Spatial interventions at the breakwater – Svjetlana Despot

This time, the acclaimed product and interior designer Svjetlana Despot has given interactive spatial installations as a gift to her city in order to attract her fellow Rijeka natives back to this important meeting place. The installations invite passers-by to reflect on themselves and play with others.

I created this artwork in January 2020 as a reflection of my own state of mind, but it turned out that such contemplation makes much more sense now (COVID-19) than it did then. It was as if I had anticipated the feeling of isolation, which we would all soon experience.

I felt the urge to materialise this collective frame of mind, so I made these interactive objects, accompanied by quotes from famous authors. My goal was to encourage strollers to think about intimate topics, such as Solitude, Confession, Freedom and Embracing.

In situations when we feel alone and isolated from other people, the whole world seems sad and meaningless. When Humans do not experience togetherness, they are troubled by the feeling of isolation. It is not a feeling that occasionally overcomes a person, but a feeling that all human beings share as social creatures. All it takes to feel it is to slightly scratch the surface. This is why most people avoid isolation and Solitude and will do whatever it takes to escape the inner feeling of loneliness by filling that void with a tonne of activities and goals.

By chasing these goals, we often feel the need for Confession. But is our will truly Free at the most basic level or is it firmly chained by determinism? Ultimately, all that human beings need is to be Embraced.