Written by: Darko Vlahović
Photos: Mara Bratoš & Privatna arhiva
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Anita Kontrec, Croatian-German sculptor and painter born in 1954 in Zagreb, from the very beginning built an interdisciplinary career, connecting visual arts, theatre, literature, anthropology, and journalism. She graduated in English studies, sociology, and ethnology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, while simultaneously attending sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts. She was a member of Kugla glumište and a journalist for Polet, and later profiled herself as the author of complex artistic projects.
After moving to Cologne in 1989, she lived in Germany for almost three decades, before returning to her hometown about ten years ago. She exhibited in renowned European institutions, participated in the Venice Biennale, and carried out a number of residencies in London, Paris, Chicago, and elsewhere. In her opus, the key themes are communication, language, architecture, and migration.
For Anita Kontrec, art is not only a visual expression, but also a universal language of authenticity, freedom, and responsibility toward the society in which we want to live.
You were born in Zagreb, where you followed a layered educational path – from English studies, literature, sociology, and anthropology to the sculpture class of Ivan Sabolić. How do you see today that combination of humanistic and artistic education?
That combination determined my entire way of perceiving the world, my way of life and work, perceiving and experiencing everything I see within myself and around me. From multiple perspectives, like a colourful kaleidoscope in which a new picture constantly emerges. It is an endless game, continuous exploration of the world, and art gives me the freedom to express everything experienced in many different ways – through sculpture, painting, installation, and performance, which I connect with my love for literature and music. Nothing excludes anything else, but rather complements and adds new combinations of flavours and scents of life.
From the combination of humanistic and artistic education arose some of my most significant projects. RECALL BYBLOS in 1993, for example, in which I explored models of communication from Phoenician script to contemporary technology. Artists and scientists from Zagreb and Cologne participated in that project. It was first presented at the Ludwig Forum für internationale Kunst in Aachen, and then in Klovićevi dvori in Zagreb.
From more recent projects that combine different disciplines, but use the language of art, I highlight HOUSES AND DREAMS. I started it in 2017, and so far it has been shown in Venice, Paris, Cologne, London, Umag, Koper, and Zagreb. It thematizes the inexhaustible question that was and remains crucial: what is/where is home? Is it a geographical place or a feeling of belonging? Especially for me, as an artist who spent a large part of her life outside Croatia…
In your childhood and youth you engaged in music and swimming, and during the 70s and 80s you worked as a journalist for Polet, as a translator, and as a member of Kugla glumište. How much did those different experiences shape your later approach to art and communication with the audience?
To answer this question, I would need to write an entire novel! And maybe I will one day. But the most important thing is that these experiences form an inseparable whole. I grew up in a family that nurtured music and art. My mother was a pianist, and I was always surrounded by music – from classical, jazz, and rock to spiritual music.
Swimming since childhood in the swimming club Mladost taught me discipline and endurance, essential for everything I later did in life. Whether it was writing or art, because creativity, knowledge, and talent are not enough – good mental and physical condition is also needed. Especially when it comes to sculpture, when you use materials such as chamotte clay, stone, bronze, plaster, wood, and synthetic resin.
As for writing, translation, and journalism, from the very beginnings of publishing my texts in the mid-70s in Polet to my mature journalistic career in Croatian and German media, in which I worked for almost 40 years – writing was not only the expression of the need to communicate ideas with the world, but also allowed me financial independence from the whims of the art market. Hence my complete freedom of expression in art.
And the story of Kugla glumište, of which I was one of the founders in the early 70s, is a story in itself. In the briefest terms: it was the experience of a Gesamtkunstwerk, an eros of creativity where the boundaries between artistic genres were erased. But also between so-called “real life” and art. That eros of creation manifests itself in my entire life and work in many different ways. The roots of such experiences were in Kugla. In Kugla my first large installations were created. For the performances we designed the set, costumes, and props ourselves, which was largely my task.
The character of a Gesamtkunstwerk, in which I connect different genres of visual art with music, literature, and performance, marks many of my artistic projects and actions.
How do you remember the cultural and artistic scene of Zagreb in the 80s, when spaces for avant-garde practices were opening? Were those truly golden times for culture and art?
I remember them for the intense socializing and collaboration with artists and intellectuals of all genres and “tribes.” Not only from Zagreb, but also from all over former Yugoslavia and many European countries, who were frequent guests in Zagreb. There was a vibrant rock scene – those were the years of the emergence of Film, Haustor, Azra, with whom I socialized. A strong jazz scene also existed in Zagreb, thanks to Boško Petrović and the jazz tribunes of Mirko Križić at KIC. The Cinémathèque in Kordunska Street raised generations of film lovers.
