Igor Grubic

How to

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Igor Grubic

Zagreb, Croatia

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The war in Croatia in the ’90s, the closeness of death, and the cruelty of people towards one another shocked me so much as to provoke a personal identity crisis.

I realized that I do not want to belong to the group of people who passively spend their lives, or rather, who allow their lives to be governed by external influences. At this point my own spiritual research and revolution started, a kind of struggle lasting until this day because it demands attentive self-observation, consciousness and responsibility toward myself and others (as well as to nature and to my friends the animals).

Creativity explores, experiments, breaks down boundaries, meets others through play by which it develops tolerance, compassion – and by which it can liberate you. We have the power to create zones to motivate and support us to be immersed in a creative life and to persist in the line of the struggle for a fairer, more responsible, more spiritual, and happier society.

How to... is a cycle of works in progress in which the artist makes his own the tools of graphics and language that, throughout 20th century art history, had played a very important social role in raising awareness and application of critical thinking.

Grubić composes a list of phrases, at times playful and contradictory, written in the form of questions and not statements, demonstrating that nothing happens all at once and always, but through a long process of research, reflection and meditation. Interrogating ourselves frees us from blind beliefs, from the masks we wear, from false identities, idolatries. The banners, created to exist in the public space, reflect the relational aesthetic typical of the artist with the aim of encouraging the public to be creative and active participants in reality.

"For almost everything we buy and use we get a manual, a user's guide. Except for life. The 'How to…' project contains a series of questions that could be a trigger for understanding the multidimensional, material and spiritual relationship with life." I.G.

Igor Grubić has been active as a multimedia artist from the beginning of the 1990s. His work includes site-specific interventions in public spaces, photography, and film.

He represents Croatia at the 58th Venice Biennale. His critical, socio-politically committed practice is characterized by the long-term engagement and his work is focused on past and present political situations from the in-depth exploration of the fate of historical monuments and the demise of industry, to examination of the predicament of minority communities.

Though grounded in the documentary tradition, Grubic’s work in photography and film is characterized by an affective and empathic approach, which is deeply humane and often poetic.

His work has been exhibited in various international institutions among which:

Tirana Biennial 2 (2003);
Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt, 2002);
Manifesta 9 (Genk, 2012);
50th October Salon (Belgrade, 2009);
Gender Check, MuMOK (Vienna, 2009);
11th Istanbul Biennial (2009);
4th Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg (2011);
East Side Stories, Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2012);
Gwangju Biennale (2014);
Zero Tolerance, MOMA PS1 (New York 2014);
Degrees of Freedom, MAMbo (Bologna, 2015);
5th Thessaloniki Biennial (2015);
Cut / Rez, MSU (Zagreb, 2018);
Heavenly creatures, MG+MSUM (Ljubljana, 2018);
The Value of Freedom, Belvedere 21 (Vienna, 2018);
58th Venice Biennale (2019)Yerevan Biennial – The Time Complex (2020);
Bigger than myself, MAXXI (Rome, 2021);
Body and Territory, Kunsthaus Graz (2023).

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