“JOURNEYS”

MUSEUM OF BETINA WOODEN SHIPBUILDING

17.05.25.-30.06.2025.

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JOURNEYS – interdisciplinary project Betina / Murter Island 2025. Organization: 90-60-90 / Platform for Contemporary Art, Museum of Betina Wooden Shipbuilding, Association PUNKT Curators: Marijana Stanić, Tanja Vujasinović, Kate Šikić Čubrić, Sandra Barešin Project collaborators: Sandra Barešin, Valerija Djanješić, Tara Stanić

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Artists featured in the exhibition: Milijana Babić, Nicole Hewitt, Ana Kolega, Lina Kovačević, Martina Mezak, Kata Mijatović, Vesna Perunović, Renata Poljak, Nika Radić, Neli Ružić, Marijana Stanić, Sandra Sterle, Matea Šabić Sabljić, Tanja Vujasinović, Vlasta Žanić

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From the exhibition catalogue preface – Journeys, interdisciplinary project / Betina, Murter Island, 2025

Journeys, migrations, and movements reflect the socio-political everyday, the global nature of our world. In the small Dalmatian town of Betina on Murter Island, shipbuilding is not merely a craft but a heritage that deeply embodies and presents the spirit of the place. The exhibition at the Museum of Betina Wooden Shipbuilding invites us to reflect on journeys and migrations as universal experiences that shape the world. Fifteen contemporary women artists, through diverse approaches and media, explored and responded to the theme of journeys, uniquely merging tradition and contemporaneity. The exhibition includes works in various media, from video and painting to installations and public space interventions.

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The project is carried out by the Association 90-60-90 / Platform for Contemporary Art in collaboration with the Museum of Betina Wooden Shipbuilding, where the project is hosted. It encompasses a multimedia exhibition including actions and site-specific works in the public spaces of Murter Island. As part of the project, a video workshop was held in cooperation with the local elementary school Murterski Škoji, questioning the identity of Betina, organized by Association PUNKT, a Zagreb-based platform for cultural advancement fully oriented towards the project City at Second Glance – a traveling interdisciplinary research, educational, and exhibition project that connects engaged reflection on the city, youth education through workshops and lectures, and visual artists.

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In Betina on Murter Island, where shipbuilding is not only a craft but also a heritage that deeply embodies and presents the spirit of the place, the words of the Phoenician Tridon seem to resonate: “a shipbuilder who did not shy away from either evil or good: ‘Sometimes one goes out to the open sea, sometimes one sails along the coast.’ In brothels and on the open sea, among pirates and sages, he sought the secret of sailing, never stopping anywhere, as a true son of the noisy harlot of the sea, believing that a ship must be built by knowing the sea and that it must be shaped by the wave itself.’” (Antun Bonifačić, Paul Valéry)

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Just as the wave shapes the ship, so too does the journey shape the traveler — in this case, the female travelers, whose works are influenced by real or imaginary journeys, by sea or land, to Mljet or Baranja, through nature or mechanics, permanent departures or temporary returns, metaphysical time or the time spent in the concrete act of shipbuilding.

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Journeys once signified adventurous personalities — recall the Amazon explorers, Mirko and Stevo Seljan from Karlovac. When Mirko perished in the Amazon, Stevo continued, “for he knew nothing else to do.” Later, the exploratory impulse transformed into a consumptive one: adventurers were succeeded by tourists. Today, people travel to “destinations with lists of obligatory sites,” which contemporary travelers no longer have time to truly experience or communicate with, as they must photograph them and store them in virtual albums. Once postcards were sent; today they are produced on the spot in countless quantities.

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Beyond voluntary journeys, there are also forced ones. Once, a ship would arrive and an entire village would embark, leaving the paradisiacal landscapes of Brač straight for the hell of fertilizer mines near Tierra del Fuego. Today, a hundred years later, exodus is again (or still) on the scene, but the ship is no longer real but rubber, not bound for Chile but for Sicily. Villages are not emptied by vine disease but by machine guns. At the supposed safe destination, they are greeted with survival foil blankets — a welcome that foreshadows their future.

There once existed the white and black transatlantic routes: the white carried conquerors from Birmingham to New York, the black carried slaves from Luanda to Recife. Once, writer and adventurer Blaise Cendrars recommended traveling by cargo ships, “because the food is best there.” Today, setting aside luxury cruises and risky escapes, between tourists and businessmen we also notice those driven, like Blaise, by insatiable curiosity — to see the other side of the globe, to meet gauchos and Bedouins, Maoris and Mandarins. To wait for the sun to set, lie on the sand in the middle of the Sahara, and look up — for there is no greater sky than that above the Sahara.

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Besides horizontal journeys through space — imagined paths following signposts that inevitably disappear into one another, or classic means of travel by bus, train, and ship, real or paper, or endlessly circling the same olive tree or driving the same road, where the journey appears like its dreamlike illustration in the windowpane, shifting the horizon now to one side, now to the other — there are also vertical journeys, those through time. Whether we go here or there, or not at all, we are constantly traveling vertically in an elusive absurdity, for at every moment we are no longer who we just were, nor yet who we are about to become.

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In reality, a journey is the time between departure and arrival, casting off and docking, takeoff and landing — and it is important that this time be as smooth as possible. It begins with leaving the house, ends with entering it. The door is the same. In metaphorical translation, the door has disappeared, leaving only its frame, symbolizing passage. From one side to the other, are we preparing to enter or to exit? Once, standing before the door evoked Kafka; today we know it is neither door nor frame, but a metal detector. A journey is the time between two controls.

