The weather’s been behaving like a hormonal teenager recently, overcasting potential plans for outdoor activities with a menacing chance of ruining your day. Let us suggest a couple of art events taking place in towns along the coast – whatever your location, chances are one of these unorthodox exhibitions is just within your reach.
1) Greetings from Cres: Postcards and Prints from the Collection of Damir Kovač, the Croatian Museum of Tourism, Opatija
Part of the project Guest City at the Croatian Museum of Tourism, the exhibition contains around 140 vintage postcards and 8 prints of Cres coming from the collection by Dr. Damir Kovač, a longtime friend of the island. The oldest postcards originate from the late 19th century and provide an interesting insight into the history of one of the most breathtaking islands of the Adriatic. The exhibition is on display until May 14th 2017, and we suggest taking a look at the accompanying postcards exhibition on the same floor, Istria Memento.
2) The Bird in the Bush: The Covered and the Exposed in Istria’s Sexuality, Sveta Srca, Pula
This delightful exhibition is the end result of three years of hard work and cooperation of multiple museums from Pula, Kopar, Trieste and Aquileia. Covering a span of more than 2000 years, the exhibits showcase different aspects of sexuality in the history of Istria, the covered being the intimacy of private lives hidden in love letters, poems and keepsakes, while the exposed is leaning towards amusing vulgarity, humour and self-irony. The giggle-inducing innuendo in the title manages to work in all three languages, the original gajba i tić being a metaphor for female and male genitalia often found in sexually explicit local folk songs. Do yourself a favour and go see this, it’s sure to brighten your day. If you need an extra incentive, be informed that the gallery space hosting the exhibition on sexuality is located in a former church of the same name.
3) Peek & Poke Museum of childhood, Rijeka
This heartwarming place was created to enable adults to re-live the golden days of their youth: it’s packed with toys, games and images we all remember from the time when we were kids and haven’t had much to worry about. Most of the items were donated by citizens, the public interest being so large the inventory ended up filling two floors. You can admire the large Lego model of the Croatian National Theatre, check out the immense collection of toy cars or play hopscotch to feel young and silly again. It’s a great place to be enjoyed by both adults and children.
4) Željko Badurina: Lajk end šer, Salon Galić, Split
Badurina is a conceptual artist whose work never ceases to amuse, and the current exhibition organised by the Croatian Association of Visual Artists (HULU) is no exception. It’s composed of prints originating from Badurina’s Facebook feed: he went through all of his published posts and photos from 2012 onwards, choosing about a 100 pieces among several thousand, which he then screenshot, printed out and displayed as gallery exhibits. The selected works are either personal favourites of the artist or the most liked and shared posts he ever published, turning the exhibition into a sort of ironic commentary on the intertwining of social media and real life.
5) Monuments that aren’t there: undesirable fragments of history, the City Museum, Trogir
Consider this one cheating because the exhibition hasn’t opened yet, but it’s important enough to warrant getting announced along with the rest. The main theme of this year’s International Museum Day (May 18th) is called “Museums and contested histories: saying the unspeakable in museums”. As part of the programme, the City museum in Trogir will present four monuments that got erased from public space after they became undesirable or problematic due to certain changes in social and political circumstances. Fragments of the monuments along with their histories will be on display from May 18th to May 26th.
