16th February, 2025 – Arrival

17th February, 2025 – Meetup with the organiser’s team at Močvara and Pogon. Pogon has an organizational setup that is valuable to follow and interlink with other NGO approaches.

18th February, 2025 – organized walk with the team, led by Saša Šimpraga to Klaonica. Later I found out that Klaonica is also an Initiative in which many of the people from the NGO scene participate. It seems the solution to all the needs for production spaces yet the political will is clearly needed.

Visiting a presentation of the Urbanist Plan for Zagreb at Društvo Hrvatskih Arhitekta. I’ve learnt they are unhappy but not how they will proceed. They present points of public apartments, linear systems, building along main alleys, reuse of old industry, green system, decentralization and autonomy in decision-making. By now, the GUP (generalni urbanistićk plan) was not accepted by the city officials.

19th February, 2025 – Checking out the SC (Studentski Centar) & Visiting a performance at MaMa.  Both spaces are interesting to follow.

20th February, 2025

  • Organised tour around Zagrebaćki Velesajam. Amazing and detailed presentation of the history, importance and opportunities (or downsides) of the space. In proximity to MSU which is worth exploring.

  • Visit the MSU talk by the Jagoda team and the Klaonica Initiative, casually meeting another resident Matej Ivušić, coming to Ljubljana in april, meeting Renata from MSU, checking the work of the artist for the rooftop garden at MSU with the local community. It seems Zagreb's problems are somewhat similar to the ones in Ljubljana - lack or insufficient art production space, expenses, infrastructure..

21st February, 2025

  • Visit to KLET, meeting the owner Andro Nogolica, speaking about public good, he showed me cadastral maps of Croatia. He is a lawyer, so he understands things. His organization of private/public partnership is “unicum” in the independent cultural scene.

  • Cheking out Hrvatsko Društvo Dizajnera, going to Medika but not staying. I find that place above where they had pizza and lunch which was great for gathering, but now it is closed. Andro later said it’s their fault Attak has problems now because that space created too much attention.

22nd February, 2025

  • Checking the empty houses around Tuškanac, photographing those, seeing (closed for renovation) Hrvatski muzej arhitekture, Klub 28, Akademija likovnih umjetnosti (in reconstruction as well), notorious Saloon and kino Tuškanac, visiting City Museum of Zagreb and their permanent exhibition and on Industrialisation in Yugoslavia, then visiting KIC and the exhibition by Karlo Štefanek and  Aleksa Jovanović, POSTHUMNE PERSONE. A cool exhibition and space.

  • In the evening going to squat reci:klaonica, writing poetry with Lea in the midst of a punk concert. Probably the highlight of the week. On the way back we found an abandoned oil plant which seems to be used sometimes for performance.

23rd February, 2025

  • Seeing the screening of the awarded movie in KIC Fiume o Morte. Meeting Vukšić sisters.

24th February, 2025

  • Visiting the lecture by Darko Simčić at Galerija Spot. An interesting overview of sound in art (although without examples), seeing the exhibition of Paula Tončić. Lot’s of reference. Tena Staričević talks about their program around Černomerac, using soundscapes and making programs for impaired too.

  • Meeting with friends from Zagreb and Rijeka, at KIC again. 

25th February, 2025

  • Looking at Državne nekretnine - in the street where I stay, there is a public open call to rent the space of 22m2 for a price od 191EUR/month. I wonder if people follow this. In Zagreb, there are 14 such spaces available, from 17-120m2. The latter costs 1833,04EUR per month. It’s a lot. Zagreb is expensive in general. Food, drinks, accommodation, expenses, while the standard is low. It’s crazy. Nevertheless, all the realestate on the list are ground floor, will check them out.

26th February, 2025

  • An organized visit to KUĆĆA collective and Studio-galerija KLET /SMAK PRESS. The first is a cool curatorial collective with bringing out the young artists. They just know what they are doing. Yet, similarly as Klet, they run from a private space. With funding and all would be impossible and unsustainable to rent a space as well.

27th February, 2025

  • An organized visit to Ateljeji Žitnjak. Although remote (and for that reason especially) they have a place without the pressure of eviction. They rent the space for low price, while expenses are high. But this space and organization is the first I’ve seen with a potential for a model of public owned space in use by artists. It’s very comfortable vibe. The art/ists seem a bit older generation. I wonder how this could be interesting to younger generation, is it too far from the centre?

  • Visit to lecture by a graphic artist Helena Klakočar at Galerija Prozori on migration. The fact that public libraries have an art and artist talk program is not new, in Slovenia too, we have this public infrastructure being used for cultural program. It’s a “support-system”, and free.