In 1971, Tomislav Gotovac performed Streaking, his first performance in public/urban space, in which he ran bearded and naked through the streets of Belgrade. Similarly, in 1981 in Zagreb, I Love You..., he ran naked (now with shaved beard and hair) through the Zagrebe city center in the midst of tram tracks, running towards the main square and bowing down to kiss the pavement. Gotovac's performances created ruptures and subversions of the everyday routine of the existing socio-political order. As anarchic gestures symbolizing the desire for freedom from all constraints, they renounced the imposed definitions of the ideal artists and politicala subject as an inconspicuous, humble worker contributing to society's progress. Instead, the embodied artistic subject performed an explosion of pure and useless joy, identifying his naked and desiring body as the main protagonist of action. He was arrested by the police on the grounds of disturbing public order and peace.
Lying Naked on the Pavement, Kissing the Pavement (Zagreb, I Love You!). Homage to Howard Hawks' Hatari!Tomislav Gotovac (HR)
performance, Zagreb (HR), 1981
reenactment with Milivoj Beader, public space, Zagreb (HR), 2009
Tomislav Gotovac (HR)
Multimedia artist Tomislav Gotovac (Sombor, 1937 – Zagreb 2010) was into film, photography, made collages and sculptures, changed his own appearance and carried out performances in public space. In the formation of his artistic and life stances a key place was occupied by film: obsessive watching moving images opened new views for him and created critical thinking. Repeated viewings of the same movie turned his attention from the basis of the action to a detailed consideration of the structure of the film medium. He did his first works in photography, but unlike the traditional approach, where the photograph holds his camera in his hands and photographs the world around him, Gotovac directed his lens on himself, his face and body. He produced series of photographs in which he recorded similar gestures (Flicking Through Elle, Breathing the Air, 1963), dedications to film idols (Heads, 1960), and physical changes in his own body (Heads, 1970).
He put on his first happening with a group of chums (Our Happ, 1967). The many actions and performances carried out in public became his trademark (Streaking, 1971, Action 100, 1979, Zagreb, I love you, 1981, and so on). In Gotovac’s film oeuvre, experimental and documentary works stand out (The morning of a fawn, 1963; Line, Blue Rider, Circle 1964), as well as early specimens of films with a precisely conceived structure, an innovative approach to the image and an uncommon procedure for putting in sound. He spent almost a decade (1967-1976) in Belgrade, at the Theatre, Film, Radio and Television Academy. An important event that defined his work in several ways was the film Plastic Jesus by director Lazar Stojanović (1971), where he was leading man and assistant director. In later works he adopted the avant-garde procedure of the use of readymade film material that he reshaped into work of his own. He received a number of commendations for his films at film festivals and thus made sure of his claim to be among key authors of the experimental film. From the mid-seventies, Gotovac figured on the fine arts scene and took part in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad. Along with BadCo he was the Croatian representative at the Venice Biennale in 2011.
