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M. Božo Biškupić
Minister of Culture
Runjaninova 2, 10000 Zagreb
Fax +385 1 4866 380

cc:
Zeljko Kipke, Commissioner of the Croatian Pavillion
Branko Franceschi, Executive director, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka

Robert Storr
Artistic Director, 52. International Art Exhibition, Biennale di Venezia

21 March 2007

Dear M. Biškupić,

We sharply protest that the commissioner of the Croatian Pavilion has excluded David Maljkovic from representing Croatia at the next Venice Biennial. This cancellation of an artistic project which has already been announced to the public is unprofessional and unacceptable, especially since the arguments for the cancellation are more than obscure.

David Maljkovic is one of the most sought after artists of his generation. He participated in the last Istanbul Biennial, has currently a show at PS.1 in New York and three more exhibitions coming up this year at the Whitechapel London, CAPC Bordeaux and Kunstverein Hamburg. His work is found in many international public and private collections. Thus, he is a worthy candidate for his country’s representation at an international art event like the Venice Biennial, and his international reputation would have drawn a lot of attention to the Croatian Pavilion. The commissioner and curator must have been aware of these qualities, when they chose him in the first place. Now the commissioner Zeljko Kipke removed the artist from the pavilion, claiming that David Maljkovic’s project was too complicated and expensive and the artist not being cooperative, being too busy with other exhibitions.

The facts are: Croatia has rented the Area Scarpa at the Querini Stampalia for the Pavilion. For this predetermined space, David and his architect drew up a coherent and sound installation framework for the presentation of his work Lost Memories from these Days which is totally plausible within the line of David’s artistic vocabulary. But the commissioner and the curator did not like the proposal and supposedly, also the Querini Stampalia had reservations about the proposal on the grounds of monument protection and offered a different space in the building. The commissioner posed an extremely tight deadline for a concept for the new space at Querini Stampalia. It was impossible to meet this deadline, as David had to be in Bordeaux to set up his exhibition 2 months in advance of the exhibition’s actual opening, precisely to give him enough time to work on his installation in Venice in May.

Commissioner and curator were well aware, that David had three museum shows scheduled before the Venice Biennial. This was even made use of for a joint advertising campaign of these institutions and the Croatian Pavilion, which was particularly convenient since the Pavilion has only a tiny budget for advertising. Now suddenly, this fortunate coincidence was turned against the artist, claiming that obviously he is too busy to work properly for the Croatian Pavilion. When David asked for an extension of the deadline to work out a new concept this was refused and subsequently he was informed by email from the commissioner that he no longer represents Croatia in Venice.

This is the second time that Croatian officials kick out the originally selected artist from the national representation at a Biennial. A few years ago, the artist Sanja Ivekovic was kicked out of the representation of Croatia for the Sao Paulo Biennale 2002, by the Croatian commissioner under similarly unacceptable circumstances. We have to come to the understanding that artistic freedom does not mean much in Croatia but power games do. – It is not the commissioner and the curator who make the art, it is the artist.

All of us have been or are working with David on exhibitions and he has been precise and cooperative. Under no circumstance does he deserve to be treated like this. We sharply protest against his removal from the Croatian Pavilion.

Charlotte Laubard, Director, CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux

On behalf of
Charlotte Bagger Brandt, Curator, U-TURN, Quadrennial for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen
Ami Barak, Director, Nouveaux projets, Département de l'Art dans la Ville, Paris
Iwona Blazwick, Director, Whitechapel, London
Rene Block, Curator the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennial
Charles Esche, Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Yilmaz Dziewior, Director, Kunstverein, Hamburg
Anselm Franke, Director, Extra City, Antwerp
Hou Hanru, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco
Alanna Heiss, Director, P.S. 1, New York
Gabriele Horn, Director, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
Annet Gelink, Director, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam
Vasif Kortun, Director Platform Garanti, Istanbul and Curator of the Turkish Pavilion
Sabrina van der Ley, Artistic Director, Art Forum Berlin
Joanna Mytkowska, Curator, Centre George Pompidou, Paris
Solvej Helweg Ovesen, Curator, U-TURN, Copenhagen
Christian Rattemeyer, Associate Curator, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Markus Richter, Curator, European Art Projects, Berlin
Judith Schwarzbart, Curator, U-TURN, Copenhagen
Andrea Tarsia, Head of Exhibitions & Projects, Whitechapel, London