Sunci's Diary Post No1

For all you Fox&Squirrel readers I hope you have taken notice of my residency exchange programme in Croatia. If not please have a look here and apply apply apply!

Ever since I first posted the residency I decided to keep a diary to update readers and let them into my world, my mind and my lovely studio. So here is the first diary entry. I hope you find it inspiring and that you look forward to reading more of it.

As the keen travellers that we all are the first steps we take to move back to our native country and resettle are always difficult; We find it hard to depart from the enchanting lands we saw and explored. I lived and worked in London where I bounced off the city's vibrant art scene; upon graduation I moved to Rome for a few years, a period in my life that had a massive impact on my work. Moving back to Croatia was a decision I took whole heartedly, and despite being apart from like minded colleagues: artists, curators, writters and architects that are all willing to help realise one another's work TODAY I intend not to pine over my days abroad. It is my mission to utilise all the life lessons, influences and inspiration I had and inject them into my home country's surroundings in such a way that will keep me sane, benefit Croatia, and artists who are wishing to explore this region and be enchanted by the new.

Since moving back to Croatia I have noticed that the art scene somewhat lacks the knowledge and liberty in its way of thought, art works produced, and concepts, it even lacks the playfulness of the materials used that I became so accustomed to abroad. There are reasons for this.

In the 90s Croatia was in a state of war which hindered the development of our cultural landscape. Young men were recruited, those who survived returned 'changed' people, a massive drug subculture emerged, and most families stuggled to survive in war time conditions. The war shattered Croatia's economy cutting off the population, its intellectuals and youth from the rest of the world. Developments and events that took place in the art world elsewhere in the 90s and that have forever altered our perception of art were unheard of in Croatia. The war has ended and we are now a blossoming new country but even so war has come to dominate the subject of Croatia's new culture. And this is where Sunci's residency exchange programme comes into play.

My exchange programme is an open invitation to international artists to visit, live amongst the locals and experience Croatia's beautiful coastline, Split. Without any personal experiences related to the Yugoslavian wars these artists will create fresh works. This I hope will redeem Croatia's art scene from its previous subject matter. You may ask why I am bothering to invite the artists all the way out here when they could just send me their work. The answer to this has many facades.

I am interested to see whether artists will be influenced by the very life that has attracted me back here, and if yes then in what ways will this change their work. At the same time I hope that if international artists are present new art concepts will automatically be imported into the region. This will allow for locals, art students and academics that have either not been able to witness these or are all together unaware of them to get up close and personal.

I am confident in this project and I am already in talks with contemporary art galleries and museums that are interested in exhibiting the works produced during the residency. I will let you know the outcome of this in my next diary post. In the meantime please do let me know your thoughts, leave a comment or write me an email. If you share the same enthusiasm as me then just apply!

I leave you for now