Critical tourism (exhibition Dubrovnik)
Museum of Red History, 16 November—15 December 2024
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, whereby it displaces them from the passive 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 critically thematise tourism in general through artistic interpretations of said topic, using them as tools for commenting and criticising 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
Marija Borovičkić (b. 1985) is an ethnologist, art historian, independent curator, researcher, critic, and designer. She is a member of the grey) (area association and a co-leader of the project Industrial Heritage of the Island of Korčula, exploring gender aspects of the intangible.
Boris Cvjetanović (b. 1953) attended the School of Applied Arts and graduated from the Fine Art Department of the Teacher Training Academy in Zagreb in 1976. He worked as a sculptor-restorer at the Croatian Restoration Institute from 1976 until 1984. In 1981, he became engaged in photography and began working for the student paper SL, where he was the photograph editor in 1987 and 1988. He has been working as a professional photographer since 1984. Since 1981, he has had around sixty solo exhibitions and participated in a number of group exhibitions in Croatia, Europe, Japan, the US, and Australia. His photographs have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines. The accolades he received include the Nikon Camera Co. Award at the exhibition -ism ‘95: 1st Tokyo International Photo-Biennale; the Grand Prix of the exhibition Croatian Photography in 1997; and the Homo Volans Award in 1997. In 1996, he published the book of photographs Scenes Without Significance. His photographs were published in the book Echoes – Contemporary Art at the Age of Endless Conclusions (Monacelli Press, New York, 1996) by Francesco Bonami. He represented Croatia at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. His photographs are found in the collections of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, the Croatian History Museum in Zagreb, the Dante Marino Cettina Gallery in Umag, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, the Museum of Fine Arts in Split, and in 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 Harbourpolis Hamburg, as part of the team, she won the first prize and received the Rector’s Award in 2004. She collaborates as a designer with various architectural offices, and founded in 2007 the architecture and design office DiaPozitiva. Since 2003, she has participated in numerous architectural-urbanist and design exhibitions and competitions, and won several awards. In 2010 and 2011, she worked at the editorial office of the magazine Man and Space of the Croatian Architects’ Association. In 2011, she founded the artistic tandem Curice with Jurana Hraste, with whom she held the exhibition Obsessed with Frame at &TD gallery in Zagreb, the galleries Greta, Nano, Matica Hrvatska and Trenutak 39 in Zagreb, and Moria Gallery in Stari Grad. Independently, in 2013, she exhibited the series of photographs Rijeka je more at the Croatian Theatre in Pécs. The project Crvena nit was presented in a solo exhibition at the Vladimir Nazor Library in Zagreb in 2018, and Intimate Distance at the HT Contemporary Art Award at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb in 2019. She was the artist-in-residence of the grey) (area association in Korčula in 2020, and exhibited in 2021 at the Korčula Town Museum. Together with Peter Dabac, she held the exhibition Freedom From and Freedom For at the Principij Gallery of Rijeka Photo Club in 2020 and at the Spot Gallery in Zagreb in 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 spent a semester at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA. In 2014, he completed 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 the London Metropolitan University in England. He has had more than twenty solo exhibitions, presented eight sculptures in public space, and participated in fourteen art workshops. He has had sixty group exhibitions in Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Czechia, United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, and France. He has won several awards, recognitions and scholarships, and was 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 which often serve as mediators in interpersonal communication, with the aim of exploring and creating a new context, “conditions” for a different sensory and mental cognition of everyday life. He is a 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 Sociology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. In her artistic work, she proceeds with the city and its spaces through an interdisciplinary and intermedia approach. She combines essays in the form of an artist’s book or video, as well as social practice art, actions, and interventions in public space. Her approach is site-specific, meaning that it begins by thinking about the context, the space in question and its users, and by adjusting the piece for its specific audience. She is interested in the ways tourism shapes the city space and how this affects its residents. The exhibitions and projects in which she has participated include Krov, tuš, roštilj, fuš (90-60-90 Gallery, 2021); 021 Ostrale Biennale (Dresden, 2021); Rijeka: A Chronicle of Movement (GSG, 2020), Hands, Sheet, Broom: A 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), etc. She authored 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 Cathedral (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’s degree (MFA, Sculpture) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2012. She is member of the Croatian Association of Artists since 2011, of the Croatian Freelance Artists’ Association since 2018, and is Art Director of Format C, an artist organisation focused on digital art, experimental multimedia research and collaborative creation, since 2014. She also works as an independent lecturer, an organiser and an artist in the areas of visual | digital | net art; she is engaged in stop-motion animation and character design. Between 2017 and 2019, she worked as project assistant for the ACC Attack, and was a Web-Based Media Fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2018-19. Since 2019, she is a member of the CTHR workgroup and a Board Member at the Operation City Association Alliance.