People went wild at dance halls – in Kulušić, Jabuka, Saloon, Lapidarium. International theatre festivals were held – IFSK in Zagreb, Brams and BITEF in Belgrade, where Kugla regularly performed. That international creative atmosphere prevailed until the second half of the 80s.
In 1989 you moved to Cologne. What took you to Germany, and did you experience a cultural shock compared to Zagreb?
In the late 80s, political tensions and changes began to loom, which was reflected in culture as well. It became coloured by nationalist ideology and thereby provincialized. That was one of the reasons why I moved from Zagreb to Cologne. There I could develop my artistic ideas in a much broader context.
Cologne did not represent any cultural shock because during my entire time studying at the Faculty of Humanities I often travelled through numerous European cities. And after graduating, I collaborated for years with the IUC (International Centre for Postgraduate Studies) in Dubrovnik, where I connected with several German universities.
What actually brought me to Germany was the invitation of the University of Siegen to pursue a doctorate in literature there. But love for visual art as my primary form of expression prevailed. And the love of languages and literature I wove into many of my artistic projects.
You lived between Germany and Croatia for almost three decades. How did that dual belonging shape your artistic identity?
Those were decades of a nomadic life in both a geographical and artistic sense. And not only between Germany and Croatia, but also among other European countries where I exhibited. In encounters with different traditions and social norms I learned a lot. Above all: how, in contact with so many influences, to remain authentically myself – both as a person and as an artist. How to be open to all currents, but not be led by the trends imposed by the art market, yet still fit into that system.
And I succeeded in that, since from the very beginning of my artistic career in Germany I established successful cooperation with leading institutions such as the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Ludwig Forum in Aachen, and Frauenmuseum in Bonn. In particular also with several excellent galleries in Germany and Switzerland which represented me in their spaces and at significant European art fairs. Balancing between my own value standards and the need to fit into the European art market – which is unavoidable if you want to be visible on the art scene – has been and remains a challenge that formed me as a person and as an artist.
Your key influences are mentioned as Joseph Beuys and the avant-garde movement Fluxus, while your art has been described as “poetic cultural anthropology.” You deal with motifs of architecture, houses, migrations, returns; how did you develop your artistic expression, and how would you define it yourself?
My connection with Beuys and Fluxus – even before I knew they even existed – was recognized by art historian Anđelko Hundić, head of the avant-garde gallery DDT in Zagreb in the 80s, where I had my first solo exhibition in 1986.
That gallery promoted conceptual artists such as Tomislav Gotovac, Vlado Martek, Željko Jerman, and others from the Group of Six Authors, with whom I socialized a lot at that time, and with whom my work had the most points of contact.
When in Germany I got to know Beuys’s works and his concept of art deeply rooted in the anthroposophical teachings of Rudolf Steiner, I felt a strong connection with that artistic practice. Such attitudes about the role of art as a catalyst and creator of social processes have always been very close to me. The same goes for ideas about the connection of micro- and macrocosm, about the spiritual aspect of art, which for me is inseparable from authentic artistic work. These are the starting points of my creation. Regardless of which visual genre I express myself in, there is always this cultural context in the background. I fully agree with the description of my art as “poetic cultural anthropology.”
Which artist you collaborated with – or cultural figure in general – left the strongest impression on you?
Among Croatian artists, it was above all Ivan Kožarić, whom I invited to the RECALL BYBLOS project in 1993 in Aachen, where we socialized and created within the framework of an artistic residency at the Ludwig Forum. From then on Kožarić and I often met in his studio in Medulićeva Street or for a drink in the city. For him, the creative process was a game. I was fascinated by his ease of creation, his broad outlook on art, and above all his humour and warmth.
From the field of literature, I was influenced by years of friendship with Danijel Dragojević, with whom I collaborated on his legendary program Diaries and Letters on the Third Program of Croatian Radio. But the two of us mostly talked about visual art, and less about literature, because Dragojević, besides being an excellent poet, was also an art historian.
In the late 80s you translated the famous The Pillow Book by the Japanese writer Sei Shōnagon. How did you come to translate a Japanese book from the 11th century? What drew you to Japanese culture and how did it influence your later art?
The University Press Liber published a series of Japanese novels in the 80s. Among them was The Pillow Book, a marvellous novel by a court lady who described life in the imperial palace in Kyoto. Working on that book inspired me for a series of artworks and actions from the late 80s to today, and opened me toward Japanese culture. Perhaps it best illustrates my genre and cultural nomadism – from literature through visual arts to dance and film.
