When an “old and depressive anonymous [artist]” appeals seeking “a permanent display place in some nice new art museum,” the issue at hand is much more than one artist and his apparent insecurities (although he is an established artist nowadays despite or perhaps precisely because of his own efforts to operate outside of and against art institutions throughout his entire career). Indeed, the message even seems somewhat sarcastic!
Through his 2006 series of posters, Goran Trbuljak poses questions that resonate far beyond personal dilemmas—about the influence of institutions on artists’ lives, about who determines what is worthy of memory and why some voices are heard while others are not. These are questions equally relevant outside the Artworld.
The fragmented presentation of this work is not accidental. We see “depressive museum,” “anonymous permanent,” “looking in art”—each fragment can be read independently, opening new meanings and interpretations. “Anonymous permanent” appears as a contradiction, “looking in art” raises the question of how we actually look at art. Only at the end of the journey through the exhibition is the complete message revealed, but by then we have already become aware of how context and even our expectations change our reading. This methodology of fragmentation is not merely a formal game—it reveals the mechanisms by which we react to partial information, how we build meanings from incomplete narratives, to which we are exposed daily.
The strategy speaks to how influence functions today—fragmentedly, through platforms that lead us to interpret partial information before we get the complete picture. In the age of “influencers” who shape opinions through short, fragmented messages, and news that delivers brief, partial information, Trbuljak’s work reminds us of the dangers of hasty conclusions and the importance of context for understanding… anything. But more than that, it shows how art can be a tool for systematic analysis of these very mechanisms.
Since the early seventies, Trbuljak’s work has sought to demystify art. His 1971 exhibition at Gallery SC, where he presented a single poster with the inscription “Ne želim pokazati ništa novo i originalno” [“I do not wish to show anything new and original”], broke down the boundary between promotion and artistic content (the same poster was placed at strategic points in Zagreb as an advertisement for the exhibition). This greatly contributed to what we now call institutional critique in art.
As a designer who understands the power of visual communication—through decades of work on posters, exhibition catalogs, and editorial projects for magazines like Novine Galerije SC, Polet, and Gordogan—Trbuljak not only uses the poster as a medium but deconstructs it as a tool of influence. His double practice as artist and designer provides him with unique insight into the mechanisms by which authority is built in visual culture. Through his triple practice as artist, designer, and cinematographer, he knows from the inside how systems that build cultural value function. The poster, traditionally a means of promotion and manipulation, becomes a space for questioning its own nature. Who has the right to visibility? Who determines hierarchies of importance? How are structures of cultural power built and maintained?
Today, when design and art increasingly permeate everyday life, when the boundaries between culture, communication, and propaganda become ever thinner, Trbuljak’s analysis becomes relevant in new ways. Influence is not only what we think it is—often it is what we do not recognize as such and, therefore, become susceptible to it.
Artwork information
UNTITLED, 2006
series of eight posters
silkscreen print / paper, 71 x 50 cm
Published by the artist
Gregor Podnar collection
The series Untitled consists of a basic poster with the wording “Old depressive anonymous is searching for a permanent display space in some nice new museum space” and seven variations with parts of the wording (created by a reduction of the basic wording).
Wording on the posters:
1.) OLD AND DEPRESSIVE ANONYMOUS IS LOOKING FOR A PERMANENT DISPLAY PLACE IN SOME NICE NEW ART MUSEUM SPACE
2.) LOOKING — IN — ART
3.) ANONYMOUS — PERMANENT
4.) PLACE — NEW — SPACE
5.) DEPRESSIVE — MUSEUM
6.) DISPLAY — SOME
7.) OLD — IS — NICE
8.) AND — FOR — A
Biography
Zagreb based artist Goran Trbuljak has been active since the late 1960s, in the context of conceptual art and the so-called New Art Practice. While searching from the very beginning for alternative means of production and representation of the artwork, Trbuljak has redefined the status of artistic context, asking radical questions about the autonomy of the system of museums and galleries and about the mechanism by which something is accepted as art. He tested the accidental as the key moment of creating work mechanism, organizing exhibitions in streets and hallways. For the artist a simple gesture could function as a critique of the artistic and social system. Still, there are typical traces of humor and self-irony in Trbuljak’s oeuvre. Born in 1948 in Varaždin, Croatia. Lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia.
Artist: Goran Trbuljak
Curator: Dora Derado Giljanović, PhD
Time: October 9, 2025 –
Location: Croatian Home Split, Croatia
The exhibition is part of the Cyan Visual Culture Festival program (October 8-11, 2025)
Tickets for lectures held as part of the Cyan Festival can be purchased at https://shop.adriaticket.com/event-details/4289/cyan-festival-vizualne-kulture
Festival partners – Dump Young Programmers Association, Hrvatski Dom
Festival sponsors – CULT, Bistro Parasol, Adriatic Social Club, Kopiring, Radenska Adriatic and Atlantic Grupa
The festival is organized by the Design Hub Split initiative, which through its activities aims to empower the community through various lectures and exhibitions. This conference marks a breakthrough for the initiative, as they are bringing international speakers for the first time and aim to build and expand the community of professionals and experts in the field of visual culture.
