Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

The video “Monument Reflecting the City” uses the red granite surface of the recently erected, politically controversial monument to the first Croatian president, as the main aesthetic and narrative element of the video. Placed on the main Riviera of the city of Split, the monument consists of a traditionally crafted bronze figure of a man resting his hand on the red granite cube, which is inspired by the national coat of arms. The visual structure of the video work is created through mathematically determined set of rules: the camera is always placed on the same four positions around the red cube of the monument, recording the reflective surface of each of its four sides for 30 seconds, at each full hour of one summer day - from dawn till sunset. The juxtaposition of the image and the sound composition which has been created specifically for the video, establishes the sensory codes that establish a sort of `haptic` of the work. This abstract coding create the visual poetics of the work, a sensation of a space beneath the red surface, space of the unknown or even of a “threat from within”. -- The red granite surface therefore becomes a "filter" through which we can peek into the public space, by observing the light changes and the reflections on it: the ghostly circulation of tourists, buses and ships in the area that are reflected on the surface. Through its conceptual poetics, the work joins the critical discourse on postwar politics of eastern Europe and the branding of conservative national identity through erasure of history and memory in public space, often through tactics of mass tourism and commodification of public space.

Luiza Margan is a visual artist who lives and works in Rijeka and Vienna. In her art practice, Margan researches the socio-economic complexities of public space and the shaping of cultural identities within it, by dissecting the visual and spatial codes that define it. She uses archives, field research and various found materials as the basis for her sculptural, printed and video works that are often presented in the form of multimedia exhibitions, screenings or performative actions in public space. Margan was awarded the OHO - Best Young Artist Award in Ljubljana/Slovenia in 2007, the THT & Museum of Contemporary Art Award in Zagreb in Croatia in 2012, the Hypo Noe Young Art Award in St. Polten, Austria in 2015. She has been artist in residence in various programs in Mexico City, South Korea, Istanbul, Paris, and Italy. Curently she is a fellow in residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, German. Margan has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has had works acquired by public collections like Museum of Contemporary Art - Belvedere 21 in Vienna, Generali Foundation - Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, Austria, Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb in Croatia, and Tobacco Museum in Ljubljana. Luiza Margan is a member of The Golden Pixel Cooperative, a nomadic platform of women artists working on the intersection between art and moving image, focusing on the research of documentary configurations.