OV PUBLISHING I 2018 – ongoing
OV Publishing is one of the many projects implemented by the Photography Organisation Organ Vida as part of their year-round activities in the field of contemporary photography. Established in 2017, its goal is to increase the visibility and availability of original art projects embodied in the photobook form, using a unique and thoughtful design and approach to realizing contemporary photobooks.
Supported by the Zagreb City Office for Culture.
PARALLEL — European Photo Based Platform I 2018 – ongoing
Parallel is a platform that brings together creative European organizations committed to promoting cross-cultural exchanges and mentorships in order to set new standards in contemporary photography. Members include museums, galleries, cultural centres, festivals, art schools, and publishers – 18 vibrant European cultural hubs, from 16 countries, that will participate in selecting and hosting emerging artists and curators, organizing exhibitions and promoting artistic networking. The large and diverse nature of this network ensures a wide geographical spread and a fertile ground for fostering new dialogues, sparking fresh ideas and helping to boost creativity. The work process is implemented as a two-phase process: Creative Guidance: selection, tutoring, peer learning and curatorship for emergent creators; Exhibition Platform: a wide exhibition network engaging exhibitors, universities and art schools.
Platform Members include museums, galleries, cultural centres, festivals, art schools and publishers – 18 vibrant European cultural hubs, from16 different countries. The large and diverse nature of the network ensures a wide geographical spread and a fertile ground for fostering new dialogues, sparking fresh ideas and helping to boost creativity.
Partners in the project beside ORGAN VIDA are: PROCUR.ARTE (Portugal), CAPA CENTER (Hungary), Centro internacional das artes josé de guimarães (Portugal), LE CHÂTEAU D’EAU (France), FONDAZIONE FOTOGRAFIA MODENA (Italy), FORMAT FESTIVAL – DERBY QUAD (United Kingdom), Fotofestiwal – FOUNDATION OF VISUAL EDUCATION (Poland), GALLERI IMAGE (Denmark), ISSP (Latvia), KATALOG JOURNAL (Denmark), LANDSKRONA FOTO (Sweden), KAUNAS PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY (Lithuania), MARIBOR ART GALLERY (Slovenia), THE FINNISH MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY (Finland), MUSÉE DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE DE CHARLEROI (Belgium), PHOTOIRELAND (Ireland), TRIENNALE DER PHOTOGRAPHIE (Germany).
The Platform is designed and led by Procur.arte and co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
PARALLEL Intersection Zagreb
In 2018, as part of the 10th International Photography Festival Organ Vida, Organ Vida was host to the first Parallel Intersection exhibition. Opening of the Parallel Intersection Exhibition marked the closure of the first and announced the beginning of the second round of activities in the Parallel Project, enabling selected artists and curators to take part in year-round programme of workshops, lectures, exhibitions and mentorship programme. The photographic exhibition presenteed 52 artworks, coming from 23 artists and 6 curators from the 1st Round of the Project’s activities, and 29 artists and 7 curators from the 2nd Round.
1st cycle artists: Andrej Lamut (Slovenia), Emanuel Cedeqvist (Sweden), Antonina Gugała (Poland), Charlotte Mano (France), Glorija Lizde (Croatia), Ida Nissen (Denmark), Jacopo Tomassini (Italy), Joshua Phillips (UK), Joséphine Desmenez (France), Laura Rämö (Finland), Livia Sperandio (Italy), Nita Vera (Finnland), Mark McGuinness (Ireland), MILÁN RÁCMOLNÁR (Hungary), Morten Barker (Denmark), Nuno Barroso (Portugal), Pedro Koch (Portugal), Philipp Meuser (Germany), Ramona Guntert (Germany), Sofia Okkonen (Finland), Thomas Wynne (UK), Toms Harjo (Latvia) and Šarūnas Kvietkus (Lithuania). Curators included in the 1st cycle of the project were: Gintarė Krasuckaitė (Lithuania), Emese Mucsi (Hungary), Téo Pitella (Portugal), Maria Faarinen (Finland), Bruno Humberto (Portugal) and Nikki Omes (Netherlands).
2nd cycle artists: Agata Wieczorek (Poland), Ana Zibelnik (Slovenia), André Viking (Denmark), Christel Thomsen (Denmark / UK), Cihad Caner (Turkey / Netherlands), Daniel Szalai (Hungary), Diogo Bento (Portugal), Dries Lips (Belgium), Ela Polkowska (Poland), Fábio Cunha (Portugal), Federico Ciamei (Italy), Garrett Grove (USA), Hannamari Shakya (Finland), Inês Marinho (Portugal), Jake Mein (New Zealand), Jessica Wolfelsperger (Switzelrland / Germany), José Alves (Portugal), Laura Konttinen (Finland), Louisa Boeszoermeny (Germany), Marie Lukasiewicz (France), Martin Eberlen (UK), Mateusz Kowalik (Poland), Matthew Thompson (UK), Matthias Van Dromme (Belgium), Nils Stelte (Germany), Rocco Venezia (Italy / Greece), Roisin White (Ireland), Sinead Kennedy (Australia), Yushi Li (China / UK).
