You can now go on a virtual tour of Mrkopalj, one of the 27 neighbourhoods of the European Capital of Culture, thanks to a video by the Dutch art collective Hoge Fronten, which is available on their YouTube channel and which was created during two residencies by the Dutch collective and the Croatian artist Tajči Čekada in the neighbourhood of Mrkopalj.
The video, entitled STILL.Mrkopalj 360, takes you on a virtual tour of the location, as experienced by the artists themselves during their stay there through their daily walks, meetings with the locals who helped them explore Mrkopalj, and unique local sights.
It is a so-called 360° video, which features local stories and sounds, and which is navigated by moving the cursor across the computer screen or physically moving a smart phone or tablet to change the viewing direction of the video.
The protagonists of the video are the artists involved with the Hoge Fronten collective: Lieke Benders (collective manager), Jolle Roelofs and Saskia de Haas together with Rijeka’s Tajči Čekada. The video was made as part of a joint programme undertaken by the artists, called “Mrkopalj, the best place ever”, which was supposed to be completed by April 2020 but was pushed back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The STILL.Mrkopalj 360 was created as part of the 27 Neighbourhoods flagship of the European Capital of Culture project and the European project entitled Centriphery, an international cooperation programme co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
About the artist Lieke Benders and the STILL. and Centriphery projects
The 4-year project STILL by theatrical artist Lieke Benders explores silence, peace and reflection in turbulent environments.
Her works have been exhibited at various venues in the Netherlands and Belgium and the STILL. project speaks loudly with silence, especially in our current state of isolation. In the last year of this 4-year project, no one could have imagined that the world would virtually come to a standstill and that the thread of collaboration with Mrkopalj would be severed.
STILL.Mrkopalj is a form of commentary and a virtual spin-off of a programme that was created while the artists were staying in Mrkopalj during their residencies as part of the Centriphery project.
Centriphery is an interdisciplinary European project aimed at fostering dialogue among international arts professionals in a variety of art disciplines, local artists and members of local communities. This project aims to generate new content and artwork which makes the peripheral areas of Europe the centrepiece of artistic events.
