Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb and the Croatian Film Association, with the Institute Tomislav Gotovac as co-organizer, present the retrospective exhibition dedicated to the Genre Film Festival (GEFF), first experimental film festival in the former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe, and one of the key places for the formation of structural film, conceptual art and broader avant-garde tendencies in 1960s.
Opened in December 19, 1963 with symbolic act of anonimus boy who had cut the ribbon in front of the Student Centre, GEFF was created as an expression of resistance to conventional cinematography as well as a platform for affirmation of "anti-film" – understanding of film developed by Zagreb cinema amateurs, intellectuals and artist gathered around Mihovil Pansini. During its editions, the festival grew to become interdisciplinary space for research and experiments, a meeting place for arts, science and life.
From 1963 to 1970, four festival editions were held with stylistically and thematic bold programs: Anti-film and New Tendencies in the film (1963), Exploration of Cinematography and Exploration Through Cinematography (1965), Cybernetics and Aesthetics (1967) and Sexuality as a New Road Towards Humanity as the last edition (prepared for 1969, held in 1970). Although fifth edition of the festival planned under the topic, Unknown Human Energies and Unidentified Senses, has been canceled, GEFF cast a long shadow in the history of experimental film, performative practices and conceptual art.
GEFF attracted auteurs and intellectuals from different fields – film, visual arts, philosophy, critique, science and design. Leading artist and intellectuals from that time participated in its juries, programs and discussions. Among them were Dušan Makavejev, Vatroslav Mimica, Aleksandar Saša Petrović, Danilo Pejović, Radoslav Putar, Aleksander Bassin, Josip Vaništa, Vjenceslav Richter and many others. Side programs included expanded film, art performances, concerts, theater and dance plays, lectures in sciences and technology, and even public demonstrations by athletes and models – to affirm GEFF as a system of open knowledge, creative practice and social experimentation.
Exhibition aims to reopen GEFF as a place for dialogue and research. Original GEFF films will be presented to the audience as well as rich archive documentation: photos, magazines, letters, screenplays, posters, newspapers, bulletins, transcripts of discussions, and other material evidencing layered history of the festival. Resources were pulled together from collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Croatian Film Association, the Institute Tomislav Gotovac, the Zagreb Film, the Academic Film Centre and the Yugoslav Film Archive in Belgrade, the Slovenian Cinematheque and Modern Gallery in Ljubljana, the Cine Club Split, and from private archives.
The exhibition set up goes with side discursive programs: screenings, lectures, round tables and talks, at which participants in authentic GEFF events, curators, researchers and representatives of international institutions will attend, and all of them today recognizes GEFF as an indispensable reference in the history of experimental film and art innovations in the twentieth century.
Exhibition concept is signed by Diana Nenadić and Darko Šimičić, and after the opening scheduled for December 11, 7 pm, the artist Katalin Ladik will stage her art performance at the Gorgona Hall in 7:30 pm.
Katalin Ladik appeared on the art scene of her hometown Novi Sad by the end of the 1960s. As distinctly multimedia artist, Ladik in her practice has covered phonic and visual poetry, visual arts, acting, happening, sound experiments and mail art. In her public acts as an artist, she managed to radically break down moralistic barriers. "My body became an instrument, and poem is a living being that would occasionally bite listener or spectator", said Katalin Ladik. And precisely with those words it is possible to describe her performance, "The Shaman Poem" of historical significance today, and staged in April 1970 at the GEFF festival. In that performance, artist focused on ancient tradition of the shamanistic medicine woman possessing mystical powers, and simultaneously used local the folk tradition. At this juncture, she performs her own poetry, juxtaposes different languages, and as the only actor she is the center of her poetic-ritual theatre.
At the opening of the exhibition GEFF 63 – 69 in the Museum of Contemporary Art, artist will stage the multimedia performance "Foreign Substance" in the Gorgona Hall, in which she communicate on the air with herself, using video projection and staging, and comment on herself as she was in the 1970.
In her extraordinary art career and practice, Katalin Ladik distinguished herself as a pivotal neo-avant-garde figure in the Central and Eastern Europe, which was affirmed by her participation at international exhibitions, such as documenta 14, and retrospective exhibitions of her work held in Novi Sad, Munich, Aachen and Stockholm as well as with numerous book dedicated to her oeuvre. For her achievements in arts, she was awarded with the 2016 LennonOno Grant for Peace. Katalin Ladik is living in Budapest and working around the world.
GEFF 63 – 69
December 11, 2025 – February 15, 2026
MSU/Black box, First floor
