Željka Mumelaš: Among the Stars

Surrender to the Light or About Human Stripping Željka Mumelaš's first solo exhibition, in addition to the difficulty of being the first, is burdened with meaning and multiple symbolism on other levels as well. It is an exit that represents the conceptual and thematic peak of an author's writing, and whose forces have logically matured and continued to branch out in the last few years of her artistic activity. The initial center from which ... Read More

Surrender to the Light or to Human Stripping

Željka Mumelaš's first solo exhibition, in addition to the difficulty of being the first, is burdened with meaning and multiple symbolism on other levels as well. It is an exit that represents the conceptual and thematic peak of an author's writing, and whose forces have logically matured and continued to branch out in the last few years of her artistic activity. The initial center from whose space the work presented today developed cannot be viewed singularly and isolated, because what makes it is the sum of decisions, collected impressions and personal questions, framed by an uninterrupted process of learning. Learning about artistic work as such, but more importantly – learning about one's own person, as well as noticing the connection between the artist's inner self and everything that it generates and can generate – to the outside.
And it is precisely this external in the case of Željka Mumelaš that has proven to be the most meaningful and eloquent channel for expressing the intimate, the hidden and the personal. For the author, the stars and their constellations represent precisely the space that frames the place of deep contemplation and immersion in one's own self; such immersion will transform the inner into the external, the hidden into the revealed, but also the personal and intimate – into the common. Because, as the artist herself says, in the inevitable moments of alienation and fear, only the perception and attempt to understand the eternal and deep, the valuable, the permanent and the essential, will calm the human spirit and show him the way. Such sensory cognition inevitably forces us to ask questions that we do not even suspect would ever form part of our personal space, where the absence of logic and teleological organization – pushes the individual to the edge. And this edge of understanding and acceptance always inevitably turns into a new question that encourages another new, and another new, and another new... And yet, asking questions and constantly searching for their answers are what drives us all to realize and exist, warns the author.
In her case, the aforementioned search had an additional, strongly conceptual lesson, where the choice of a specific type of stars also marked a specific message that the artist tried to convey. White dwarfs, i.e. stars that have completed their evolutionary cycle, are the embodiment of each individual life path, and in their practice of attracting and gathering other stars in order to maintain their own life and brightness with their mass, they additionally reflect the symbolism of human unity and the necessity of coexistence. Furthermore, I used such a star and its process of creation (and completion) as an analogy to the collection and gathering of knowledge, balancing thoughts and multiplying all those elements necessary for the conception and construction of an idea, says the author.
Such a developmental path is inevitably reflected in the personal development of each artistic person, which in Željka's case primarily underlined her formal and motivic expression. After graduating in the field of graphic arts, classical graphic technique had an absolute advantage during her studies. However, within the framework of her strictly controlled spatial (i.e., multidimensional) potentials, Željka Mumelaš over time, and as she herself says – extremely logically and hierarchically obedient – decided to explore the possibilities of bringing to life the idea of a taut line and the points (movements) associated with it. This questioning marked the beginning of a kind of thematic obsession, and an extremely large number of works went from a one-dimensional drawing of shapes (and consequently – bodies), to their three-dimensional version in the form of installations made of driven nails and their relations embodied by a finite line. Ultimately, Mumelaš will say that she does not believe that there will be any (her) future work that, in a certain way, will not build on the idea of a tense line; a line – the more tense – the more calming effect.
The idea of the starry sky, although the crowning conclusion of a conceptual germ that has been continuously maturing up to this moment, is therefore only one of the statements motivated by the author's poetics and philosophy of Željka Mumelaš. As unchangeable as it is changeable: limited by the existing spatial laws, but free to play with the eye depending on the position of the observer, one's own shadow or its light repercussions, the motif of the starry sky is unique precisely in its ambiguity and eloquent symbolism. In the case of the author, it marked an intimate conclusion with a past time, a tangible transformation of the line and forms that study and professional future unexceptionally predicted, but also the corporeal realization of the inner life, state and experience. However, although strongly personal, this concept of light that is omnipresent, all-pervading and metaphysical, is also applicable to society as a whole. Like the idea of Plato's cave, this sky outlines the factuality of human unity, so often united in sharing fears, powerlessness and inability to comprehend, warning of our inferiority to everything above or outside. And while at first it undeniably frightens and makes our looking down – a safer place, at the same time such a coming to light will mark the acceptance of our own imperfection and vulnerability in the face of something much greater and much more important than ourselves.

My stars are brightest only when they discard their shells, prejudices and inhibitions; they symbolize the mind that opens, dislocates and disperses to attract and gather, and finally separate and evaluate – a pure mind in its strength, capable of reaction and creation.

Martina Bratić

BIOGRAPHY

Željka Mumelaš was born in Zagreb on December 21, 1989. She graduated from the School of Applied Arts and Design in 2008 and obtained the title of Graphic Designer, and in 2015 she obtained the title of Master of Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Zagreb. She has exhibited at a number of group, juried exhibitions in Croatia, and in 2014 as part of the "Szymborska Project" in Poland (Galeria Amfilada MOK, Olsztyn). She lives and works in Zagreb.

Contact: zeljka.mumelas@outlook.com