

The omnipresent pop singer Lady GaGa has rocked both the music and fashion industry in a mere two years, all the while redefining pop-culture with a never-before-seen visual identity. However, due to her extravagance and explicitness she frequently provokes outrage, and she’s become an inevitable item in all contemporary media, but also a new source of artistic ideas. While in anticipation of her live performance at the Zagreb Arena on November 5th, the new pop icon of the 21st century inspired creative artist Igor Jurilj to create the first conceptual Gagaism Exhibition which points out the complex professional machinery which accompanies the life and works of Stefani Angelina Germanotta aka Lady GaGa.
When asked how he came about the idea of the exhibition, Jurilj briefly answered: “The idea was actually born this past April during the ‘Rabbit Hole’ Exhibition preparations, when we shot Croatian rock stars as characters from “Alice in Wonderland”, and was simultaneously blessed with two events: GaGa’s political activism and confirming her Croatia date. Both of these moments have finally marked and confirmed GaGa’s presence on the Croatian scene. Thus those few entries got a backbone and consequently morphed into GaGaism, a critical concept whose boding has yet to be checked out at the exhibition itself, which is divided in several segments.”
From November 4th to December 15th, in the Zagreb music bookstore Rockmark you can view how the installations look in showcase-form with a pâté name “GaGeta”, a reference to Croatia’s long-standing political joke when Croatia’s former President Mesić quipped “why look at her! she’s jumping out of every pâté-tin!” about Jadranka Kosor today’s Prime Minister, who was at the time in the media with alarming frequency. It’s a glass icon, with reference to sacral objects, but still maintaining GaGa consumption in various flavors and textures…
The Exhibition is considered a holistic experience, where you can satisfy all your senses. A symbolical entrance fee of 1 kuna is charged for the GaGaism Exhibition, implying paying for fun, but art as well, along with noting the commercial character of pop icons and popular, primarily American, phenomenons.

