Opening of the intervention in the public space by Damir Stojnić

The event is part of the Rijeka 2020 programme →

As part of the Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture project, in 2019 and 2020, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka will be presenting a series of art interventions, dedicated to the subject of public space, which would contribute to the physical and symbolic modifications of Rijeka’s urban landscape.

One of them is an intervention in public space, the work of the Rijeka author Damir Stojnić called  1: 1: synagogue, which will be presented on October 24  at the location where it is created – 31 Pomerio Street.

In this work, the artist continues to explore the themes of socio-political changes that influenced the fate of many individuals but went mostly unnoticed or became forgotten in the collective memory. With this intervention, Stojnić will reawaken the memory of the Grand Synagogue which was built in Pomerio Street in 1903, but, neglected and deteriorated, was completely demolished in 1948. He correlates the synagogue to his other intervention, named 1:1: bordering wall, with which he evokes the memory of the former border that used to divide this city in two. bordering wall was made in 2018, and the citizens of Rijeka remember it as a thick red line drawn on the road in Rijeka’s Mrtvi kanal. And now, Stojnić is going to draw the contours of the former synagogue on the pavement, using a white fluorescent color to make it visible at night.

Refraining from interpreting and filtering historical facts, using such non-expressive place-marking, the author does not encourage polarization of thought, or ideological separation, but remains a silent advocate for a culture of memory.

Damir Stojnić creates mostly in the medium of drawing and performance, with a strong interest in morphological processes of disappearance and reappearance of matter. His actions in public space are motivated by cultural memory and symbols of urban landscape that seek to restore the local collective memory. He earned his degree the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and Ljubljana, and he works in Rijeka. His works are part of public art collections in Croatia and several private collections in Italy, Germany and Austria.

Intervention is a part of Times of Power flagship by Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture.