Critical Tourism (Rijeka exhibition)
on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m
Critical tourism implies a critique of haphazard touristification and the reflection of its social and aesthetic connotations. Critical tourism is aimed at modelling a critical discourse that challenges the commercial strive for mono-economy of tourism in Croatia and elsewhere, and its consequences on cultural, social and spatial development. The exhibition represents a selection of works of artists produced or coproduced by the grey) (area association, a space of contemporary and media art from Korčula, with three of its members also being exhibitors: Darko Fritz, Edita Pecotić, and Ivan Ramljak.
The town of Korčula is fanciful, with fortifications and towers built throughout the 14th and 15th century. The houses are full of picturesque details carved in stone, which is also their sole construction material. Occasional ruins and unmaintained spaces overgrown with greenery enhance the contemporary romanticised image of a medieval town. As is also the case with similar smaller boroughs with pronounced historical heritage, it is no wonder that the local population over-identified with the town and, overlooking the currently poor condition of the town’s infrastructure – which regularly falls apart in overcrowded summer months – spiritually feeds on the beauty from the past, from which they also seek to profit through tourism. Since local shipbuilding and other economic activities have all but disappeared, tourism has unfortunately become the main focus of both the residents and the institutions that are supposed to look after the public interest. Neither the residents nor the local administration wish to see the negative consequences of total touristification of nearby cities of Dubrovnik and Venice, the devastation of space and the economic unsustainability of mono-economy caused by tourism. Since there are no long-term guidelines on cultural tourism or cultural policies at the local or state level, a space opened up for various (quasi-)creative industries and populist programmes, e.g., the stagings of historical military battles or fabricated quasi-historic simulacra and stories, such as the one of Marco Polo being born on Korčula. This process has been termed Disneyfication after Disneyland, a physical town staging fiction.
On the one hand, grey) (area seeks to actively include contemporary local and international creativity within the existing framework of so-called cultural tourism, which primarily relies on traditional contents of cultural heritage. With the programme of artistic residencies, production of works in Korčula and personal presence of artists and guest curators in programme implementation, grey) (area contributes to active participation of artists/visitors, whereby it displaces them from the passive/consumerist position of a tourist. On the other hand, through one of the programme lines entitled Critical Tourism, grey) (area presents a selection of artistic works and projects reflecting on various, primarily negative consequences of tourism, with emphasis on the concept of common goods of a community, such as public space and infrastructure. The exhibition represents a selection of works of artists who thematise tourism in general through artistic interpretations of said topic, using them as tools for commenting the sociocultural and political-economic practices while putting emphasis on and directing the view towards the ethics, poetics, and policies of space. As case studies, its methodologies can be applied to similar tourist locations/destinations all over the world.
The starting point of all activities of grey) (area is learning and knowledge through practice. The same methodology is applied to artistic and curatorial research: the projects do not depart from set premises, but rather establish themselves in theoretical discoveries during the project, through practice. I term this methodology curatorial practice a posteriori, curating as praxis. In this very notion I see a significant deviation from the dominant curatorial practices of contemporary art in recent decades, ever since the curators have taken over the role of main authors who often illustrate with the artworks their own, previously set theses, postulates, and theories. This achieves merely an illusion of curatorial and artistic interactions since the hypotheses have been set in advance, with the top-down method, and primarily represent the curator’s aesthetics, while the artworks are merely a tool of its actualisation. I term such aspect a priori curating. Contrary to this, grey) (area operates through curatorial practices a posteriori, through the application of praxis in the context of contemporary art, where discoveries are accumulated and aesthetics are formed through years-long programmatic guidelines following the merely indicated starting positions of curatorial initiations. In the field of common interest of the curator and the artist, the curator listens to art instead of imposing it. This is how the programmatic guideline of grey) (area entitled Critical Tourism developed, which is achieved through a years-long, open programme. The results of the second programmatic guideline, entitled History of Contemporaneity, offer possible solutions to questions opened up by Critical Tourism, thus indicating good cultural and artistic practices from the history of the 21st century and the specificity of the island of Korčula