Exhibition “women.index” at the Zagreb City Museum
The exhibition is a spatial reflection of a project that began as an urban dialogue.
women.index is presented as a spatial installation at the Zagreb City Museum from April 15 to August 31, 2025.
It was developed in collaboration with Dunja Bonacci Skenderović, an independent consultant for combating violence against women; Lana Bobić, a feminist theologian; Dorotea Šušak, activist and Executive Director of the Center for Women’s Studies; Nataša Bijelić, sociologist and expert associate at CESI (Center for Education, Counseling and Research); and Marina Perica Krapljanov, Senior Curator.
This is the fifth time the project is being presented — after Split, Naples, Belgrade, and Ljubljana — now arriving in Zagreb, bringing a simple yet powerful question in the form of a statement: I feel…
The response to this statement is offered through three categories: satisfied, discriminated, abused. Each of these is defined by a series of sentences developed by the author and her collaborators through analysis of women’s social positions and the complex processes shaping them. The sentences are not based on ideological assumptions, but are inclusive, universal, and open to different experiences, inviting every woman to recognize herself and respond with how she feels,
The installation is located inside a 17th-century building that once served as a convent of the Poor Clares — one of the strictest female religious orders. The exhibition is placed specifically in the former convent dining hall — the refectory — a space of communal gatherings and silence, where the nuns, who rarely left the convent, lived modest, contemplative lives devoted to others. Positioning the exhibition in this space creates a dramaturgical framework that intensifies the question of women’s status throughout history — from silent contemplation to a public voice. The white outer shell of the installation stands in sharp contrast to the red corridor — a passage that symbolically pulses with themes from the everyday lives of contemporary women, regardless of their age or social standing.
The red corridor is imagined as a living space for dialogue — one that will be continually enriched and expanded through discursive programs with new experiences, voices, and (re)actions of the women who participate in it.
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The collaboration with the Zagreb City Museum has allowed the women.index project to move beyond the bounds of a traditional exhibition and develop into a living process where art, social engagement, and research intertwine. In doing so, it opens a space for reflection, dialogue, and active audience participation.
These messages are not directed solely at women — it is equally important that men read the posters. We want women, by reading the statements, to become aware of their own boundaries and reconsider patterns of behavior that may not be acceptable, but have been normalized. At the same time, we want men to recognize their own roles — whether conscious or unconscious — in creating a system that discriminates against, controls, or suppresses women. (Andreja Kulunčić)
Video – statistics of responses ->
Exhibition production:
Curator: Marina Perica Krapljanov
Collaborators: Nataša Bijelić, Dunja Bonacci Skenderović, Lana Bobić, Dorotea Šušak
Model: Martina Wolff Zubović
Model photography: Mare Milin
Visual identity and exhibition design: Studio Bilić_Müller
Documentation: Mare Milin, Ivo Martinović, Andreja Kulunčić
Programming: Ivica Hrg
Production: Zagreb City Museum, 2025