In the wake of feminist preoccupations in the sense of re-evaluating and analysing the construct of female identity as a cinematic-ideological product (since the cinematic narrative is mostly conditioned by dominant patriarchal social values, which consequently makes them gender-conditioned), the exhibited works—eight large-scale oil on canvas paintings, 28 prints (linocut 50×60) and one print installation—clearly reflect the author’s long-time interest and fascination with the topic of the women’s role in cinema, not only in the sense of the position of women in social and gender divisions, but also in the sense of ideological patterns that made an impact on the media construct of womanliness with a special accent on the femme fatale chapter as a product of the dominant masculine culture. Focused on the consideration of her own view of the image of women’s roles as a portrait gallery—all but one derivatives of cinematic shots with prominent quotes from her favourite heroines from the iconic titles of world and Yugoslav cinema—to Irma Markulin film heritage is more than just an infinite source of artistic inspiration; rather, it is a space of critical articulation of how and to what extent the film industry, especially in local films, made a conscious impact on the collective awareness of women and their place in society. Using film materials in the form of still images from film sets and particularly posters and excerpts from films by different filmmakers who, from individual points of view, focus on the psychology of the female character (including Antonioni, Malle, Godard in European, and Grlić, Makavejev, Petrović and Golik in Yugoslav cinema, her peerless favourites), Markulin recreates a peculiar gallery of strong female characters, seemingly placing an equal accent both on roles and the personalities and charismas of the actresses who embodied them.
Paola Orlić
Irma Markulin (born February 22, 1982, in Banja Luka) is a visual artist based in Berlin. She studied at the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb and earned her degree in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2006. Through the Erasmus program, she studied at UMPRUM in Prague (2004–2005) and later continued her education at the University of the Arts (UdK) and the Weissensee Academy of Art in Berlin, completing her Master’s in Visual Arts (Meisterschülerin) in 2010. She also studied Aesthetic Research at Alice Salomon University (2016–2017) and completed her teacher training with the Berlin Senate, passing the Second State Exam for Teaching in 2022.
Markulin has received numerous international scholarships, including grant Culture Moves Europe 2024 Film Stills, was supported by the Croatian Ministry of Culture (2023), HDLU (2022), BMBF and the Berlin Project Fund for Cultural Education (2017), the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2016), and the Goldrausch art IT program. She is a member of the Association of Women Artists Berlin (VdBK 1867) since 2017. She lives and works in Berlin.
Paola Orlić (Born 1973 in Pula, Croatia) is an Art historian, independent curator and the producer of the World Festival of Animated Film Animafest Zagreb. She graduated with a degree in Art history and Philosophy from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and holds an MA from the College of Art, Ohio University, USA, with a focus on art and film. For more than two decades, she produces film festivals, organizes art events, curates exhibitions, writes, edits and publishes art books, and participates in independent film projects. She wrote, edited and published several art monographs and collaborates with FoAM laboratory in Brussels on the long-term project called PARN (Physical and Alternate Reality Narratives). She is an active member of Croatian Society of Art Historians (DPUH), The Croatian Association of Artists of the Applied Arts (ULUPUH) and Croatian Freelance Artists Associations (HZSU). As a program selector and Jury member, she served at numerous international film festivals, galleries and museums around the world. For her work she was awarded with biennial award Ante Peterlić by Croatian Society of Film Critics (HDFK) and the annual award for promoting interdisciplinarity and visual culture by Croatian Society of Art Historians (DPUH) in 2023.