With hits from the sixties, on Thursday evening at the Museum of Arts and Crafts (MUO) in Zagreb, the exhibition ‘The Sixties in Croatia: Myth and Reality’ was opened, the central project of this year’s museum dedicated to “the turbulent but brilliant period of recent Croatian history.”
The exhibition is set up in 12 halls of the Museum, covering more than a thousand square meters, and features over a thousand exhibits loaned from 62 institutions from five countries and 84 private lenders. About two hundred people worked on this multi-year project.
Hundreds of people gathered at the opening, including many prominent figures from that time, TV hosts, artists, writers, directors, and even one original hippie, a vivid reminder of the then ‘flower children.’
The author of the exhibition concept, Zvonko Maković, stated that he found it interesting to show how the sixties were diametrically opposed to today’s time.
– Now we constantly talk about crisis, depression, stress, and lack of energy, while the sixties were optimistic; it was believed that the impossible could be achieved, there was no recycling, but rather innovation, he asserted.
– The sixties were a turning point; social paradigms were changing, it was a time of renewal and the beginning of a new world that we still live in today, said the director of MUO, Miroslav Gašparović.
He expressed hope that the exhibition would mark this summer “and that we will discover whether that beautiful time was just a myth or if there is some reality to it.”
Tedi Lušetić, envoy of the Mayor of Zagreb, believes that this exhibition will certainly mark the year, especially the cultural summer when guests in Zagreb will have the opportunity to get to know Croatian culture and history in this way.
The exhibition was opened by State Secretary Ivica Poljičak, envoy of the Minister of Culture, who stated that this time will be remembered for achievements whose strong influences are still felt today, but also for the dark stains regarding human freedoms.
– It was also a time when life was lived intensely; we were more turned towards each other and less towards devices. The exhibition will allow us to establish an emotion with that period, and emotion is what will characterize the exhibition, he asserted.
With numerous exhibits, from documentary materials, artworks, photographs to film, television, and music inserts, as well as everyday objects, the exhibition emphasizes more significant segments in the fields of art, architecture, and fashion.
The exhibits are arranged in eighteen thematic sections. The socio-political context of the sixties, the development of consumer society was addressed by Ante Batović, while Igor Duda covered the culture of everyday life in consumer society, Zvonko Maković the visual arts of that time, and Maroje Mrduljaš architecture, the time when post-war reconstruction was completed, and major urbanization projects began.
The design of the sixties, a time of the booming consumer goods industry and the introduction of design into production, is represented by Koraljka Vlajo, graphic design experiencing a redefinition in the realm of popular culture and commercial design by Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić, and experiments in the field of author ceramics by Marina Bagarić.
Dunja Nekić addresses the theme of photography and the increasingly important role of photojournalists, Krešimir Nemec literature, for example, the emergence of prose in jeans, Ana Lederer theater turning towards the art of the Western circle, Seadeta Midžić the Music Biennale Zagreb, and Maja Đurinović the Croatian dance scene and the first artistic dance schools.
The golden age of film in Croatia is represented by Tomislav Šakić, pop music, the time of hits, entertainment music, chanson, and later rock by Hrvoje Horvat, while Katarina Nina Simončić showcases fashion that marked the rebellion of younger generations against bourgeois classical elegance.
Fashion photography of that time is recalled by Marija Tonković, the newspaper scene by Inoslav Bešker, and radio and television, their very beginnings by Nada Zgrabljić Rotar.
The exhibition will be open until September 30, during which it will be accompanied by a rich program of events, expert tours, workshops from the Museum’s educational department, music listening sessions, film retrospectives, round tables, and lectures.
