The activities and programs of the Typhlological Museum send messages about the importance of every person. This time we have focused our activities towards people who have sacrificed their life for the greater good. After the Homeland War, post traumatic stress disorder became one of the most common diagnoses in Croatia, and the recovery is long-lasting and hard. The name of the exhibition, 99 isn’t 100, was taken from a documentary and we used it to shed light on the necessity of social care for every individual and to say that every person is important because even one person can make a difference.
The selection of sculptures for the exhibition always follows a certain criterion, and the sculptures exhibited in the Typhlological Museum and their place in the catalogue are the result of two decisions. First, we wanted to present all the participants of our sculpting workshop because we believe their interest in art deserves it. Our museum enabled them to model sculptures and, for the first time, implement a part of themselves in the works that tell tales of fear, sorrow, struggle and hope.
Why have we devoted special attention to two authors? Vladimir and Nedjeljko’s initial spark hasn’t faded – they have even found a peaceful place in their homes to keep on creating. The beauty of creation overwhelmed them so before us today we have exhibits created in their ateliers. At one moment life imposed the role of warriors on them, and when that role expired, they weren’t able to get back to their life again easily. They still look for it sometimes, and we hope that we have opened the door to the world of art, in which it is always better to be a creator than a spectator. We believe and hope that the world of clay and pencil will help them weather their problems more easily and that this exhibition will mark the beginning of a new path.
Željka Sušić
The Joy of Creation
A creative response to the impacts of the environment is immanent to sensitive talented individuals. Vladimir Bušljeta and Nedjeljko Herceg mastered the material surprisingly quickly in just a few workshops organized in the Typhlological Museum, which enabled them to incorporate their ideas into a form of art. Little time passed from the initial careful examination of clay to a magical cooperation of the material and their fingers. All uneasiness vanished and the mastered skill opened new space for creation. The joy of creation is one of the ways in which our authors liberated themselves from the shackles of their difficult experiences and destructive memories. But those painful memories must also be the source of their creation... Someone who had looked death in the eye must have a different perception of the image of Christ; someone who hadn’t been sure whether they would come back to the world they lived in will differently grasp the everyday life of that world, the world of Joža, the accordion player, and godmother Bara.Even though they lack the academic training in sculpting, their talent and their newly acquired skill enable the image and the chosen role model to find their way and gain form while the fingers create forms of clay honestly and patiently.
The forms standing before us today grew out of the contemplation and quiet inner dialogue of the author with the subject matter and the material. Erceg’s notion of Christ and Moses, his allegorical depiction of Adam and Eve or the mythical unicorn, Bušljeta’s kind, good-humored characters, his portrait of a friend (Hombre), the gracious Bather and the pain seen on a woman’s face, which shows us that the author is closely familiar with pain – they all deserve attention, they are all equally important to the authors and everything is modeled on the joy of creation. The exhibited sculptures give us a glimpse of how this creative streak will continue and indicate that we are yet to see their best work. Davor Šiftar