The exhibition CARING AND BEING grew out of a collaboration between two galleries that operate fluidly within hospital settings, promoting the coexistence of contemporary art and public healthcare. Their work seeks to empower hospital users and healthcare workers, while also highlighting the role of art in society — a contribution of which the wider public is often unaware.

Ligature Gallery at the Department of Urology of the Sestre Milosrdnice University Hospital has operated informally since 2018, following the dual professional practice of physician and artist Matej Knežević. The second hospital gallery, Zoja Dumengjić Gallery, named after the architect of the Split hospital in Firule, was established in 2021 through a collaboration between the Croatian Association of Visual Artists Split and Split University Hospital, initiated by Ivana Meštrov, curator of the 41st Split Salon, and visual anthropologist Sonja Leboš.

Both galleries have established a range of significant collaborations with artists of different generations and backgrounds through discreetly installed exhibitions, most of which have been seen by a large but largely incidental audience of hospital users. Yet it was the hospital staff who witnessed all, or at least most, of these artistic interventions and the continuity of the galleries’ activities within the hospital. I therefore wanted to offer them a critical and creative exhibition experience and, through photography, give voice and visibility to those who work and live alongside patients and their families every day. It was particularly important to me that the project deepen the understanding and connections between two seemingly distant professional realities.

The works exhibited were created as part of a workshop conducted online and in an in-person session at Gallery VN, based on the practice of therapeutic photography and incorporating elements of the participatory research method photovoice. Nine female and one male employee of Sestre Milosrdnice University Hospital reflected, through photography and short written narratives, on the origins of and reasons for choosing their profession. They shared with us what continues to give their work meaning, touched upon its more demanding aspects, and expressed their hopes for a better order of things.

I would like to thank the nurses Andrea Bebić, Josipa Jeličić, Tea Latinović, Andrea Poljak, Alma Redžepagić and Ivanka Santini; administrators Nataša Duma, Mira Evdjenić and Jadranka Stipčević Žeželj; and Dr Igor Tomašković for their openness and for this wonderful collaboration.

Duška Boban

The practice of therapeutic photography, as well as photovoice, a method aimed at strengthening communities, uses photographs as a means of self-exploration, helping individuals become aware of and articulate their own emotions, thoughts and experiences. In this way, a non-verbal medium becomes a stimulus for putting personal experiences into words.

Participants photograph as a means of self-questioning and self-expression, while through reflection in a facilitated group workshop they become more aware of their own experiences. This is perhaps the most valuable aspect of the method: seeing and listening through experience in the plural, potentially recognising points of overlap, building empathy, and creating stronger connections within a group or in one’s personal life. In both cases, the photograph is the central point of connection — a powerful symptom and trigger for shared visual storytelling.

Inspired precisely by her own artistic practice, in which she uses photography as her primary medium to probe forgotten or underrepresented social issues and to enter directly into the layers and memories of a community, Duška Boban has in recent years been actively conducting workshops based on this approach, which remains insufficiently recognised in the local context. Moving away from strictly individual authorship, these platforms create a framework in which those around us can also express themselves, develop greater self-awareness and be heard.

In a society where the mutualities of care and public welfare are increasingly rarely considered structurally, these artistic approaches and practices of shared attention remind us directly that every act of caring also contains a measure of self-care. Because in order to care for others, one must also be cared for. Only then can caring truly mean being.

                                                                                                                        lvana Meštrov

Postav: Duška Boban i Matej Knežević

Produkcija: HULU Split, KBC Split, Galerija Ligatura, Galerija VN

Podrška: Ministarstvo kulture i medija RH / Grad Split

Sudjeluju: Andrea Bebić, Nataša Duma, Mira Evdjenić, Josipa Jeličić, Tea Latinović, Andrea Poljak, Alma Redžepagić, lvanka Santini, Jadranaka Stipčević Žeželj, lgor Tomašković