MAGAZINE LAUNCH
Friday, October 9, 2020, 6 PM
Striegl City Gallery, Sisak

The Striegl City Gallery and the Office for Photography present the fourth issue of FOTOTXT, dedicated to the theme of the female gaze in photography. Acknowledging the underrepresentation of women photographers in both the history and the present of Croatian photography, this new edition focuses on women’s photographic activity.

The issue highlights four generations of women photographers whose works were shown in exhibitions at Spot Gallery over the past four months: Maša Bajc (1980), Ana Opalić (1972), and, in a joint feature, Ivančica Privora Kurtela (1953), Jadranka Fatur (1949), Danijela Lušin (1947), Erika Šmider (1942), and Slavka Pavić (1927). Based on extensive conversations with the artists, the issue explores the specificities of the female gaze behind and through the camera, the contexts and conditions in which they worked, and affirms the importance of women’s voices in the visual arts.

An interview with Maša Bajc on the occasion of her exhibition The Nature of Things, realized in collaboration with the Striegl City Gallery in Sisak and AK Koprivnica, offers insight into the artist’s unique poetics, her approach to photography, and the ways she weaves new worlds and stories. Writing about Ana Opalić’s exhibition Martina(Diary entries 2009–2020) and the significance of documenting the personal and the intimate, Tihana Bertek reflects on the (historical) role of photography in representing and affirming LGBT life. In the final section, drawing on research and conversations with the artists during the preparation of the exhibition Soft ‘Shooting’?, Sandra Križić Roban examines the exhibiting practices and reception of women’s photography in the 1970s, as well as the details of each artist’s photographic work and oeuvre.

The fourth issue of FOTOTXT has been published by the Office for Photography as a bilingual edition (Croatian-English). The magazine was produced as part of Not Yet Written Stories – Women Artists’ Archives Online, an international research project co-financed by Creative Europe.

The launch will be presented by Sandra Križić Roban and Lana Lovrenčić.