Flags, independent exhibition by Ana Mušćet

On the International Museum Day, May 18th at 7 pm, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art will open the solo  exhibition “Zastave ” (“Flags”) by Ana Mušćet. It is a unique, visually impressive, technically complex spatial installation inspired by the eponymous five-letter novel by Miroslav Krleža.

The transformation and reversal of this literary matter which, for its complexity and timidity, served as an incentive for redefining the notion of actuality and moving it to a new conceptual and visual context, has been incorporated into the three so-called books of Ana Mušćet called “The Flags”.

The first book was born as she was working on her graduate thesis in 2016, which finally won the Grand Prix at the 25th Slavonian Biennale. Following the idea of ​​five parts of Krleža’s novel, Ana Mušćet continues the work in progress by making another while the third book is premiered at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Referring to the narratively complex, deeply introspective Krleža novel,  the author talks about her vision of current socio-political events with a special interest in exploring the area of ​​language.

The technique of making the Flags – preparing white strips of brass by cutting them in a shredder, transcribing Krlež’s novel text on the 0.8 mm wide strips and their weaving into new documents – refers to the way of changing and overriding the literary text: it is known that among some editions “Flags” were of significant grammatical, syntactical, stylistic and linguistic differences.

Ana Mušćet’ “Flags” is a spatial installation that implies a multiplication of reading and interpretation. Written by a black accelerograph on a white, sensitive surface of special texture, her “Flags” change with every exposure; the color of the text fades until at some point completely disappears and goes into oblivion.

At the exhibition at the MMSU along with three books of the “Flags”, the project “Treatment of the Earth” will also be presented. It is designed to set four gigantic flags of 20 x 30 m in four selected locations in Croatia (Vukovar, Rijeka, Kornati, Dubrovnik). Each of the flags would have the words: IZVOLI, HVALA, MOLIM, OPROSTI. (HERE YOU GO, THANK YOU, YOU’RE WELCOME, I’M SORRY). in this work, the role of the word is also re-examined. Four beautiful words appear to be vociferous but are set in the form of questions to which time and the community should respond. The author, occupied by the political connotation of the written words, raises the question whether a beautiful word is a dubious word, and if so why is it s doubtful word. The paper refers to the problem of a certain place, touching on individual suffering and destiny of space.

The exhibition will remain in the MMSU until June 30 and can be viewed from 11am to 8pm on any other day except on Mondays and Sundays.