The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka hosted the promotion of Sandra Uskoković’s book Anamnesis: Dialogues of Art in Public Spaces in which the author presents works by Croatian artists from the 1990s to the present day that explore the way we perceive, imagine, experience and shape the public space.
The book promotion was included in the pre-programme of the large-scale international exhibition The 90s: Scars, which will open in May of next year at the museum as part of the Seasons of Power flagship of the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture programme.
The book is divided into nine chapters that cover theoretical, research and practical approaches to documenting and transforming the public space and the city through various art formats, including the examination of the manner in which our perception and participation in the urban environment is altered by the interaction of art practices and projects dealing with the public space.
Uskoković writes about the works of Tomislav Gotovac, Sanja Iveković, Zlatko Kopljar, Siniša Labrović, Slaven Tolj, Igor Grubić, Bacač Sjenki, Petar Grimani, Zoran Pavlić, Sandra Sterla, Kugla glumište etc.
„Anamnesis is a term that addresses something that is forgotten, lost but stored in one’s memory, though it also has a different meaning that actually transforms its subject, or in other words, it is a way to create something new from something that is old and forgotten. I tried to pinpoint the state of today’s society via anamnesis. The present public space also encompasses the media and political space, which is all-permeating and not necessarily connected to a physical space or location. Today, we frequently communicate in the social network space, but with little dialogue and room for discussion and debate, as opposed to its ostensible role, so this was an additional motive to open this discussion within the discourse of public space“
, Sandra Uskoković commented on her book.
In addition to the author, the book was discussed by Daniela Urem, president of the Creative Cultural Alliance association; Boris Bakal, multimedia artist and co-founder of the creative platform Bacači sjenki (Shadowcasters) and performance art theorist, visual artist and dramaturge Andrej Mirčev.
Sandra Uskoković was born in Dubrovnik in 1971. She graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb with a degree in Art History. She was also an ICCROM (Rome, 2003) and UNESCO (Paris, 2005 – 2006) researcher and fellow. Sandra earned her Master of Arts from George Washington University in 2004 and her PhD in Art History from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb in 2010. She is an associate professor at the Department of Arts and Restoration of the University of Dubrovnik. Sandra combines her interests in art and literature by writing articles and reviews for a plethora of Croatian and international journals. She has attended numerous international expert conferences and symposiums in the USA, Asia and Europe and is the recipient of prestigious art awards/fellowships, including: Getty Institute (New York), Samuel H. Kress, Graham Foundation (Chicago). She has had two books, a doctoral thesis and her latest book Anamnesis: Dialogues of Art in Public Spaces published by Antibarbarus d.o.o. (Zagreb), Ex Libris (Zagreb) and UPI2M Books (Zagreb, 2018), respectively. The field of her research includes art criticism, the theory and history of architecture, cultural studies, visual culture and contemporary art practices.
