L’artista croata presenta il suo ultimo video Observing Monuments. Una riflessione poetica, ma al contempo politica, su ciò in cui crediamo, sui simboli che ci rappresentano, sul nostro rapporto con la fede in qualcosa o in qualcuno. La Statua della Libertà di New York, il Mémorial de la Shoah di Parigi, la figura di Tito, la sua casa natale, il suo ritratto. Simboli di una devozione, della memoria, della rappresentazione.

Dal video Memories ( Tito, tata ) - Souvenirs ( Tito, papa ) del 1999, attraverso disegni e fotografie, tra autobiografia e documentario, Renata Poljak ci parla della Croazia, della ex-Yugoslavia, della difficoltà del cambiamento, della condizione di appartenenza.

La mostra prende il titolo dal dittico fotografico I need you to believe in something (2008). Scattate nel 2001, le fotografie ritraggono due bambini che suonano il violino durante un concerto nella scuola del villaggio albanese di Fier. La scenografia e l’atmosfera sono le stesse vissute da Renata Poljak nella Yugoslavia dei primi anni ’80, all’epoca della forte fede in Tito e nel socialismo, negli anni in cui il ritratto di Tito campeggiava ovunque. Ora nel 2001, alle spalle dei bambini, campeggia un nuovo simbolo del desiderio, le stelle dell’Unione Europea.

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Artopia is pleased to present the first italian solo exhibition of Renata Poljack (Spalato, 1974).

The Croatian artist presents her last video Observing Monuments. A poetic reflection, but at the same time politic, about what we believe, about the symbols that represent us and our relationship with the faith in something or someone. The Statue of Liberty in New York, the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris, the Tito’s figure, his birthplace, his portrait. Symbols of a devotion, of the memory and the representation.

From the video Memories (Tito, tata) - Souvenirs (Tito, Pope) in 1999, through drawings and photographs, between autobiography and documentary, Renata Poljak tells us about Croatia, ex-Yugoslavia, about the difficulty of change and the condition of membership.

The exhibition takes its title from the photographic diptych I need you to believe in something (2008). Made in 2001, photographs represent two children that are playing the violin during a concert in the school in the Albanian village of Fier. The setting and the atmosphere are the same lived by Renata Poljak in Yugoslavia in the early '80s, during the period of strong faith in socialism and Tito, in the years which the Tito’s portrait stayed everywhere. Now in 2001, behind the children, stands a new symbol of the desire, the stars of European Union.


Solo Exhibitions
2008: I need you to believe in something, Artopia, Milano; 2007: All One Knows, Gallery Kraljevic, Zagreb. 2006: All One Knows, Vukovar City Museum, (Kuba project) Vukovar. 2005: The View, Galery SC, Zagreb (cat.). 2003: Emergency Tensions, (with D. F**arella), Daniel Azoulay Gallery, Miami. 2002: Wonderland, Galerie Soardi, Nice. 2001: Did she Fall or was She Pushed?, Extended Media Gallery, Zagreb (cat.). 2000: Renata Poljak, Galerie Soardi, Nice. 1998: Noise / Criteria, Gallery Otok, Dubrovnik; Noise / Criteria, Architects` Club, Zagreb.

Selected Group Exhibitions
2008: Micro-Narratives - temptation of small realities, Museum of Modern Art of Saint Etienne, Saint Etienne Biennale Transfrontaliera dell’arte contemporanea VAPARTEC _ Evento Trasforma Arte e città sostenibile, Senigallia, Italy; Passages, passagen, pasàz, projections at Jeu de Paume, Paris, Gallery Kraljevic, Zagreb and in Art in General, New York. 2007: Challenging the East West Art Map, U-Turn Quadrennial of Contemporary Art, Royal Danish Art Academy, Copenhagen; Passages, passagen, pasàz - hommage à Walter Benjamin, Gandy Galerie, Bratislava; 48th October Salon, Belgrade Cultural Centre, Belgrade; Central Europe Revisited I, Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstad, Austria; Strictly Berlin 007, Galerie der Kunste, Berlin; Woman at the crossroad of ideologies, international art and science event / exhibition, screenings, lectures, debates with edited book, HULU, Split. 2006: Cooling Out, Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz / Basel; Kuba: Journey Against the Current, Nestroyhof, Vienna; Normalization, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö; International Symposium on Sustainability and Contemporary Art, Central European University, Budapest; Sigmund's Stories - Perception as Spatial Transgression, gallery SC, Zagreb; L’usage du monde, Mali Salon, Rijeka; Insert, Museum of Contemporary Art, Rijeka. 2005: Landscape in Contemporary Visual Art and Culture Between Fetishes and Ideology,- 34th Split Salon, Split; Insert, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; Binder, Milunovic, Poljak, gallery Ernst Hilger Contemporary, Vienna. 2004: Passage d’Europe, Musée d’Art Moderne de St-Etienne, France; Love It or Leave It, Cetinje Biennial V, Cetinje, Montenegro. 2003: First View, gallery Ernst Hilger Contemporary, Vienna; High Hills, public space project, Krems, Austria; C’est(-)à(-)dire!, Palais de Papes, Avignon, France; Rest Assured, CCS Museum, Bard College, New York; Remediation Variants, WRO 03 Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland; Sharks In The Morning, Daniel Azoulay Gallery, Miami. 2002: Here Tomorrow, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. 2001: “video / je vois” La création vidéo en France, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; Central, MuseumsQuartier Wien, Quartier 21, Vienna; Höchstleistung, Le Centre d’Art Shed im Eisenwerk de Frauenfeld, Switzerland; Freedom and Violence, National Museum-Krolikarnia, Warsaw; Provisoirement / Provizorno, La Station, Dubrovnik; Dare to be different, Fier, Albania; Adriatico: le due sponde, Michetti Museum, Francavilla a Mare, Italy; WRO 01 Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland; To tell a story, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. 2000: BIG TORINO 2 000, Biennal of emerging artists, Turin; A Small Country for a Big Vacation, Galerie SKUC, Ljubljana; Actif-Réactif-la création vivante à Nantes, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes; 12 Positionen zeitgenossischer Kunst, Palais Harrach et Gallery Ernst Hilger, Vienna; What, How & For Whom, dom HDLU, Zagreb. 1999: A Girl Like You, Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris; Post Diplome, Glassbox, Paris; Estatic memory, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Post Diplome, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, ZOO Galerie, Nantes; 10 Artists/ 8 Months/ Nantes, Centro de Arte Joven, Madrid. 1998: Utopia, Chateau de Beaumanoir, Le Leslay, Quintin, France; 33 Zagreb Salon, Zagreb; Messages (Public Art Project), Zagreb. 1997: As large as life, Raum fur Kunst, Steirischer Herbst, Graz; Biennale of Young Artists/Artisti del Mediterraneo, Rijeka / Fiume; Exchange Art Festival, Split. 1996: Visual Arts Section of the International Festival of New Film and Video, Split.