About

The past, is to me, an inexhaustible mine from which to excavate a multitude of narratives, meanings and truths. The historical body, like a Derridaean phantom, compels me to engage with it – embody it, visualize it, perform it. Responding to the redundant visual heritage of socialist / communist  Europe, to archives, both public and private , constitutes an essential part of my inter-disciplinary practice. Personal narratives interweaving with a political context continue to inspire me to examine notions of nostalgia, memory and iconoclasm in relation to the human body and subjective identity.

Since 2007, I’ve been leading a collaborative project Performance Klub Fiskulturnik, presenting my work at many festivals, events and residencies across the UK & Europe, including European Capital of Culture – Rijeka 2020 (2020), Uniqlo Tate Late November at Tate Modern (2017), City of Women Festival, Ljubljana (2013), National Theatre Watch This Space Festival, London (2012), Whitstable Biennale (2012), Museum of Yugoslav History, Belgrade (2011), Late at Tate Britain (2010) and Create 09 – Adventures in Movement (2009).

Marcin1

Born in Croatia (then Yugoslavia), I’ve lived and worked in South London since 1994. I obtained an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, UAL in 2007, and have also studied sculpture (2001 – 2004: Camberwell College of Arts) and physical theatre and corporeal mime (1995 – 1999: Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique, London & Desmond Jones School of Mime & Physical Theatre, 1995).

An ongoing inspiration for my art has been exploration of relationship between ideology and the body, the public and the private. In my, often participatory practice I aim to evoke a sense of fractured and displaced identity and provoke the viewing of the body as a cultural and political construct. I keep returning to the visual heritage and seminal historical moments of my youth such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of communism. By re-appropriating the symbolic language found in the domain of public monuments, mass physical exercises and pageantry & juxtaposing it with the private and the everyday, my intended outcome is a personal narrative that raises questions around memory, collective experience and individual encounters.

Exhibitions, performances and projects:

2023

Let it be over already!, international group exhibition curated by Gulyás Gábor, Tállya, Hungary

Women’s History Month, curator, digital video stream, Morley College Chelsea & on-line

Ruin, group exhibition, Way Out East gallery, University of East London

2022

Southwark Park Galleries Open, group exhibition, London

2021

Phantom footsteps, solo exhibition in 2 parts at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria, Pula , Croatia

2020

Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture, Croatia

2019

‘Retrograde’, solo exhibition at ArtKIT, Maribor, Slovenia

Euro Yoga at the Exploding Cinema, London

2018

Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria, Pula, Croatia

2017

Uniqlo Tate Lates November, Tate Modern, London

Assembly of Disturbance festival curated by Test Department, Red Gallery, London

2016

Festival Art Stays ‘Politic(s)’, Ptuj, Slovenia

2015

INK (Istrian National Theatre), Pula, Croatia

2013

KaLibar bestiVal & Vox Feminae festival, Zadar / Zagreb Croatia

Festival City of Women, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Arterija IV – Festival of Visual Arts, Novigrad, Croatia

2012

Emergency 2012, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester

Bodies of Memory  directed by Fiona Templeton, Tate Britain

Whitstable Biennale 2012

Gi20 festival, National Theatre & SIRF 2o12

Big Dance 2012, Pump House Gallery, London

Suffragette Slet 2012, Construction Gallery, London

2011

Museum of Yugoslav History Belgrade, Serbia – Artist in residence

Slet 080311 – Flocking of Birds, curatorial and performance project featuring international female performance & video artists in celebration of the 100th International Women’s Day.

2010

Transformation of Narrative in the Post-colonial Era, Goldsmiths College, UCL

Yugo yoga on Motovun Triglav, live art performance during 12th Motovun Film Festival, Croatia

Crossing Boundaries, Humanities, the Arts and the Impact of Cultural Globalisation conference, video performance, Roehampton University, London

Shards of Utopia, Late at Tate Britain event curated by Cecilia Wee, Tate Britain

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