OPENINING OF THE IVAN LADISLAV GALETA EXHIBITION
Is it possible to condense twenty years of filmmaking in a 60-minute film? It is, if the filmmaker is Ivan Ladislav Galeta, the Croatian master of the moving image.
Ivan Ladislav Galeta, Head of the Media Department of Zagreb Arts School, not only reveals his work and personality to the people of Thessaloniki through the screening of his films which, all of them combined, do not surpass the duration of 60 minutes, he also wins impressions with his innovative installation that is exhibited at the Yahoudi Hamam gallery.
The opening of the exhibition took place on Sunday, November 16th, at the Flower Market of Thessaloniki, and it will remain open until November 25th.
The exhibition’s curator, Marion Inglessi, while talking about this unique artist, characterized his work as ‘juicy’. She also admitted that she always thinks of food every time she remembers Galeta, ever since she saw him presenting his Curriculum Vitae wrapped around a biscuit to the audience of the exhibition. A gesture that illustrates the artist’s idea of art: ‘Art is not about the result, but the procedure which creates it’. Ivan Galeta thanked the Thessaloniki International Film Festival for giving him the opportunity to present his work in Yahoudi Hamam, a place he considers sacred.
A pendant is swaying over an old Jewish bath filled with flour and Galeta is asking everybody to explore art in action. ‘What is of importance in art is energy; probably symmetry too. I am a slave to symmetry’, claimed the Croatian artist.
TIFF’s director, Despina Mouzaki, commented: ‘One should experience Galeta’s work and not just take a look at it’. She described him as one of the most important artists of experimental art and pointed out that even the simplest phrases and smallest movements in his work take on a different dimension.
