Tomislav Hršak / Of Life
Solo exhibition
FROM THE PREFACE OF THE EXHIBITION
The title of this exhibition is in the genitive
The author's exhibition in the Meštrović Pavilion has just ended, in which he built an inner, own pavilion with a huge sewn canvas, on the perimeter of which he intervened with projections, referring to the Well of Life of the author of this magnificent architectural building (while the renovation of the existing green area was taking place on the outer perimeter of the gallery's exterior). Now, in Preradovićeva Street, in the former Studio G, Hršak opens another again, within the dimension of one place, covering it with a canvas, hiding its entrails, and at the same time exhibiting it as an object, like a box in which every possible spatial solution that its four walls offer is kept; all its destinies are given to us as a mystical question. Nevertheless, Hršak does not deal with the classic set-up; He offers the gallery, like a positive in a mold, which under the hand, like snow, becomes warmer, more and more humid, and will soon be judged by undressing. On this thin line between the excitement of the event and the subtle anxiety (the moment in which the mold wants to dissolve), which is also the line of creation of a new thing, a new substance, there is a smokescreen; indescribable, and again tactile, unseen, but also quite clear to us. The artist reinvents the already existing, allows himself to take away the exhibition space in order to create a place for a newly created aura that will touch the phantasm of a new value, of the consolation that meaninglessness is meaningful. A space without gravity, without weight and time. The depicted Trace seems to have been photographed between two times, when it is gone, when there is no one to be for (to leave a sign of life). In the gallery, more interrupted, distracted expectations await us; the place of the flame's light is filled with the wild plant Aloe barbadensis Miller, which in the role of an immortal guardian awaits over the bronze skull, the last remnant of man, but also the first sculptural task. Therefore, it is precisely the video portal at the top of the stairs, framed by their curly frame, that is there as the author's inverted reference to Gabrijel Jurkić's painting, The Path to Eternity. And while Jurkić's angel bent down to the smoke columns, Hršak's intervention of covering the space is shaped into a subliminal paradox – an entire space, molded within the gallery, remains (in)accessible at the top of the last step (the title of this exhibition is in the genitive; the role of the direct object). It is left to all its possible potential solutions; the most important of which is one thing — is there an intention in the room there, behind, over, so strong to establish contact with us, and yet so determined not to do it after all? What did this video projection really breathe life into, what was left covered with silent snow? What spatial oxymoron was made between the inner four walls whose role is to remain unknown to us? Or as the man of unsuccessful overstepping the line, Josip Vaništa, said in an interview with Dobroslav Silobrčić — We live to die (video loop).
Path of this text / Contact / Production of the artist's imaginary voice
I support the gallery, building a new one for it, I support life, giving it water, exposing it like a ceremony itself, returning to the skull, to my first task, to the bare skeleton, I try to promise clarity in maturity. I make a promise that I will live.
Ana Mušćet
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Tomislav Hršak was born on June 10, 1992 in Zagreb. He graduated in sculpture from the Department of Teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb in 2017. He won the Rector's Award in 2017 for the project Color to Health. By selecting the best works in the academic year. year. In 2013 / 2014, his work ready-made Suitcase was selected for the Art Collection and the collection of student works of the Academy of Fine Arts.
He participated in the following group exhibitions during 2018: 13th Triennial of Croatian Sculpture, Glyptotheque of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb; 8th Zagorje Art Salon, Krapina City Gallery; 34th Youth Salon: Panopticon, HDLU House, Zagreb. He has exhibited independently at the following exhibitions – 2018: The Second Center of Circumstances, with Vladimir Novak, Baèva Gallery, HDLU House, Zagreb; Turquoise Harness, State Archives in Zagreb; 2017: Temporarily, with Anja Leko and Vesna Salamon, VN Gallery, Zagreb; Center of Circumstances with Vladimir Novak, French Pavilion, SC, Zagreb; Sati Kapa Rano Sata Šoja, Kamba Garage, Zagreb.
He is a member of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists.
The exhibition is financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the City Office for Culture of the City of Zagreb.
The exhibition at the Šira Gallery can be viewed until November 20, 2018.
