Karlo Štefanek
Missing
28. 4. – 25. 5. 2025.
The work Missing, based on the performance of the same name, never functions in the same way twice. Each iteration is shaped by the place in which it appears, responding to its spatial, political, and social coordinates. Previous versions have been created in cities such as Amsterdam, New York, Venice, and Paris.
Following these iterations, the new Zagreb version, presented at Domino gallery, marks the return of the work, and perhaps of the artist himself, to the city he left at the age of eighteen. Here, the work takes on a more intimate register, playing with the artist’s autobiography — What does it mean to “disappear” from the place you come from? Can absence be constructed within the very landscape of one’s own origin? Can there be such a thing as “nostalgia without consequence”?
This is a Domino Project, Petrinjska 38, Zagreb, HR
Karlo Štefanek is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores how identity is constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed through the media of self-portraiture and performance. At the age of eighteen, Štefanek moved to Amsterdam, where he began laying the groundwork for his artistic methodology. The series Self-Titled (2022-), which integrates both visual and performative elements, has become a cornerstone of his practice, challenging evolving notions of selfhood and perception. Štefanek has been showcased at manifestations, including La Biennale in Venice, where he presented a triptych from the same series as part of the group exhibition By the Means at Hand in the Croatian Pavilion. His work has also been exhibited at festivals such as Becoming (Amsterdam), Perforations (Zagreb), and SerformanceP (São Paulo), as well as in institutions like the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb). Štefanek’s solo exhibitions are scheduled for this year at the HDLU (Osijek), ARL (Dubrovnik), KIC (Zagreb), and Vagon Gallery (Banja Luka). This year he will also participate in the Youth Biennial (Belgrade), Okolo Around (Zagreb), Perforations (Buenos Aires), and the 60th Zagreb Salon (Zagreb). He lives and works between Zagreb, Amsterdam and New York.