as the model of sustainable insular development. Through the project guideline History of Contemporaneity, grey) (area actualises a series of years-long scientific and research projects that include the production and presentation of new artworks. The scientific research Industrial Heritage of the Island of Korčula, led by Marija Borovičkić and Lea Vene, was represented at the exhibition with the artist’s book If the Factory Honked by Božena Končić Badurina, issued following the workshop Fabrikivanje, Industrial Heritage of Vela Luka. The scientific and artistic research International Artists’ Meetings in Vela Luka 1960–1972, led by Darko Fritz, was presented with his experimental film Imagined Futures: Tourism. The research on architect and designer Bernardo Bernardi with emphasis on projects implemented on the island of Korčula, led by Darko Fritz and Sani Sardelić, was presented through the artwork Interior Standstill by Maja Marković, created following the artistic residency in Korčula. The production of the art poster by Igor Grubić, related to Korčula Summer School and the journal Praxis – the gathering place of philosophers and thinkers from all over the world in the period between 1963 and 1974 – was also initiated. grey) (area was the first in the island of Korčula to present the film works by Mihovil Pansini, born in the town of Korčula, while Ivan Ramljak and Darko Fritz led the research project Cinematography of Adriatic Islands, encompassing the research of history of film screening and the mapping of all locations at which cinemas functioned permanently or temporarily, as well as providing an insight into the programme and distribution of films. The scientific and artistic research encompasses the interdisciplinary approach of curators, artists, cultural anthropologists and other experts, as well as the local community, institutions, associations and initiatives presented in a series of exhibitions, artistic projects, scientific symposia, texts, public lectures, and on the Association’s website (sivazona.hr).
The project guidelines Critical Tourism and History of Contemporaneity offer new models of recognising and valorising cultural and artistic heritage by starting from the island of Korčula, but also by transgressing the established territorial framework. These areas of artistic and cultural practices are noted and singled out as relevant for the contemporary moment that is in dialogue with the future. The set topics are elaborated over a longer period of time as presentations and productions of relevant contents, whereby aesthetic potential is accumulated and the theoretical framework is potentially formed. The attitude is cognised and accepted on the basis of experience and perception, a posteriori, unlike the today-dominating curatorial practice which a priori conditions the aesthetics of that which is shown, wherewith the presentation of these artworks can be comprehended as an open system for the accumulation of knowledge through aesthetic perception.
Darko Fritz
About authors
Boris Cvjetanović (b. 1953) attended The High School of Applied Arts and graduated from the Fine Art Department of the Teachers Training Academy in Zagreb in 1976. He worked as a sculptor – restorer at the Croatian Restoration Institute from 1976 to 1984. In 1981 he became involved in photography and began working for the student papers SL where he was the photography editor in 1987 and 1988. He has been working as a professional photographer since 1984. Since 1981 until present time he had about sixty solo exhibitions and he has participated in a number of group exhibitions in Croatia, European countries, Japan, USA and Australia. He has published photographs in numerous newspapers and magazines. Won prizes in Japan at the exhibition -ism '95: The 1st Tokyo International Photo-Biennale – Nikon Camera Co. Award; Grand Prix of the exhibition Croatian Photography in 1997 and Homo Volans Award in 1997.
In 1996 published a book of photographs Scenes Without Significance. His photos were published in the book by Francesco Bonami Echoes – Contemporary Art at the Age of Endless Conclusions (The Monacelli Press, New York, 1996). He represented Croatia at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.
His photos are in the collections of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Croatian History Museum in Zagreb, Gallery Dante Marino Cettina in Umag Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, Gallery of Fine Arts in Split (Croatia) and private collections.
Jana Dabac (b. 1978) graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb in 2004 with a project for the Museum of Photography. At the international architectural competition, The Harbourpolis Hamburg, as part of the team, won the first prize and received the Rector's Award in 2004. He cooperates as a designer with various architectural offices, and in 2007 he founded the architecture and design office DiaPozitiva. Since 2003, he has participated in numerous architectural-urban planning and design exhibitions and competitions and has won several awards. 2010-11. works in the editorial office of the magazine Man and Space of the Association of Croatian Architects.
In 2011, she founded the artistic tandem of Curice with Juran Hraste, with whom she holds an exhibition Obsessed with Frame, &TD gallery, Zagreb, and exhibits in the galleries Greta, Nano, Galerija Matice Hrvatske and Temunak 39 in Zagreb and Moria in Stari Grad.
