A Generational Challenge

Speaking of Croatian artists (editor’s note: Saša has been speaking about Croatian artists on his IG, you haven’t missed anything here), Trotoar gallery in Zagreb is currently running the final week of Mia Akrap's debut, Stronger Than Bone. The show marks not only a departure into a sphere of (ceramic) objects and paintings on objects, but also a departure into speaking of heavier and always relevant subjects of “relationality, trauma, and autobiography” “within a broader feminist discourse.”

I’ve been familiar with Akrap’s work for some time, and early on I enjoyed how her work used irony as a critical undertone. As her life imposed new roles, her work matured alongside them, and that irony developed into a direct critique and an urge to challenge things. Things like the rigid, idealized expectations imposed on women within patriarchal society. And because, as someone Croatian-born and raised, I’m very familiar with these dynamics (and, as a man, spared by them), I’m in awe of how she tackles these subjects and mindsets. Drawing on Ancient Greece, Venetian architecture, Early Netherlandish painting, the Renaissance, symbolism, and Frida Kahlo, Akrap’s practice developed into a comprehensive research project. Its results transform the gallery space into a semi-archaeological, semi-spiritual place of exploration and reflection.

Before anything, the reliefs, amphora-like vessels, wall ornaments, and fountains featured in a show are beautiful, intriguing objects. But besides that, they’re reactions, metaphors, and commentary on female memory, familial history, motherhood, and generational trauma. And the fact that they’re not merely paintings on a canvas, but 3D objects, gives the tackled subjects a more comprehensive, deeper insight. The relief and wall ornaments make the stories feel timeless and indisputable; the totem sculpture or fountain makes them undeniable; and the ceramic vessels allow for cyclical reading of almost animated narratives. With rich, potent symbols such as snakes, moths, and butterflies, Akrap speaks of personal and societal transformation under the shadow of emotional and behavioral patterns passed down her family’s female line. —Saša Bogojev

Photos by D. Žižić / Trotoar