We learn to make space for everyone
The art work, created in collaboration with Indonesian workers employed on the renovation of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb, opens a dialogue about coexistence and a common future.
“We learn to make soace for everyone” is a new work by Andreja Kulunčić for the Art Pavilion in Zagreb. The first part was realized in mid-December 2023 as a campaign in city light boxes and billboards around the city, and the second is planned to be placed on construction scaffolding around the Pavilion in 2024. The work was created in collaboration with Indonesian workers employed in the restoration of the Pavilion.
These are people who live their invisible lives among us restoring our cultural monuments, and we should not pretend that they are not there by holding firmly to our concepts of living, while every arrival of a stranger or the presence of someone’s underprivileged life we see as violation of the already fragile boundaries of these concepts.
On the posters are the statements of Indonesian workers about what they think about life in Europe, how they feel in Croatia, about coexistence with us and our common future. They also talk about their culture, which they would like to present — the wayang theater, whose 3,000-year-old tradition is inscribed in the public space of the city through posters and is also networked with the 125-year-old Pavilion. (Text by Irena Bekić)
Project realization: Poster design Dejan Dragosavac Ruta / Translation from Indonesian during collaboration with workers Marina Pretković / Indonesian workers want to maintain anonymity / Production Art Pavilion in Zagreb, 2023 – 2024.
Translation of the statements on the posters:
“We wouldn’t be able to live here with our family. First of all, it’s too expensive. Secondly, we are social, we cannot live alone, we must know our neighbors, get together.”
“It seems to me that people do not visit each other here. You can die without anyone knowing.”
“Sometimes when I smile at strangers here, it seems they ask me: Why are you smiling, what’s funny??? I do it out of respect.”
“Europe and Asia are different cultures, it is difficult to live together. And there is this historical trauma with the Europeans. A certain mistrust and fear are still there.”
Explanation of wayang tradition on posters:
wayang (Indonesian: theater; shadow; ghost), a traditional Indonesian puppet theater or shadow theater that includes acting, singing, music, drama, literature, painting, sculpture, carving, and more. The wayang tradition has developed over thousands of years, and it is also used as information, preaching, education, philosophical understanding and entertainment. Since 2008, it has been under the protection of UNESCO as an intangible world heritage.