GORGONA - Zak | Branicka

GORGONA

Gorgona was proto-conceptual group from Zagreb that unrealiseditself between 1959 and 1966.Josip Vaništa (1924), Julije Knifer (1924-2004), Radoslav Putar (1929-1994), Marijan Jevšovar (1922-1998), Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos(1921-1987), Matko Meštrović (1933), Ivan Kožarić (1921), ĐuroSeder (1927) and Miljenko Horvat (1935-2012) occasionally met,talked, corresponded, exchanged “thoughts for the comingmonths” among themselves, sent one another “homework”and “questionnaires”, went on “inspection tours of the seasons”,organised exhibitions in a glazier’s shop they called “Studio G”,published the anti-magazine Gorgona, arranged themselves,performed group- and auto-choreographed movements, set up,posed and photographed. All of the above was permeated withhumour, wit and paradox, modelled by taking over the terminologyand the form of the society they had isolated themselves fromthrough their activities. Initially, the group name had come fromone of the Mangelos’ poems, not the Tuscan Archipelago island,but they later discovered this link and incorporated it into theirwork. Eliciting productions and collaborations both non-materialand material in what Vaništa has concisely described as “somethingbeyond the art of painting” allowed for a clear break from the post-WWII “universe without purpose” in which the members wereliving.Gorgona established contacts with numerous internationalartists, who like the group, sought expression through reducedmeans: Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, Piero Manzoni, PieroDorazio, François Morellet and Enzo Mari. In reference to YvesKlein, for example, Gorgona created a suggestion for the colour“Gorgona’s Black”, which coincided with Klein’s establishment ofIKB (International Klein Blue).(cover) Josip Vaništa, Collective Identity Card, 1961Gorgona group members at the opening of Julije Knifer’sexhibition in the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Zagreb in 1966.From left to right: Ivan Kožarić, Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos, ĐuroSeder, Marijan Jevšovar, Julije Knifer, Radoslav Putar, Josip Vaništa

GORGONA, 1961–1966, 11 anti-magazinesThe most recognized work by the group is the Gorgona antimagazine,which was published between 1961 and 1966. Asidefrom the designs created by group members, others, includingVictor Vasarely, Harold Pinter and Dieter Roth were invitedto contribute. Additional proprosals by people such as PieroManzoni and Ivo Gattin were also created but never realised. Alleleven issues are the same size (20.8 x 19.2 cm), are numbered,and have a front page with only the word “Gorgona”.Josip Vaništa: Gorgona No. 1, 1961In the first issue, Vaništa showed the same photograph of an emptyshop window nine times. The photograph was also enlarged for awork that alludes to a poster but was never used as one.Julije Knifer: Gorgona No. 2, 1961After Gorgona No. 2 was published, in which the artist’s trademarkmeader can be seen, another version of it was printed in twoinstallments in the funny pages of the Zagreb evening newspaper,the Večernji list. In 1961 Jopsip Vaništa wrote: “the Gorgona 21961 Julije Knifer. Zagreb, Spring 1961. Serigraph, 300 copies, notfor sale—the first edition. The second and third editions werepublished by the Večernji list in 200,000 copies”.IZVOLITIE PRISUSTOVATI [Please Attend], 1962invitationIn lieu of detailed invitations to an exhibition entitled ModernStyle at the Studio G in Zagreb, the members of Gorgona sentonly this invitation with the Croatian words for “Please Attend” to anumber of addresses. Additional information about the time anddate of the exhibition had to be found elsewhere.GORGONSKA CRNA/NOIR DE GORGONE/GORGONA’S BLACK1961, Colour Sample for Gorgona’s BlackThe suggestion to create the colour Gorgona’s Black coincidedwith Yves Klein’s establishment of IKB (International Klein Blue);in both cases a new colour, that is now not to use for pictorialmimicry or metaphor, has instead become the absolute sign of acertain artist or art group.Harold Pinter: Tea Party: Gorgona No. 8, 1965Vaništa sent Harold Pinter the seven issues of Gorgona that hadalready come out and asked him to “design his issue like Vasarelyand others had done”. Pinter, in turn, sent his short story “TeaParty”, which was published in both English and Croatian.

