Teacher from the Department of Arts and Restoration Assistant Professor Iris Lobaš Kukavičić, PhD (doc. dr. art.) installed an ambient installation under the title ‘Where Do We Come From? Who Are We? Where Are We Going?’ in front of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb. The installation can be visited until Sunday, 27 March. This work was originally presented to the public in the premises between the exterior and interior Pile gates in June last year.

This installation serves as a reflection of sorts and presents an inspiration for mass collective consciousness building and the re-evaluation of one’s own identity in the current times. The work consists of 12 stylised and animated wooden figures. By means of a video, they are put into correlation with the music authored by Srđan Berdović Yamato uta / Song of Japan, performed by three female percussionists from Japan, the Fujii Trio. The video lasts for 9:40 minutes. Through initial beats of the music and the fact that the figures appear randomly in the shot, the video reflects on a time of closure and loneliness. However, as the tempo of the music speeds up, the animated figures multiply, after which they turn into an ‘ant hill’. Through their movements, they hint to the complete madness and uncertainty of our times. The installation does not provide any answers, but it tries to inspire the viewers to do introspection and to search for the answers within themselves.

Iris Lobaš Kukavičić (1976, Dubrovnik), graduated in 2001 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in the teaching profile, in the class of the Full Professor Miro Vuco, Academic Sculptor. She acquired her Master’s degree in in 2008 from the Academy of Fine Art of the University of Mostar, in the study programme of Ars sacra, in the class of Full Professor Ante Kajinić, Academic Painter. In 2016, she defended her doctoral dissertation with the title ‘Sacral Paintings of Ivo Dulčić’ under the mentorship of the Full Professor Ante Kajinić, Academic Painter, at the Academy of Fine Art of the University of Mostar. She is employed at the Department of Arts and Restoration of the University of Dubrovnik as Assistant Professor. She has authored several public sculptures in the country and abroad (Dancer, at Jarun lake (Aquarius club), 2001; Sculpture Group in the surroundings of the Hartman-Bilokalnik factory, Koprivnica, 2002; Sitting Figure, in headquarter building of the company Hartmann, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2014; Game and Games, international terminal C, at the Dubrovnik Airport, 2017). She has held twenty independent exhibitions and has participated in numerous group exhibitions.

The exhibition is followed by a catalogue containing a foreword, the artist’s biography, a list of independent and group exhibitions, bibliographic information and photographs of putting the pieces together in front of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb and the photographs of the final look of the installation.