MARINA VICULIN AWARD 2017
Photographer Bojan Mrđenović’s “Adriatic Highway” was the first work to receive the award, presented at the Museum of Arts and Crafts at the Festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday, September 5, 2017.
Mrđenović pointed out that this is an excellent initiative and a step in the right direction for photographers. “I think it’s an amazing thing that the award is not given for your previous work, but for your future work, which serves as motivation and encourages you to develop your work,” he said.
The exhibition was presented in Gallery Pogon Jedinstvo, Zagreb, as a part of the program of 10th Organ Vida Festival, in September 2018.
Marina Viculin Award 2017 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
The Adriatic Highway is a state road that stretches across the eastern Adriatic coast, connecting all coastal towns. It was open for traffic in 1965 and it represents a capital infrastructure project that has connected the territory and given momentum to the development of tourism on the Adriatic coast.
The photographs show manifold transformations of the territory that have occurred due to the intense growth of tourism. At the time the highway was being built, for some people tourism was an additional source of income, while today for many people tourism is the only source of income. As a result of such an economic model, spatial relations in the valuable coastal area are exacerbating from day to day: there are traffic jams, overbuilding without comprehensive urban planning, monetization and billing of amenities that had been considered public good until recently, and the devastation of landscape and cultural heritage, that is, all those things on which the success of tourism is actually based.
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 (HDFD) and the Croatian Freelance Artists’ Association (HSZU). Since 2017 he has been working as an associate assistant at the Cinematography Department at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. He focuses on film and photography.
