Our game will feature paintings from acclaimed Croatian young artists. For example, when you enter Orville’s mansion, he has pictures hanging on his walls, from some of our finest fine artists (pun very much intended) as seen here:
So let’s talk to the first one of them – Jurica Pusenjak. Who is he? Well, Jurica Pušenjak was born in September 13 of 1996 in Zagreb. After finishing the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb in 2015 he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he is currently finishing his master’s year in the class of Zoltan Novak.
During his studies, he was awarded two Dean awards and one Rector award for a large scientific-artistic group work. From 2018 onward he is active in a series of exhibitions including the 5th Biennale of Painting in HDLU, co-authoring and exhibiting in the “Tartaglias Shelves” exhibition in the Forum Gallery and “They Are Leaving” in the HAZU Glyptotheque.
We talked to him about his work on Trip the Ark Fantastic art.
What are your interests in painting?
JP: I am interested in painting itself – its possibilities and its limitations… What enthralls me the most in art is the expression through painting. The same thing can be expressed in a myriad different ways. It’s beautiful!
How do you envision the eagle you painted, Coriolanus?
JP: Coriolanus is a revolutionary leading the people to a new era. This is the narrative of his character and that is how I painted him – as a revolutionary!
I can connect this to my own work easily – you see, apart from art, I am interested in the revolution. I keep fantasizing about some anonymous showing up with a message that will change the world.
The first artwork you see is the young eagle in his full strength soaring high in the sky. The ideas of revolution are sparking within him but he still doesn’t know how to ignite them…
And this one?
JP: The same eagle is now more mature, stronger, like a real revolutionary. We can see the artistic influences of Russian socialist realism as well as Nazi-Kunst, which are on the formal level identical, and held together by the idea of art in service of the regime.
What else are you cooking?
JP: There is the project I’m currently working on, an exhibition called “Heroes” where I will exhibit my portraits of around 1300 war heroes of Yugoslavia.
What drew you to work with us on Trip the Ark Fantastic?
JP: The collaboration was exciting perhaps because I have spent my childhood in the late 90s playing similar games, those were point-and-click classics such as Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, Blade Runner, Sanitarium, Broken Sword… I am curiously happy that this genre still persists. I would love to work on this project some more!
Thanks, Jurica Pušenjak! And thanks dear readers! Till next time, make sure to follow us on our various channels, or subscribe to our newsletter, or whatever tickles your fancy!