Marking the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Vis, the exhibition TRACE explores the notion of a trace as a sign of presence, memory, and the passage of time. A trace can be a footprint, a path of movement, a scar in the landscape, or evidence of an event that ended long ago but remains present in collective memory.
Vis is a place whose landscape and identity have been shaped by layers of history. Traces of past events, human destinies, and transformations remain inscribed in its surroundings, just as animals, people, and objects leave their marks in everyday life. This reflection gave rise to an exhibition that brings together photography and sculpture through the idea of presence and its consequences.
The exhibition brings together works created during an artist residency in Paris and selected sculptures produced in Maribor. Sculptures of a fox and a wild boar, photographed during nighttime walks through central Paris, bear witness to a life unfolding beyond our gaze, at the edges of human attention. Their appearance reveals traces of a parallel world that exists alongside our own, often unnoticed yet always present.
A special place in the exhibition is given to the sculptures Broken Wing (Icarus) and Body Without Blood (Daedalus). Both works were created from discarded asphalt collected in Maribor, a material that becomes a carrier of meaning and spatial memory. Broken Wing, awarded the Gold Medal for Sculpture at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, literally bears wings assembled from fragments of Maribor's streets.
The mythological story of Daedalus and Icarus becomes an allegory of contemporary migration. Two fugitives set out in search of freedom, but one of them meets a tragic end in the sea. This story, thousands of years old, bears a striking resemblance to images we continue to witness today. Asphalt, composed in part of petroleum derivatives, becomes a symbolic link between the material from which we build the modern world and the causes of many of today's wars, migrations, and exoduses.
TRACE is an exhibition about what remains after us. About the traces left by people, animals, history, and time. About a presence that outlives an event, and a memory that remains inscribed in a place long after those who shaped it have disappeared.
Koraljka Čeh, President of the Croatian Cultural Society in Maribor
The exhibition is organised by the Croatian Cultural Society in Maribor and the Meštrović Exhibition Space, Jakinovi Dvori, Vis.
Special thanks to Dunja Bezjak for her collaboration and assistance in making the exhibition possible.
The programme was realised with the support of the Central State Office for Croats Abroad of the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities (JSKD).
