exhibition of analogue photographs curated by Želimir Koščević and organised by Fotum Association

Since 2000, Duška Boban has been using her camera to record those conditions and changes in the cityscape of Split that deal with its (de)urbanization, which in turn also reflects global trends in ways urban space is being exploited and managed. The author herself points out that by using analogue photography to record the cityscape she “recognized certain aspects of nostalgia, however, not in the sense of the recorded objects’ past lives or periods they originated in, but as nostalgia related to promises and expectations that we as a society betrayed along the way, as opposed to the ideas about continuity and the anthropocentric rationale for urban spaces that are still in touch with work, culture and leisure.”  

In an attempt to restore these broken bonds with the city, the exhibition “Split *** Three Stars” held in spring of 2017 at the Salon Galić Gallery, Split, in collaboration with Silva Kalčić had a participatory aspect by suggesting the future public use and revitalization of the presented objects. It also opened a two-way communication with the public by inviting them to participate in the discussion. Segment from that exhibition, on display at the Lang Photo Gallery, intends to promote contemporary photography from Split and its 20th century architectural heritage. However, the subject matter that Duška Boban problematized with her artistic work and engagement in Split using three local examples of notable architectural and urban heritage (Vila Dalmacija at Marjan, Koteks-Gripe complex, and Dalmacijavino building in the Port of Split), is also topical in other urban settings and is an additional reason why this exhibition should be seen outside of Split. 

The manner in which Duška Boban uses photography as a medium of artistic expression is especially noteworthy. When creating these works, she established a parallel between the analogue technology and the motif itself, i.e. architectural objects. Despite still being present and accessible, both the technology and the motif are gradually fading towards, at best, alternative modes of utilization. Analogue photography and the locations captured have their technological and conceptual source in the pre-modernist 19th century, which ushered in a series of discoveries ranging from new chemical compounds needed to speed and fixate the writing of light, to construction materials that enabled building upwards towards the sky. They both reached their respective pinnacles, and limits of application in the traditional sense, at the end of the 20th century, the century of Modernism.

From early on, photography had a status of the ultimate medium of memory because it made preserving pieces of personal experience easy, as well as summarizing collective memory, in this case the memory of place. Photos of space therefore have the power to establish a renewed contact with silent memories of former users, but also with a different supressed developmental imagery.  
We are presenting images of Vila Dalmacija which Duška Boban approached from the viewpoint of a proposal to potentially repurpose it in the direction of cultural practices, specifically, into a broad-spectrum art residence. Close-ups of the interior of the former residence of the Yugoslav President Tito, his unaltered bedroom, dining room or salon for diplomatic soirées, are immersed in an ambient of green-blue splendour that dominates this part of the protected cultural landscape of the Marjan Forest Park, with the ultimate goal of sparking enthusiasm for it to be opened to the (cultural) public. In that sense, this photographic series, although cropped to suit the dilapidated, hidden beauty of the complex, once again confirms that photography is never innocent, that the frame is a question of choice, equally intimate and ideological in character.