izv. prof. dr. sc. Josip Zanki

He was born on March 14, 1969 in Zadar. He graduated from the Department of Graphic Arts of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb at the University of Zagreb (ALU), in the class of red. Miroslav Šutej in 1994 with a thesis in theory "Mysticism in the artistic practice of J. Beuys" and the experimental graphic cycle Machine nuove, a remake of the research of the Renaissance scientist Faust Vrančić. He completed his postgraduate doctoral study in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb in 2016. Doctoral thesis "Anthropological conceptualization of space in thangka painting and contemporary art practices" under the mentorship of dr. sc. Suzana Marjanić, scientific advisor and assoc. prof. prof. dr. sc. Leonide Kovač defended on February 11, 2016. Josip Zanki is publicly active in the fields of graphics, film, video, installation, performance and cultural anthropology. He began his ethnographic work by creating several artistic interdisciplinary works on the topic of the Mirila phenomenon (2001 – 2014), for which he used material collected in Ravni kotari and southern Velebit. The experiences of art projects and workshops have also helped him in shaping cultural anthropological research. The following have written about Josip Zanki's work: Tonko Maroević, Darko Schneider, Ana Dević, Giuliana Carbi, Mark Gisbourne, Astrid Kury and Gintautas Mažeikis. He has received several awards for his artistic work. From 2009 to 2016, he taught at the Department of Teacher Training at the University of Zadar, and in 2016 and 2017 at the Faculty of Arts, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. In 2014, he was a visiting professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, Faculty of Arts, Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa. Since 2017, he has been teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts. From 2019 to 2020, he coordinated the work of the Committee for the development of a new proposal for the program of postgraduate doctoral studies in fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2023, he has been the head of the doctoral study of Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2018, he has been the vice-president of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists. Since 2011, he has been a member of the European Cultural Parliament. He lives and works in Zagreb.

My artistic research practice is based on reinterpretations of the idea of landscape and reflections on the conceptualization and representation of space. I started my research in the area of the Velebit Mountain and Ravni Kotari, and continued in the schools of thangka painting in Dharamshala, India, and in the last 4 years in the Wirikuta desert in Mexico. In my practice, I unite the experiences of artistic interpretivity, artistic-research methods and ethnographic procedures in the collection of field material. In the research of phenomena such as mirila, thangka painting and the psychedelic experience of the Wirikuta desert, I want to show all the complexity of the meaning of spatial phenomena, but also the different narratives that can be added to them. The results of my artistic research practice range from field material, video works, drawings that include Buddhist experiences, self-reflexive essays, spatial interventions, all the way to interdisciplinary artistic-scientific projects.

The group of subjects I teach include interdisciplinary fields of teaching; from cultural anthropological theories, cultural and visual studies, cultural history to theories of color and theories of space. In addition to classical teaching methodologies, the courses are also based on research methodologies such as experimental seminars, visual essays, field work, workshops and performative practical exercises.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION): - "Grand Tour: Peregrinaje Poscolonial", Auditorio Esceula de Artés Plasticas – Edificio 301, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Bogotá, Bogotá 2021 – "Espacios de revelación", Aether-Eucalipto, Real de Catorce 2020 – "Meditating the Line", with Luise Kloos, PLÜ23, Raum für Kunst, Graz 2014 – "Between the Lines", with Angel Dwyer and Martin Eugen Raabenstein, curated by Mark Gisbourne, Schau Fenster, Berlin 2003 – "Il gioco fiorentino", curated by Giuliana Carbi, Studio Tommaseo, Trieste GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION): 2023 – "Autonomous Zone", MAAM Museo dell'Altro e dell'Altrove di Metropoliz_città meticcia, Rome 2021 – "Borderless: Digital Practices in Changing Times", Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton University, Hammonton 2020 – "Art in the Community: Redefining Heritage of the Association of Artists Earth", Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin 2019 – "COSMOS – Superhaufen", Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen, Warth 2019 – "13th Cairo International Biennale. Eyes East Bound", Palace of Arts, Cairo List of the most important publications: https://www.croris.hr/osobe/profil/29989