Neli Ružić’s exhibition at Sikirica Gallery displays the works TheDry cleaner’s Galeb (1996/1998, Split), The Brush (2005, Mexico City), The End of the Thread (2019, Sinj), Ana (2019, Sinj), The Red Forest (2012, Mexico City), The Plaque/Two Mountains (2016, Split), Two Mountains(2016, Split). The works, created partly in Croatia and partly in Mexico, primarily point out the displaced point of view (of an emigrant) through which the artist analyzes her own/family situation in the context of postwar social transition. By using autobiographical elements in the narratives she creates, she raises important social questions, such as history revisionism (The Brush, The Drycleaner’s Galeb), the impact of great ideological narratives on common people’s destinies (The Plaque/Two Mountains, The Red Forest), deindustrialisation (The End of the Thread), workers’ position (Ana). Due to the works’ critical attitude towards society, their potential for broader social engagement established in the field of the sensible is going to be discussed, relying on Rancière’s concept of the distribution of the sensible and the term of the political in art.
Dragana Modrić (excerpt from curatorial text)