GMK x Željko Beljan, Iva Jurić: Like real footballers
The book promotion by artist Željko Beljan and editor Iva Jurić will be accompanied by friendly football matches, in the spirit of togetherness and collective play, as a symbolic continuation of the story that the book records and brings to life.
"Like Real Footballers" is an art book that emerged from the authors' two-year research process, which took place in collaboration with the curatorial collective WHW and the Generator of Multidisciplinary Co-Productions.
Through interviews, archival research, fieldwork, and artistic interpretation, the book reconstructs the forgotten micro-histories of the everyday lives of workers at the former factory giant Borovo, with a focus on the first women's football match in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, played in 1938 in Borovo.
Promotion participants: Željko Beljan, Iva Jurić, Tea Matanović, Antonela Solenički, Bojan Stojčić, Lovro Škiljić.
Željko Beljan (Vukovar, 1984) is a visual artist whose practice explores the phenomenon of handicraft and its position within contemporary art. His work particularly focuses on the intersection between handicraft and amateur, hobbyist sports, emphasizing participation and audience involvement in the realization of artworks. He graduated from the Department of Animation and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2021. He was a finalist for the Radoslav Putar Award in 2023 and is an alumnus of WHW Akademija (2022). Since 2011, he has taken part in numerous group exhibitions across Croatia and the region, as well as held several solo shows.
Iva Jurić (Zagreb, 1989) is a translator and editor with a strong interest in contemporary art. Over the past two years, she has authored several exhibition forewords for emerging artists. She occasionally assists with project applications and provides technical and production support during exhibition setups. In 2025, she is a participant in NOVAci—an educational and exhibition program organized by WHW and Pogon — Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth, aimed at young professionals in the field of contemporary art.
