To make the beach even more prominent, the international art collective Numen/For use will design playful and useful beach equipment which will be permanently located at Svežanj beach in June this year.
Žurkovo – a coastal promenade in Kostrena, a place located in the immediate vicinity of Rijeka, surrounded by Martinšćica Bay and Bakar Bay, is a favourite place for rest and recreation of all generations of this region. The beaches on the coast of Kostrena vary greatly from one another. Located in the area which can be explored in under an hour is the beautiful Svežanj beach which will be subject to a design intervention thanks to the Lungomare Art programme, part of the European Capital of Culture project.
Photo: Geoarheo
To make the beach even more prominent, the international art collective Numen/For use will design playful and useful beach equipment which will be permanently located at Svežanj beach in June this year. Benches, changing rooms, showers, lifeguard tower, Blue Flag stand and similar equipment will find their permanent home on Svežanj, which is not only flooded with tourists, but also provides a refuge for locals, workers, students and retirees.
This very fact commits the authors of this urban equipment, who are also the creators of the Lungomare Art installation, to a particularly cautious approach based on the needs and wishes of the current and future beach users, and apart from the direct environmental intervention, which will increase the number of ways the users will be able to use this space, the project of the Numen/For Use group is focused on the functional and symbolic importance of the common public space.
In Prostoria d.o.o. workshop in Zagreb, test specimens of the changing cabins, showers and benches are being made these days, which will be placed on Svežanj beach along with other objects. Such urban equipment has the potential to be manufactured and installed along the Kostrena coast seeing that the copyright will belong to the Municipality of Kostrena which can reproduce and place the equipment on other beaches in the following years. Urban equipment also includes the construction of the observation deck, and in addition to this artistic intervention, Svežanj beach also expects several important public infrastructure interventions.
The Numen/For Use art-design group, whose activities are based on continuous collaborative practice, is comprised of Sven Jonke, who lives and works in Berlin, Christoph Katzler, who lives in Vienna, and Nikola Radeljković, who resides in Zagreb. Their projects focus on experiences of relaxation through the design of, for example, various types of seats, chairs, recliners and sofas, i.e. a special type of innovative interior design as a place for rest, conversation, meetings, discussions and love stories. Their area of interest also includes the so-called parasitic architectural structures, which create additional spaces, always a favourite among visitors. They are also preoccupied with extremely contemporary approach to theatre set design. Major public projects, such as the Split waterfront redesign, have made them one the most famous designers in the region, and the Konstrena’s Svežanj beach redesign project includes the collaboration with Branimir Paškvan, a local designer from Kostrena. The ECoC’s main partner for the implementation of this project is the Municipality of Kostrena. The new equipment will be unveiled to the public on 12 June 2020, the day same day when the Blue Flag will be hoisted.
Photo: Tanja Kanazir
Lungomare Art is a segment of the European Capital of Culture programme which will build ten kinds of monuments for the future. Throughout the year 2020, permanent works will be set up in Brseč, Lovranska Draga, at the fish market in Rijeka, on Grčevo beach in Pećine, on Svežanj beach in Kostrena, in Lopar on Rab Island, above Baška on Krk Island and at Vela Riva in Mali Lošinj. Renowned European curator Michal Koleček has entrusted this important task to renowned artists, designers and architects from Croatia, Europe, Japan and Chile, whose permanent artistic installations deal with traditions and stories relevant to particular local communities.
