Urboglyphs – Multiplying the City

“Urboglyphs: Multiplying the City” is a research and artistic program by Shadow Casters carried out in the form of micro-lectures and events in shared community spaces, thematic film screenings, significant conversations about insignificant things, and workshops on urban games and coexistence.

[urboglyphs [Lat. urbs = city] + [Gr. glyphē = engraving] are symbolic and spatial accumulations of signs and meanings created by the multi-layered inscription of various events in the same place, through which we then read the urban collective memory of the city, reconstructing the intangible cultural and political heritage of urban spaces.]

“Urboglyphs – Multiplying the City” is a multi-month urban program by Shadow Casters that continues our twenty-two-year practice of dealing with the city, its tangible and intangible heritage, reading spaces, and educating citizens about the resourcefulness of shared spaces. It is a continuation of our reflection on the city, architecture, and art in the atmosphere of contemporary cultures “by other means” and an invitation to collaboration, interaction, agreement, and consent to the “open field of differences” as a necessary precondition for active artistic creation. At the core of such thinking is the idea of necessary interdisciplinary and polymedia practice and co-operation with (possible) users-co-authors of this practice.

The designed contents are a combination of video research of a particular part of the city and direct film and urban literacy, as well as the presentation of archives of produced material and immaterial memories of citizens in neighborhood notice boards. We intend to consolidate everything outside the project in the fall of 2024 with several peripatetic performance events through the city districts of Lower Town, Upper Town Medveščak, Maksimir, and Trnje (in the new project Urboglifi-Urboteka).

The goal of the program “Urboglifi: Multiplying the City” is to rediscover, together with the residents of the neighborhoods, their urban identity based on awareness of the context of coexistence and community, the resource possibilities of the given shared space, and of course: to have good fun.

URBOGLIFI – MULTIPLYING THE CITY – complete program

MONDAY – 15. 01. 2024 FROM 10 TO 15 H – PAST EVENT
“Inverted Performance” – sensory performance Youth Center Ribnjak

SUNDAY – 25. 02. 2024 AT 16 H – PAST EVENT
Free film screening – “Plac” & “Radovi u tijeku”
In the local board “Matko Laginja”, Laginjina St. 11 – from 18h
Pleasant conversation with filmmaker Ana Hušman, architect and publicist Ivan Mlinar, moderated by ethnologist and cultural anthropologist Sonja Leboš

SATURDAY – 16. 03. 2024 AT 17 H – PAST EVENT
Free entrance film screening – “Little Light” & “Then I See Tanja”
In the local community board “Matko Laginja”, Laginjina St. 11 – from 18h
Pleasant conversation with filmmaker Juraj Lerotić and producer, filmartist and activist Arijana Lekić Fridrih, moderated by dramaturge, writer, and activist Dorotea Šušak.

TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY – 09. -10. 04. 2024 FROM 09 TO 13 H – PAST EVENT
Shadow Casters Open Office In front of NAMA on The Kvaternik Square

SUNDAY – 14. 04. 2024 AT 10 H – PAST EVENT
Knez Zdeslav Park “Starting a Conversation”
Audio installation and conversation and workshop on the meaning of coexistence, responsibility, and solitude
Conversation initiated by: Pavle Perković, Petra Slobodnjak, Leo Vukelić, and Boris Bakal

MONDAY/TUESDAY – 15. -16. 04. 2024 FROM 09 TO 13 H – PAST EVENT
Shadow Casters Open Office In front of the Workers’ House on King Petar Krešimir IV Square
Optional visit to the exhibition on Roma culture in the “Božidar Adžija” City Library

SATURDAY – 20.04. 2024 FROM 17 TO 20 H – PAST EVENT
Free entrance film screening
In the local board “Matko Laginja”, Laginjina St. 11
Documentary film “Raise the Bar”, 70′, Dir: Gojdun Ragnarsson Conversation after the film moderated by Dorotea Šušak Guests of the conversation: Nataša Govedić and Katarina Ivče Farnell

TUESDAY – 23. 04. 2024 FROM 09 TO 13 H – PAST EVENT
Shadow Casters Open Office On Croatian Nobles Square
with Lumière’s Minutes Workshop: Boris Bakal

SATURDAY – 27. 04. 2024 FROM 17 TO 20 H – PAST EVENT
Free entrance film screening
In the local board “Matko Laginja”, Laginjina St. 11
Feature film “We Are the Best” Conversation after the film moderated by Dorotea Šušak

SUNDAY – 28. 04. 2024 FROM 10 TO 12 H – PAST EVENT
Laginjina 9 (rooftop)
Conversation and workshop on the meaning of coexistence, responsibility, and solitude

TUESDAY – 30. 04. 2024 FROM 16 TO 20 H – PAST EVENT
Martićeva 44 (courtyard/Shadow Casters headquarter)
Conversation and workshop on the meaning of coexistence, responsibility, and solitude
Facilitators: Maruška Aras and Leo Vukelić

#Zagreb #ShadowCasters #UrbanArt #Memory #Architecture #Community #Art

Program support: City of Zagreb – Office for Culture and Civil Society
Program production and organisation: Shadow Casters Association
Partners: MO (Local Board Center) “Matko Laginja”, City Library “August Šenoa”, City Library “Medveščak”, City Library “Božidar Adžija”, NAMA Kvaternik Square, co-owners of the buildings Martićeva 41 & 44, co-owners of the buildings Laginjina 7 and 9, and the Croatian School Museum.