K9 Compassion+, 2005, UV print at synthetic foil, 180x230 cm.

Initiated in the manner of a photographic performance, Zlatko Kopljar conceived K9 Compassion in 2003 in New York during his two-month residency program at the invitation of the Franklin Furnace Archive. At the time he realized a piece under the same title using the media of photography and video which he showed at the Sao Paolo Biennial in 2004. Thematically, K9 Compassion+ is a powerful critique of hegemony as one of the most open global questions expressed currently. It is not coincidental that Kopljar started the work dealing with this theme while in the USA as a paradigm of dominant state communities which determine the most important trends of global politics. But that work soon became a work-in-progress as the question of hegemony is not an exclusive question and Kopljar continues to repeat the action. To date he has carried this out in the USA, and performed the action of kneeling in front of Parliament buildings in Great Britain, the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China and in Bruxelles, the political seat of the European Union. With this, the theme gains a significant denotation and strategically opens up towards multi-directional questions displaced from political, economic or cultural ideologizations. Even though the artist’s position will continue to be based on the projection of his own personal standpoint – a deeply suppressed internal rage – his strategy is, as it has been to now, to attack the fundamental ethical feelings of people: freedom, equality, justice.

In cooperation with: Photography: Christian Nguyen; Production: MSU Zagreb