BOOK PROMOTION BY SANDRA USKOKOVIĆ AT ZAGREB YOUTH THEATRE

Sandra Uskoković | ANAMNESIS: Dialogues of Art in Public Space
Zagreb Youth Theatre, March 23 (Saturday) 2019 at 6 PM

Publisher: UPI2M, Zagreb

The book will be presented by:

• Ivana Keser, book editor, artist, and associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb
• Agata Juniku, theater scholar, assistant professor at the Academy of Dramatic Art, Zagreb
• Marina Gržinić, author of the book’s afterword, Institute of Philosophy ZRC-SAZU in Ljubljana, and Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna
• Sandra Sterle, artist and associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Split
• Sandra Uskoković, author of the book, associate professor at the University of Dubrovnik, Department of Art and Restoration

Moderator: Srđan Sandić

About the Book: Published by UPI2M BOOKS, ANAMNESIS: Dialogues of Art in Public Space by Sandra Uskoković discusses the works of Ivan Kožarić, Tom Gotovac, Sanja Iveković, Kugla Glumište, Edita Schubert, Siniša Labrović, Petar Grimani, Sandra Sterle, Igor Grubić, Slaven Tolj, Boris Bakal, Zoran Pavelić, Zlatko Kopljar, Ivana Jelavić, Božo Jurjević, Toma Savić Gecan, Nicole Hewitt, Nataša Lušetić, Stanko Juzbašić, Aleksandar Acev, Ela Agotić, Aleksandra Barišić, Boris Bakal, and Shadow Casters in public and shared spaces.

The book is dedicated to cultural and artistic practices that establish new models of active participation in creating and transforming urban culture and the urban space itself for a more layered understanding and use. This critical study of a monographic type on the sustainability and cognitive potentials of artistic interventions in public spaces is timely in this period of crisis and critical examination of city-making practices in the public domain.

The work is an original and significant contribution to the development of science, covering a thematic range that has not been scientifically collected and processed in national frameworks before. Such publications are also rare in the international scientific and professional community. The presence and significant action of artists and art groups dedicated to alternative understandings and uses of public space in Croatia is crucial. The author supports her theses with concrete examples of artistic and activist associations and artists who, through their specific ways of artistic action, highlight the importance of the interaction between art and space, as well as the question of its sustainability and functionality.

The book is intended for a scientific audience as well as a broad cultural public interested in the life and future of contemporary cities. It is a significant contribution to the relatively scarce literature dedicated to current spatial studies and contemporary aesthetic theory published in our region.

Book Details:

• Author: Sandra Uskoković
• Reviewers: Ana Šverko, Feđa Vukić
• Editor: Ivana Keser Battista
• Language: Croatian / English summary
• Extent: 279 pages
• Format: 22 x 15.5 cm
• Binding: Softcover
• ISBN: 978-953-7703-40-0
• Publisher: UPI2M BOOKS, Zagreb
• Price: 150.00 HRK

The book contains:

• Chapters: Introduction, OU-TOPOS, Aesthetics of Resistance, Interspace, The City as a Dialectical Image, Public Space of Art: Ethics of Authenticity, The Event as Encounter, Shamanism in Another Space, Emotional Geographies of Performances, Choreography of Disrupted Urbanity, Conclusion: Once Again from the Beginning
• Afterword: Outline of the State of Affairs, Politics, Society, Europe, Croatia, and Art and Culture (author: Marina Gržinić)
• Summary
• List of Literature
• Artist Biographies
• Author’s Note
• Index of Names

From the conclusion of the book: The book “Anamnesis: Dialogues of Art in Public Space” critically examines the culture of space and the economic exploitation of public space to highlight a wide range of artistic practices that enable citizens to become co-producers of public space. Illustrated through the examples mentioned in this book, contemporary art in public spaces generates a specific perspective on collective culture and its affirmation in urban life. It explores how artistic interventions and practices transform and symbolically shape public space, contributing to the change in the meaning of public space, where users can re-experience the experimental character of sensory experience.