Eventsabout... Story ivan kožarić 01.07 - 31.10 » Kožarić 100 Last November the Croatian art world was shaken by the death of Ivan Kožarić (1921-2020), a sculptor whose mercurial imagination has left a profound mark on Zagreb’s streets, and has in some way become one of the city’s main trademarks. His death was not exactly unexpected. Kožarić was after all 99 years old. However it was widely assumed that this endlessly inventive, playful and eternally young artists would, if not exactly keep on going for ever, at least make his century. Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) will be hosting major retrospectives devoted to Kožarić in the summer of 2021. QJ‑4, Contemporary Art Museum, Avenija Dubrovnik 17, tel. (+385-1) 605 27 00. Bela and Miroslav Krleža Memorial Space Archives
Miroslav Krleža Although the Miroslav Krleža Festival has just finished, you can always visit the writer’s Memorial Home or purchase a summer read in the form of his book ‘Journey to Russia’ that has recently been translated into English. Miroslav Krleža. Journey to Russia (Sandorf Passage; trans Will Firth) It may be almost a hundred years old, but this book by one of Croatia’s greatest writers has definitely been worth waiting for. Miroslav Krleža’s account of a trip to Bolshevik Russia undertaken in the 1920s is nothing short of a modern travel classic. Krleža was himself a communist and had a rather rosy-spectacled view of what Leninism meant in practice. However his book’s vivid, frequently critical descriptions of life in Russia under the new regime are both evocatively rendered and full of insight. The description of the journey itself, undertaken by rail across a Europe emerging cautiously from a period of war and revolution, is an exhilarating ride in itself. Above all it is a book filled with anxious Wanderlust; reading it in the midst of a pandemic will soon have you yearning to jump on a long-distance train. Walk up to the Bela and Miroslav Krleža Memorial Home in a green oasis of Tuškanac (Krležin Gvozd 23, Open Tue 11:00 - 17:00) sometime between 23 July and 30 September to visit the exhibition ‘In Life and Death – sketches from life of Bela and Miroslav Krleža’. The exhibition tries to ‘peek’ into the private life of a famous Croatian writer and his beloved wife behind the closed doors of a villa on Zagreb’s Gvozd. It discovers the more intimate side of their relationship, their social life and travels through archival sources, memoirs and newspaper articles. The Krleža couple marked the cultural and political life of Zagreb and former Yugoslavia at the time. 8
Zagreb In Your Pocket
Ivan Kapec A long-serving pillar of Zagreb’s jazz and experimental scenes, guitarist and composer Ivan Kapec scooped up the critical plaudits in 2020 with his fifth, self-released album Crta (“The Line”). Recorded together with Mario Bočić (saxophone), Šimun Matišić (vibraphone), Ivar Roban Križić (double bass) and Borko Rupena (drums), it is an eclectic, multi-faceted album of many moods and colours. The quintet moves effortlessly from melodic and silky to meditative and melancholy, and can suddenly shift gear to hit a percussive groove or explode into bonkers modern-jazz soloing. The unusual combination of Kapec’s baritone guitar and the other instruments (saxophone and vibraphone especially) gives the album a distinctive tone, occupying a niche between post-rock and the theme music to a hauntingly beautiful art movie. A prolific figure with a huge track record of solo work and collaborative projects behind him, Kapec looks set to be a central figure in Croatian jazz for the foreseeable future. ‘Crta’ vinyl is available in Aquarius, Freebird and Woodstock record stores in Zagreb. Ivan Kapec, Photo by Vesna Zednik
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