International collaborations in the Zagreb Office for Culture

Thanks to my active knowledge of French, this spring at the City Office for Culture I was appointed to meet Mrs. Anne-Sophie Braud, the French Cultural Attaché in the Republic of Croatia and the Deputy Director of the French Institute in Zagreb. The meeting was also attended by Ms. Braud’s associates from the French Institute, as well as our colleagues from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the Zagreb Tourist Board. The topic was Outings—an interactive street art project authored by the French artist Julien de Casabianca, who is known for visiting many cities around the world to apply enlarged reproductions of fine art works on the building facades, thus encouraging local population to connect with their museum collections. It was a delight to find out that Zagreb had finally been selected for the mentioned project, and it is worth mentioning that for this occasion the artist chose famous art works of the great Croatian painter Vlaho Bukovac.

Courants du Monde—Francophone program in Paris

Since I led the meeting in French, and I also did everything within my competence necessary for the project realization, Ms. Braud asked me whether I would like to be a French Embassy candidate for the participation in the international Francophone program Courants du monde, which was to be organized in October by the French Ministry of Culture, taking place in Paris and its surroundings. As this program is designed for already established professionals in the field of culture and art, I immediately accepted this fantastic offer, emphasizing that it would be an honor for me to be a French Embassy candidate, since the French Ministry of Culture expects the first selection to be done before the final selection, which takes place in Paris. The application was extremely demanding—I wrote as many as fourteen pages in French, so I was particularly delighted that my engagement was immediately rewarded, which unfortunately is not always the case in my home country. I was astonished when the French Ministry of Culture informed me, a whole month before the official announcement, that my scholarship had been granted to me, in order not to accept another professional obligation in October. Later on, I learned that 80 candidates from all over the world entered the shortlist, and only 14 were awarded scholarships.

At the Ministry of Culture, located in the heart of Paris (right next to the Louvre), each Fellow gave a lecture on the culture of his country and his own work

Lectures at sixteen French cultural institutions

Shortly before the trip I got the program details, so I learned that after Paris we would spend a few days in the southern France in Montpellier. As the program topic was Enjeux et mise en œuvre de la politique des publics dans les structures culturelles (Challenges and Implementation of Public Policy in Cultural Structures), the educational lecture cycle was organized in 16 prestigious cultural institutions, which, in addition to networking with Fellows from twelve countries from all over the world, enabled reaching new contacts from the French cultural sector as well. Thus we strengthened our existing knowledge and gained new skills that could later be passed on to our colleagues, in my case the directors of the Zagreb museums. On top of that, individual meetings with professionals from three prominent cultural houses by choice were made possible, and I chose Musée Picasso (Paris), Éditions du Centre Pompidou (Paris) & ICI—Centre Chorégraphique National (Montpellier). Organizers from the Ministry of Culture thought that my selection was very ambitious, so they could not hide the surprise when I informed them that I had even been granted a meeting in the famous French publishing house Éditions du Centre Pompidou, which is specialized in the fields of culture and art. Thanks to this meeting, my book Abstract Reproductive as Productive Art is kept in its archives, and as I knew that the works of my favorite painter Alexej Jawlensky were kept in the Georges Pompidou Center, I donated a translation of my essay Music Iconostasis of the Painter Alexej Jawlensky, to make it available to researchers interested in the work of this Russian modern artist.

Pianos—the leitmotif of my stay in Paris

The classes were so tightly organized that there was hardly any time for the tourist sightseeing. Nevertheless, during the breaks I enjoyed taking a stroll to my favorite locations—I always like to visit Place Vendôme, since the piano poet Frédéric Chopin lived there, and I also always get equally fascinated by the elegant proportions of the Eiffel Tower. Overall, I was lucky to have spent a couple of months in Paris, so the only free Saturday we had available I took sightseeing my new friend from Serbia, Slobodan Bogojevic, and I wanted him to see as much as possible of the “city of lights” as it was his first visit there. We concluded that surprises are inevitable when you wander around like a true Parisian flaneur, and the sudden encounter with the Steinway piano shop at 230 Boulevard Saint-Germain was one of my favorites. This time, the pianos have somehow accompanied me throughout my stay in Paris, thus as a souvenir from the subway I photographed a poster announcing chanson nights performed by the famous French actor Gérard Depardieu. Unfortunately, I could not attend any of them because they were to take place after my return to Zagreb.

Door opened for other Zagreb professionals

I am filled with joy that so far with my help three other colleagues from Zagreb have received the recommendation of the French Embassy—one is from the Zagreb Libraries, one from the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art and one from the Mimara Museum—and I’m thrilled that all three of them were granted scholarships! Ever since I had came back, my mission was to provide as many Zagreb professionals as possible with this fantastic experience, but it should be noted that success depends solely on the candidate’s professional accomplishments and his application quality level. The recommendation is only the first step on the road to success, as applications come from all over the world, and the final selection is taking place in Paris. But I have never doubted Croatian people, which so far has proved quite right!