Exhibition ”Đurđa Zanoški Gudlin: A Time of Declarative Peace” Opens

Exhibition Đurđa Zanoški Gudlin: A Time of Declarative Peace as part of the With Peace for Peace programme, marking the International Day of Peace on 25 September

On Friday, 25 September 2026, the Antun Augustinčić Gallery in Klanjec will mark the International Day of Peace with the opening of the exhibition Đurđa Zanoški Gudlin: A Time of Declarative Peace.

The Antun Augustinčić Gallery in Klanjec is the only museum institution in Croatia to systematically mark the International Day of Peace (21 September). For the seventeenth consecutive year, the With Peace for Peace programme has provided artists with an opportunity to present their own interpretations of peace and/or establish a dialogue with Augustinčić's monument Peace, which forms part of the permanent exhibition.

This year's exhibition presents sculptures by Đurđa Zanoški Gudlin dating from the 1970s and 1980s, both from the period when she was active within the Biafra art group and from her work outside the group. Her work associated with Biafra is characterised by an aesthetic of the ugly and the grotesque, used to express a rejection of the prevailing aesthetic norms of the time. Her approach to form departs from literal representation: Zanoški Gudlin shapes figures as she perceives them in her mind. The sculptures depict real people with difficult lives and tragic personal histories, towards whom the artist expresses compassion and approaches with empathy. In the visual dialogue established with Peace, the figures in the exhibition exist as victims and perpetrators, passive observers and acerbic commentators, silent and cynical participants in the decadence of the present day. Their difficult fates reflect the past and the present, but also the future that awaits us if, as a society, we fail to open our eyes and turn towards peace.

The exhibition, curated by Luka Veić, curator at the Antun Augustinčić Gallery, is accompanied by a catalogue and has been realised with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia. It will be on display until 22 November 2026.