Independently, in 2013, she exhibited the series of photographs Rijeka je more in the Croatian Theater in Pécs. The project Crvena nit was exhibited at a solo exhibition at the Vladimir Nazor Library in Zagreb in 2018, and Intimate Distance at the HT award for contemporary art at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb in 2019. She was at the artistic residency of the grey) (area association in Korčula in 2020. and in 2021 she exhibited in the Korčula Town Museum. Together with Peter Dabac at the exhibition Freedom from and Freedom for, Principij Gallery of Rijeka Photo Club, 2020 and Spot Gallery, Zagreb, 2024.
janadabac.wixsite.com/janadabac
Vitar Drinković (b. 1983) received his master's degree in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2008. During his studies, he spends one semester at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA. In 2014, he finished his master's degree in animation and new media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where during his studies he participated in a student exchange at London Metropolitan University, England. He created more than twenty solo exhibitions and eight sculptures in public space, participated in fourteen art workshops. He exhibited sixty group exhibitions in Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada and France. He is the winner of several awards, recognitions and scholarships and a finalist of the Radoslav Putar award in 2021. He works at the intersection of technology, science and art through the creation of interactive devices, inventions and installations that often serve as mediators in communication between people. The intention is to explore and create a new context, "conditions" for a different sensory and thought cognition of everyday life. Member of HDLU and HZSU.
www.vitardrinkovic.com
Katerina Duda (b. 1989) mastered Animated film and New Media at the Academy of Fine arts, and she mastered Sociology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. In her artistic work she starts with the city and its spaces through an interdisciplinary and inter-media approach. She combines essays in the form of an artist book or a video, as well as social practice art, actions and interventions in public space. It is important to note, that the approach is site-specific, meaning that it begins by thinking about the context, the space given and its users and adjusting the piece for its specific audience. She has been interested in how tourism shapes the city space and how this influences its local residents. Some of the exhibitions and projects in which she participated are: Krov, tuš, roštilj, fuš (Galerija 90-60-90, 2021), 021 Ostrale Biennale (Dresden, 2021), Rijeka: a chronicle of movements (GSG, 2020), Hands, sheets, broom: statistical yearbook (GSG, Rijeka 2019), What will the fund do for us? (GMK, 2018), Thank you, and now Nothing (Forum Gallery, 2017), Korak za Koteks (VN Gallery, 2017), The East is West of the West (Mediterranea 18 - Young Artists Biennale, Tirana, 2017). She is the author of the short documentary films Strujanja (2019, Restart Laboratorij) and Rezidba (2015, Restart ŠDF) shown at international and domestic festivals.
www.katerinaduda.net
Darko Fritz (b. 1966) is a visual artist and freelance curator. He has presented his work at more than thirty solo and over a hundred group exhibitions worldwide, and was also active in the artistic groups The Imitation of Life Studio (Studio Imitacija Života, with Željko Serdarević, 1987–1990) and Cathedraal (Katedrala, 1988). He critically observes the society-changing technology, while his work bridges the gap between contemporary art, media art and network culture, thereby taking over topics such as glitch and monitoring.
In 2006, he initiated the association siva) (zona [grey) (area], as part of which he has curated more than 50 exhibitions. The list of over a hundred exhibitions he has hitherto curated includes I am Still Alive (digital art of the 1960s and the 1970s, and the recent low-tech and internet art), Zagreb, 2000; CLUB.NL – Contemporary Art and Art Networks from the Netherlands, Dubrovnik, 2000; bit international – [New] Tendencies – Computers and Visual Research, 1961–1973, Neue Galerie, Graz, 2007, and ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2008–2009; Angles and Intersections (co-curated with Nina Czegledy, Elena Rossi and Peter Dobrila, art director: Christiane Paul), MMSU, Rijeka, 2009; and Histories of Post-Digital, Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, 2014.
