Celebrating the 100th anniversary of establishing Bauhaus

In April this year, the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art provided me a wonderful experience by inviting me to give a lecture as a part of its educational program—for me as an author it was fantastic to get the opportunity to present my book Abstract Reproductive as Productive Art in that contemporary temple of culture and art! It was an honor to give a lecture on the occasion of marking the 100th anniversary of establishing Bauhaus in such an important and valuable institution, which, with its excellent program, inscribed Zagreb and Croatia on the cultural map of Europe and the world.

Everything was so beautifully decorated that I was stunned when I saw how adorable the “stage” was—I could choose whether to perform in the lecture hall or in the exhibition space, and I chose the latter because it was immediately clear that the environment consisting the artworks of Josef and Anni Albers, famous Bauhaus representatives, was unrepeatable. I am immensely grateful to the Museum Director, Mrs. Snježana Pintarić, PhD, for the fantastic introduction; she amazed me with the way she connected my work (research of chromatic fantasies of the composer Alexander Scriabin, painter Alexej Jawlensky and pianist Ivo Pogorelich) with the chromatic fantasies of the mentioned artists.

Fantastic experience: giving lecture on abstract reproductive art surrounded by abstract canvases of famous Josef and Anni Albers

Reproductive art as a space for interpretation of original works

The video of the lecture is finally online, so I hope it will be interesting to everyone interested in reproductive art as a space for interpreting works that are already in existence. It is a bit noisy at the beginning because the MSU building is designed to maximize communication (the walls are mostly not built to the ceiling), and as the entrance to the showroom is also completely open, it is impossible to be isolated from the surrounding sounds. Nevertheless, I am sure that no one will mind children playing in the adjacent space, especially because their enthusiasm becomes pretty quiet after the first few minutes. I was glad to hear that children visit museums and that MSU has a rich educational program for all generations—congratulations to the Head of the MSU Education Department Ms. Dunja Martić Štefan!

Arrival of young dancers from the School of Contemporary Dance

Dancers from the School of Contemporary Dance “Ana Maletić” announced the arrival, so I adapted the content of the lecture to their needs and shortened everything that was not their priority. Other sections will be more prominent on another occasions, as it is impossible for me to fully present the contents of my book in only 45 minutes. The lecture also contains two of my video-works: a video entitled Music Iconostasis of the Painter Alexej Jawlensky (electronic music for the video is composed by Robert Selimović), and a video of my Multidisciplinary Virtual Installation. Thus I added two more avenues to the lecture in order to interdisciplinary complement the written word with pictures and sound. The camera, unfortunately, had a 30-minute recording limit, but since the audio part was recorded in its entirety, in the second part of the video I was able to make an animation consisting photos and pictures of the lecture, which was enriched with a large number of visual and musical contributions. In this part my voice can be heard better, but due to all technical challenges I advise to put on the headphones.

Wonderful moment to remember

To me, this experience was truly one of those wonderful moments to remember, so I thank my colleague Dunja Martić Štefan for making my lecture so beautifully announced and organized. I would also like to thank everyone for coming and for the interest in this topic—my friend Lada Radić took many of these beautiful photographs. I was also thrilled that so many people immediately decided to buy my book; some for themselves and some more than one copy for their institutions. Thank you all for your support and wonderful company that filled me with tremendous amount of positive energy!