To bakery ascended five white stairs and
I deeply drew the scents in
free of need to be benevolent.
At ease, for here, I won’t be humiliated

In the fragment of Vlado Kristl’s poem Five White Stairs (1961), the poet follows the scent of bread, entering a bakery to which the mentioned stairs lead. He experiences the bakery as a familiar place, free of threat, a space of peace, a space that does not demand him to be anything other than himself—a space of possibilities. As in other works of this legendary avant-garde artist, poet, and filmmaker, spaces of possibility are not unambiguous—while absorbing comfort, something is also being relinquished.

The works are situated in spaces and institutions dedicated to culture but mostly outside the realm of visual art. By placing the works in dialogue and connection with the locations where they are exhibited, a different perspective on familiar environments is opened, highlighting the emotional tonalities of particular places and their varying modes of hospitality.

At the Booksa club, Rene Matić exhibits a recent series of photographs capturing their experience of London from the perspective of the diaspora and queer community, documenting poetically intense fragments of gathering and meeting places, while in their sound work, combining protest sounds with church bells, pop music, and conversations with friends. At the Ribnjak Youth Center, the Škart group presents budnice (awakening songs), created as a combination of poetry, slogans, and drawings that daily accompany the months-long student protests in Serbia. Screenings of the film Swallow (2013) by Laure Prouvost will take place at the upcoming WHW space at Draškovićeva 31. Inspired by the aesthetics and sensual pleasures of Italy, and drawing on the genre of panoramic painting, Prouvost’s video work Swallow plays with language, translation, and the historical idea of the Mediterranean as a source of artistic inspiration.

The film A Song to the Oar (2024) by the Tizintizwa collective is screened as an intervention in the Kinoteka Cinema program, shown before regular program as an homage to the practice of Moroccan militant cinema. Created for public space, this two-minute film collage connects the history of piracy in North Africa with today’s economic and authoritarian oppression, where football stadiums become rare places of expressing dissent. Through a performance at Klet and an installation in the Bogdan Ogrizović Library and Reading Room, Anton Kats creates a space for the voices of artists, musicians, activists, poets, and theorists.

The possibility of tenderness in relationships between different living beings is found in the photographs, film, and sound work of Ana Opalić, exhibited in WHW’s office space at the top of a building on Bogovićeva Street. From the terrace overlooking the city, we encounter the cypress trees in front of the artist’s family home, which she has been observing over the years, safeguarding them from misunderstanding. 

Niko Mihaljević realizes his work on the windows of the future city gallery at Draškovićeva 31, as well as through performances during the exhibition. The project continues Niko’s long-term exploration of the language of art—transforming visual critique into a musical score, then into an enlarged spatial graphic, hinting at the future purpose of a space awaiting renovation into a gallery. And we are happy to add it will be our responsibility to programme it. Július Koller’s Cultural Situation Questionnaire (U.F.O.) (1992), displayed on the KIC facade, is part of his anti-painting and Universal Cultural Futurological Operations, intervening in everyday life through the inversion of simple objects and gestures. WHW has previously shown Koller’s questionnaire at the exhibition My Sweet Little Lamb (Everything We See Could Also Be Otherwise) in 2016/17. Since then, the dark and violent political circumstances of that time have only intensified and become normalized.

Perhaps Koller’s questionnaire is the most concise response to the poetic fragment of Five White Stairs—experiencing a moment of serene understanding requires an effort of curiosity. Inspired by Kristl’s encounter, the exhibition suggests that encounters with art create unexpected alliances and moments that both surpass and betray all expectations.

Find out more about the works here.

Works can be viewed until April 26, 2025, during institutions’ opening hours:

Booksa
Martićeva 14d
Tuesday-Saturday 10 AM – 6 PM

Centar mladih Ribnjak
Park Ribnjak 1
Monday-Saturday 10 AM – 8 PM

Kino Kinoteka
Kordunska 1
The film is screened before regular showings on March 27 – 28 and April 2 – 3 at 6 PM
The film is also available online on the website.

Bogdan Ogrizović Library and Reading Room
Preradovićeva 5
Monday-Friday 8 AM – 8 PM
Saturday 8 AM – 2 PM
Every second Sunday 5 PM – 9 PM

Draškovićeva 31
23. – 26.4.
Wednesday-Friday: 15 – 20 h
Saturday: 11 – 16 h

WHW Association Office, 8th floor
Bogovićeva 1
Tuesdays 3 PM – 8 PM
Thursdays 10 AM – 3 PM
Saturdays 10 AM – 1 PM

Works in public spaces:
Draškovićeva 31
KIC, Preradovićeva 5

Thank you to all the artists and  institutions for their collaboration.

Special thanks to Madeleine Kristl and Pepe Kristl for the right to use the verses of the poem “Five White Stairs” for this exhibition (from Vlado Kristl, “Five White Stairs”, self-published, 1961, Zagreb).

Program in Draškovićeva 31 is realised in collaboration with Novi prostori kulture.

The program is supported by:
City Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb
Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia
Kultura Nova Foundation
Croatian Audiovisual Centre