The 2nd cycle curators were: Cale Garrido (Spain / Germany), Eric Lawton (USA), Jon Uriarte (Spain), Leanna Teoh (Singapore), Lexington Davis (USA / Netherlands), Lovro Japundzic (Croatia), Seda Yildiz (Germany / Turkey).
REFEST— Images and Routes on Refugee Routes I 2018
REFEST gathered 4 organizations from different countries managing small-medium-sized festivals in 3 main fields of artistic expression: photography (Balkan Photo Festival – BiH, and International Photography Festival Organ Vida – HR), illustration (Festivalito de Villaverde – ES), and essay-writing (Passagi Festival – IT). The objectives of the project are to expand and diversify the audience in 4 festivals by widening the spectrum of their cultural proposals and to address public perception on refugees in public opinion through artistic representation of the material collected and elaborated during the itinerant program which will gather 32 artists.
The REFEST project was realised with the support of the Creative Europe Program, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Zagreb (City Office for Programs and EU Projects) and the Office for Associations of the Republic of Croatia.
Exhibition REFEST Images&Words on Refugee Routes
The exhibition, created as the result of the project was part of the 10th International Photography Festival Organ Vida.
Due to austerity measures and the cumulative effect of the recent years of recession hitting festival-goers, festivals struggle against market saturation and competition of other festivals, resulting in a decline in visitors and revenue. This has caused a negative effect on the quantity and quality of the sponsors which, in turn, has contributed to further decrease the available budget. These organisations have therefore decided to put their heads together in order to find a shared solution to rupture this vicious circle, keep their cultural offer competitive while further enhancing the quality of their artistic proposal and the socio-cultural role they have hardly established during the past years. A special goal within the project was to try to give an answer to the public opinion about refugees through an artistic presentation of research materials and new works created in the process during the residency programmes. The artists worked together to create new modes of artistic and cultural expression while investigating a thought-provoking issue affecting the political debate, such as that of refugees. On the base of these considerations and of the useful suggestions from the artists, exhibition blends the 3 disciplines.
The project selected artists through a Call for Artists at a national level, the selected professionals then formed 4 multidisciplinary transnational working groups in each country. Each group investigated a topic of their choice linked to the main theme (refugees) and to the location of the four residences (Spain, Italy, BiH and Croatia). Their final works circulate in the 4 festivals.
The exhibition was presented in Madrid, Fano, Zagreb and Sarajevo.
Artists – participants in the project:
Passaggi Cultura (ITA): Anil Alessandro Biswas, Maria Grazia Calandrone, Emmanuel Di Tommaso, Loris Ferri, Franca Mancinelli, Flavia Novelli, Alessandra Racca, Guergana Radeva Sacheva
Balkan Photo Festival (BiH): Imrana Kapetanović, Vanda Kljajo, Amer Kapetanović, Armin Graca, Midhat Poturović, Armin Durgut, Mitar Simikić, Alma Mujanović
Organ Vida Photo Festival (HR): Katarina Zlatec, Dea Botica, Maša Bajc, Vedran Janković, Borko Vukosav, Davor Konjikušić, Matija Kralj
Festivalito de Villaverde (ESP): Maria Peña Coto, Natalia Albeniz Fernandez, Montserrat Piñeiro Torres, Maria Belen Soto Cachinero, Ishara Solis Rodriguez, Isabel Maria Mercado Gomez, Sara Santana Lopez, Carlos Garcia O’Dowd
THROUGH HER EYES I 2018
Through her Eyes examines the social changes and revolutions at the beginning of the 20th century as incubators for political involvement of women, which over the next century resulted in universal suffrage and equality in many different social areas. An important focus was to consider the role of the EU for equality between genders and for equality in general.
Through her Eyes shows the importance of civil movements and active citizenship on the case of the women’s fight for equality. It will motivate and mobilize citizens to become more active in safeguarding achieved rights and European values.
Numerous activities (March 8th Campaign, exhibitions, workshops, podium discussions etc.) will involve all generations and promote intercultural and intergenerational solidarity. Citizens will come together to exchange their views, with researchers, politicians, activists, migrants, their neighbours and children. The project reminds citizens of the importance of active social involvement and makes them aware of the reasons, why we all need to fight for equality in Europe and what role we as citizens play in this process.
Exhibition “Vigilance, Struggle, Pride: Through Her Eyes”
The exhibition Vigilance, Struggle, Pride: Through Her Eyes presented thirteen women artists whose carefully selected works to reflect, question and problematize different cultural expressions and issues related to identity, family and home, sexuality and gender-sex roles, representation of women and politics of the female gaze. The exhibition is curated by Marina Paulenka, and the exhibition design was done by Nina Bačun & Roberta Bratović (OAZA).
