Exhibition opening. Photo: Borut Brozović / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
Matej Knežević – an award-winning visual artist, physician, and director of Ligatura, a hybrid art and medical space located within the Urology Clinic of Zagreb’s University Hospital Center in Vinogradska Street – will present a series of paintings created using his non-dominant left hand at his solo exhibition Manus Lateri Sinistri.
On Thursday, 4 September 2025, at 7 PM, we will host an artist talk, followed by the exhibition opening at 8 PM. After the opening, the exhibition will be on view until 25 September.
Gallery opening hours:
Monday – Friday 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. | 5 – 8 p.m.
Saturday 5 – 8 p.m.
– closed on Sundays and public holidays
»In this series of paintings created with the non-dominant left hand, trust is placed in a part of the body of lesser ability, and therefore of uncertain outcome. The intention of this intervention is to carry out a process of training through artistic activity, in order to achieve medical application. The development of left-hand skill is particularly valuable in contemporary surgical techniques that demand a high degree of bimanuality.
Drawing from medical practice, where precision, control, and repetitive exercise are essential, the aim is to enter into training as a form of personal and symbolic gesture. At the core lies the idea of cultivating new precision, building neuromuscular memory, and confronting awkwardness and failure. Each painting is a trace of that process, not as a final aesthetic product, but as a document of processuality, bodily learning, effort, and discipline. The works are consciously left uncorrected: the lines uncertain, the forms fragmented. Yet within this “wrongness” a new register of expression emerges—one born of persistence, trial, and daily practice.«
Photo: Borut Brozović / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
»Technically, the works are made with an iodine solution used to sterilize the patient’s skin in preparation for surgery, while their motifs are drawn from a filmic reference: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. In Wes Anderson’s film, the protagonist devotes immense energy to cultivating and training his ability, in order to return greater benefit to society.
In medicine, one is taught there is no room for error. In art, error often becomes the path. This series of works is created by a hand that cannot write or draw, but is learning. In training the left hand, what is also being trained is the idea of vulnerability, discipline, and alternative possibility. Medical precision shifts into artistic attempt, where each work is imperfect—yet sincere.«
Matej Knežević & Igor Eškinja, artist talk. Photo: Borut Brozović / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
☛Filodrammatica Gallery, Korzo 28/1, Rijeka
ARTIST TALK:
Thursday, 4 September, at 7 PM
EXHIBITION OPENING:
Thursday, 4 September, at 8 PM
GALLERY OPENING HOURS:
Monday – Friday 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. | 5 – 8 p.m.
Saturday 5 – 8 p.m.
(closed on Sundays and public holidays; contact us to arrange another time of your visit)
MATEJ KNEŽEVIĆ
