engleski

Urban Spaces in Transformation: Two Croatian Case Studies

In this presentation the authors analyse the production and uses of urban public space in the specific postsocialist context of Croatia. The presentation seeks to explore the following questions: what kind of interventions and behaviors are allowed in the public space, who gets to decide it and in which ways? The focus is on public events and practices, perceived as ways in which diverse concepts of the public and the private become materially present and affectively expressed in the urban setting. The dynamic correlation of public space and cultural practices is discussed on the basis of two ethnographic case studies. The first case study deals with the European Square in Zagreb, a centrally positioned square-in-becoming, which until recently functioned as an intersection of three streets. The transformation of this space and redefinition of practices within it give us an insight in how different agents define and negotiate the concept of public, “cosmopolitan” and “European” in the urban space. The second case study is related to the Sea Organ, an architectural object situated on the promenade of Zadar. Due to two installations made by architect Nikola Bašić – the Sea Organ and the Greeting to the Sun – the sea front has been transformed in the busiest tourism destination in the Old Town of Zadar. Both cases open up questions of the socially responsible architecture, the relationship of the city’s historical heritage and its contemporary needs, as well as of “right” and “responsible” ways of using the urban public space. Heterogeneous events occurring in and triggered by the urban space (festivals, protests, tourist visits, everyday activities, virtual platforms, etc.) point to a need to tackle the spatial and temporal dimension of diverse practices.

European square, Sea Organs, public space, urban space in making

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