Departure

— Instructions for Rapprochement vol. 1

Project6

Galerija VN, Zagreb, 2010.

“Instruction for Rapprochement”, the title six authors from Projekt6 have chosen for this exhibition falls into a cold bureaucratic language of political organizations, for example the ones that should bring Croatia closerto the EU. In spite of its positive connotations, the word rapprochement somehow creates a feeling of uneasiness. Because, if we need to come closer to someone or something, that a priori means that we are far away from it – in a spatial, emotional, intellectual, financial or some other way, and now we have to figure out how to come at least a step closer. A step closer is often uncertain, it is therefore easier to keep at distance, in deviation, in alienation. We easily accept the fact that we live in an alienated society, as if alienation is something that we drink wit our mother’s milk. The moment of getting our first cell phone and computer is just further initiation into communication in which the highest emotional peaks are expressed with smileys.

Such sort of a programmed trip negates the truth that more important than reaching the goal is the travel that takes us there. Even in travel by train one can detect the difference between the programmed and the conscious. Taking over the context of the train, in which she has, on her frequent travels between Zagreb and Križevci, noticed how people rather communicate virtually than with their fellow-travellers, Tea Hatadi deals with the fear or uneasiness due to “close encounters”. Spatial installation Polazak is a clip from a train in which we are forced to visually communicate with the traveller sitting on the opposite seat. Right before I started to write this text I saw a report in the news about 3D capsules in which patients in Germany are put in various stressful situations, so in that way they can get rid of their fears. This example makes me more aware of the therapeutic possibilities of Polazak. Each participant of this interaction decides whether this capsule will be the space of game, joke, will he/she give in to the moment and coincidence, will he/she return the stare to the gaze coming from the monitor.

Barbara Vujanović

http://zdravkohorvat.com/Project6_Catalogue.pdf