A R G O N A U T A
ARGONAUTA
Matea ŠabiĆ SabljiĆ
transdisciplinary
visual artist
brodi/ona
PRELUDE OR LAUNCHING
RENATA HORVAT
GODMOTHER PETRA KLIBA
radi/ona
where does the BRODI/ONA fleet COME FROM ?
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ZAGREB
as part of the exhibition THE VISIBLE ONES
03.09.2023.
PERFORMATIVE ACTION
/ "VIDLJIVE"
THE VISIBLE ONES *
18.05.23.-01.10.23.
Group exhibition organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb; in collaboration with the Art Gallery Dubrovnik, the Museum of Fine Arts Osijek, the Gallery of Fine Arts Split, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka.
The exhibition provides an overview of recent artistic production by women artists. The project aims to highlight contemporary visual art created by women, which reaches high artistic standards but remains insufficiently visible. The Visible Ones project was motivated by research findings on the representation of women artists in collections, public spaces, galleries, and generally in the art market (according to statistical data, women artists achieve only about ten percent representation). Taking these figures into account and recognizing the need to change existing paradigms, the curators gathered around the initiative to realize a project that, through teamwork and networking of related institutions, would achieve a comprehensive and stronger result, raising awareness of the importance of equality, equal opportunities, and the promotion of women’s production in the field of visual arts.
Alongside Martina Munivrana (MSU, Zagreb), author of the project and concept, the project team included expert collaborators and curators: Jasminka Babić (Gallery of Fine Arts Split), Vilma Bartolić (in collaboration with Branka Benčić and Diana Zrilić, MMSU Rijeka), Valentina Radoš (Museum of Fine Arts Osijek), Rozana Vojvoda (Art Gallery Dubrovnik), Ana Škegro (MSU Zagreb) for the performative and discursive program, and Branka Benčić (MMSU Rijeka) for the film program.
At the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, as part of the exhibition VISIBLE / THE VISIBLE ONES, the seventh boat of the BRODI/ONA fleet, “Eudoksija Kustrić”, was exhibited. It was named after the lighthouse keeper from the small Dubrovnik island of Daksa (1901). I built Eudoksija out of brooms collected for this purpose from women and men of Dubrovnik, guests, and friends, as a response to the provocation of a craftsman. The boat was launched in Dubrovnik in 2022 within the exhibition at Art Workshop Lazareti, and was named by its godmother, cruise ship captain Serena Melani.
brodi/ona
PRELUDE OR LAUNCHING
RENATA HORVAT
GODMOTHER PETRA KLIBA
“What I see now — is it truly land, or is it an ILLUSION?... The island unfound...”
“Who in life has not searched for that island?! Is not our journey across seas and oceans a quest for the same goal? And the most beautiful of them all… Of course, it is the most beautiful because it is still undiscovered. That is the very trap of all dreams...”
“...I love the sea and I am happiest when I am on a ship; says Renata.”
“...Besa staggers more and more, we roll endlessly. Renata appears, she cannot sleep. She laughs... She says, I dreamed that I was in some waiting room, people sitting, some on benches, some on chairs, some standing by the wall, and I in the middle of the room walking on my head! People look at me, surprised, bewildered. I hear a woman whisper to her neighbor: She wants to sail around the world, and she walks on her head... Now I laugh too...”
“31 August 1965. Noon. Besa under sail leaves the Bay of Boka. Her bow cuts a foaming wake, carving a path toward the open sea. The great ODYSSEY has begun.”
“3 September 1965; we change course to 190°. We are definitively leaving the Adriatic. Renata observes: – from now on, the further we advance, the closer we are to home. Practically, our return has already begun! Yes… BUT IN A CIRCLE!..”
/ Joža Horvat “Besa brodski dnevnik”
PERFORMATIVE ACTION
BRODI/ONA “PRELUDE OR LAUNCHING"ching”
RADI/ONA “or where does the BRODI/ONA fleet comes from?”
Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
As part of the exhibition program VISIBLE / THE VISIBLE ONES at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, on 3 September 2023 at 16:30, at the location 45°47'08"N 15°59'01"E, a performative action was held – the ceremony of naming and launching a newly built boat.
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 only 19 years of age – named the eighth boat of the BRODI/ONA fleet: “RENATA HORVAT.” She named it in honor of the Zagreb helmswoman, the first woman from this region to sail around the world as a member of the crew of the yacht Besa (1965–1967). The boat was launched by a crew of women artists: Nikolina Butorac, Natalija Škalić, Maja Marković, Teuta Gatolin, Doriana Cohen, and Hana Veček. All were invited to attend, celebrate the ceremony, and wish Renata to sail under a lucky star.
The action continued with a visit to the RADI/ONA studio, Palmotićeva 49, Zagreb, where I build the BRODI/ONA fleet – a fleet in honor of women who, despite prohibitions and prejudices, sailed the seas, built ships, and explored the maritime world, from history to the present day.
The newly built boat was named in honor of Zagreb helmswoman Renata Horvat (1918–2016), who circumnavigated the globe between 1965 and 1967 as an equal member of the crew of the yacht Besa. The crew of Besa consisted of 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 enter the history 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)
The boat was named by its godmother: Petra Kliba (b. 1976, Pula), who at just 19 years of age circumnavigated the globe in a regatta as the first and only Croatian sailor, male or female, to do so. In 1996 Petra began the 11‑month Hong Kong Challenge Round the World Race as helmswoman and watch leader on the Austrian yacht City of Wr. Neustadt. She has been Croatian champion eight times in different classes, won the Circumnavigators Award for sailing around the globe, competed in 13 Barcolana regattas (best finish: 4th place), and in 2007, as co‑skipper and watch leader of the German yacht KPMG, took part in the HSH Nordbank Atlantic Challenge from Newport (USA) to Hamburg with a crew of 14 women, completing her fourth Atlantic crossing. In 2008 she sailed the Baltic with the same women’s team. 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.
rad g/radi grad
ROOFS TO BOATS
I built the boat in honor of Renata Horvat in my studio RADI/ONA, using planks collected from buildings damaged in the earthquake. “In Zagreb, which is currently one vast construction site, I gathered planks to incorporate them into the boat, carrying them into my ship‑building site / workshop, where she works / where I build the entire fleet BRODI/ONA. In this g‑radi‑ona I build boats, using floors and roofs salvaged from construction sites in the earthquake‑stricken city. From the planks gathered across the city as a consequence of the earthquake, from buildings, from material, from the city itself that suffered, I in‑g/rad‑ed them into this boat… most of all, planks from the Museum of Arts and Crafts. … To renew the Museum of Arts and Crafts into a City of Arts and Crafts, to transform all empty spaces into working spaces… spaces for art and craft. WORK BUILDS THE CITY. RADI/ONA is the prerequisite for the BRODI/ONA fleet, it is also G/RADI/ONA: the working space in which I IN‑CORPORATED THE CITY INTO THE BOAT, into the small vessel, in honor of Zagreb helmswoman Renata Horvat.”
radi / ona → radiona → radi → gradi → građa → zgrada → grad → WORK >> work builds the city ship‑building site → “I embed the CITY into the boat, the boat into the CITY.”
