Tarik Samarah: ‘1945 – 1995 – 2015′
Zagreb, city lights on various locations, April 2 – April 18, 2015
The author of this exhibition, Tarik Samarah, a Bosnian-Herzegovinian artist and photographer living in Sarajevo, with his project ‘1945 – 1995 – 2015‘, named after the year of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and the year of the Srebrenica genocide, deliberately transfers the culture of closed, intimate and ‘elite’ spaces of galleries onto streets. This way it is accessible to everyone and anyone, and we are all confronted with the past and invited for reflection and co-operation in the hope that something as awful as this will never happen again. A Srebrenica mother, standing in front of the house of Anne Frank, a scene that undoubtedly makes us contemplate and asks us about our personal engagement, serves as a mirror of ourselves, our inner character, but it also offers a chance of dialogue and progress, as long as we are ready to accept the truth about the past. It is us who have to decide about how to confront the past and whether we are willing to accept the message of peace, allowing changes to take place – changes that will prevent the mistakes done in the past from being repeated. Ten billboards will be set on various frequent locations in Zagreb until the end of the Festival, and some of the photographs that are part of the author’s exhibition ‘Genocide’ on Srebrenica, from which the author compiled a video clip, will be shown as an integral part of the film program of the Festival.
Photography exhibition ‘Intolerance Zero’
Italian Cultural Institute, April 11 – May 11, 2015, 7 PM
Different aspects of intolerance in today’s modern world, hate crimes, limiting of other people’s freedoms, religious-, gender- and ethnic-based discriminations… We are witnessing this almost every day, whether it happens directly in our community, or indirectly via the media or other ‘second-hand’ stories. The Italian photographer Donata Pizzi addresses this problem, showing approximately 40 photographs at this exhibition, which she has captured with her camera travelling across the world. The exact places of hate crimes, places where women and men were murdered only because they wanted to live their freedom, their right as human beings, the right to choose, without being discriminated in their own community and even in their own family. In the words of the author herself, with these photographs she wants to pay respect to the victims by photographing the places where they were murdered and to share the message of these powerful and brave individuals who wanted nothing more but to live their freedom. The importance of these messages was recognized by the well-known and established cultural ‘Center Robert F. Kennedy’, dedicated to promoting social justice and human rights, and the ‘Doppia Difesa’ NGO, which are the sponsors of the project together with the Festival of Tolerance.
Photo contest ‘Intercultural Encounters’
Gliptoteka, April 10 – April 18, 2015, 7 PM
Travelling as a central topic and exploring other cultures was the main task that was given to participants of the photo contest ‘Intercultural Encounters’, that was held with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs and Austrian Cultural Fora, with its purpose being promoting human rights, developing an intercultural dialogue, as well as a dialogue between individuals and institutions. A different approach and interpretation of the given topic differs from an individual to an individual, much like the aspects of a dialogue, process of thinking and understanding of the topic do. A total of 189 photographs was received and the task force named ‘Dialogue of Cultures’, along with a jury consisting of Gerald Bast (the Rector of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna), Verena Kaspar-Eisert (the curator of the Kunsthaus, Vienna), Gerhard Moßhammer (the Director and Chairman of an NGO – Intercultural Centre in Vienna, along with Martina Fürpaß), Eva Schlegel (an Austrian artist and photographer), and Kamen Stoyanov (an Austrian artist born in Bulgaria) has chosen 35 photographs that will be displayed at the exhibition in Gliptoteka. The jury also proclaimed five winners of the 1st Intercultural Photo Contest. The winners are Joel Lukhavi, Dusana Baltic, Teresa Belkow, Mareike Boysen, and Rafiz Fera. With the goal of promoting an intercultural dialogue and with the support of the embassies from all over the world, this exhibition is determined in the intent to overcome stereotypes and personal prejudices, and helps build trust between different cultures and nations.
Photo exhibition ‘Prince Soniyiki – Integration of a refugee into Croatian society’
Gliptoteka, April 10 – April 18, 2015, 7 PM
In her exhibition in Gliptoteka, the photographer Nena Lukin, in cooperation with UNHCR, presents a photo essay about a three-year-long journey of an asylum seeker, from Nigeria, through Libya and Italy, all the way to Croatia, where his asylum was approved after the six months period he spent in Kutina in the Reception Centre for Illegal Immigrants. Mostly due to his persistence and determination, Prince Wale Soniyiki has learned the Croatian language and adapted to the new country and its customs, but he is also very well-aware of the obstacles and problems asylum seekers are confronted with. He sees the lack of institutionalized language learning as the biggest obstacle for integration into the society and stepping into the labor market. Even though this problem is recognized by different NGO-s, as well as the government itself, nothing is actually being done and this problem remains unresolved. Prince promotes life in his new country through the ‘Africans in Croatia’ NGO, which he has founded himself in order to help others exercise their rights, help with the accommodation and finding a job, promoting coexistence and tolerance, as well as sharing African cultural heritage with Croatian people. He holds an MBA degree from his country, but he does not run from hard physical work; he works on a fishing boat at the Croatian coast, near Zadar, where he is very well accepted by his colleagues and members of the community, in spite of the still traditional environment of the small community. He is being taught local customs and was even given a new nickname – ‘African Šime’. Nevertheless, in spite of this positive and encouraging example, there are still great prejudices towards the ‘different’, but with his efforts to help others and by promoting an intercultural dialogue, Prince is surely an inspiration and his story provides a great hope in solving problems of asylum seekers.
Multimedia performance ‘Ye Shanghai’
Europa Movie Theater; April 16, 2015; 10:15 PM
Roberto Paci Dalò is an Italian musician, composer, movie and theater director, visual artist who creates his work starting with sound and drawing, then expanding it to sculpture, installation, music, film, performance, and collaborative projects, between institution, the independent scene, and pop culture.
Audio – visual performance ‘Ye Shanghai’ has been premiered on September 6th at the biggest Art Fair in Asia, SH Contemporary Art Fair in Shanghai. The project is based on audio and visual materials from the years between 1933 and 1949 and in its core is the life of the Jewish refugees in the Shanghai ghetto, during the Japanese occupation of the city. In this period, more than 20 000 Jews fleeing from German-occupied Europe lived there, making it the largest Jewish settlement in the Far East.
The song playing throughout the whole performance, Ye Shanghai (Nights of Shanghai), is an iconic Chinese song from the 1930s. Sampled, stretched, decomposed, recomposed, completed with the live instrumental music and electronic sounds, with voice samples in English, Yiddish, Chinese and German, it creates soundscapes from the past, vibrating between familiar and unrecognizable, giving us privileged entrance into the nostalgic ambient of memories that the very protagonists might have experienced and remember.
This project is organized in collaboration with Organizam informal alliance (UBU, Sintoment, Babushke, Nefunkcionalni Most).
In the production of Organizam (UBU + Sintoment + Babushke + NM), you can also visit the exhibition, multimedia installation Ye Shanghai, from April 13 till April 17, 2015, at the Izidor Kršnjavi Salon, in the School of Applied Arts and Design. In the same Salon, for the students of the School a lecture will be held on Friday, April 17 at 12 PM.
