Jagoda Kaloper was a Croatian painter and actress known for groundbreaking roles in classic films in the former Yugoslav cinema.
Biography
A native of Zagreb, Yugoslavia Kaloper made her screen debut in the 1965 filmKljuč, lacking any previous acting experience. She made a good impression and continued to appear in films, including the 1969 drama Handcuffs. She has received following awards for her acting: Award of City of Zagreb "Kula Lotrscak“, "Silver Arena“ in Pula Festival, "Empress Teodora“ in Nis Festival, as well as "Golden Arena“ in Pula Festival. She was best known internationally for her role of a sexually liberated woman in the 1971 cult film . Parallel to her career on film, Jagoda Kaloper has built a career in arts. She has graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts in 1970. In the same year, she became a member of the Croatian Association of Artists. She has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions. She also created graphic design for various magazines, books, catalogues and posters, as well as visual identity in industry and culture. She designed her line of ceramic jewelry, worked on film sets and costumes, set exhibitions and created visual solutions for urban problems. For her visual creations, she won numerous awards: award of Zagreb Salon in the "Proposal“ section, award for the illustration of children's book "Tonkica Palonkica“ on Beograd Book Fair, award for graphic solution for the monography "Lenin“, as well as award "Ivana Brlic Mazuranic“ for the best illustration of a children's book. In later years, she occasionally appeared in smaller film and television roles, preferring to pursue her art career. She has also worked on production and costume design for films. In 2010, Jagoda Kaloper has written and directed her first art film "Beyond the Mirror". This is a collage of clips from films she has played in from the '60s until recently and frames of herself today, which she made with a hand-held digital camera on reflective surfaces. The result is a multi-layered work on identity, youth, aging, being a woman in different times and socio-political systems. In 2011, the film won the first award at the competition T-HT i MSU and was acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. It was shown at Pula Film Festival and I Mille Occhi, Trieste Film Festival. In 2013, art historian Leonida Kovač published a bilingual book about Jagoda's movie under the title "U zrcalu kulturalnog ekrana: Jagoda Kaloper / In the Mirror of the Cultural Screen: Jagoda Kaloper" Jagoda Kaloper was married to an architect Radovan Tajder, they had one daughter, author Ana Tajder. She died in Vienna on October 1, 2016.
