A presentation of artwork by Diana Sokolić, Josip Pino Ivančić, and Bojan Koštić was held on Friday in front of the Memorial Centre Lipa Remembers. The works were presented under the “Presenting the Absence 2019.” programme which is being implemented within the Seasons of Power flagship of the European Capital of Culture project.
Nikolina Radić Štivić, Director of the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral Rijeka, Vana Gović, senior curator, Lela Vujanić, Head of the Kitchen of Diversity flagship of Rijeka 2020, and Sonja Šišić, Head of the Department of Culture, Sport and Technical Culture of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County addressed the audience on the occasion.
It was pointed out that the Memorial Centre Lipa Remembers has since its inception been dedicated to preserving the memory of the 269 slain residents of Lipa, permanently reminding visitors of the devastating consequences of war and of the violation of basic human rights. The “Recognising the Absence” programme deals with the culture of Lipa’s remembrance from the perspective of modern art, and it does so for the third year in a row. This year’s public call resulted in 11 proposals of works of art, three of which were chosen for realisation by the jury. Introductory welcoming remarks to the audience and the presentation of the programme were followed by a sightseeing walk around Lipa. The authors themselves were the tour guides, showcasing their artwork.
The work entitled The Path of Silence by Diana Sokolić is an example of landscape art, inviting the visitor to take a walk of remembrance through Lipa. The visitors were taken for a walk down a stone path where each pair of stones laid represents a pair of feet, and each space between them represents a human step, thus evoking the presence of the slain residents of Lipa. Stone by stone. Step by step. Repeated 269 times.
The work Do you Remember by Josip Pino Ivančić approaches the landscape from a different perspective. Instead of inscribing the meanings into the landscape, he uses symbols – those elements of nature whose meanings have been assigned long ago. His work is a landscape assemblage where various materials and forms blend into a unique visual art syntax of remembrance.
The work One Spark is Enough by Bojan Koštić is a series of graffiti art pieces painted with a photoluminescent paint that glows in the dark in the public spaces of Lipa. The thoughts of an artist that absorb light during the day so as to emit it during the night serve as a reminder of our ability to utilise the bright and happy moments in life to encourage us in our efforts to overcome the hardships of life. It is also a reminder of all the surviving residents of Lipa, who have found the strength to rebuild the settlement and move on with their lives.
The artwork will be on display in the public spaces of Lipa until 18 November 2019.
Submissions were considered by the four-member jury: Nemanja Cvijanović, artist and programme coordinator in the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture project; Ksenija Orelj, curator of Rijeka’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art; Biserka Dumbović-Bilušić, head of Conservation Department in Rijeka; Vana Gović, curator of the Memorial Centre Lipa Remembers.
