Anita Kontrec
KRUŽNI TOK /ROUNDABOUT
Curator: Iva Körbler

Prsten Gallery
September 8-30, 2016

Exhibition opening: Thursday, September 8 at 7.30 pm

Anita Kontrec’s artistic oeuvre is connected with the European tradition of the second half of 20th century in a deep and complex way. Since her first solo exhibition in Zagreb in 1986 she aimed at artistic expression beyond any dogmas, trends, group and radical artistic ideologies. She tended towards a broader cultural interdisciplinary synthesis. In different phases of her work, her art was connected and inspired by literary and poetic topics, archaeology, anthropology and ethnology of various non European cultures. Regardless of the artistic medium she uses for expressing her messages her concept is guided by the idea of textual inscription or palimpsest referring to the „archaeology of recalling.“ In Anita Kontrec’s artistic works all inscriptions (which often have the character of a performance), as well as her picture objects and sculptures made of synthetic resin with pigments – indirectly mirror the issue of forgotten ancient wisdom, scripts and symbols belonging to different cultures and civilizations. Should we have to define the artworks of Anita Kontrec by a few major characteristics, we could observe the recurrence of themes related to writing, architecture and colour.

Her artistic style is comprised by the tradition of lyrical abstraction, her interpretation of „tender geometry“ and healing-art, as well as calligraphic gestural painting. /…/ Her deep love for knowledge and the spiritual inheritance of mankind can be traced to her interdisciplinary projects such as „Recall Byblos“ and „Recall Atlantis.“ In an archetypal dimension, Anita Kontrec is always coming back to the origins of the Mediterranean and European civilization by communicating with material and immaterial worlds by means of language and writing. Her sculptures are her personal homage to the Towers of Babel, as well as to mystic Croatian medieval fortresses. Words and letters inscribed in her sculptures or on paper are often ancient scripts manifesting multi-layered meanings of Sanskrit, Phoenician or Japanese writing, as well as the autochtone Croatian script glagoljica or bosnian medieval script bosančica. Her artistic idea is deeply human, dedicated partly to women and their position in the history. At the same time, although sometimes very personal (like in her Calligraphic Landscapes – homage a Sei Shonagon), Anita Kontrec is still timeless, cosmopolitan and universal.

Iva Körbler

EXHIBITION PROGRAM:

Thursday, 8th September 2016 at 7.30 p.m.
Exhibition opening
The exhibition is open till Friday, 30th September.

Wednesday, 14th September at 6 p.m.:
ROUND TABLE – Talk about contemporary art scene in Germany and artist’s life between Zagreb and Cologne

Thursday, 29th September at 6 p.m.
Promotion of the Monograph KRUŽNI TOK / ROUNDABOUT and Finissage

BIOGRAPHY

Anita Kontrec was born in Zagreb, Croatia , lives since 1989 in Cologne, Germany. She began her artistic career in 1986 with her first personal exhibition “Shapes of Memory” in Zagreb; in 1993 she elaborated the concept and organised interdisciplinary inter-medial project RECALL BYBLOS in cooperation with artists, scientists and publicists from Zagreb and Cologne  presented in Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen , Germany and Museum and Gallery Center MGC in Zagreb. She had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Croatia, Germany and Austria. Her artworks are in several public and private collections in Croatia, Germany and Switzerland.

With her picture-objects Anita Kontrec researches the touching points between sculpture and painting as well as the effects of color and light in new spatial and light constellations of contemporary architecture. Achitecture, Writing and Color are the major topics that she will continue to explore in her coming projects.

WORKING HOURS

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

Dom HDLU
Trg žrtava fašizma 16
10000 Zagreb