Domino Association is organising a series of eight talks, public space interventions, performances, and installations throughout May and June, with the aim of contextualising the increasingly frequent day-to-day political attacks on the cultural sector as a whole, and particularly on what we refer to as independent culture.
What has been happening in Croatia over the past several years is marked by the organised advancement of narratives that deny women equal standing both in the family and in society, that seek to abolish the right to choose, restrict artistic freedoms, and reduce art—through one attack after another, one ban after another—to a single role: decorative and obedient. The same withdrawn, subdued, and silenced role is intended for women as well as for all those who are “other” and “different.” The narratives of political populism narrow the public sphere through rigid definitions of nation, identity, patriarchy, and tradition, claiming a monopoly over the meanings of the words and symbols they use as screens behind which lies nothing but a desire for power and dominance over others.
The traces of such carefully constructed narratives, which strongly polarise society, remain visible in the collective public space long after the political and parapolitical careers built on such pathos-driven populism inevitably wear out and disappear.
This is a well-designed pattern that employs familiar communication strategies of defamation and delegitimisation. Techniques such as false equivalence, the construction of artificial dilemmas, and various other forms of manipulative public communication become effective tools for building polarising narratives. It is enough to insert local content—names of specific organisations, initiatives, or individuals—into already established frameworks, and these are then used in populist discourse through false binaries such as “beans for citizens, millions for NGOs,” examples that have long saturated the public space. Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Croatia may each be at different stages of constructing social polarisation, but there is no doubt that the building of sharply divided societies follows the same populist pattern. As we can see in Croatia, the cultural sector is not the only target—alongside it are the human rights segment of civil society and independent media, just as has been the case in all the aforementioned countries.
The inertia of the institutional cultural sector, combined with its direct dependence on the political will of those in power—most often expressed through an unwillingness to act beyond permitted and established frameworks—is precisely what these processes of polarisation rely on. Although orchestrated campaigns of defamation and delegitimisation of the independent scene directly concern all artistic freedoms, the legitimacy of the entire cultural funding system, and the broader valuation of art in society, the cultural establishment will always trade its silence for even the illusion of its own security and stability. The system is structured that way, and it is no coincidence that attacks on culture do not target national theatres, but rather independent culture. If only it were truly understood within the cultural sector that an attack on any writer, director, performer, dancer, festival, or organisation is a direct attack on all national and city theatres, all museums and libraries—on the entire cultural system—then it would not matter whether today or tomorrow the target is Jergović, Frljić, Labrović, Kreitmeyer, Fališ, or Kontejner, because each of them represents an attack on the entire value system of culture. The fact that none of these names (and the list is longer) happens to include yours today is no cause for relief. Once the pattern is established and activated, it continues to operate simply by inserting new names. In place of Labrović will come Delimar; instead of Fališ, the existence of the Split Summer Festival will be questioned; instead of Kontejner, ZKM will be attacked… Once established, the pattern reacts to any transgression outside an ever-narrowing field of permitted cultural action and content. If you do not feel compelled to defend Labrović or Frljić when they are attacked, threatened, or banned because you think their work is “not that great,” we should not fall into the trap of believing that the attack concerns only them or someone else currently in focus—the very idea of the free functioning of culture and art in Croatia is under attack.
In this context, we invite you to a programme featuring Siniša Labrović, Darko Lukić, Maja Smrekar, and Oliver Frljić, taking place from 8 to 11 May as the first part of this cycle on the narratives and pathos of political populism.
Zvonimir Dobrović
Curator of the programme Aesthetics of Political Populism
Supported by the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts
8 May (Friday)
12:00 / Ban Jelačić Square
Siniša Labrović
“Opening of the Croatian Pavilion at the 61st International Exhibition of Visual Arts – La Biennale di Venezia”
installation and performance
Presentation of the work by Stipan Tadić, who was originally selected to represent Croatia in Venice—but following the intervention of the Minister of Culture in the decision of the jury of the public call conducted by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the jury’s “mistake” was corrected, and Croatia is now represented in Venice by a work that hyperrealistically depicts how things function in Croatia—by invitation from above.
Croatian Pavilion at the 61st International Exhibition of Visual Arts – La Biennale di Venezia: Stipan Tadić, Between Reality and Introspection
Barely breathing under the weight of duties, decisions, meetings, renovations, reconstructions, recoveries, reappointments and reissues, the Minister made a mistake. Quicumque laborat, etiam errat, as the ancient Greeks used to say. It happens. Instead of the project unanimously selected by the expert committee through the public call, the Minister sent an entirely different work to the Venice Biennale.
Since the mistake travelled together with the nanny, grandmother, artist, curator and the rest of the entourage, and connections to Venice are rare, the journey uncertain, the lagoon full of crocodiles and insatiable devourers of art—and rumours are spreading that it might sink before the Biennale even opens—we were afraid to send the work selected by the committee to Venice. But nothing prevents us from opening the Croatian Pavilion of the 61st Venice Biennale in Zagreb with the selected work, thereby correcting Nina’s oversight.
The Croatian Pavilion, featuring paintings by Stipan Tadić under the title Between Reality and Introspection, will officially open on Friday, 8 May 2026 at 12:00 at Ban Jelačić Square in Zagreb. This is also an opportunity for those who would otherwise not have the chance to experience a Siniša Labrović performance in one go, to see Tadić’s paintings, visit the Croatian Pavilion and the Venice Biennale—and, in a way, Venice itself. Isn’t that simply wonderful?
In this way, Croatia will—like no one before and for the first time in history (a sure way to make history)—become a country with two pavilions at the Venice Biennale.
No one with even a minimum sense of history and responsibility should miss this opportunity.
See you at the “Opening of the Croatian Pavilion at the 61st International Exhibition of Visual Arts – La Biennale di Venezia” at Ban Jelačić Square in Zagreb on Friday, 8 May 2026 at 12:00!
Siniša Labrović was born on 12 February 1965 in Sinj. He lives and works—and vice versa.
9 May (Saturday)
12:00 / Bogdan Ogrizović Library, 5 Preradovićeva St
Darko Lukić
“Art in a Hostile Environment”
lecture
The lecture examines the position of artistic and socially engaged practices within contemporary political and cultural contexts marked by increasing ideological pressures and processes of democratic erosion. Particular emphasis is placed on the independent scene, which—through participatory and politically engaged artistic practices—opens up space for conflict as a constitutive element of democracy. The rise of right-wing populism and anti-gender movements in Europe, and their impact on cultural policies and public discourse, will also be analysed. Referring to examples such as Domino Association and artist Arijana Lekić Fridrih, the lecture demonstrates how artistic practices function as forms of micropolitical resistance, intervening in the public sphere and destabilising hegemonic narratives. In this context, participatory and performative practices emerge as key sites for the production of democracy, particularly under conditions of shrinking space for freedom.
Prof. Dr. sc. Darko Lukić, theatre scholar, has been living in Germany since 2018, where he works as an independent expert in the fields of arts education and cultural production. He is an independent expert in the COST European Cooperation in Science and Technology programme and has also served as an expert in the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes programme (2021–2025), as well as in the multidisciplinary expert group for capacity building of ECOC European Capitals of Culture at AEIDL – the European Commission’s Local Development Agency (2019–2022). From 2019 to 2024 he was regional coordinator of the European project EURODRAM. He was appointed full professor with tenure at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, where he worked until 2018. As a visiting professor, he teaches at universities in Croatia, Slovakia, Germany, and Spain, and until 2019 regularly taught in the doctoral programme in literature, performing arts, film, and culture at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. He has also taught at Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (Austria), Institute of the Arts Barcelona, the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture at Justus Liebig University Giessen, the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Bratislava, and the Seminar for Slavic Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Halle. He has lectured at numerous universities worldwide (Austria, the United Kingdom, USA, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Taiwan) and has worked as an educator, workshop leader, and trainer in Brazil, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, the USA, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela.
11 May, Monday
5:00 PM / Zagreb Youth Theatre, Teslina 7
Oliver Frljić in conversation with Maja Smrekar
K-9_topology: Hybrid Family
The first in a series of three conversations by Oliver Frljić with the new “witches” from Slovenia, Poland, and Germany
Increasingly pronounced forms of artistic censorship—emerging in the context of new geopolitical conflicts, political realignments, climate change, and the rapid development of surveillance technologies—are often accompanied by reductions in public funding for artistic practices that critically reflect social reality. Such “cultural” policies are frequently supported by the use of judicial and repressive apparatuses as instruments for removing critical voices from the public sphere, while the manipulative use of artworks in political campaigns represents yet another means of discrediting artists.
The Domino Association, in collaboration with Oliver Frljić, announces a series of three conversations taking place in May and July, opening up questions around artistic and socially engaged practices within such an environment. Addressing the ways in which mechanisms of repression and the instrumentalisation of art function today across three different political contexts—Slovenian, German, and Polish—are three authors: Maja Smrekar, Gabriela Seith, and Małgorzata Kaźmierczak. Their work spans topics from ecofeminism and trans- and posthumanism to issues of censorship and political violence. The series aims to create space for the exchange of experiences and the analysis of strategies of resistance and solidarity in the face of intensifying political pressures on the autonomy of artistic work.
The first guest of the Zagreb conversations will be Slovenian artist Maja Smrekar. Her work critically examines anthropocentrism and bodily autonomy, often involving non-human species as equal participants in the artistic process. Although internationally recognised and award-winning, her work K-9_topology: Hybrid Family was unlawfully appropriated last year by the Slovenian Democratic Party during a referendum campaign on pension reform for artists. By using visual elements from the work for political purposes, the artistic project was reduced to a provocative symbol and instrumentalised for political mobilisation and the discrediting of artistic practice. The artist has initiated legal proceedings for copyright infringement, opening broader questions about the protection of artistic work in a politically polarised environment.
The conversations will be accompanied by an intervention in public space that will critically reflect on pressures on artistic autonomy in the Croatian context, as well as the various actors involved—from institutional structures to media and political campaigns that shape public perception of artistic work.
Maja Smrekar (1978, Slovenia) graduated in sculpture and obtained an MA in video from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. Her work explores themes of belonging, identity, family, and the impact of neoliberal policies, combining artistic research with fields such as ecology, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Through an interdisciplinary approach, she produces projects in sculpture, performance, installation, video, and hybrid art, addressing ecofeminism, posthumanism, and interspecies relations. She has exhibited in over 70 exhibitions at institutions such as MAXXI in Rome, ZKM Karlsruhe, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, BOZAR in Brussels, and Kunsthaus in Vienna and Bregenz, as well as within the L’internationale platform. She has participated in international festivals such as Ars Electronica and Transmediale and collaborated with numerous artistic and scientific institutions, including the University of Ljubljana and Humboldt University in Berlin. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica (2017), the Prešeren Fund Award (2018), and the Oton Župančič Award (2021). Her work is included in international collections and featured in documentary and theoretical publications. Since 2023, she has been an assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. She lives and works in Ljubljana.
Oliver Frljić graduated in philosophy and religious culture (2002), and theatre directing and radio (2008) at the University of Zagreb. Already during his studies at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, he began directing professionally, soon achieving regional and international recognition.
He has worked in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Austria, Germany, Poland, and Belgium. His productions have been presented at festivals and theatres across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. They have appeared at major domestic festivals (Split Summer Festival, Gavella Evenings, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Marulić Days, Festival of Small Scenes, Rijeka Summer Nights, Week of Contemporary Dance, Golden Lion, Osijek Summer of Culture), regional festivals (Borštnik Meeting, BITEF, Sterijino pozorje, MESS, Kotor Art, MOT, Ex Ponto, Week of Slovenian Drama, Desire Festival), and international festivals (Wiener Festwochen Vienna, Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels, Dialog Festival Wrocław, Lessingtage Hamburg, Neue Stücke aus Europa Wiesbaden, Divadelná Nitra Festival).
In addition to his work in numerous institutions, he has collaborated with most groups from Zagreb’s independent scene (Montažstroj, BADco, OOUR, Sodaberg, among others). Alongside directing, Frljić has been a member of the editorial board of the performing arts journal Frakcija and president of the Centre for Dramatic Art. He has also worked as an external contributor to the radio programme Kazalištarije on Croatian Radio’s Third Programme. He has published in Scena (Novi Sad), Hrvatsko glumište, Kazalište, Frakcija, and elsewhere. In 2012, he was a member of the jury for the Marin Držić Award for drama.
At the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka, he directed Turbo Folk (2008) and The Miser (2009), and at HKD Theatre the production Aleksandra Zec (2013). He has received numerous awards and recognitions in Croatia and internationally.
