EUROPEAN DAY OF ARTISTIC CREATIVITY:

PERFORMANCE SITE, CITY-MAKING

A walk through artistic interventions in public space

As part of the European Day of Artistic Creativity project, on March 21. five artists OKO, Ida Blažičko, Marko Pašalić, Duje Medić and Martina Mezak performed interventions at chosen locations in the city’s public space through medium of sculpture, mural, art installation, performans and and sound installation.

A walk with a guided tour for the public through artistic interventions in public space, in the presence of the artists, project managers Dr.Sc. Nevena Škrbić Alempijević and Dr.Sc. Josip Zanki, the President of the Croatian Association of Artists and the students of ethnology and cultural anthropology of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, was held on Monday.

Marina Mesar OKO, Student center

Swan, a mural by Marina Mesar OKO, emerged on one of the walls of the Student Centre, a place rich in cultural anthropologists of challenging history, symbolically filled with multiple meanings by its diverse functions. However, despite a complex historical context offering several potential reference points, OKO opted for a somewhat more personal approach, by focusing on her own understanding and experience of this space. Since she has already created several works in this location, she focused on upgrading her own history. She painted over her old work, created eight years ago, and created a new one in the same place, creating thus a kind of her own palimpsest and, to some extent, renouncing of. The work was created in collaboration with the student Jozefina Ćurković.

Ida Blažičko, Octogon passage

The artist Ida Blažičko presented a hanging installation in the centre of the Octagon passage. The work titled Aithérios is made of natural materials embroidered with thin bamboo. Ultra-light and airy, the material has a certain glow and transparency and the colour changes depending on the intensity of light and time of day. The artist chose the centre of the Octogon passage precisely because the dome has become invisible, and people became oblivious to the beauty of the space. The aim of the installation is to enrich the space and emphasize its magnificence and attract the attention of passers by who would then also notice the dome with stained glass windows. The development of the idea, creation of the work and its installation was done in collaboration with the student Katija Crnčević.

Marko Pašalić, The Ban Jelačić Square

Artistic intervention, performance by Marko Pašalić on the Ban Jelačić Square is the last in a series of six photo-performances the artist performed at various locations around Zagreb, under the name Grad – igralište nasumičnog pristupa [The City – Playground of Random Approach]. The artist selected Ban Jelačić Square as the place of his last performance, which is the central public space of the City of Zagreb, the place of social communication and expression of public opinion of its citizens in relation to public policies. The performance was designed as an experiment that questions the theories of sovereignty by referring to the philosophers like Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben. The work was created in collaboration with Klara Tončić, an ethnology and comparative anthropology student.

Duje Medić, The Europe Square

Duje Medić’s intervention in space is placed on the Europe Square in Zagreb (the crossroads between Cesarčeva and Bakačeva Street). Polystyrene installation Autić s posebnim potrebama za trg s posebnim potrebama [Toy Car With Special Needs for the Square With Special Needs], which resembles a toy-car, was created as a reaction to the controversial circumstances surrounding the creation of the Square and the critique of its architecture, urbanism and design, and it tries to intervene into space using humour. The work was created in collaboration with Ena Grabar, an ethnology and comparative anthropology student.

 

Martina Mezak, Trg žrtava fašizma

Martina Mezak’s work – Laughing Butterflies is a sound installation, set as a part of the Home of the Croatian Association of Artists, Meštrović Pavillion (Trg žrtava fašizma). With the sounds of laughter without bodies, in this multi-layered, polyphonic and controversial space the artist introduced a unique defamiliarization as the experience of an urban place, playfulness and fun from the myth of “laughing butterflies“ of the Pueblo peoples. By abstracting laughter to its primal, archetypal, and by emphasizing its ambivalence – well familiarized with the history of the building and the place, and with her own intimate connection with it, with a subversive twist the author questions the (dis)order of historical physical and symbolic interventions in this space “from above“ and “from below“, as well as their evaluations. The work was created in collaboration with the student/researcher Tomislav Augustinčić.

The Artistic interventions in public space happening on March 21 are a part of the European Day of Artistic Creativity project, through which HDLU is marking the EU project CreArt. The project is implemented in cooperation with the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Zagreb and the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore in Zagreb as a part of the project City-making: space, culture and identity (HRZZ). The documentation was accomplished in collaboration with five students from the Department for Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb.

Consequently, an international scientific conference Performance site and city-making is going to be held on April 4 in the seat of HDLU, with the goal of addressing the issue of sites and non-sites as platforms for creating the meaning of the city, but at the same time as generators of artistic interventions. The meeting will be open to the interested public, and a detailed schedule can be downloaded HERE.

 

The organizers:

 

 

 

With the support of: