From: margrz@zrc-sazu.si
SCCA Dubrovnik
Marina Grzinic
The third annual exhibition of the Zagreb Soros Contemporary Arts Center (Croatia) was held in Dubrovnik from August 24 to September 10, 1996. The project, titled "Island" consisted of two parts: the exhibition and symposium both curated by Slaven Tolj, one of the most known performance artists of the 90s in Croatia. Tolj realized the Island project through and in the context of Dubrovnik's Art Workshop Site Lazareti, which fuctioned through the war in the in Dubrovnik and Croatia as a specific art and culture underground community place, indeed as an "Island" of imagination, strength and survival in the war zone. Dubrovnik's Art Workshop Site Lazareti was and still is the only active art community site in the city of Dubrovnik, based on urban culture, underground art rock activities and modern non commercial art. Slaven Tolj "the mind motor of Lazareti" selected for the ehxibition 25 artists from Croatia and nearby Eastern European countries.
The selected artists spent two weeks in developing site specific works in Dubrovnik and on the island Lokrum. The results were astonishing; they turned the city that had remained asleep for the duration of the war upside down. The Island project resulted in numerous challenging installations, happenings, conceptual and mental works spread across Dubrovnik: in churches, yards, abandoned historical places, in the sea, on the streets. As part of the project Island a two-day symposium discussed isolation, marginality and the geographical periphery in the context of forgotten Eastern European art, and political and cultural space.
This challenging project curated by Tolj and realized with SCCA Zagreb's financial and organizational support will be soon presented in a catalogue.
information: e-mail: scca-zg@iod.tl.hr