As part of the Nova 2.0 program, marking the 20th anniversary of the program direction of Zagreb’s Nova Gallery, a series of public events entitled Meanderings – conversations with the protagonists of the local art scene – will map the meanderings of avant-garde artistic tendencies in Zagreb from the 1960s to the present day. WHW has invited the curator, designer and writer Bojan Krištofić to conceptualize and moderate these conversations.

The first talk, whose participants were Branka Stipančić, Antun Maračić and Darko Šimičić, focused on the story of self-organized and non-institutional spaces for art and culture from the late 1960s to the late 1980s (marked by Podroom and Extended Media Gallery, as well as the galleries SC, Forum and Nova, and other venues and collectives). The second talk was dedicated to the transitional period from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s. The participants Mika Buljević, Goran Sergje Pristaš and Kornel Šeper shared valuable insights into the formation of the contemporary cultural scene and the challenges encountered by the pioneering independent cultural workers and founders of different organizations, collectives and spaces: Kulturtrager and Booksa, CDU, BADco., Močvara Club, Multimedia Institute and MaMa Club, Miroslav Kraljević Gallery, [KONTEJNER]…

The third talk, featuring Vesna Vuković ([BLOK] – Local base for culture refreshment and Nova Baza Gallery), Kata Mijatović (Art Organization Ateliers Žitnjak and Gallery AŽ), Marija Kamber (Kamba Garage and Circle Association) and David Lušičić (Greta Gallery and Zebra Creative Network), we will attempt to outline the contemporary period (from the mid-2000s to the present) and the new branching and gathering of artistic initiatives that are trying to find their place between the damaged city and project-based policies. In the current post-pandemic, post-shock and post-transition context, independent and publicly accessible spaces for art and culture are important places that persistently develop communities and practice new forms of sociability within the city space.

The recent context is marked by the parallel existence of several different ways of conquering and developing artistic spaces. It is not uncommon for artists to continuously add a component of public gallery and art programs to their publicly or privately rented workspaces (such as Ateliers Žitnjak), but also that spaces owned by artists and their families (such as Kamba Garage) become places of public gathering. Organizations like [BLOK], who have managed to research the various possibilities of interaction between citizens, cultural workers and public spaces for a number of years without a single permanent work and exhibition space, have introduced new ways of connecting, in a sustainable manner, the “world of art” with the specific needs of the local community since they obtained “fixed” workspaces in the neighborhood of Trešnjevka (BAZA and New BAZA galleries). The example of Greta Gallery shows how over a period of ten years a well-chosen location and inclusive program orientation can create an authentic “scene within a scene,” and with a balanced management and program openness foster innovative cultural and artistic expression. We must also mention the phenomenon of squatting as a strategy that tackles the problem of the need for spaces of public cultural and humanitarian work and living through non-institutional occupation of unused spatial resources, whether they are later legalized as squats (e.g., AKC Medika, Club Attack! and galleries Siva and Yogurt) or the squatters insist on the informality of their activities, regardless of the longer or shorter life span of the spaces in which they practice the intertwining of politics, art and living (Reci:klaonica, BEK, Vila Kiseljak, etc.).

How the mentioned spaces were won, and how and why artistic groups gather around them, and how they define their common goals and strategies? How do they express this through their artistic work, both collective and individual? In what ways is it shaped by the built and natural environment of the city? How do artists communicate with cultural institutions and fellow citizens? Do they aim to practice a particular organization of everyday life through their artistic work, and if so, what kind? How do these initiatives relate to the context of the neighborhood and how do they affect it?

The public talks are part of the Nova 2.0 program, which is taking place as part of Kultura Nova’s Support for Organizational and Artistic Memory, and Nova Gallery’s discursive program The History of Art and Society: The Spaces of Self-Organization.

The program is supported by:
Office for Culture, International Relations, and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb
Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Kultura Nova Foundation