The exhibition Substitutes for Satisfaction from the cycle "NMMU On Tour", curated by Marta Radman, curator of the collection 1990 – today, will be presented from November 6th, 2026 to January 15th, 2027 at the Koprivnica Gallery at the Koprivnica City Museum. The exhibition presents the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art through the relations of need and satisfaction, desire and prohibition, promise and postponement, shortage and excess, connecting works created in different historical, social and artistic circumstances

"The title of the exhibition "Substitutes for Satisfaction" invokes the idea of substitute satisfaction, which was articulated at the beginning of the 20th century by Sigmund Freud, among others, but is not used here as a psychoanalytic key that would unambiguously explain individual works of art. Substitution is understood more broadly: as the transfer of desire, need or expectation to an image, object, ritual, relationship, technology or aesthetic experience. In this sense, a work of art does not have to show pleasure in order to talk about it. It may show its absence, limitation, postponement or excess; it can depict what is necessary for survival, what is expected of love, the body or society, or the moment in which the object loses its original function and becomes the bearer of a new experience." (...) - Marta Radman from the foreword in the accompanying catalogue

Artists: Neda Blažević-Krietzman, Iris Bondora Dvornik, Joso Bužan, Marijan Detoni, Vilko Gecan, Stjepan Gračan, Krsto Hegedušić, Zlatko Kauzlarić-Atač, Nives Kavurić-Kurtović, Sonja Kovačić-Tajčević, Miroslav Kraljević, Anka Krizmanić, Dubravka Lošić, Nenad Marasović, Mato Celestin Medović, Omer Mujadžić, Ratko Petrić, Renata Poljak, Petar Smajić, Damir Sokić, Aleksandar Srnec, Miljenko Stančić, Mladen Stilinović, Milivoj Uzelac and Vlasta Žanić.

The exhibition, realized in cooperation with the National Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the City of Koprivnica, was realized with the funds of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Koprivnica-Križevci County and the City of Koprivnica, as well as the accompanying catalog. It is accompanied by a catalog published by the Koprivnica City Museum and by an educational program.

Reproductions: NMMU archive/ Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb