As part of the three-day pre-opening of the Venice Biennale - the 18th international architecture exhibition, Croatian pavilion and the project "Same as it Ever Was" were officially presented in Venice, on May 19. Minister of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Nina Obuljen Koržinek Ph.D. and president of Association of Croatian Architects, Roman Šilje, opened the Croatian pavilion, located in Arsenal’s premises, together with curators of the performance, architects Mia Roth and Tonči Čerina.
The multidisciplinary author's team that conceived and implemented the "Same as it Ever Was" project consists of architects Mia Roth, Tonči Čerina and Luka Fatović and designers Vedran Kasap, Ozana Ursić, Niko Mihaljević and Ivica Mitrović.
Croatian pavilion is an ode to environments of coexistence of wild and domestic, natural and manufactured, living and non-living. Starting point of the project is marshy area of Lonjsko polje, where the cultural landscape is created by a centuries-old symbiosis of nature, which is constantly changing, and communities that adapt to it.
Both Croatian pavilion and the discursive program were opened with a round table inside the pavilion, attended by Martin Avila (Konstfack, Stockholm), Harriet Harriss (Pratt Institute, New York) and James Auger (Crap Futures, ENS Paris-Saclay), moderated by Ivica Mitrović (Art Academy, Split), curator.
Photo: Bosnić+Dorotić