PAF Cult section introduces those personalities whose work defines the field of moving image animation. The Croat, Ivan Ladislav Galeta, the contemporary director of the Department of Animation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, ranks highly among film animators, experimental filmmakers (representatives of structural film) as well as videoartists.
He was born in Vinkovci on May 9, 1947, the son of a Hungarian mother and father of Czech origin. Currently he lives in the village of Kraj Gornji, near Zagreb. Besides film and video production he is engaged in Land art and the ecology of art production. Being influenced by his conceptual work, Galeta set up the first day without artistic production in 2007 which, according to the 'day without cars' model, draws attention to the ecological load resulting from any excessive activity.
He graduated from the School of Applied Arts (artistic techniques of applied graphics) in Zagreb (1967), and later graduated in Fine Arts from the Faculty of Teacher Education (1969) and in Pedagogy from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (1981). He has worked as a mentor and cinematographer in the Electronic workshop of the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb (1971-1977). Between 1977 and 1990 he was the head of the Multimedia Center (MM) of theUniversity's Student Centre, the first in Croatia to systematically screen Croatian and international experimental film and video achievements.
He is the founder and manager of the art cinema 'Filmoteka 16' (1991-1994). Since 1993 he has been the associate adviser for media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, becoming a docent in 1997 and going on to become associate professor in 2002 and full-time professor in 2007. He initiated the introduction of animation studies (in 2000) and new media studies (2004) at the same Academy.
As a part of the prestigious Index DVD edition, Galeta's monography was issued in 2008. Ivan Ladislav Galeta will have three lectures in Olomouc, he will present his own work divided into films and videos, the third lecture is to be a surprise introducing production of the contemporary generation of Croatian artists. Galeta's lectures often involve the use of the author's schemes and graphs full of exact as well as transcendental connotations. A screen board as well as classic board and variety of coloured chalk will be part of the lecture.
Presentation of Galeta's work is illustrated also by the poetical "message" by Miklós Peternák, a Hungarian historian of art and media artist, who works at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest.
Martin Mazanec
