A 12-year-old boy, Vanja, has been catching and studying plankton for the past two years. He owns a professional plankton net and conducts scientific research under a microscope.

This Is (For) The Sea

The video installation entitled Partenza (Italian for departure, and used in many of Croatia’s island and coastal dialects) express the global insecurity of contemporary society and the fragility of human existence. Metaphorically, they address a story about departure, waiting and separation, dictated by migrations. In the early 20th century, it was usual yet traumatic for men to leave Croatian islands (mostly bound for the countries of South America) due to poverty and hunger. One of these tragic stories is weaved into the author’s family history. The installation is inspired by the life story of Renata’s great-grandmother who lived on the island of Brač, whose husband went to Chile looking for work in order to secure his family’s future. Like many of the island’s women, she waited for her husband who, like many of the men, never returned.

Partenza

In 2016, the ex-Yugoslav Navy flagship Vis was deliberately sunk in order to turn it into a scuba diving attraction in Croatia. The ship lies on the seabed of the waters close to Brijuni Islands where in 1956 Nasser, Nehru and Tito met to discuss their opposition to the Cold War and the formation of the Non-aligned Movement. By employing visually impressive shots, the film establishes a signature spatial and temporal narrative, at the same time entering the space of fusion of personal and collective memory and dismemory, which, in the context of political and economic changes that have been occurring in Croatian society for the past several decades, acquire metaphorical and symbolic meanings, imbued with powerful socio-psychological implications.

Yet Another Departure

The film is an intimate story about a divorce that took place in Split, the city from which the author hails. An analogy is made between the city of Split (in English, ‘to split – to separate’) and a parting of the ways between two people.

Split

Formed around four main stories, the film Woods that Sing combines visually impressive segments with the testimonies of female partisans. Nanica (18), who died during the war, left behind a diary. Marija (87) gave an audio interview a couple of years ago and we have her audio recording. Hilda (105) and Zdenka (96) passionately testify about their war and post-war experiences. The film searches for hidden feminine principles, forms and meanings in the stories that we know, that we think we know and that we have yet to find out - and it raises them a monument.