Međimurje artist Tomislav Horvat is known for creating stunning sculptures using matches. This process requires a significant amount of time, dedication, effort, and patience. Horvat often wakes up at 4 a.m. to work on his sculptures until 7 a.m., before heading off to work. Love for art began when he was still in high school, where he studied civil engineering.

Horvat has always been fascinated by the mosaic made of ceramics from the Italian Renaissance, which led him to experiment with making three-dimensional objects from easily accessible materials such as matches. He started by making models of various buildings, churches, windmills, fortresses and even a laptop from matches before moving on to more challenging projects.

Inspired by the film trilogy of The Godfather, Horvat created his first sculpture ‘The Godfather’ in 2012 and finished it in 2013 by installing 117,000 matches into it. He then went on to create another sculpture inspired by Mozart’s Pianist that incorporated over 210,000 matches and currently stands as his largest work in terms of size. However, one of his most poignant works is ‘Desperate’, a sculpture depicting a man on his knees with a suitcase by his side as he says goodbye to his family. This piece represents the displacement and search for safety that many people experience and was built with over 54,000 matches.

Horvat is currently working on an ambitious new project – a sculpture of Michelangelo working on his masterpiece David titled ‘The Creator’. With over 400,000 matches already incorporated into this massive work-in-progress sculpture, it promises to be something truly extraordinary when completed in the next year or two according to Horvat’s estimates