Tomislav Gotovac

Tomislav / Tom Gotovac (aka Antonio Lauer) was one of the leading Croatian conceptual and multimedia artists. In 2011 his work was shown in the Croatian pavilion at the 54st Venice Biennale.
2017 works of Tomislav Gotovac are part of Documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel.
An important aspect of Tomislav Gotovac's work is the interaction of life and art. He always worked with his body and put himself into the centre. His actions usually feature everyday deeds, e.g. in Breathing the Air (1962). He chose public spaces for his performance acts, thereby putting the life we are used to into a new focus and at the same time allowing us to gain new perspectives. An integral part of his work are quotations by and homages to other artists, such as Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Jacques Prévert or Jean-Luc Godard.
In 1967, he organized the first happening in Yugoslavia and turned his photo series into movies, which shall be seen as documents of his performances.Successfully recycles visual images in his recent films. By using stills and inserts from his own films and from films important for him or his art (e.g. films by George Stevens, Lazar Stojanovic', the Vasiliev brothers), but also from famous paintings (by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo) and popular songs, Gotovac's films (Tomislav Gotovac, Dead Man Walking, Proroci) transcend the borders of cinema as much as his performances and exhibitions transcend borders of every medium of artistic creation. However, certain general questions are raised by such artistic procedure: broadly speaking, today's conceptual art is institutionalized in some sort of artistic 'genre' and Gotovac/Lauer seems to be a true master of that genre.
Sadly Gotovac passed away 2010 but his work and spirit lives in his performance documentation and films.

Submitted by Galerie Michaela Stock