The Serb National Council and Vizura Aperta are organising an exhibition of the Swiss painter Velimir Ili\u0161evi\u0107: Eschenstock \/ Jasenov prut. The exhibition, held in the presence of the artist, will open on the occasion of the 81st anniversary of the breakout of prisoners from the Jasenovac death camp. The opening ceremony will take place on 22 April 2026 at 7:00 PM at the Serbian Cultural Centre, Preradovi\u0107eva 21, Zagreb.<\/p>\n
The staging of this exhibition in Croatia, precisely within the context of remembrance of the suffering and the breakout from Jasenovac (22 April 1945), is not merely an artistic event opened on that same date, but a necessary encounter with a trauma that finally, through Ili\u0161evi\u0107\u2019s brushstroke, finds its way toward the light.<\/p>\n
\u201cEschenstock\u201d is a beautiful word. Some may even sense a hint of poetry in it. And the series of paintings Velimir Ili\u0161evi\u0107 created in 2013 under that title is beautiful. It is quiet, attentive, withdrawn \u2013 resembling poetry more than anything else. What finely nuanced colours! What unusual combinations. What a shimmer, what layering: painting that deploys its possibilities completely and confidently. But beauty and silence are deceptive. They are, to the same extent as the title of the series itself, a form of translation. \u201cEschenstock\u201d is, in fact, the German rendering of \u201cJasenovac\u201d (literally, \u201cash tree\u201d) \u2013 and it carries a very different resonance, evoking entirely different associations. […] Ili\u0161evi\u0107\u2019s grandmother, mother, and aunts were also interned in that camp; they survived only through strokes of luck. This family history also shaped him as their descendant. Nevertheless, as long as the affected family members were alive, engaging with the subject remained a taboo. And even later, he found it difficult to find the imagery \u2013 a fitting form of expression \u2013 for the brutal reality of such a camp.<\/em><\/p>\n (From the text by Wolfgang Ullrich for the exhibition catalogue Eschenstock \/ Jasenov prut)<\/p>\n Velimir Ili\u0161evi\u0107 is an artist who developed his path independently, outside academic conventions, guided by an inner impulse rooted in his family history. Although he has so far been less present in his home country, his work is highly regarded in a European context. This is evidenced by his presence in numerous public and private collections, among which the following stand out: Kunstmuseum Bern, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen, VIP Bank Vaduz, Mezzanin Stiftung f\u00fcr Kunst, Notenstein La Roche St. Gallen\/Z\u00fcrich, St\u00e4dtisches Kunstmuseum Singen, Muffler Architekten, UBS Ausbildungszentrum Wolfsberg, and numerous other collections.<\/p>\n Exhibition curator \/ Exhibition design: Davorka Peri\u0107<\/p>\n Assistant to the exhibition design: Lea Bulaja<\/p>\n Graphic design: Parabureau \/ Igor Stani\u0161ljevi\u0107 & Tena Kri\u017eanec<\/p>\n Financial support: The Office for Human Rights and the Rights of National Minorities of the Republic of Croatia<\/p>\n Acknowledgements: Lazar Vuji\u0107, Wolfgang Ullrich, Miljenko Jergovi\u0107, Milorad Pupovac, Ezra Bari\u010devi\u0107, The Archive of Serbs in Croatia, Vida TV, Novosti, Igor Stani\u0161ljevi\u0107, Tena Kri\u017eanec, J\u00fcrg Fausch.<\/p>\n Dates: 22 April \u2014 12 May 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Serb National Council and Vizura Aperta are organising an exhibition of the Swiss painter Velimir Ili\u0161evi\u0107: Eschenstock \/ Jasenov prut. The exhibition, held in the presence of the artist, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n