Kožarić’s Sljeme

oil on canvas
90 × 110 cm

One of the fantasy sculptural propositions of Ivan Kožarić is the “Unusual Project – Cutting Sljeme” of 1960. The visionary Kožarić made a photo collage with the contour of Sljeme, seen from the southern or Zagreb side.

Painting “Kožarić’s Sljeme” [“Kožarićevo Sljeme”] I express my respect for the artist, for his imagination and invention. Without his operation and my ascription of the painted white figure to Medvednica, i.e., to Kožarić, the figure of my painting might seem prosaic. The naming of the scene, with the inscription of its title, is a record of a tautological challenge: with whiteness like snow (the hill is popular for skiing and sledging), with an approximate semicircle as hill and Kožarić as Demiurge.

(2024; written for the audio guide to the exhibition “NON-BAR-RIER-S” [“NE-PRE-PRE-KE”] in the Typhlological Museum in Zagreb, 2024)