Amicale

A Walk through Urban and Rural Environments

Through a series of photographs depicting urban and rural environments, the artist reflects on the motif of movement through both environments. On the one hand, the artist is attracted by relaxing landscapes with the occasional passer-by in motion, and, on the other hand, moments of movement are captured in unmistakably urban environments. In both cases, the photos convey anchored moments of complete repose and the beauty of a single step forward. The message of the exhibited photographs sensitizes both the human need to preserve the status quo, through the preservation of both rural and urban spaces, as a kind of natural or artificially-constructed human habitus, as well as man’s need for action, i.e. the human need to move forward, step by step, towards new knowledge and new horizons.

Regardless of whether it is an urban or rural environment, the motifs captured by the camera spontaneously give rise to many questions to the eye of the observer. How do we feel in our environment? Do our urban or rural spaces satisfy our needs and can we ensure a peaceful coexistence with them? Can we stop looking for a moment and enjoy what we see, as we go through our daily lives? Where do our steps take us, are we really moving forward? Are our lives filled with colour or is our vision, in these uncertain and frightening times, only black and white? Is black and white bad or is it actually sharper than the coloured illusion of reality? The exhibited photos will encourage the visitor to reflect whether he/she should remain static or start to move. Small steps are sometimes big and big steps sometimes small. As we move through our scenarios, be they urban or rural, step by step taking us forward, the most important thing is to be fully immersed in life itself.

HANA MRAK 

From a young age, Hana has shown a tendency towards artistic expression, and over time she has developed a specific interest in painting and photography. She has participated in numerous workshops led by some of the greatest Croatian professors of photography and film-cameras. She has attended the famous ‘Dr. Ante Peterlić’ summer school of media culture three times, attending workshops on photography, film-making and documentary movies. Hana's focused interest in street photography, as well as in playing with lights and shadows on urban structures (buildings, facades, squares) and rural motifs (fields, trees, flowers) has resulted in a whole series of fantastic photographs. She has participated in numerous collective exhibitions as well as two solo exhibitions: "Layered lines and shadows" and "Light scenarios". She participated in the shooting of a few short films. Her greatest successes are 2nd price at the Collective Exhibition "The World Ariund Us" (Visual Arts Center, Rovinj, Croatia), having been selected as a young artist for the first solo exhibition in the "Podrum ponedjeljkom" project (“Exhibitions on Monday”), organized by VANIMA, Varaždin, and having achieved first place in the entrance exam to study Film and Camera at the Academy of Dramatic Arts at the University of Zagreb. Despite these great results, Hana decided to take a different path and is now in the third year of Architectural Studies at the University in Zagreb. 

The intended dimensions of the photos for the exhibition are 30x30 cm and 50x50 cm, but they can be adjusted depending on the specifics of the exhibition space.