ŽIŽIĆ/KOŽUL
RECURRING LANDSCAPES
Bačva Gallery
September 9-25, 2016

Exhibition opening on Friday, 9.9.2016. at 7pm

STANDARD

Žižić/Kožul have been working together since 2013, forming an artistic tandem. They continuously map the range of factors of post-transitional reality which reveal the discrepancy between the social and economic reality and its representation by different mechanisms of the marketing industry. Fifty years after coining the term capitalist realism, at the time linked with the criticism of the bourgeoisie and its idealization of consumerism, this term is now painfully topical because it has been absurdly contextualized – in the social hierarchy the middle class has disappeared and the possibility of choice has become a virtual category, which offers a myriad of almost identical outcomes with certain modifications. The installation Standard builds on an earlier work – The Happy Couple, created by replicating an advertising campaign. It shows two young models, in different moments of practising suggestive posturing and facial expressions, as one of the marketing tactics to gain sympathy. As the artists say themselves, the quasi-democratic nature of the marketing propaganda requires that the content is acceptable/desirable for the majority of the target population. Perpetuated exposure to a specific content that defines gender positions, racial identity and aesthetic norms in the media results in positive affirmation, defining previously acceptable forms of behaviour and social relations. The work is composed of superimposed consumable elements used in corporate propaganda (standard-size billboard, video on an LCD screen in a totemic structure made of stacked drywall).

 

Curator: Vanja Žanko

The realization of the exhibition was financially supported by the City Office for Education, Culture and Sports of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.

WORKING HOURS

Wednesday to Friday 11am – 7pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am – 6pm
Mondays and holidays – closed

Dom HDLU
Trg žrtava fašizma 16
10000 Zagreb