NIVES SERTIĆ_LANDSCAPES: TRILOGY OF GAZE, PART ONE

12 – 26 / 07 / 2024

OPENING: Friday, July 12th, at 20:00

The exhibition is open to visitors from Monday to Friday during the gallery’s working hours from 18:00 to 21:00

MKC Gallery

Youth Center Split,

Ulica Slobode 28

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

– Lao Tzu

The Earth rotates on its axis and orbits the Sun. Seasons change, rivers carve their paths, mountains erode, and plants grow and wither, following their rhythms for over 4 billion years. This cycle of artworks, focusing on landscape imagery, began during the pandemic when stability was sought in nature and its slow cycles, providing a counterbalance to the rapid and often unstable cycles created by humans, especially during crises. This ambient multimedia installation primarily features landscape footage captured by the artist in and around Split. Immersive projections fill the gallery space, creating a contemplative atmosphere. The layout, harmonized with the space’s architecture, is designed to slow movement and encourage focused observation.

Nives Sertić’s landscapes seem devoid of specific spatial markers or narratives. Her documentary-like gaze aims to depict the environment as it truly is. In the challenging act of balancing, she consistently finds a poetic dimension—not to create charming, sentimental video postcards or to seek out an idealized untouched nature. Instead, these motifs serve as symbols or universal signs for themes like cycles, movement, and the lost connection between humans and nature. For the artist, the landscape is a place of contemplation, visually interpreted and brought into the gallery space. It is necessary to liberate our gaze from stereotypes and preconceived notions to foster a sensory connection between the viewer and the environment and to create a capacity for empathy—facilitated by this work. Through thoughtful manipulation of recorded material, the artist challenges our perception of time and space with slow-motion footage, magnified details, and unusual vertical compositions that provoke mindful and curious observation. Meanwhile, a unique pulsating sound eliminates unnecessary sensory stimuli as we delve deeper into the darkened gallery space.

The exhibition layout shows the artist’s fascination with the landscape and the dual image of Split and its surroundings—the relationship between sea and mountains, coast and hinterland. Entering the well-lit, easily navigable first part, we move into the increasingly dark gallery interior, where projections grow larger, evoking massive landscape elements. In relation to these, carefully placed pedestals and bean bags resemble natural elements—the landscape is transported into the gallery.

Exploring the area between Split and Kamešnica, the artist also addresses the temporal dimension of the space, examining how far our gaze can reach into the past. This reveals the course of a prehistoric river from Split’s hinterland, leading to Didi (Elders) from Kamešnica and the subtext of a pre-Christian Slavic fertility ritual, emphasizing the presence of natural cycles. The elongated zoomorphic masks of the white masqueraders end with animal skulls and horns. With Nives, I pause over their footage as we review it for the exhibition. The mask tips flutter in the wind, intersecting like mast tops in a small harbor, and in the slow-motion footage of the costume fabric, I see the rippling sea surface or wind in an olive tree crown. In a ritual gesture atop a mountain that might once have been a prehistoric sea’s shore, I see a Jadrolinija ferry cyclically departing or docking, opening the mouth of its zoomorphic face. This is my personal, visually associative interpretation of Nives Sertić’s work, and it is just one of countless possible interpretations, without exhausting all the displayed themes and symbols. I believe each experience will rest on the same essence, achieving the ultimate goal the artist aims to reach with this work. Recognizing similarities and patterns in shapes, gestures, and behaviors in nature and humans and even in our creations, living and non-living, reveals an intricate interconnection that expands our capacity for coexistence and empathy.

Jelena Šimundić Bendić

Nives Sertić (Dubrovnik, 1984) is a multimedia artist, graphic designer, and set designer. Long-term interdisciplinary projects, poetic installations, and performances mark her work. She explores the boundaries and overlaps of various media, with a strong focus on photography and film. She graduated from the Department of Animated Film and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Until 2013, she worked on interdisciplinary art projects such as “Antibiotic” and the Yogurt Gallery (2009-2012), as well as the research project at the MM Center (2009-2013). As a co-author, video artist, and performer, she has collaborated with various authors and organizations from the dance and theater scene. Notable works include: “I Watch You While You Watch Me While…” (2016); “60 Years 15 Days” (2016); “3 to 10, Trees” (2017); “The Gaze That Disappears” (2018); “House is Forest is House” (2019); “In the Garden, Below and Between” (2019-2023); “Object for Movement, Light, and Sound” (2022), and the “Landscapes” cycle (2021-2024). Her recent works question the perception and relationship of individuals towards the environment, using observation as a contemplative act in her artistic practice. She has taught at the Study of Design at the University of Zagreb and the POU Zagreb. She is a member of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists Zagreb, the Croatian Association of Fine Artists Dubrovnik, and Cine Club Split. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad.

CURATOR // Jelena Šimundić Bendić

NMG CURATORIAL TEAM // Jelena Šimundić Bendić, Natasha Kadin, Vedran Perkov

TRANSLATION // Katarina Duplančić

DOCUMENTATION // Glorija Lizde

SETUP // Nives Sertić, Jelena Šimundić Bendić

TECHNICAL SETUP // Marin Renić

DONORS // Ministarstvo kulture i medija RH, Grad Split

MAVENA SUPPORTED BY // Zaklada Kultura nova

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS // Dora Baras, Daria Domazet, Sunčica Fradelić, Lana Lovrenčić, Tomislav Miljak, Tanja Minarik – 400 ZEČEVA, Ivana Perica, Danijela Petričević, Franko Sardelić Kolinac, Mirko Sardelić, Kino klub Split, KUM, MKC, Muzej Cetinske krajine Sinj, PDM, RØLØ

DESIGN // Nikola Križanac

PRINT // Kopiring