Iva Čukelj / Ljubica 13050

 

FROM THE PREFACE OF THE EXHIBITION

The exhibition entitled "Ljubica 13050" is the third exhibition in which Iva Čukelj completes a kind of exhibition triptych ("Four Faces of Handicraft" – VN Gallery, "House for Dolls" – Karas Gallery) in which she questioned the topic of handicraft, family, collecting memories and creating a new tradition through the medium of spatial installation.

The artist exhibits hanging objects with which she negates the walls of the gallery and creates a new space shaped by pillows of different shapes, colors and textures – resembling a mental map that arises from the artist's need to materialize memories and experiences with family and handicraft itself. Penetrating the theme of handicrafts, with an emphasis on the importance of women's handicrafts in the family, Iva visually creates and embraces the emotions of nostalgia, sadness, emotional escape and transforms them into a modernized tool for viewers to experience their own experiences through immersion that is inevitable when entering the artist's intimate-exhibition space. Mirroring oneself through heritage and handicraft, working with the family, serves the artist as a means of artistic expression to unanswered family questions in order to turn the intangible memories that permeate through the works into tangible ones.

In her expression, she also peeks into her own pedagogical work in a way that she puts herself in the position of a student, allows herself to play with herself, transforms feelings into shapes, colors and materials, illustrates thoughts, sews and embroideries, captures memories and preserves them in textiles. Through a very gentle, delicate and above all meticulous approach, "Ljubica 13050" provides a place of home where every visitor can experience the comfort, safety and care that permeate the works.

Josipa Škrapić

 

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

Iva Čukelj is a visual artist (Zagreb, 1993) whose work focuses on tequila, handicraft and heritage through the medium of installation. She graduated in Fine Arts at the Department of Teacher Education and in 2022. New Media at the Department of Animated Film and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.

In her artistic practice, she explores the position of handicraft in contemporary art and reflects on the themes of memory, heritage and tradition, as well as the women's question. She lives and works in Zagreb as a professor of Fine Arts.