Antun Motika – From a portfolio: an exhibition of unexhibited photocollages by Antun Motika

Antun Motika holds a special place in Croatian modern art as an artist whose creative body of work cannot be reduced to a single technique, style, or art movement. His significance stems precisely from a constant need to explore the new possibilities of the image. From the early 1940s, Motika systematically conducted his own studio experiments in which collage, photography, photocollage, decalcomania, frottage, work on glass and cellophane, and various light-based and luminokinetic processes became equal means of artistic expression. In this context, Motika’s photocollage should not be viewed merely as the technical assembly of photographic fragments; he liberates the photographic image from its documentary function and transforms it into an element of a new visual structure. Through the cutting, repositioning, combining, and juxtaposing of various motifs, a new reality emerges—one no longer bound by the logic of everyday space. Photography becomes a material for shaping form rather than simply a record of reality. The exhibited works are being presented to the public for the first time since their creation in Antun Motika’s studio, following restoration and preservation within the City of Pula Art Collection.
The exhibition opens on September 24 at 8:00 PM.