NMG@MKC: LUCIJA BUŽANČIĆ_TIMELINES

OPENING: Monday, August 19th at 20:00

The exhibition is open to visitors from Monday to Friday during the gallery’s working hours from 18:00 to 21:00

MKC Gallery

Youth Center Split

Ulica Slobode 28

Something grew out of the cracks and walls and occupied all the empty spaces in a little Mediterranean city. This short film is about the gentrification of a place that has recently become a live archeological site thanks to severe touristification.

We are talking about Split, of course. A city with a phenomenal urban structure, which has slowly, over centuries, swelled within its historical core and overflowed the walls of the palace.

            “Please, can you tell us where the castle is?” – couple of tourists said to me.

            (What castle? Where did they get that from? Maybe they mean Klis?) – “Did you mean Klis Fortress?”

            “No, no, no. You know, princess in a tower, dragons…” (For the first season of Game of Thrones, we will have to wait a few more years.)

            “Huh?”

            “You know…”

            (Few moments later) “Ohhhh! Diocletian’s Palace! So, walk straight down, and at the first intersection, you’ll take a right turn…”

            (sudden interruption) “How much are the tickets?”

            …

Diocletian’s Palace has never been an archaeological site that requires an entrance fee. Since the 7th century, the palace has lived on as the city of Split, and even the most general literature or encyclopedic entries will highlight the characteristic phenomenon of continuous life. Split is no longer a transit city but has become a destination where the trend of tourism shows no signs of slowing down. The points that once shaped the Mediterranean identity of the city are disappearing. Secure housing is becoming unattainable, while seasonal work prevails, and touristification increasingly disrupts the local identity and community. The city is turning into a backdrop for masses of tourists. For the first time since Diocletian, life has been pushed out of the city, and it finally becomes a real archaeological park offering additional amenities for a pleasant and unforgettable stay—also REAL LOCAL PEOPLE—and there are work-friendly specialty coffee shops with free WiFi.

Alluding to the city as a backdrop, the scenery of the short animated film Saturation by Lucija Bužančić from 2022 features characteristic views of Diocletian’s Palace, such as the facade of the Golden Gate or Cararra Square, but they are mostly barely recognizable due to undefined accumulations of color that flood the streets with their movement. The focus is not exclusively on tourism as a sociological phenomenon. That is why the masses of tourists are depicted as undefined masses of color, among which we recognize rare figures of residents—REAL LOCAL PEOPLE—who, with a dystopian tone, are announced as an attraction by a sign at the entrance to the palace. There are also a few pigeons and cats. Understanding this film is key to the visual interpretation of the subjective feeling of inaccessibility or deprivation of spatial, and therefore identity, dimensions of the city. Surviving, vivid details of Mediterranean culture are depicted, so after this animated film, for me, the laundry lines, as well as the cats calmly observing all the changes, become symbols of resistance (since we don’t yet have air corridors in the alleys that would take the place of the laundry lines).

The cat is a recurring motif in the amateur documentary film Diocletian’s Palace Anno Domini 1988 by Karlo Grenc, made in 1988. However, here, it is shown as part of the communal disorder, a symbol of neglect and the worrying state of the historical city core, which was also the reason for making the film. Under the initiative of the Society of Friends of Cultural Heritage Split, Grenc’s documentary, filmed with his VHS camera, along with other materials and an accompanying discursive program, was presented to the public at an exhibition organized that same year. Public opinion surveys showed that the city’s residents were mostly shocked by the state of the city center and were not at all aware of it. Therefore, it is clear that as a society and as individuals, we must remind ourselves of the value of our cultural heritage but also constantly raise awareness of current issues, whether through exhibitions or, for example, critical texts or forums, which seems both absurd and necessary at the same time.

In recent years, the works of local artists and cultural workers have been warning about the gentrification of the environment due to haphazard touristification, while Lucija Bužančić’s current exhibition continues this responsible trend, beginning with the animated film *Saturation* and continuing two years later with the exhibition Timelines. Through a dialogue between the author’s animated film and selected amateur footage by Karlo Grenc, an unconventional documentary film is created through an experimental exhibition concept, with the final montage of images and sound realized in the gallery space. In an original way, the focus is not so much on the urban transformation of the city over the last 40 years, but on the theme of the relationship to living space, heritage, and cultural identity. Vignettes from two different periods are presented, approached by the authors in completely different, specific, and intuitive ways, yet bound by fundamentally the same motivation. Through the interaction of two different film genres, Lucija Bužančić has depicted the relationship between the collective and the personal, the space of reality on film and drawing, opening the possibility for the fantastic, as well as a place where we complete the montage of this unusual documentary film by adding our own view of touristification and the transformation of the living environment. Therefore, the intention of this exhibition is not strictly documentary or activist; rather, in the context of such themes, it is equally important to tell the story as we see and feel it ourselves, in which Lucija Bužančić is exceptionally skilled.

Jelena Šimundić Bendić

Lucija Bužančić (born in 1989) is an animator, illustrator, and animated film author. She earned her master’s degrees from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Her graduation film, The Process, earned her recognition as one of the new European talents. She has been actively exhibiting her work since 2019, with notable exhibitions such as On the Hill_Notes for Relocation in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Karla Crnčević as part of the VOX Feminae Festival. In 2020, she held her first solo exhibition Blue Frames at the Botaničar bar in Zagreb, inspired by 1960s fashion advice from Žuži Jelinek. Continuing this cycle, she presented the exhibition The Secret of a Well-Dressed Woman in 2022, for which she received the Art Bubble project award. She also exhibited her series of illustrations titled Shade as part of the Postcards project organized by Lab852. In association with the production company Zagreb Film she has realized two animated films. Iris was released in 2020, while the second film Saturation was completed in 2022. Since 2021, Lucija has collaborated with circus artist Dora Komenda. Together, they conceived and performed the circus show The Line, and their next production Outline is currently in progress.