This is Not That Time, This is Not That Gallery, the mural • Darinka Pop-Mitić

Darinka Pop-Mitić
This is Not That Time, This is Not That Gallery, the mural

November 29th, 2023 at 6 p.m. – unveiling of the mural and artist talk

The picture story titled This is Not That Time, This Is Not That Gallery, deals with the lives of two galleries, in two cities, in two different time periods. The original Podroom Gallery at Mesnička 2 in Zagreb was established in 1978, as an artists’ working community and existed until 1980, when it simply fell apart, concluding with a letter of incompatible intentions. The second Podroom Gallery began its life in September 2012. The second gallery continues to exist; much like the first Podroom, it is a result of collaboration of a community of people engaged in art. The mural, created as a narrative introduction to the gallery’s basement spaces born in 2012, has been created for the third time. As is the case with many such spaces, the conditions for the functioning of the mural have changed and so has its content. Communities persist and disappear, and what remains is the experience of joint work as experience for our future endeavours. It’s exactly the same this time, in this new iteration, the mural is a historical overview, an inventory of efforts and joint work.

Darinka Pop-Mitić was born in Yugoslavia and lives and works in Belgrade. She explores the relationship between history and the space of memory. Her objects and paintings thus constitute a trigger for souvenir involontaire, which reactualises the past for the viewer. She has won consecutive October Salon international jury awards, in 2008 and 2009 and the AICA Award at the 49th October Salon (2008) and the Golden Award of ULUS for 2021.