Perfection of Evolution – UNVEILING

Perfection of Evolution – UNVEILING

Travelling Online Exhibition of the Croatian Natural History Museum on the Occasion of Earth Day, April 22, 2020

Prica Gallery

Exhibition Authors: Nives Borčić Novak, Petar Crnčan, PhD, Iva Mihoci, PhD, and Ivan Razum, PhD

Perfection of Evolution – UNVEILING

In 2016, the Croatian Natural History Museum marked the 30th anniversary of the merger of three institutions: the Croatian National Zoological Museum, the Mineralogical-Petrographical Museum, and the Geological-Palaeontological Museum. To commemorate this important milestone, the Museum opened the exhibition Perfection of Evolution – UNVEILING, in which the exhibition authors, Iva Mihoci, PhD, Vlatka Mičetić Stanković, PhD, Ivan Razum, PhD, and Dragan Bukovec, BSc Eng., presented to the public, for the first time, one of the Museum’s most valuable entomological collections – the Mikšić Beetle Collection.

The collection was exhibited alongside equally valuable mineral and rock specimens from the Museum’s holdings, highlighting the extraordinary diversity of beetles while emphasizing the connection and interdependence between the living and non-living worlds.

The exhibition was exceptionally well received. However, due to the sensitivity and demanding conservation requirements of the Mikšić Beetle Collection, its long-term display to a wider audience is not feasible. For this reason, in 2017 the Museum published an exhibition catalogue featuring approximately one hundred photographs that illustrate the parallels between living and non-living nature – the perfection of evolution in which beetles from the Mikšić Collection merge seamlessly with the minerals and rocks on which they were photographed.

The harmony and correspondence of colours, shapes, patterns, and surface textures between individual insects and minerals were achieved thanks to the richness of the Croatian Natural History Museum’s collections. The photographs featured in both the exhibition and catalogue were created by Nives Borčić, while Petar Crnčan provided invaluable assistance and support in selecting beetles, minerals, and rocks, as well as in developing the photographic compositions. Additional contributions to the preparation of mineral and rock specimens were made by Višnja Lisičar, Silvana Sušić, and Marin Šoufek.

Ten photographs from the catalogue were published in National Geographic Croatia, a significant recognition for both the authors and the Museum. At the end of 2018, a second expanded edition of the catalogue Perfection of Evolution – UNVEILING was published, and the exhibition continues to travel throughout Croatia.

Unveiling

The photographs presented in this exhibition are the result of a direct photographic experiment that interdisciplinarily combines artistic intervention with specimens from the Croatian Natural History Museum’s mineral and rock collections and beetles from the Mikšić Beetle Collection. The result is a visually compelling interplay of natural “ready-made” forms and almost abstract qualities shaped by centuries of natural processes.

The vividly characterised beetles are immersed in mineral structures or set against them in striking contrast, emerging from the darkness of a black background. At times, their colours stand out dramatically against the surrounding darkness, while elsewhere they blend almost imperceptibly into matching tones, challenging viewers to discover what lies hidden. In some compositions, the beetles appear cleverly positioned to complete and enhance naturally occurring patterns embedded in the surfaces of minerals and rocks.

The forms captured in these photographs float within darkness, existing in a space of their own. On one level, they evoke microscopic worlds – cellular structures observed through electron microscopes or neural networks resembling mineral veins. On another, they suggest vast cosmic landscapes, where the dark background recalls dark matter and brilliantly coloured minerals resemble nebulae seen through the Hubble Space Telescope, or mysterious deep-sea creatures drifting through waters untouched by daylight.

Through the richness of possible interpretations and associations they inspire, Nives Borčić’s photographs offer a unique testimony to the diversity of the natural world. They emphasize the omnipresent interdependence and balance between organic and inorganic matter through colour mimicry, contrast, and materiality, juxtaposing living organisms with the abstract structures and forms of minerals.