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Boris Greiner

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Matea Šabić Sabljić,

B R O D I / O N A  "I'M NOT WAITING FOR THE SHIP, I'M BUILDING A SHIP" 

2023.-2025., installation and intervention

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At the Museum of Betina Wooden Shipbuilding I exhibit the boat “RENATA HORVAT” – which I built independently, with my own hands, from planks collected in earthquake‑damaged Zagreb and epoxy resin, in honor of Zagreb helmswoman and world traveler Renata Horvat (1918–2016), the first woman from the former Yugoslavia who, as an equal member of the crew of the sailing yacht “Besa”, circumnavigated the globe (1965–1967). The crew of Besa, alongside Renata Horvat, included her husband and writer Joža Horvat, their son Marko Horvat, engineer Života Žika Pavlović, and Vlado Hrlić. ​“Renata Horvat was the first woman from this region to sail around the world. Once she was the first from Yugoslavia, today she is recognized as the first Croatian woman to have done so, and for that alone she deserves to be included in the book of world travelers and world journeys. An extraordinary, brave, and modest woman, a great world traveler who always avoided fame, popularity, or glamour, preferring her sailboat and her garden to the spotlight.” (Telegram, Aris Angelis)  ​I take tools into my own hands, building my own boat as best I can – in fact, building an entire fleet of boats BRODI/ONA – in honor of women who, despite prohibitions and prejudices, sailed the seas, built ships, and explored the maritime world throughout history. The installation is expanded with elements from the workshop–studio and video projections documenting the process of construction, material gathering, launching, and journeys. / Timelapse documentation of construction: Matea Šabić Sabljić / Video documentation of material gathering: Jurica Sabljić / Photo documentation of launching: Nives Sertić / Video editing: Matea Šabić Sabljić  / Video projection “WHAT DID RENATA FILM?”: consisting of footage recorded by Renata Horvat during her circumnavigation aboard Besa. The footage is taken from the documentary series “Sailing Around the World”, episode 43: “Besa Challenged by the Oceans, 1965–1967”, directed by Mario Saleta and produced by Jasna Ferluga, HRT 1995. Special thanks to Ms. Jasna Ferluga for permission to use material from the series – a producer synonymous with Croatian travel documentary production, who collaborated for three decades with traveler and filmmaker Mario Saleta in creating the acclaimed series. ​On May 18, 2025, International Day for Women in Maritime, I intervene with the installation “Is There Room for Women in Maritime History?”. The installation consists of 140 flags with names and short biographical notes of women who built ships, sailed the seas, and explored the maritime world. This time I also include the women of Betina’s shipbuilding tradition (kalafatas), who carried out all those invisible but crucial tasks that enabled ships to be built, seas to be sailed, and communities to function. One could say they built the very community that could sail the seas. ​* Biographies of Betina’s women shipbuilders were taken from the catalogue of the exhibition “Women Shipbuilders”, authored by Kate Šikić Čubrić, published by the Museum of Betina Wooden Shipbuilding in 2023. Each boat in the BRODI/ONA fleet becomes a symbol of affirmation of women’s strength, innovation, and resilience – proof that women, despite all obstacles, not only have a place but also the ability to reshape history. The installation subtly questions traditional narratives, highlighting the importance of invisible yet essential labor that enabled maritime traditions and communities, opening space for a new, balanced view of women’s roles in society. It explores the multidimensional roles of women in the maritime world, reexamines traditional narratives, and reinterprets women’s roles by uncovering layered stories – on one hand, the brave sea heroines who, despite prejudice and social limitations, sailed, built ships, and explored the world; on the other, the invisible heroines, such as seafarers’ wives and shipbuilders, whose everyday, often overlooked contributions enabled the functioning of the entire system and community.

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BRODI/ONA “NAMING OR LAUNCHING” (2023)  Naming and Launching of the Eighth Boat in the BRODI/ONA Fleet: “RENATA HORVAT” / Performative Action ​The boat Renata Horvat was launched as part of the performative section of the exhibition VISIBLE / THE VISIBLE ONES, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (in collaboration with the Art Gallery Dubrovnik, Museum of Fine Arts Osijek, Gallery of Fine Arts Split, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka) on September 3, 2023. The godmother of the boat, regatta sailor Petra Kliba – the first among Croatian sailors, male or female, to circumnavigate the globe in a regatta, at just 19 years old – named the eighth boat of the BRODI/ONA fleet “RENATA HORVAT”. It was launched by a crew of women artists: Nikolina Butorac, Natalija Škalić, Maja Marković, Teuta Gatolin, Doriana Cohen. ​Petra Kliba, at the age of 19, circumnavigated the globe in the Hong Kong Challenge Round the World Race (1996), serving as helmswoman and watch leader on the Austrian yacht City of Wr. Neustadt. She is an eight‑time Croatian champion in various classes, recipient of the Circumnavigators Award for sailing around the globe, and competitor in 13 Barcolana regattas (with a best finish of 4th place). In 2007, as co‑skipper and watch leader of the German yacht KPMG, she took part in the HSH Nordbank Atlantic Challenge from Newport (USA) to Hamburg with a crew of 14 women, thus completing her fourth Atlantic crossing. In 2008, with the same women’s team, she sailed the Baltic in regatta competition. Ranked 22nd on the ISAF women’s match racing list, she led the Croatian women’s Olympic match racing team toward the London 2012 Olympic Games. She is the founder of several women’s sailing teams worldwide, and has worked as coach and tactician across Europe at World and European Championships in ORC and monotype classes.