The exhibition Vigilance, Struggle, Pride: Through Her Eyes brings together thirteen women artists who present stories from their surroundings, inspired by the desire to pave the way for new possibilities of understanding and new insights. Their experiences and research pose questions that enable different intellectual and emotional responses to the existing challenges and issues of today’s society. We are faced with a turbulent socio-political situation in which women must fight anew for the rights that had been won long ago, and women’s issues are as current as ever. From the construction of the female perspective in the West, real-life stories of wives and mothers from Palestine, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to the trans and queen community in South Africa, their works shed light on specific events and voice a desire for equality, for which we have to keep fighting.
Different in approach, the works reflect the representation of different cultural expressions, tackling issues such as the construction of identity, family and home, sexuality and gender-sex roles, representation of women, politics of the female gaze and self-perception, labor and social rights as well as victimization of women and children, accepting the inability to fully understand and engage with a given situation, but also inspiring change and creating alternative spaces that welcome equal opportunities, narratives and outcomes.
Hannah Starkey‘s photographs explore the physical and psychic connections of the individual and her everyday urban surroundings to voyeuristic intrusion. Through her collection of found photographs, collages and drawings, April Gertler examines the juxtapositions and abstractions of various feminist perspectives, which, when combined, give rise to new visions. Embracing the impossibility of fully understanding cultural expressions different from her own, Lua Ribeira seemingly dissolves the idea of femininity and sexuality by recreating scenes of performances, rituals and self-expression of Jamaican dancers. Through myths and delusions, Laia Abril‘s research work shows that menstruation is one of the most suppressed issues in the context of human rights, which encompasses education, the economy, the environment, and public health. Amak Mahnoodian wonders about the real identity and image of the Iranian woman as she collects photographs and fingerprints from birth certificates in order to reveal even the smallest part that makes them special and tells a story about them. Identity and equality are also central to the work of Tomoko Sawada, who through 300 portraits transforms herself into what she could or could not be: various Asian nationalities. Tasnem Alsultan thematises the disconnection between religion and local customs. Following the stories of widows, happy marriages and personal experience, she reveals the fates of Saudi Arabian women, which she inscribes in her diary. Ahlam Shibli has always been intrigued by the topic of home. Her work Death demonstrates the limited ways of making meaning from the representation of those that are absent, namely, martyrs, Palestinian fighters and civilians executing attacks, women, men and children who lost their lives as a result of Israeli occupation of Palestine. In her video installation We call Her Pulle, Nina Mangalanayagam portrays her intimate relationship with her aunt Pulle. They are two women of two different generations who do not share the language, culture or experience, and she wants to show how difficult it is to understand someone else’s trauma after they had experienced war. Aware of the lack of documentation of her community, Zanele Muholi started working on a series of portraits, aiming, in a way, to rewrite the black queer and trans visual history of South Africa. Brave Beauties represents transwomen and gender non-binary individuals with a celebratory view on the body and politics of expression. Sandra Vitaljić discusses the victimization of women and the female body, showing us fatal bodily injuries. A sad and incredible story from Nina Berman‘s recently published book An Autobiography of Miss Wish introduces us to a 25 years old story of a woman’s turbulent and tortured life. Lacking the space for expressing needs and experiences, Nydia Blas thematises the ways in which society ignores, marginalizes and evaluates individuals beyond the existing, well-defined borders. The artist resorts to creating a physical and allegorical space, exposing the constructs of sexuality, sex and gender.
Following its premiere in Maribor in January 2018, the exhibition was shown in Zagreb, Graz, Berlin and Bratislava in 2018.
The exhibition is part of a larger project of the association Društvo za evropsko zavest (SI) whose partners are ORGAN VIDA— International Photography Organization (HR), Fotoklub Maribor (SI), Österreichische Gesellschaft für Kinderphilosophie (AT), KuBiPro – Kultur –und Bildungsprojekte (DE), E@I (SK). The project is supported by the EU fund Europe for Citizens.
LESSONS FROM ‘91 I 2016
This project wants to analyze the situation in Yugoslavia in 1991 and find answers to some of the questions that arise in Europe today. We can see many parallels between then and now (the economic and political crises, securing of borders as well as the rise of nationalism) and we believe, that Europe needs to learn from the Yugoslav lessons and find better solutions to similar problems. The Yugoslav experience is a valuable experience for Europe because it is part of the European past and as such a reminder of the consequences of specific actions and events. “Lessons from 1991” looked at the year 1991 through the eyes and lenses of photographers who have documented the war in Yugoslavia. In war, the seemingly impartial medium becomes a means of manipulation and deception. Photography becomes a tool for reaching political goals. We looked at this phenomenon and invited photographers from all former Yugoslav countries to contribute photographs for an exhibition that will visually present the role of nationalism in the Yugoslav war. The exhibitions and discussions with photo reporters, journalists, historians, and politicians took place in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Germany.
