Josip Pino Ivančić: DEVASTATIONS to the N-th power

Author: Josip Pino Ivančić
Title: DEVASTATIONS to the N-th power
Year of creation: 2008
Owner: Josip Pino Ivančić
Work Data: Intervention in the form of author text in the catalogue for the exhibition Multimeridian 08

Description of work:
The project is a critical reflection on the dominating practice in the system of organising exhibitions of contemporary art where the artist does not receive any fee for his/her work, unlike other authors and collaborators (curators, technical collaborators, translators etc.) who are paid for their work. This was the reason why Ivančić has declined the participation at the Multimeridian 08 exhibition, organised by the Istrian Croatian Association of Visual Artists (HDLU). He expressed his critical attitude in a text published in the catalogue of the exhibition in place of the text originally meant for the presentation of his project. The text was published in Croatian and English.

The artist’s statement in the catalogue (croatian text):
Pozvan od hrvatskog selektora da sudjelujem na izložbi MULTIMERIDIJAN, a bez mogućnosti financiranja moje produkcije, ovime ukazujem na neodrživu praksu unutar HDLU-a Istre, koja umjetnicima onemogućava rad, dok su svi ostali sudionici za svoj rad plaćeni.
Josip Pino Ivančić, Pula

The artist’s statement in the catalogue:
Invited by the Croatian selector to participate at the exhibition MULTIMERIDIAN but with no possibilities to finance my production, I hereby point out to the unsustainable practice within the Croatian Association of Visual Artists of Istria, which thwarts the artists’ work while all the other participants are paid for their work.
Josip Pino Ivančić, Pula

Josip Pino Ivančić: DEVASTATIONS to the N-th power


Josip Pino Ivančić (1951)
He began to deal more in-depth with art in the 60’s in the field of sculpture. He has expanded his work to mixed media, conceptual approaches and performance. In the 70’s he was creating ‘mental spiritual music’ together with his friends and was dealing with social sculpture. In the 80’s he was active in the alter-rock group ‘GustapH y njegovi dobry duhovy’ (GustapH und his gut spirits). Following the group’s break-up, he remained on the music scene as producer and technician. He was involved in visual arts individually and within the frame of the group SubVersiv. In the 90’s he began to merge media and collaborate in international multimedia projects as Netz/Net, Radio ORF (Crossover…), Moment in Communication…, while renewing his work in the field of social structure.
Source: Catalogue for the exhibition Multimeridian 08

Author’s biography – original:

BIOoBIO

Produced the primal scream in the pre-years of R&R in the maternity ward with ochre façade in Pula.

In the 60’s he begins to deal more concretely withART, sculpture. As those were strange years, he was expanding his horizons passing through and mixing media. He entered the conceptual circle and dived into performance waters.

In the 70’s he created ‘mental spirit music’ together with a group of friends in an environment of specific socio-political-cultural situation and opens the process of ‘Social Sculpture’ influenced by Beuys.

In the 80’s he worked in the alter-rock band ‘GustapH i njegovi dobry duhovy’. Following the band’s break-up he remains on the scene as producer/ co-producer and technician collaborating with bands/ projects ‘Borgesia’, KUD Idijoti, ‘Messerschmitt’ and the new Pula beginners. He continued his visual arts work and prepares his own projects while being the external member of the group SubVersiv.

In the 90’s he was again active on the rock scene in the project Zhel while he realised his long-term desire for merging all media in international New Media projects: telephone concert Netz/ Net, Radio ORF(Crossover…), interNet M.M @ P, Moment in comunication…

Pressured by specific socio-political-cultural environment, he reactivated his work on ‘Social Sculpture’ at the turn of the decades, from the 70’s to the 80’s.

He earned his buck in TESU Uljanik (the big shipyard), now moonlighting somewhere, working everywhere. A pride owner of record attendance of a happening/ performance (app. 40000 visitors, ‘Theatre Like a Life/ Life Like a Theatre or Life is a Hot Chilly Pepper…’
Pula/Cro a Ti
All other stupidities, bigger or smaller, may be read and re-read in daily, weekly and periodical publications of these parts…

Has an entry in ‘Istrian Encyclopedia’…