Lana Stojićević

Botanicus, 2020

The imaginary theatre play Betonicus is inspired by the fact that architectural neo-style elements imitate styles of the past. Betonicus is the concrete neo-antique column permanently installed in an illegally...

The imaginary theatre play Betonicus is inspired by the fact that architectural neo-style elements imitate styles of the past. Betonicus is the concrete neo-antique column permanently installed in an illegally built tourist apartment. He dreams about being the ancient original column that was erected by emperor Diocletian himself. Plasticus, a character that plays the role of a plastic door, represents a small-scale but widespread and harmful element often incorporated into cultural heritage. The Peristyle, the central square of Diocletian’s Palace in Split, is conceived as the location of the play’s premiere, as shown in the set design scale model.

Photography, costume, architectural scale model, text

Technical associate: Goran Radošević

CHARACTERS:

BETONICUS, a cement column of the neo-Corinthian variety

PLASTICUS, a PVC door

ACT ONE

Concrete suburbia. Over-built. An apartment building.

Unplastered, yet magnificently decorated in antique fashion.

Illegally built, but subsequently legalised.

SCENE ONE

BETONICUS (alone, in thought, motionlessly supporting a double arch)

What is the suffering of Sisyphus,

What the torment of Tantalus!

From cement have I been poured,

In gold and silver stained,

Forever under concrete arches placed.

In a dream, again, the same images appeared:

Had I only in marble been carved,

Had I on the Peristyle been placed,

By Diocletian’s hand I’d have been caressed.

Alas, sweet dreams were interrupted by reality,

And a concrete fate had befallen me!

The Gods have not explained such iniquity,

Why make stairs of marble instead of me?

Sunny Side, 2018

The modernist Zora Hotel, complete with a futuristic swimming pool dome, designed by Lovro Perković, was built in Primošten in the 1960s. Thanks to its 1971 tourist advertisement featuring Orson...

The modernist Zora Hotel, complete with a futuristic swimming pool dome, designed by Lovro Perković, was built in Primošten in the 1960s. Thanks to its 1971 tourist advertisement featuring Orson Welles and Oja Kodar in front of the Zora Hotel, its spaceship-like dome was inserted into the world of 60s sci-fi movies. The pool was converted into a spaceship, while the Yugoslav advertising slogan “Come and See the Truth” – used to invite foreign citizens to experience the “sunny side of socialism” – became the slogan for the space-faring mission named Sunny Side. Oja Kodar contributed to this project with her poetic letter and the information that Welles, in his unfinished film Don Quixote, had planned to turn Primošten’s dome into a spaceship that would take Don Quixote and Sancho Panza to the Moon.

Photography, costume, architectural scale model, video, text

Technical associates: Goran Radošević, Zoran Stojićević

Façade, 2018

In 1931, at the Beaux-Arts Ball in New York, famous architects dressed up as buildings they had designed, celebrating the present and future of architecture in the midst of the...

In 1931, at the Beaux-Arts Ball in New York, famous architects dressed up as buildings they had designed, celebrating the present and future of architecture in the midst of the Great Depression. As a tribute to this event, I made my own version of an architectural costume referencing the amateurish and often illegally built private homes found in Dalmatia. These houses are often flamboyant, abounding in faux-historical decorative elements and boasting plastic window and door frames. Enveloped in my role of façade – that is, the thin boundary between the private and public spaces – I sometimes domineer over the untouched nature that surrounds me and sometimes attempt to fit into the already-built architectural landscape.

Performative photography, costume

Technical associates: Goran Radošević, Zoran Stojićević

Black Hill, 2015

In 2010, approximately 140,000 tonnes of potentially hazardous waste from the former Electrode and Ferroalloy Factory (TEF) in Šibenik was dumped in the village of Biljane Donje. Imagining the black slag heaps as the surface of an unknown planet, this project deals with the impact that this artificial and dangerous postindustrial landscape has on both the village and its residents. The costume used in the photo series is an interpretation of traditional folk attire, while the mask represents apotropaic properties for protection against the threatening landscape. The costume is covered in a local embroidery pattern (četverokuka) symbolising hope and protection.

Performative photography, costume, sound recording (interview with Živko Ševo, Biljane Donje, https://vimeo.com/126737005)

Technical associates: Goran Radošević, Zoran Stojićević, Duška Stojićević

About author

Lana Stojićević (born in 1989 in Šibenik, based in Split) is a visual artist working in the field of artistic research. She utilizes performative and staged photography, textile, costumes, and architectural models to explore themes such as illegal construction, architectural and industrial heritage, environmental pollution, contemporary neo-style tendencies, the devastation of cultural heritage, and the transformation of landscape as a result of mass tourism. She graduated from the Painting Department at the Arts Academy of the University of Split in 2012. She works as assistant professor at the Department of Visual Culture and Fine Arts of the Arts Academy in Split. She has won numerous professional awards, such as third place of the Erste Prize of the Youth Salon, Croatian Association of Artists, Zagreb (2022); the Radoslav Putar Award, Institute of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2021); third place of the Ivan Kožarić Award, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2021); the Metro Imaging Award at the New East Photo Prize exhibition, Calvert 22 Foundation, London (2016); and the Annual Award for Young Artists, Croatian Association of Artists, Zagreb (2015). She has taken part in several artist residencies including Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Residency Unlimited (New York), and Kulturvermittlung Steiermark Artist in Residence (Graz).