Point zero landscape

A retrospective

22. November 2013. – 23. February 2014.
MegnyitóOpening: November 21, 2013, 6:00 pm
MegnyitjaRemarks by: Beke László
KurátorCurator: Tihomir Milovac
The first large retrospective exhibition of the work of this artist, who enjoys a cult status among the lovers and connoisseurs of film and video-art, will show Galeta’s oeuvre in the entire scope of his approach, procedures, topics, and media. In the attempt to make the work of this pioneer of avant-garde media art more accessible to broad public, the exhibition simultaneously encodes and decodes the “Galeta mystery”, offering a chance for insight into until now lesser known segments of his work.

The exhibition will show works covering the time span from 1968 until present day, from Galeta’s first film, Metanoia (1968) to a kind of reconstruction of the exhibition Movement, his first exhibition held in the Students’ Centre Gallery in Zagreb (1974) and a series of film scenarios that he has developed into a self-contained art form, as well as unavoidable masterworks of experimental film like Two Timelines in a Single Space (1976-1984), PiRâMídas 1972-1984 (1984), sfaira 1985-1895 (1984), Water Pulu 1869-1896 (1987/88), WAL(L)ZEN (1989) or END ART.

Along with the films as key carriers of the exhibition’s structure, great attention has been devoted to a fascinating multimedia opus of preparatory phases in drawing up a film scenario. Another important element in Galeta’s oeuvre will be presented as well – lecture performances in which he in an unusual way interprets an array of knowledge about the world and art, visualising and documenting them on blackboards.

The exhibition provides us with an equally good insight into Galeta’s oeuvre and his very specific philosophy of life and art, unconditionally harmonious with nature. The public will have the chance to see his research, which he simultaneously conducted in several media, at a single venue, and experience his oeuvre as an integral and interconnected whole.

For his research work conducted in the field of language of photography, film, television, and video media, recently also the possibilities of the Internet, he has received distinguished awards in European and overseas media art circles. Galeta’s films were screened at prestigious film and art events and experimental film festivals; his works have been included into important museum collections. Apart from Croatia, he has extended his artistic activity to Hungary, which explains a very keen reception of his work by Hungarian artists and critics.

The exhibition Point Zero Landscape, which is a sort of work-in-process, ends with the presentation of a publication that in its format and content reflects the specific features of Galeta’s art and each copy is supplemented by one-off original work. Texts on Galeta were written by Lászlo Beke, Željko Kipke, Markita Franulić, Andrej Mirčev, Miklós Peternák, Hrvoje Turković, and Barbara Wurm.