PAV is pleased to present Heliopolis, a solo exhibition by Croatian artist Marko Tadić (1979), curated by Marco Scotini. The exhibition is part of an annual program that sees reuse and circularity not only as an ecological and cultural strategy, but above all as a utopian means of survival.

Marko Tadić’s work rereads the history of Yugoslav socialist modernism through comparison with the practices of great authors who operated at the end of the 1950s in Croatia, including the avant-garde designer, sculptor and architect Vyaceslav Richter (1917 – 2002) and the filmmaker Vladimir Kristl (1923 – 2004) of the Zagreb Animation School, recognized as one of the cornerstones in Europe.

Through a methodology that attempts to «make History starting from the waste of History» – as Walter Benjamin would have said, quoting Goncourt – Tadić identifies in the inert residues of memory an active potential useful for rereading and generating new possibilities of narration. Through the reuse and reworking of vintage objects such as postcards, geographical maps, slides, notebooks and personal photographic archives, Tadić brings to light a submerged archive on which he intervenes by overwriting.

The exhibition conceived specifically for the PAV includes a nucleus of works by the artist dedicated to the interaction with the thought of Vjenceslav Richter, one of the founding members of EXAT 51 avant-garde group of artists, architects, designers and theorists active in Zagreb between 1950 and 1956 which intended to promote and achieve a synthesis and intersection between all art forms. Richter, of whom a series of original works are present in the exhibition, dedicated almost two decades of his life to perfecting techno-utopian projects in urban planning that attempted to respond, through planning, to the specific needs of a socialist society. In Richter’s utopian city what you need is within reach and planning responds to the need to reduce mobility times to guarantee more free time.

In the exhibition Tadić imagines and designs his utopian city, contaminating Richter’s projects with a science fiction imagery and implanting an ecological reflection on these complex systems. Through drawings, collages and animations he hypothesizes an expansion that includes new questions regarding the relationship between man, environment and technology and the use of renewable resources. Heliopolis is made up of four thematic islands Leaving the Frame, Flow Diversions, The Open Future and From the Shell (of the Old) in which the relationship between ecology, utopian architecture and science fiction is investigated through a multi-scalar perspective. By varying the scale through which a system is represented it is possible to enrich its understanding and formulate new readings. Through miniaturization Tadić transforms debris and waste into toys in the Benjaminian sense. «Collective products» which refer to a comparison with the adult world which they once again liberate, without being deprived of their documentary value.

In Heliopolis, Marko Tadić’s work rereads Vyaceslav Richter to propose a model that aims to establish a harmonious rhythm in the metabolism of society, in the continuous search for a delicate balance between construction and cancellation, between possible futures and transmission of memory.

Marko Tadić (Croatia, 1979) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. His artistic practice ranges from drawing to installation and animation. Winner of numerous international awards, he received the Vladimir Nazor Award (Croatia) for best exhibition in 2015 and the Radoslav Putar Award (Croatia) in 2008 as best young contemporary artist. He has participated in numerous residencies in Helsinki, New York, Los Angeles, Frankfurt and Vienna. He collaborated with the Art Academy in Zagreb as a tutor of a workshop on artists’ books, field recording and radio drama. He works as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and at the New Academy of Fine Arts NABA in Milan. His films have been screened at various international animated film and experimental film festivals. In 2017 with Tina Gverović he represented Croatia at the 57th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia.