idealization and instrumentalization. In this context, the author enters into a dialogue with the reflections of Timothy Morton, who criticizes the understanding of nature as something separate from man and emphasizes their inseparable intertwining....The works of Marta Dijak, exhibited at the Šira Gallery, not at all optimistically, suggest that the contemporary relationship to nature begins where nature ceases to be a living "organism" and becomes only a resource."

Mirna Rul

FROM THE CURRICULUM VITAE

From the curriculum vitae:

Marta Dijak was born in 2000 in Zagreb. At the Academy of Fine Arts, she obtained the title of Master of Painting in 2025, under the mentorship of prof. art. Matko Vekić. During her studies, she participated in numerous projects, two of which were awarded the Rector's Awards. She has group exhibitions in Zagreb, Križevci, Dugo Selo, Zlatar, Karlovac, Slavonski Brod, Vodnjan, Mostar, Dublin and San Louis Potosí. She has a solo exhibition at the Panacea Gallery entitled "Two Views" in 2023 and then in Lauba with the exhibition "Traces of the Landscape" in 2024. She is also producing the short documentary film "Here I Am Right Now" projected at the 31. Days of Croatian Film. She is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists, lives and works in Zagreb.

You can see the exhibition at the Šira Gallery during the working hours of the Gallery (Mon-Fri: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., 6-8 p.m., Saturdays: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.) until 7.7.2026.