I have mixed feelings about last week. I was moody and sick, so most of my energy went into trying to get better and defeat the goddamn virus that was attacking me ruthlessly. Needless to say, I spent most of the week in bed.
Overall impressions: as a recently converted non-smoker, it’s been extremely hard to be in environments where everyone smokes—which seems to be the case with almost every coffee place and pub in Zagreb. It’s definitely not helping me recover; if anything, it’s making things worse. On the bright side, the weather has been nice enough to stay outside for a couple of hours, which helps.
Besides trying to get healthy, we managed to meet two out of three people from the Kućća collective. I was absolutely thrilled by their work—over the moon that we got to meet them. The girls were incredibly kind and took the time to carefully explain how the collective operates and the projects they’ve worked on so far. It was inspiring, especially because they focus on supporting young collectives and artists. At the same time, it was a bit depressing to think about how in some places independent culture isn’t seen as worthy of more public funding. Or how artists and cultural workers constantly need to juggle multiple jobs just to make ends meet.
Later that week, we visited Galerija Žitnjak, which I had already seen a couple of years ago. The concept of artists' studios in an old school is very cool in theory, but I disliked the fact that they have to pay for the space—especially since it doesn’t really offer much in return. Paying for heating on top of that feels particularly unfair of the city of Zagreb. Also, somehow, some of the spaces seem to have been given to people who have stayed there forever. Perhaps the gallery could benefit from having more residency spaces instead of permanent studios. Not that I’m saying kick anyone out—that would be awful—but maybe some kind of rotation could work, just so not everyone stays in one place forever.
We also saw an exhibition there by an artist from Split. The exhibition was intriguing but also a bit confusing. It was about workers in the city, the air, the artist's blood pressure over a month, and Le Corbusier's ideas about humans in space. Perhaps I didn’t quite get it.
We saw two studios there—one belonged to an architect who was building a model of the Diocletian Palace in Split (if I’m not mistaken). The other was an art writer’s studio filled with books, vinyl records and smoke (cough, cough). The school itself reminded me a lot of my old school in Prishtina—just a bit smaller, but with the same walls and floors.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to meet the people from Klet and Smak because I had to go home and rest. But I did visit a few days earlier and got to see the exhibition space and the coffee place. They looked absolutely amazing, and the whole concept of having a space dedicated mostly to pop-up art shows is such a good idea. Also, I spent an embarrassing amount of time obsessing over their publications—all of which were brilliant.
On a happier note, I spent some time this week thinking about the project I’ll be working on in Zagreb. My little bakery project, with stories from bakery families who come from the region of Has in Kosovo, got support, which made me really happy. I’m excited to talk about the importance of bread in my culture—it’s a small thing, but it feels significant.
