--
Ivona Šimunović has been a member of the Croatian Association of Visual Artists since 2006. She exhibits at solo and group exhibitions. In addition to painting, she is also engaged in pedagogical work. She is a teacher of visual arts and the organizer and leader of numerous art workshops for children and adults. Since 2020, she has been working as a curator pedagogue at the Dubrovnik Art Gallery, where she participates in the design, organization and implementation of the educational program of the Dubrovnik Art Gallery. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Cultural Council of the City of Dubrovnik. Her works can be found in private and public museum collections in Croatia and abroad. She lives and works in Dubrovnik.
--
Ivona Šimunović's solo exhibition entitled "Margaritas" is ambientally integrated into the space of the preserved and partially reconstructed old Croatian royal church of St. Stephen on Pustijerna. The title itself reflects the concept of the so-called visual letter with which the author addresses Margarita, the Croatian queen who, with her husband, donated important relics to the first, small church of St. Stephen. She later built a church over it, the location of which remains hidden from view and everyday city bustle to this day. After her husband's death, in grief, she permanently settled in Dubrovnik, where she lived the life of a nun living next to the church itself, where she was later buried. A series of coloristically intense paintings on canvas on a neutrally muted historical stage is a channel of communication in which the author establishes a dialogue with the theme of this year's Dubrovnik Summer Festival concept, whose focus is on women's roles and women's issues, in a historical but also contemporary context. Margarita, as a woman, but also as a queen, represents one of the most important female protagonists, whose contribution to Dubrovnik's cultural and spiritual heritage is insufficiently emphasized. Through her work, the author of the exhibition wants to remove the dust, both metaphorically and physically, from her name and the location itself, and in this way refers to the observation of frequencies invisible to the human eye. Looking at the environment and revealing the foundations beneath the visible surface, like archaeological research, is a story that introduces us through painting to a female way of observing. Visible and clear, realizing her freedom, a female dialogue opens in the millennial ambience of Pustijerna.
