Seminar Art for Collective Use: Jasna Galjer on Modernism in Croatian Architecture

On Monday, 17 November, and Tuesday, 18 November 2014, the Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana will host two in the series of public lectures in the framework of the Art for Collective Use Seminar, which is co-organised by our Association. Selected chapters will be dedicated to fine arts created for collective use, experience or rituals and usually exhibited in public space.

THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURAL MODERNISM IN CROATIA BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS
Public lecture, Monday, 17 November 2014, at 12.10, Faculty of Arts (lecture room 343), Aškerčeva 2, Ljubljana

The lecture will present the context in which modernism developed in Croatian architecture. Proceeding from the thesis about the connection between architectural language and national tendencies in the process of Austria-Hungary’s transformation into new state formations, it will discuss the phenomenon and the special forms of modernism in Croatian architecture in the 1920s and 30s. Acquainted with the programme principles of functionalist architecture, the architects took into account the contemporary vocabulary in solving architectural and urban planning tasks, but, in their desire to personally contribute to domestic culture, they also considered regional particularities and local traditions.  

We will take a look at architectural modernism in Croatia through the operation of certain key factors. We will focus on educational models; institutional and alternative forms of the work and cooperation of architects and artists; the role of the media in promoting the principles of modern architecture; and the most important projects and realisations by groups or individuals. The reflection on Croatian architecture in the period between the two World Wars will also include the relation of architecture to contemporaneous sculpture and public space design.   

YUGOSLAV NATIONAL PAVILIONS BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS
Public lectures, Tuesday, 18 November 2014, at 13.00, Faculty of Arts (lecture room 343)

Large international exhibitions in the period between the two World Wars became specific representational paradigms which, as idealised images of the world, brought together various segments of cultural production and politics. What is characteristic for the exhibition architecture of this time is a complex contradiction between eclecticism and avant-gardism, exclusivity and democracy, and experimenting with new technologies, concepts and typologies and a simultaneous traditionalism. Yugoslav presentations will be discussed in comparison with contemporaneous international works. We will also analyse their genealogies.

The lectures will be delivered in Croatian.

Jasna GALJER is a full professor at the History of Art Department of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Until 2001, she worked as head of the design and architecture collection of the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb. She is the author of numerous studies and monographs in the field of design and architecture. In 2009, she received the highest national award for science conferred by the Republic of Croatia.