Once again, this year, Zagreb will mark the White Night on October 1st, when contemporary art will be displayed on the city streets and squares. For the second time ever, the Croatian capital will be part of this global event, which started in Paris in 2002, but soon spread to many cities worldwide, including Toronto, Rome, Madrid, Riga, Brussels, Kyoto, Taipei, Melbourne, etc.
The programme begins at 4 p.m. and lasts until 1 a.m., with various events taking place in 18 different locations around the city. Artists will be performing music and dancing, doing street art and displaying light and sound installations. Like last year, the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery will partake in this year’s White Night event with the opening of the exhibition “A Journey to Eternity”, which has death as an artistic theme, while various events will also be taking place at the Gradec plateau. Visitors will have the opportunity to see the work of French street artist Etien – “Anamorphosis on the Ground”, and enjoy the sound installation by Bojan Gagić – “Sounds of the Sea”. The Gradec plateau will also be the location of an open-air gallery featuring inventions by several Croatian innovators, while academic painters and street artists will be painting a mural. Novelties in this year’s edition of White Night are tours of the city aboard a special luminol acoustic van, which will set off from the Square of St. Catherine in the Upper Town. It is a unique vehicle and an innovative project of creating and composing sound by converting light through the use of solar panels. It offers passengers the opportunity to experience the city in a new and unique way, not just visually, but also acoustically. It is the creation of the Lightune. G tandem, consisting of multimedia artist and light and sound designer Bojan Gagić, and electroacoustic engineer, musician and producer Miodrag Gladović.
Various events will take place in various downtown locations, including the main square of Ban Josip Jelačić, Zrinjevac Park, the Museum of Arts and Crafts, the Technical Museum of Nikola Tesla, the Ethnographic Museum, the Art Park and the European Square. Owing to the recently opened Mozgaonica – a smart play area for children and adults, there will be an organised outdoor playtime. A diverse programme has also been prepared by the Croatian National Theatre, whose ensembles will dance, sing, act and entertain the citizens of Zagreb and their guests until late at night, and for the first time there will be a light installation in the Grič Tunnel. Also taking part in this event are the French Institute, Lauba – The House for Art and People, the Vintage Festival, Croatian Audio Visual Centre, the Festival of Experimental Film, Pogon Jedinstvo, BuntArt and, of course, the Zagreb Tourist Board.
Last year, White Night in Zagreb was held as part of the Rendez-Vous Festival of France in Croatia. It was organised by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia, along with the French Institute and the French Embassy in Croatia. During the two months of the festival, 150 various cultural events took place in 22 cities all over Croatia. Admission to all events is free.
