2018
Bojan Mrđenović,
Adriatic Highway
Marina Viculin Award 2017 was awarded to Bojan Mrđenović for the project Adriatic Highway, presented at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, with the exhibition later shown at Pogon Jedinstvo as part of the 10th Organ Vida Festival.
Jury: Lea Vene (art historian and curator), Sandra Vitaljić (photographer and professor at the Academy of Dramatic Art, Zagreb), Marina Paulenka (photographer and artistic director of Unseen, Amsterdam), Leonida Kovač (art historian and curator), Miha Colner (independent curator and art critic), Emma Bowkett (photography director of Financial Times FT Weekend Magazine).
Adriatic Highway is a photographic project centered on the state road that runs along the eastern Adriatic coast, connecting coastal towns. Opened to traffic in 1965, the highway represents a major infrastructure project that both unified the territory and catalyzed the development of tourism along the Adriatic.
Through this work, Mrđenović examines the profound spatial and social transformations brought about by the rapid expansion of tourism. While tourism once functioned as a supplementary source of income, it has since become, for many, the primary economic activity. This shift has led to increasing pressure on coastal areas: traffic congestion, uncontrolled construction in the absence of comprehensive urban planning, the monetization of spaces once considered public goods, and the gradual degradation of both landscape and cultural heritage—paradoxically, the very foundations upon which tourism depends.
Bojan Mrđenović (b. 1987) holds a BA in Art History and Information Sciences from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, and an MA in Cinematography from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. He is a member of the Croatian Society of Film Workers and the Croatian Freelance Artists’ Association. Since 2017, he has been working as an associate assistant at the Cinematography Department of the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. His practice spans both film and photography.