www.formatc.hr
Vedran Gligo (b. 1984) is a self-taught DIY hacker/artist/cultural event organiser. 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 Centre through the hacklab01 project, which he co-founded in 2009. He practices 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 has also worked as producer and author of documentaries, TV reportages, and socially engaged commercials. Grubić’s project sits firmly in the humanist dimension, bridging together poetics, politics, and social reality. He represented Croatia at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019). His exhibitions include the 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 (Rome, 2021).
www.igorgrubic.org
Andreja Kulunčić (b. 1968) studied sculpture and graduated in 1992 from the Faculty of Applied Arts and Design in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia. Between 1992 and 1994, she 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 Authors Projects and Actions (MAPA) for art, science and technology, founded in Zagreb in 2001. Her work has been presented at international exhibitions, including Documenta 11 (Kassel), Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt am Main, 8th Istanbul Biennial (Istanbul), Liverpool Biennial04 (Liverpool), 3rd Tirana Biennial (Tirana), 10th Triennial India (New Delhi), etc. She showcased her work at group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), PS1 (New York), Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Museum MUAC (Mexico City), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Garage Museum (Moscow), Kumu Art Museum (Tallinn), Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), Museum of Contemporary Art (Ljubljana), Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Warsaw), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Rijeka), Lentos Kunstmuseum (Linz), Museum of Modern Art (Saint-Etienne), Ludwig Museum (Budapest), etc. Her solo exhibitions include 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 Arts Centre (Sydney), Art Centre Silkeborg Bad (Denmark), Darat al Funun (Jordan), Nova Gallery, Miroslav Kraljević Gallery, and Forum Gallery (Zagreb).
www.andreja.info
Božena Končić Badurina (b. 1967) is a visual artist. She graduated in German and Russian Language and Literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb in 1995. She also obtained a BFA at the Graphic Arts Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1996. In her artistic work, she uses and combines various media, with emphasis on drawing, text, and performance. She has presented her work at numerous solo and group exhibitions, including MAXXI, Rome; MSUM, Ljubljana; Art in General, New York; MSU Zagreb; Carre d’Art, Nimes; MMSU, Rijeka; Museum of Modern Art, Dubrovnik; La Galerie des Locataires/Fresnoy, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana. She has received several awards for her work. She has taken part in several artist-in-residence programs, including Q21, MuseumsQuartier 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 media of documentary photography, audio-video installations, performance, 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 the winner of the Best Young Artist Award, HDLU (2019), Kranjčar Gallery Award, 34th Panoptikon Youth Salon (2018), Special Commendation Award at the 33rd Troškovnik Youth Salon (2016), VIG Award – Junge Kunst aus CEE (2013), and 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 and the subsequent enhancement of drawings into spatial installations consisting of several parts. While investigating and interpreting the possibilities of space and attempting to achieve its integrity, she stays devoted to the aesthetics of modernism and the ambiguous character of the architecture and urban planning of that period. She investigates structures and combines them by highlighting their particular portions in colour, to direct the viewers’ gaze and force them 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 (b. 1960) attended the Art Foundation Course at London Guildhall University in London and holds a BA (cum laude) in Fine Arts from the London Metropolitan University in London. She holds a degree in Economics from the University of Dubrovnik, Croatia. She has 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 Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the Academy of Dramatic Arts of the University of Zagreb. He is a long-standing journalist and editor in printed and electronic media focused on film and music. He is a co-founder of Radio Student, one of the programme coordinators for Močvara Club between 1999 and 2004, author of Film Evenings at Močvara, and organiser 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 project Sarajevo City of Film. Ramljak is a two-time winner of the Oktavijan Award for feature-length documentary films Once upon a Youth and El Shatt – A Blueprint for Utopia. He is a selector of several film festivals, including the Rotterdam Film Festival (from 2022). He is a member of the grey) (area association, and leader of the research project Cinematography of the Adriatic Islands.
Ilija Šoškić (b. 1935.) is widely regarded as one of the most important artists of the conceptual tradition in former Yugoslavia. A pioneering spirit working in performance, video, photography and interactive installation, 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 criticised both the arts system and the 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, within 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 Montenegrin Council of Artists (ULUCG).
Vice Tomasović (b. 1986) graduated from the Grammar School in Omiš and enrolled at the Arts Academy in Split, the Department of Art Education, from which he graduated in 2009. He is a founder and artistic director of 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
Lea Vene (b. 1987) is an independent curator and cultural anthropologist. She obtained her MA in Art History, Cultural Anthropology and Fashion Theory from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. In 2019, she completed two postgraduate courses (Critical Images and R-Lab) at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. She worked as curator at the Miroslav Kraljević Gallery in Zagreb, and curates the annual programme of the Močvara Gallery together with Lovro Japundžić. Since 2015, she has curated several different exhibition and conference programmes for the international photography festival Organ Vida. She is a lecturer in fashion museology and anthropology at the Faculty of Textile Technology of the University of Zagreb. She is a member of the grey) (area association and a co-leader of the project Industrial Heritage of the Island of Korčula, exploring gender aspects of the intangible.