Julije Knifer, Meander, 1972The first meander was created in 1960 by Julije Knifer as the idealform of expression for his “anti-painting”. This display of monotonerhythm via sharp black and white contrasts was created withvarious techniques, including oil, collage, mural and even insidean issue of the Gorgona anti-magazine. The artist later calledthis conscious decision of formality a “non-development”, whichwas to him the elimination of all possible developments in favorof having an infinitely repeated motif, thereby semanticallyidentifying his painting with a chosen symbol.(next page) Gorgona group members at the opening of JulijeKnifer’s exhibition in the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Zagrebin 1966.

Josip Vaništa, Deposition, 1964/1986In 1964, Vaništa, with other group members present, left one ofhis paintings in the snow on Mount Sljeme, near Zagreb, therebydestroying it. At that time, no one documented the act. Theperformance was repeated again by group members in 1986 withVaništa’s painting Black Line on a Silver Background, and was thistime documented in a series of black and white photographs.Inspection of Springtime, 1962Gorgona group activities were also seen as an art form inthemselves. This included “inspections” of the changing seasons,usually in the countryside outside of Zagreb. The results of thesemeetings were recorded in reports taken by the group members,as seen here in the form of a photograph.Josip Vaništa, Novi Prilozi [New Contributions], 1986[In 1961, Gorgona fled from the then powerful communism intothe irrational, the incomprehensible. The inactivity of Gorgonawas noticeable. Several young people whose mutual affectionwas the decisive connective factor met occasionally. Gorgona didnot have any messages! It was a particular type of activity, autoironic,affording a feeling of being unusual. Perhaps it broughtsomething new; perhaps it only resolved its life problems, feelingsof being hemmed in. Perhaps it left nothing behind apart fromfriendship and spiritual closeness.]

JOSIP VANIŠTA: Gorgona: What’s That? (this is what I think)We were a few young people who liked each other, which was thecrucial connecting factor, and we met from time to time.First there was Matko (), then Ješo, and then Putar (); with Putar, therecame Mića (), after him Julije. He had been unwell, accommodatedin the derelict Dežman’s barracks at Brestovac. Someone had toldhim about our meetings.It was a community in the ideologized world of the 1960s,preoccupied with a marginal magazine that we filled with a certainamount of dark ingredients, absurdity, and emptiness.The first issue of Gorgona came out in 1961. It was an empty stage,nine images in which nothing was happening any more.Our aspirations were directed at an extra-aesthetic reality. At amental reserve that was beyond the bare ironic denial of the worldwe lived in. We did not attach any significance to the final artwork,and our activities were quite simple: we took a walk together inthe city’s surroundings, we were a “committee monitoring thebeginning of spring,” as Putar used to joke, we had commonplaceconversations in nature. Just like the others, I was interested in theemptiness of Zen at the time; I strove towards natural living andnormal behaviour.Gorgona was not a group of painters. Perhaps there was a spirit ofplayfulness, which provoked a defeat. Stay closed, something wastelling us. Keep a low profile.With Malevich, painters started to tend towards minimalism. Formhad reached the verge of emptiness.The 1960s were the time of mature Picasso; barbouillage priapique,as the French used to say. Giacometti was able to paint emptinessin an apple on the table. Monod was telling us about a universewith no purpose, in which, according to him, there was nopredefined goal.Word was displacing image, and there was interest in somethingbeyond painting.We wanted some space to breathe; we gazed through the window,at the emptiness and silence. Almost nothing was happening tous, as Gombrowitz used to say.And what had seemed harder than steel collapsed in 1990 as ahouse of cards. Emptiness would become the basic feature of thenew times, and misery something quite tangible.The black paintings of Ad Reinhart were like basalt plates on thetomb of painting.And what is left? VIDES, an exhibition of emptiness. A retrospective.Centre Pompidou, Kunsthalle Bern, Centre Pompidou – Metz.Here, it is the last will of a pauper. Only questions, insignificantdilemmas in the lives of people struggling to survive. In the houseof Gorgona, a lonely shack with uneven floors, which make itimpossible to rest.Gorgona, Please Attend, exhibition view at ŻAK | BRANICKA, 2013Lindenstr. 35, 10969 Berlin | +49 30 61107375 | www.zak-branicka.com | mail@zak-branicka.com© ŻAK | BRANICKA, 2013 concept: Asia Żak Persons and Monika Branicka, cooperation: Katharina Peter, Erika Pinner