May 15th – June 9th 2023
The Spot Gallery and the Office for Photography announce the exhibition Sinking Ships by the artist Jasenko Rasol. The exhibition opening will be held on 15th May at 7 p.m. at the Spot Gallery.
The Shipbuilding Institute was founded in Zagreb in 1948 as a public scientific institution for theoretical and experimental research,[1] while the construction of its gigantic complex in Zagreb’s Siget neighbourhood marked a more pronounced shift southward of the newly urbanised boundary of the city. Apart from the fact that, from the very start, the Institute’s activities were specialised in the advancement of the shipbuilding industry, it was also an important example of post-war construction in the context of innovative architectural and urbanist development. The process of transition and privatisation of the 1990s did not bypass the Shipbuilding Institute, while some twenty years onwards, in November 2021, the Croatian government reached the decision to initiate the procedure of the Institute’s liquidation, heralding its devastation and the inevitable consequence – the emergence of yet another instance of slumbering concrete.[2]
Relying on his earlier artistic projects, in 2019 Jasenko Rasol entered the Shipbuilding Institute’s space in order to record it during the process of its transformation, as well as its decay. Even though the facility is not as rundown to the extent of some of the other industrial complexes, the photographs reveal post-transitional desolation. While at the end of the 1990s close to 200 employees daily spent their time there, in recent times, it is marked by the absence of people, a sense of void in Rasol’s photographs stemming from the fact that the institution today employs only four people. Before it loses its original function permanently, the recorded interiors of the Shipbuilding Institute lend contours to a visual narrative that provokes the observers’ astonishment. At the same time, the artist does not give into exploitation of the visual aesthetic of space, rather focusing on the phenomenon of disappearance. Even though the documentary value of these photographs will only increase over time, the artistic significance of this project lies precisely in the author’s receptivity for the topic itself. Because we are sometimes not aware of why we photograph a subject, instead almost intuitively surrendering to an urge to record it.
The exhibition “Sinking Ships” comprises six photographs, which the artists prints on self-adhesive foil and then applies to the floor of the gallery, and a kind of frieze on the wall with the names of buildings that share a similar destiny. Through this symbolic act, the artist attempts to establish a dialogue with the visitors who are faced with the question of whether they are “only” stepping on photographs, or if this procedure mirrors our relationship to industrial heritage and history. This way, the board game “Sinking Ships” becomes a game of society against the state, and if such practice of neglect towards industrial heritage continues, we might as well pronounce game over – regardless of our efforts to preserve the Shipbuilding Institute in collective memory.
Tena Starčević
[1] “Brodarski institut”, in: Hrvatska tehnička enciklopedija. (https://tehnika.lzmk.hr/brodarski-institut/, access 4 May 2023)
[2] A term referring to abandoned architectural complexes employed in the 2016 Croatian Radiotelevision documentary series Slumbering Concrete.
Jasenko Rasol (Zagreb, 1969) works as a freelance cinematographer and photographer. He graduated in film and TV cinematography from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. Between 1992 and 1996 he was a staff cameraman for Reuters TV. Since 1997, he has been working on documentary and reportage projects, and since 2000 he has filmed feature, documentary, experimental and dance films in Croatia. In addition to his more than three-decade-long cinematographic activity, Rasol is also present on the contemporary photographic scene. He has exhibited continuously at home and abroad and has published six books of photography. His photographs are kept in museum and private collections. He is a member of the Croatian Association of Visual Artists, the Croatian Association of Independent Artists and the Croatian Cinematographers Society.
Related events
- Guided exhibition tour
May 15th 2023, 19:30, The Spot Gallery
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Photography Workshop “About The Places We Have Lost”
June 2nd 2023, 17.00, Vjesnik (Slavonska avenija 4)
Opening hours of the Spot Gallery
Mon – Fri 16 – 20 or by appointment
