Toni Mijač: Pretvori se u uho / Turn into an ear
OPENING: Saturday, October 15th, 9pm
VIEWINGS: Mon—Fri, 5—8pm (until October 21st)
MKC Gallery, Youth Center Split, Ulica slobode 28
══════════════════════════════════════════
ABOUT THE WORK
The performativity of everyday life
The artistic project “Turn into an ear” is presented by Toni Mijač as a documentary-artistic approach to the treatment of words and sayings collected from “everyday language”, and their semantic power when they are manipulated in different ways. Linguists are not the only researchers interested in semantics. Philosophers and psychologists are equally active in this area. It is impossible to draw a clear line that separates a linguistic approach to the study of semantics from a philosophical
or psychological one, but we can highlight several differences. There is considerable overlap between philosophical and linguistic approaches to meaning, and linguists themselves have shown great interest in philosophical reflections on the subject. However, some distinguishing points can be discerned. Words are a direct tool for expression. They can be literal, descriptive, misleading, (in)dependent and ambiguous. Depending on what goes before and after them, and how they are displayed, they
change their functions. This way, form, or medium of presentation is the focus of in-
terest of this project. The selected area of the artist’s collection of textual material is coffee bars, already a traditional gathering place of individuals on a daily level, as a ritual of everyday life
in today’s culture. For this reason, this starting point was extremely relevant to the artist for taking semantic materials that speak significantly about the current atmosphere of society and the time in which we live. The material from the selected locations is collected in such a way that the artist actively listens and writes down all the spoken words and sentences that he picks out from the cacophony of the environment. In this process, words and sentences are gathered into an archive of notations. By themselves, on paper, they may or may not contain a certain meaning and/or sense, but are treated as raw material for further procedures. In the next step of the work, he brings these same notes into a completely new form, rearranging them into separate units in which their combinations create dramaturgical ‘stories’ that resemble the structure of lyrics, monologues, dialogues, poetry, haiku or pure fiction. While in reality they were part of one story, in this harmony they create new foundations and interpretive values, and the new context provides them with endless possibilities in the creation of various fables and compositions. In the final phase of the work, the collected text served as a guideline for the research of relations between form, image, translation, dramaturgy and storytelling. Each medium brings to life and
marks its text in a different way.
The relationship between text, image and sound was guided by the paths of associativity, description, documentary, subjectivism, loop and shuffle. Upon completion, a scenic installation was created in which media such as theatrical performance, film, music and illustration make up the entire atmosphere, which initially starts from the buzz of the café and is reshaped through various dominant media that surround us from all sides in modern times. The concept of the work plays with the absurdity of the extremes of source and product (café – scene, conversation – art) and emerges as a kind of portrait of current social leisure from the artist’s perspective.
— Natasha Kadin
══════════════════════════════════════════
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Toni Mijač is a film and new media artist born in 1988 in Split. He finished undergraduate studies at the Academy of Arts in Split, majoring in Film and Video, and graduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, majoring in New Media. He participated in a series of artistic residencies, workshops, festivals and happenings, along with six years of active leadership of film schools for children in the area of Split and Zagreb. He exhibited at seven solo exhibitions and at numerous group exhibitions in the galleries HDLU, Klovićevi dvori, MSU, NMG@Praktika, GMK, Greta, Pogon Jedinstvo and KSET. He also participated in various international projects that hosted his work in Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Portugal, Lithuania, Romania and Great Britain. In his work, he mostly plays with everyday impulses in different areas of life, habits and tendencies, which he questions using language and expressive means of different media such as film, video, text, installation, photography and social practice. So far, his awards include the audience award at the HT contemporary art award 2018 in Zagreb for the work ‘A connection (is) not possible to establish’, the 2nd jury award at GRISIAyouth 2018 in Rovinj for the work ‘A connection (is) not possible to be established’ and 1 jury award at GRISIAyouth 2021 in Rovinj for the work ‘Elephant Eye’. In 2021, he was selected as an artist in residence of the MagiC Carpets / Meta Cultural Foundation / LAB 852 program.
══════════════════════════════════════════
CURATOR: Natasha Kadin
NMG CURATORIAL TEAM: Katarina Duplančić, Natasha Kadin, Vedran Perkov
TRANSLATION: Katarina Duplančić
PARTNERS: Slavena Verić, Mijo Jurišić, Stipe Jelaska, Nika Petrović, Barbara Munjas, Marin Cecić,
Vincent Šepić, Ante Milić, Marin Remić, Duje Kundić, Nino Marini, Boris Stanić
CO-PRODUCTION: Kino Klub Split
DOCUMENTATION: Damira Kalajžić
SETUP: Katarina Duplančić, Eugen Jeličić, Natasha Kadin, Franko Sardelić Kolinac
DONORS: Ministry of culture and media of the Republic of Croatia, City of Split
MAVENA SUPPORTED BY: Zaklada Kultura nova
DESIGN: Nikola Križanac
SPECIAL THANKS: KUM, MKC, PDM, Tea Mijač, Krešimir Vukušić, Boris Poljak, Maja Plazibat, Ena Šurija, Ana Radeljak, Kažimir Cukar, Ana Ezgeta, Šime Bilić, Giacomo Cenci, Retes d.o.o, Lumer Shop, Kafić Šore
══════════════════════════════════════════
PRESS
slobodnadalmacija.hr/mozaik/panorama/par-godina-sam-po-kaficima-prisluskivao-ljude-oko-sebe-i-zapisivao-zanima-vas-sto-o-splicanima-ali-i-drugima-ima-reci-toni-mijac-evo-gdje-cete-sve-saznati-uzbudljivo-je-1232191
culturenet.hr/hr/toni-mijac-pretvori-se-u-uho/186354
dom-mladih.org/ispod-bine-sound-art-festival-2022/
══════════════════════════════════════════
