Art & Culture 5 New Faces in Croatian Culture The Croatian creative scene is a constant ferment of new voices and new talents. Here is our pick of five names to watch in 2021.
Lorna
Dalibor
Ivan
Lana
Photography: Lorna Kijurko Ljubljana-born, Rovinj-raised photographer Lorna Kijurko has been turning a lot of heads with her fresh take on the art of the nude. Working primarily in black and white, she has carved out a unique aesthetic niche since her first solo exhibition “Liveliness” in 2016. The Živost series has since assumed canonical proportions with its intimate, atmospheric and empowering images of female nudes – lying on beaches, running between tall wild grasses, or caught in almost candid-camera style in various locations. Revised and expanded, Živost was given a reprise in Zagreb’s Lauba Gallery in 2020; and all of a sudden Lorna Kijurko was someone the nation’s lifestyle magazines couldn’t get enough of. As she told one interviewer, “for me the nude is not about taking clothes off, its about opening the soul”. Increasingly in demand as a portrait and fashion photographer, and with an already much-hailed portfolio of travel photographs taken during trips to India, one suspects that there is much more to come from Kijurko in the future.
Liveliness, Lorna Kijurko
Animated Film: Dalibor Barić Croatia has been known for its outstanding tradition in animated film ever since Zagreb’s Dušan Vukotić won an Oscar for his film The Surrogate in 1962. Breaking into the long list for best animated feature in 2021’s Oscars was Zagreb-based film-maker Dalibor Barić, whose tortuouslytitled Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus (Slučajna raskoš prozirnog vodenog rebusa), offered a seductive mixture of dystopian sci-fi and brooding philosophical drama. Premiered at the Annecy Film Festival last year, the film takes a critical look at corporate power and the all-seeing eye of contemporary technology. Rendered in a vivid style that blends lurid comic-strip aesthetics with photomontage, it looks like a cross between an Adam Curtis documentary and a woozy dream, and is a long way from the cartoon adventures of a Disney or a Pixar. As well as writing and directing a string of animated films over the last ten years, Barić has also directed videos and authored comic strips. Future-angst and techno-terror have always been among his main concerns, as evidenced by his highly admired shorts Unknown Energies, Unidentified Emotions; and Amnesiac on the Beach. Totally original and slightly mad, Barić is very much a name to watch.
Dalibor Barić, Rebus 36
32 Croatia In Your Pocket
Domagoj & Hrvoje
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