Dan Graham's first solo exhibition in Eastern Europe opens in Croatia
16 May 2017
'Works That are Fun for the Family', Dan Graham's first solo exhibition in Eastern Europe, opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Croatia (20 May – 30 August 2017).
The exhibition attempts to encompass the complex activities of the artist's practice and features performance, video and sculpture. Through documentation of early performances, the exhibition showcases Graham's pioneering exploration of the human body in relation to perception and technology in works like Body Press (1970-1972), his 16mm film where a male and female filmmaker guide the eye of a camera spirally down their bodies inside a cylinder with a mirror-like surface.
Graham’s earliest video performances from the late 1960s and early 1970s create an important link with the first experimental video works by Croatian artists, including Sanja Iveković, Dalibor Martinis and Goran Trbuljak, singled out on this occasion and shown separately under the title 'Inter nos', named after a work by Sanja Iveković from 1978.
Works like Body Press led the way for later works that highlighted curves and reflected architectural forms, including the artist's pavilions for which he is well-known. Visitors to the exhibtion will have an opportunity experience Graham's pavilions, including Girls' Make-up Room (1998-2000) and 2-Way Mirror Cylinder Bisected By Perforated Stainless Steel (2011-2012), which showcase his continued interest in architectural space as well as the perception of the self and the voyeuristic observation of others.
Also on show will be Design for Showing Rock Videos (2012), an artwork which simultaneously functions as an entertainment venue. Showing films and videos about the hippy movement and hardcore post-punk groups, this pavilion was made as a dedication to the counterculture in America and Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. Two documentaries are also included – Rock My Religion (1983-1984) and Death by Chocolate (1986-2005) – the latter of which, in accordance with the artist's wishes, will be shown in the context of the Avenue Mall shopping hall across the street from the Museum.