The Sound of Waves Mixes With the Smell of Pine Trees

Video-still: Hotel Helios, research trip 2019, Anamarija Batista & Goran Škofić

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The sound of waves mixes with the smell of pine trees, the echo of a military boot with the voices of tourists from hotel terraces. Mrs Wittgenstein, Ludwig Wittgenstein's sister, meets comrade Petrović, an employee of the company “Jadranka”, drug Eduard Kardelj and his wife have lunch with Mr Kuppelwieser. Drugarica Anica works on the construction of military barracks, while the maid Marija waters the newly planted young pine trees and hopes that they will survive.

The overlapping and intertwining of different historical, economic and political conditions and the social roles of the individual on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, as outlined above, encourages us to reflect on the resulting continuities, connections and paradoxes. Coastal areas and islands change with the arrival of foreigners on their surfaces, through the influence of new industries, old emigrants and ruling politicians. They all effect the organization of space and work in Mediterranean places. And the choices made determine and create opportunities for movement, access and modernization of the given environments. The political and economic ideologies were characterized by different roles of the working class: The workers are seen as protagonists who build and maintain the infrastructure for others, but in the era of Yugoslavia they were also decision-makers who designed, controlled and used the infrastructure. (Anamarija Batista)