He authored the book Digital Art in Croatia (1968 –1984), Technical Museum Nikola Tesla, Zagreb, 2021, and the eponymous exhibition in 2022, as well as the thematic segment Media Art for culturenet.hr, 2002. He co-edited (with M. Gattin, M. Rosen, and P. Weibel) the book A Little-Known Story About a Movement, a Magazine, and the Computer’s Arrival in Art: New Tendencies and Bit International, 1961–1973, ZKM, Karlsruhe / MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2011. He is a member of the professional organisations AICA, HDLU and HZSU, and an honorary member of ULUPUH.
www.darkofritz.net
Dina Gligo (b. 1986) earned her Master in Art (MFA, Sculpture) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2012. A member of the Croatian Association of Artists since 2011, of the Croatian Association of Professional Artists since 2018, and the Art Director of Format C, an artist organization focused on digital art, experimental multimedia research and collaborative creation, since 2014. (Co)works as an independent lecturer; active as an organizer and an artist in the areas of visual | digital | net art; works in stop-motion animation and character design; employed in 2017-19 by the ACC Attack NGO as a project assistant, and was a Web-Based Media Fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2018-19. A member of the CTHR workgroup and a Board Member at the Operation City Association Alliance since 2019.
www.formatc.hr
Vedran Gligo (b. 1984) is a self–taught DIY hacker/artist/cultural event organizer. He applies open-source principles in everyday life and practice and empowers the local community by holding free and open digital workshops in Zagreb’s Autonomous Cultural Center through the hacklab01 project, which he co-founded in 2009. He practises in the fields of open source, promoting the adoption of GNU / Linux, glitch art, large-scale online collaborative art, independent culture production, (h)ac(k)tivism (...).
www.v3d.space
Igor Grubić (b. 1969) is one of Croatia's most accomplished and internationally acclaimed artists. His work includes site-specific interventions in public spaces, photography, and film. Since 2000 he is also working as a producer and author of documentaries, TV reportages and socially committed commercials. Grubić's project sits firmly in the humanist dimension, bridging together poetics, politics and social reality. He presented Croatia at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019). Exhibitions include, among others: Tirana Biennial 2 (2003); Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt, 2002); Manifesta 9 (Genk, 2012); 50th October Salon (Belgrade, 2009); Gender Check, MuMOK (Vienna, 2009); 11th Istanbul Biennial (2009); 4th Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg (2011); East Side Stories, Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2012); Gwangju Biennale (2014); Zero Tolerance, MOMA PS1 (New York 2014); Degrees of Freedom, MAMbo (Bologna, 2015); 5th Thessaloniki Biennial (2015); Cut / Rez, MSU (Zagreb, 2018); Heavenly creatures, MG+MSUM (Ljubljana, 2018); The Value of Freedom, Belvedere 21 (Vienna, 2018); Yerevan Biennial – The Time Complex (2020); Bigger than myself, MAXXI (Roma, 2021).
www.igorgrubic.org
Andreja Kulunčić (b. 1968) studied sculpture, graduating in 1992 from the Faculty of Applied Arts and Design in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia. From 1992 to 1994 studied at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. She lives in Croatia, where she teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Department of New Media. Since 2009 she has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, majoring in New Media. She is the co-founder of the association Multidisciplinary Author's Projects and Actions (MAPA) for art, science and technology, founded 2001 in Zagreb.
Her work has been presented at international exhibitions, including Documenta 11 (Kassel), Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt/Main), 8. Istanbul Biennial (Istanbul), Liverpool Biennial04 (Liverpool), 3. Tirana biennial (Tirana), 10. Triennial-India (New Delhi) among others. At collective shows in museums, including Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), PS1 (New York), Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Museum MUAC (Mexico City), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Garage Museum (Moskva), Kumu Art Museum (Tallinn), Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), Museum of Contemporary Art (Ljubljana), Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Warshaw), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Rijeka), Lentos kunstmuseum (Linz), Museum of Modern Art (Saint-Etienne), Ludwig Museum (Budapest). At solo shows, including Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City), Museo MADRE (Napoli), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Rijeka), Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade), Art in General (New York), Artspace Visual Art Canter (Sydney), The Art Center Silkeborg Bad (Denmark), Darat Al Funun (Jordan), Gallery NOVA, Gallery Miroslav Kraljević and Gallery Forum (Zagreb).