One story from that book inspired me to create the sculpture Snowy Hill of Sei Shōnagon. This was followed by installations Pillows for Sei Shōnagon made of calligraphic drawings on silk paper. During a residency in Leipzig in 2013, in a huge hall of the former Spinnerei wool mill, I set up a site-specific installation Calligraphic Landscapes. It consisted of about a hundred meters of transparent fleece ribbons inscribed with quotes from the book in Croatian and English. Between these written and painted veils, which shifted with every movement of wind and light penetrating through the large windows of the hall, dance performances were performed. The audience could move freely between them, literally wrapping themselves up, immersing themselves in them.
The dance performance Calligraphic Landscapes was also filmed as a video performance and has so far been shown at several European video art festivals.
Your art carries a discreet feminist tone, but without activist gestures. How do you yourself define that position?
That tone stems from a deep awareness that I, as a woman and as an artist, experience the world in a different way than men do. It is not about evaluating what is “better” or “worse”; it is simply – different. When both of these worldviews have equal right to exist and to be expressed, true enrichment and dynamism of relationships occurs. This applies both to personal life and to the wider social and cultural context in general. Problems arise when female energy is in any way suppressed or belittled, which has often been the case in history, and unfortunately still is today.
I do not divide art into “female” and “male,” because true art is the universal language of the soul that brings us closer to our humanity. But the most natural thing in the world for me is that I, as a woman, in everything I do – including art – express my female sensibility.
The main social engagement of art consists in preserving its autonomy and freedom of expression. To encourage the nurturing of universal human values and not allow itself, under any circumstances, to be harnessed into ideological manipulations or projects. Because if it becomes an instrument of some ideology, then it is no longer art.
After your large retrospective exhibition in the Meštrović Pavilion in 2016 you decided to permanently return to Zagreb. What most drew you back?
Work on the retrospective ROUNDABOUT/KRUŽNI TOK/KREISVERKEHR (and the trilingual monograph of the same name) in the Prsten Gallery/Meštrović Pavilion – a magnificent, but also very demanding space of more than 700 square meters – in some way accelerated the process of my permanent return to Zagreb, because due to the preparations I spent more and more time in Zagreb. Quite simply, I increasingly felt that my true place was right in my hometown and homeland.
And despite all the difficulties of returning and living here after about 30 years abroad, I have not regretted that decision.
Almost a decade has passed since then – what has happened in the meantime on your artistic path?
While I was preparing the retrospective and the monograph that documents over three decades of continuous work in Croatia and abroad, I believed that it was a nice, rounded farewell to an active visual arts career. A time for the necessary break and distance from everything I had done in my life until then. But everything turned out differently!
Already during the exhibition at the Meštrović Pavilion came an invitation from Venice, from the ECC (European Cultural Centre) to participate in the Open Borders exhibition at Palazzo Mora, in the context of the 57th Venice Biennale. After that, invitations to exhibit began pouring in from all over the world! Thus in 2017 I stayed as artist-in-residence at the famous Dulwich College in London, where I gave lectures and art workshops with the college students. The following year, 2018, I was in a residency in Paris at Cité internationale des arts and in Chicago as a guest of the John David Mooney Foundation.
The residency in Chicago resulted in the exhibition Script and Architecture in 2019 at the foundation led by John David Mooney, one of the most respected contemporary American sculptors, the last living student of Ivan Meštrović. He personally invited me to create an exhibition-dialogue with Meštrović in memory and respect for his “great Master.” I don’t even have to emphasize what a challenge it was – to create such an exhibition, which received an excellent reception in Chicago. Unfortunately, not a single word about this exhibition appeared in the Croatian public…
After Chicago came invitations to exhibit in Berlin and Rome, but that series of exhibitions was interrupted by the pandemic. So my return to Zagreb did not end my nomadic life, but rather multiplied it!
How do you see your return today? In the meantime, have you achieved what you returned to Croatia for?
In the dynamics of life there are always deeper reasons for some important decisions. Just as it was necessary for me to move to Cologne in 1989, it was equally important for me to return to Zagreb in 2017. Both meant a new beginning. In Zagreb I have so far achieved only part of what I returned for. One of the reasons was to re-integrate into the Croatian visual arts scene from which I had originated.
Since last year I have been working with gallerist Lucija Jerič and her Kaptol Gallery in Radićeva Street in Zagreb. After a successful joint exhibition in the Oris Gallery in Zagreb in 2023, I am already preparing a second exhibition with my dear colleagues from the younger and middle generations, Natalija Borčić and Ljiljana Mihaljević. I am also continuing my long-standing cooperation with gallerist and collector Dagmar Meneghello, who will present her collection of contemporary Croatian art, in which I am represented with a series of large-scale polyester sculptures, after its successful showing in Graz in 2024, also at the Wiener Künstlerhaus/Neue Albertina in Vienna. That exhibition will run from December 2025 to February 2026.
