About the projectThe art-based research project Adriatic Coast as a Leisure and Defence Paradise examines the phenomena of military and tourist urbanisation as well as their impact on the Adriatic coast and the life of the local population. Through interviews, archive research, video recordings and especially developed and repeatedly redrawn mappings, it aims to intersect the past and the present as well as official information and individual stories. Six tourist-military sites were carefully selected as case studies.
During the time period defined as "modernism", the Adriatic coast of former Yugoslavia underwent a massive transformation. Especially the rise of (mass) tourism left a strong imprint, which characterizes the region until today. It is less well known that in the very same period of time, the area was also prone to the establishment of one of the most important defence lines of the country. As a matter of fact, a large number of military defence sites were built in strict secrecy along the mainland and island coasts, intended to protect the non-aligned country from a potential attack.
The project "Collective Utopias of Post-War Modernism: The Adriatic Coast as a Leisure and Defence Paradise" is a cooperation between Antonia Dika (Institute for Space and Design, University of Art and Design Linz) and Anamarija Batista (Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna). The project is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): FWF Peek AR 482-G24 and TCS 114-G.
Several project results will be shown at the exhibition The Distance View: Leisure and Defence on the Adriatic Coast at the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, starting on June 20, 2023. Hope to see you there!TeamAnamarija Batista is a researcher, lecturer and a freelance curator. Batista graduated economy and art history at the Vienna University. She has curated a series of exhibitions including “Productive Work – what is it supposed to be?” (frei_raum, Museumsquartier), “Bosch & Hofbauer” (The Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, 2018), “The Munchhausen effect – Micro-utopias on Time in the Time of having no Time” (Gallery 5020, 2017), “Crisis as Ideology?” (Kunstraum Niederösterreich, 2016). Her publication “Rethinking Density. Art, Culture and Urban Practices” was released by Sternberg Press as part of the publication series of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 2017. The publication "Notions of Temporalities in Artistic Practice" she has edited, was published by De Gruyter in 2022.
Antonia Dika is a Vienna-based architect, urban planner and researcher. She was born in Rijeka and moved to Vienna at the age of 11. She studied architecture in Vienna and Berlin, and currently works as senior scientist at the University of Art and Design Linz, Institute for Space and Design. Dika was a long term associate of the City of Vienna’s Urban Renewal Office (GB*16), where she carried out numerous interdisciplinary neighbourhood and research projects. She has been teaching at various universities, most recently at the Research Unit of Housing and Design, TU Vienna. The book "Mapping the Croatian Coast. A Road Trip to Architectural Legacies of Cold War and Tourism Boom" (Berlin: Jovis, 2020), which she has co-edited with Bernadette Krejs, was selected among 20 internationally best architecture books at the DAM Architectural Book Award 2020.
Zara Pfeifer *1984, is based in Vienna and Berlin. Her work investigates large infrastructure, like highways and housing projects, on a human scale. It involves longer periods of immersion in the day-to-day life of her subjects, such as in her documentation of the modernist housing project Alterlaa (“Du, meine konkrete Utopie”, 2013-17), and her series on truck drivers (“Good Street!”, 2018-2022). She has worked with institutions including the MAK Center in Los Angeles and the Austrian Cultural Forum in Berlin, publications including Monocle, ZEIT Magazin and Monopol, and received a studio grant at ISCP New York by the Austrian Federal Government. Her book “ICC Berlin” was published in 2022 by Jovis Verlag. Pfeifer studied Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Photography at the Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography in Vienna. She holds lecturing positions at both the Technical University Vienna and at the Technical University Berlin, where she teaches the course Architecture & Photography.
Arthur Summereder (born 1983 in Vienna) is a filmmaker, film editor, visual artist and PhD researcher (University of Art and Design Linz). His work investigates the relationship between filmic representations of non-filmic realities and, more recently, specific aspects of mobility studies and metaphor theory in relation to film. He studied film and public art (e.g. at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), and has taught at universities in Austria and China. His work has been internationally shown and awarded.
Goran Škofić graduated at the Film and Video Department from the Arts Academy in Split in 2005. He expresses himself in the media of video, photography, video installation and film, experimenting by manipulating the image and using elements of performance. He has exhibited in more than 30 solo and a large number of group exhibitions and festivals in Croatia and abroad. He has attended artist residencies in France, Switzerland, Belgium, the USA, and Brazil. The awards he has received include Oktavijan Award at the 11th Days of Croatian Film in 2001, Radoslav Putar Award in 2009, Bogdanka Poznanović Award at Videomedeja Festival in Novi Sad (Serbia) in 2012, and the Grand Prix at the 51st Zagreb Salon in 2016. His works are part of the following public collections: Wroclaw Contemporary Museum (Poland), Museum of Fine Arts in Split (Croatia), FRAC des Pays de la Loire in Carquefou (France), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka (Croatia), and Lapidarium Museum in Novigrad (Croatia). He lives and works in Zagreb and Poreč.Get in touch with us!Share with us your memories of military days or holidays on the Adriatic. We look forward to hearing from you!Contact:mail: hello@leisureanddefence.org
phone: +43 677 636 973 59Legal information:https://leisureanddefence.org/en/contact