www.andreja.info
Božena Končić Badurina (b. 1967) is a visual artist. She graduated in German and Russian language and literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb in 1995. She also took a BFA at the printmaking department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1996. In her artistic work, she uses and combines various media, with an emphasis on drawing, text and performance. She exhibited at numerous solo and group shows in venues like MAXXI, Rome; MSUM, Ljubljana, Art in General, New York; MSU Zagreb; Carre d'Art, Nimes; MMSU, Rijeka, Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik; La Galerie de Locataires/Fresnoy, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana. Her work has won her a several prizes. She has taken part in several artist-in-residence programs like Q21, Museums Quartier Residency, Vienna, 2019; grey) (area / GMK, Korčula, 2017; Kunstaspekte/Kulturamt, Düsseldorf 2015; Art in General, New York, 2010.
www.koncicbadurina.com
Jelena Lovrec (b. 1989) is a multimedia artist whose projects are procedural and participatory in nature, and she creates them in the medium of documentary photography, audio-video installations, performances and books. In 2014, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and has participated in numerous exhibitions in the country and abroad. She is a finalist of the Radoslav Putar Award (2021) and winner of the Best Young Artist Award, HDLU (2019), Kranjčar Gallery Awards, 34th Salon mladih Panoptikon (2018), Special Commendations, 33rd Salon mladih Troškovnik (2016), Awards VIG– Junge Kunst Aus CEE (2013), Awards Essl Art Award (2013).
Maja Marković (b. 1979) holds an MA in painting from the Academy Of Fine Arts, Zagreb. Her practice is focused on drawing techniques, but these drawings are enhanced into spatial installations consisting of several parts. Investigating and interpreting space possibilities, in the attempt to reach its integrality, she stays devoted to the aesthetics of modernism and the ambiguous character of the architecture and city-planning of that period. She investigates structures and combines them by highlighting their particular portions in colour, to direct the viewer’s gaze and force him to form an attitude. Seemingly devoid of content, and often neglected, the landmarks of modernism are interpreted as places where content is expected.
Edita Pecotić attended the Art Foundation Course at London Guildhall University in London and holds a BA (Honours) in Fine Art from the London Metropolitan University from London. She holds a Degree in Economics from the Dubrovnik University, Croatia. She exhibited internationally since 2002. Pecotić is a founding member of the grey) (area association.
www.editapecotic.com
Ivan Ramljak (b. 1974) is a film director. He studied at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and The Academy of Dramatic Art. He is a long-time journalist and editor in written and electronic media focused on film and music. He is one of the founders of Radio Student, from 1999 to 2004 one of the program leaders of the Močvara club, author of Film Nights in Močvara, and organizer of the first Human Rights Film Festival in Zagreb. Since 2006, he has been engaged in film production and directing. In 2009, together with Marko Škobalj, he directed the short film Oslobođenje u 26 slika, the winning film of the Sarajevo City of Film project. Ramljak is a two-time winner of the Oktavijan Award for feature-length documentary films About a Youth and El Shatt - Blueprint for Utopia. He is a selector of several film festivals, including the Rotterdam Film Festival (from 2022). He is a member of the association grey) (area, and leader of the Cinematography of the Adriatic Islands research project.
Ilija Šoškić (b. 1935.) is widely regarded as one of the most important artists of the conceptual tradition in the former Yugoslavia. A pioneering spirit working in performance, video, photography and interactive installations, he studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. It was a politically difficult period in Italy and Ilija’s seminal performance actions criticized both the arts system and politics of that period. In 2008 he received the Duclea Montenegrin Award for his contribution to Performance Art, alongside Eugenio Barba. In 2011 he represented Montenegro (national pavilion, in the project MACCO Cetinje) and Italy (Port of Art, Central Europe Initiative Trieste) at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). He is a member of the Montenegro’s Council of Artists (ULUCG).
Vice Tomasović (b. 1986) completed the Secondary Grammar School in Omiš, he enrolled in the Arts Academy in Split, department of Art Education, from which he graduated in 2009. He is the founder and artistic director of the Almissa Open Air Festival of Contemporary Art in Klis. He is a former President of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists in Split and the manager of exhibition activities at Galić Salon. He has had more than twenty solo exhibitions, and an approximate number of performances, and has participated in many group exhibitions, art festivals and events as organiser, curator, exhibitor, and performer.
www.vicetomasovic.com