But I am saddened that I still do not have my own studio in Zagreb – a space for work and for presenting the work of my Foundation. I am especially frustrated because Zagreb has many spaces and empty studios, while the city is visibly decaying and invests too little (actually – almost nothing compared to other investments!) in its cultural infrastructure. As if it were a matter of lacking vision and awareness of the importance of creative industries. They are an important economic factor. Especially the role of culture as the personal legitimization of a city, that is, of the whole of Croatia.
How would you evaluate the Croatian art scene, and is there something that frustrates you compared to the international context?
Croatian contemporary art can stand alongside the most important artistic currents in the world. When in some projects that I conceived and organized in Germany I invited Croatian artists such as Ivan Kožarić, Petar Barišić, Vladimir Gudac, Dubravka Lošić, Zlatan Vrkljan, Ivo Deković – they were all recognized as the top of the European and world scene. And their works as artistically highly authentic.
Creating under completely different cultural and technological challenges and possibilities today sometimes loses authenticity of expression. As if trends and the desire to enter the international art market as quickly as possible at any cost prevail. One has to be very careful about that.
You wrote that “you create art because it allows you to express your true, authentic self – your feelings, imagination, and thoughts, as well as your visions of the society you would like to live in.” What is that society you would like to live in? It seems the world is increasingly becoming a place where few would want to live…
It would be a society of conscious individuals, who come together to achieve common interests that are not limited only to their own benefit. Who generate values for the wider community. That is the concept of the citoyen – the citizen of the world. Instead of (petty) citizens who realize only their personal interests. To live with the life and consciousness of a citoyen is achievable, no matter where you live and what you do, even in smaller segments and in homeopathic doses. And this is already happening because large systems of power are increasingly falling apart and more and more people are finally realizing that they need to take responsibility for their own lives.
We are all creators of the world we live in, not victims of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Everyone can daily contribute to the quality of their own life and the world we live in.
Art contributes greatly in precisely that segment because it encourages creativity and gives the feeling/experience that the world can be shaped with one’s own hands and ideas – in both the literal and the metaphorical sense. It builds a self-awareness different from helpless complaining and criticizing. Although we cannot influence all levels of reality, which are decided by powerful structures beyond our control, we can “think globally, act locally.” Even the smallest gesture of humanity means we have already given our contribution to creating a better world in ourselves and around us.
How did the initiative to establish the Anita Kontrec Foundation come about, and what do you want to leave to future generations through it?
Thanks to the cooperation with the Croatian Copyright Agency in Zagreb, which provides complete legal and organizational support in all phases of establishing a foundation. The mission of the Anita Kontrec Foundation is to preserve and present the most important segments of my work that are less known in Croatia, but for which there is interest.
For example, Tea Hatadi in her doctoral dissertation on the role of art in the Homeland War dealt with a part of my opus relating to that topic. The mission of the Foundation also includes organizing international interdisciplinary symposia, conducting art workshops, and international cooperation, especially in the Croatia – Germany relation.
Looking back on your opus, is there a work or project that is personally closest to you, regardless of the reception of critics and the audience?
The project RECALL BYBLOS from 1993 was key for my international career and the reception of my way of working. It included all the elements that I believe contemporary art should contain: interdisciplinary and international character, use of different media, dealing with a current and at the same time universal socially relevant theme. Of course, above all the criterion of artistic excellence.
The project received excellent reception in both the German and Croatian cultural public, and the respected magazine Kunstforum proclaimed it a “model of the future.” Which turned out to be a correct assessment. Today most serious projects are based on these premises, but back then, more than 30 years ago, it was a great innovation in the presentation of art.
Do you still have unfulfilled dreams – projects you want to realize, perhaps even outside of art?
That list could be quite long… To exhibit in Japan, primarily in Kyoto, works inspired by the novel The Pillow Book. And above all to find in Zagreb an adequate studio where I can continue to create and socialize with all those for whom art is essential in life. And I also wish to hold an exhibition where I could present my conceptual works with text, from which my entire artistic practice arose, but which I have not yet had the opportunity to present to the Croatian visual arts public.
In 2026 it will be exactly 40 years since my first solo exhibition in Zagreb and 10 years since the retrospective in the Meštrović Pavilion. That would be an excellent “timing” for presenting that part of my opus in the context of contemporary Croatian conceptual art.
