Jelsa Art Biennial 2019: Transformation

EnviromentFestivalInterdisciplinary

14. and 15.6.2019 / Jelsa, Hvar

14.06.2019.

OPENING: THE SCHOOL

Performance / Guided walk

Performance using the body, sound, video, and objects in relation to architecture, pulling up the attention of the audience to the background stories of some of the iconic sites of Jelsa. Performance is inspired by the work of the youngest biennial artist, a mural at the old school wall, and the questions that came out of the discussion about the idea of the school: What should it be? What kind of skills should it develop? What sort of experience should we gain? In this walk, artists are joint to deliver their vision of the school where creativity and imagination mix with stories about local history and call for a responsible common future.

THE ARCH
Sculpture / Installation
Location: Nova Riva
Artist: Vitar Drinković (Croatia)

Wooden frame found in the old school doors will be refurbished and installed on Nova Riva: as a reminder of the space that has lost its access and use, and as the entrance into the school of creativity through which artists will take us to the exhibition and performance at 14.06.

PULSE
Collage / Installation
Locations: Volat, Pumpurela
Artist: Marija Kamber (Croatia)

Spatial collage Pulse is woven from the waste material of everyday life, ours or someone else’s, which turned to a vortex pulses in the air currents. In the near future, the Island of Hvar will be introducing a new waste management system. It is common knowledge that recycling culture starts with the people who produce the waste. Artist encourages residents and visitors of Jelsa to collect and organize the waste in a playful way, sorting it by color and transforming it into art objects.

FROM SIX SIDES
Audiovisual installation
Location: St Johns church
Artist: Andrej Beštak (Croatia)

Great permanent exhibition at Jelsa MunicipalMuseum, rich opus of artist Juraj Dobrović and incidentally found poetry book by Nikola Šop, have provided inspiration for Andrej Beštak’s new work which will be installed at St Johns church. The work developed in time into a metaphysical journey framed and transformed by six sides of the cube.

OUT OF THE BOX
Installation
Location: Pjaca
Artist: Miguel Bouça (Portugal)

The work uses local contemporary cultural resources as the starting point of communication in public spaces. New Tendencies, global art movement from 1961.-1973., linked to Jelsa by artist Juraj Dobrović, has inspired this composition work studies using geometric figures over buildings and streets.

MEMORY SWINGS
Site-specific installation
Location: Main Garden
Artists: Paulina Almeida (Portugal) and Ron van Roosmalen (Holland)

What is our memory of childhood? For grownups, it is nothing but past. And we are not sure if our memory of childhood was what actually was, as Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoatellus. But, for kids, their imagination and dream dissolve the border between past and future. It is the exquisite superpower to fuse the imagined and real. We hope to prolong and expand this ability. The material used is a combination of four pieces of wood and ropes from a former holiday resort for youngsters, now abandoned site located by the seaside of Jelsa.

SWAMPS
Contemporary dance
Location: Main garden
Artist: Malgorzata Sús (Poland)

Swamps are an evocation of history of the development of Jelsa, a certain homage to Niko Duboković, a visionary who built the port of Jelsa by draining the swamps, combined with artists’ ongoing research about the global water issues since 2016. Súsuses water pipes and low existing trees to compose her choreography. The textures of the movement are emerging from the site and Sús transformation into contemporary dance language.

ABOVE AND BELOW
Video installation
Artist: Anja Leko (Croatia)
Location: Slatina

Washing tanks near the small city garden, once a meeting point for local women who used to do laundry there, today, silent witness of women’s labor, become a canvas for artist’s research on potentials of the site to be revitalized as a place for the playful encounters.

SCHOOL
Mural
Artist: Valentina Rodrigues (Portugal)
Location: Pumpurela / Old school wall

WORK#1: “School” – work by young artist developed in dialogue with artists, curators and people passing by the old school’s wall, about the history of the site, educational system, content and aesthetics of public art. Apparently, the school has been torn down in the ’60s with the plan to build a hotel on its place but it was never built in the end. With confident brushstrokes, the artist is rebuilding the school of her imagination.

MOST SHOULD BE ALL
Publication
Location: Pumpurela
Artist: Kevin Claro (Portugal)

Artist Kevin Claro brings us larger perspective on territorial transformations, the idea of connecting the island of Hvar with the mainland, as a prototype of the bridge which in the end should connect Southern Europe to North Africa. Elaboration of his idea will be available in the format of publication at Pumpurela (lighthouse).

15.06.2019.

COUNTRYSIDE
Guided Walk/performance
Start: 9 am, Nova Riva

In collaboration with Croatian Nordic Walking Association, and a guide Stjepan Sarjanović, artists intervene on the route from Jelsa to Pitveinorder to connect the healthy living with art in unexpectable ways.

Production

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