The National Museum of Modern Art will open the doors of its new representative space in the former First Croatian Savings Bank building in Oktogon, with Dubravka Lošić’s exhibition titled The Silkworm’s Cocoon on Saturday 23rd November 2024. Following its premiere showing at the Museum of Fine Arts in Split last summer, the exhibition by one of Croatia’s leading contemporary visual artists will be presented to Zagreb’s cultural audience in a partially renovated space, whose unfinished yet versatile character provides a perfect backdrop for her work.
The upcoming exhibition will feature works from the series Tondo (2020 – 2022), Rain Paris (2018), Alba Albula (2019), Lapad (2016), Sharks (1986 – 2013), Kalamota (1996), Imago Anima (2012 – 2013), and Portraits (2004 – 2012). For the first time, I will also present works from the series Twilight / Oblique Flight (2021 – 2024) in this historically and architecturally unique venue. It is both a challenge and an inspiration to exhibit works in a space with a history and energy entirely unlike the museum, gallery and industrial settings that I’ve worked with before. (These series, which embody themes of concealment and protection, are being unveiled, perhaps fittingly, in a former vault). It is an honour to contribute to the beginning of a new era for the Oktogon with this exhibition. – said Dubravka Lošić ahead of the opening.
(...) As part of this programme, outlined in broad terms, the exhibition The Silkworm’s Cocoon (Punćela) by Dubravka Lošić carries particular symbolism. In the Konavle region, the term punćela refers to the cocoon of the mulberry silkworm, the protective shell in which the caterpillar undergoes its transformation into a butterfly. It is a process that, in every culture, marks a new stage in the life cycle, the unfolding of unforeseen possibilities, the spreading of wings towards an unexpected ability to fly in unknown directions, aimed at fostering new life, new content, new ideas, and new art. Through the expressive power of Lošić’s work, which adapts effortlessly to unstructured spaces and improvised conditions, the exhibition will offer the audience a vision of the future that is yet to take shape in the Oktogon.The National Museum of Modern Art, set to celebrate its 120th anniversary next year, has, with the allocation of Oktogon and in line with the vision shared by our founder, the Ministry of Culture and Media, and particularly with Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek and Secretary General Marica Mikec, acquired the means to reaffirm and expand its role as the leading museum institution, and a platform for strengthening its international reputation. The centre of Zagreb will never be the same again. -
writes Branko Franceschi in the foreword of the accompanying bilingual catalogue, which will be presented at a later date.
The exhibition will be on display in Oktogon from 23rd November 2024 to 15th February 2025.
Biography
Dubravka Lošić was born in Dubrovnik in 1964. She graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Zagreb and in 1988 graduated painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in the class of Professor Ferdinand Kulmer. At the same time, she studied art history at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb. She has been exhibiting since 1983 at in Croatia and abroad.
In addition to painting, installations and objects, she is reknown scenic and costume designer. Her works are in numerous public (National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik) and private (Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, India, Chile, France, Austria, Liechtenstein, USA) collections.
She is the editor of the Dubravka Lošić monograph, featuring introductory essay by art historian Margarita Sveštarov Šimat.
She lives and works in Dubrovnik
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Images: Installation View, Punćela exhibition, Dubravka Lošić. Photo: from the National Museum of Modern Art's archives