Exhibition Off the Wall – From Embroidered to Virtually Shared Values

The exhibition presents the collection of wall hangings within the Collection of Soft Furnishings of the Ethnographic Museum, their origin and distribution, methods of making or production, thematic and, above all, rich semantic determinants, with the desire for this traditional object to serve as a starting point in the perception of current everyday life in the context of digital culture. By comparatively analyzing, textually and pictorially represented attitudes, norms and values, embroidered on utilitarian and decorative fabrics that adorned the walls of households throughout Croatia, but also much wider, for a large part of the entire 20^th century, are confronted with the values that we represent and disseminate (we post, share, like, snap, tag and comment, to name a few), today, and up to a hundred years later, on the virtual walls and screens of high-tech devices of the new millennium.

In the urban areas of Central Europe, wall hangings (wall cloths,locally referred to as kuharice) became popular at the end of the 19^th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, they were to be found in rural areas only to soon become a general fashion. Although they originally had a practical role – protecting the wall from splashes, they soon included easy-to-remember messages linked with the promotion of personal hygiene, healthy eating or etiquette, which, in addition to their decorative significance, strengthens their communicative significance. As is evident from a number of specimens from the holdings of the Ethnographic Museum, the scenes and messages on the walls very often reflect the stereotypical male-female division of roles in the patriarchal household of the 20^th century, by encouraging it, commenting on it ironically or resisting it, and they are hence extremely valuable documents of that time.

By invoking reminiscences of classic scenes within kitchen environments – the center of close socializing with family members, neighbors and guests of past generations, we confront the multi-layered phenomenon of wall hangings with the current global practices of sharing status on various social networks and online channels, providing a platform for the intergenerational exchange of views and experiences on shared values within society and the community.

In the circumstances of the modern age, when highlighting content of more or less hidden meaning over the kitchen stoves is only a distant, personal or collective, memory, and posts on social networks and gatherings, even relationships, at a distance are a daily activity, which emerges from the same need (and fashion) to share values with a selected social group, the aim of the exhibition, in addition to presenting material from the holdings of the Ethnographic Museum, is to encourage users, especially younger generations, to think critically about the complex processes of receiving and transmitting their own messages, both virtual and real.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with texts by the author and the associates and an educational program designed for users of a wide profile, with an emphasis on professional and popular science lectures, as well as group guided tours and workshop programs aimed at promoting media literacy, especially for children and young people. The experimental social media project MUSEOcoLAB, done in collaboration with the informants (Croatian content creators/ influencers) interviewed as a part of the original ethnographic research that preceded the exhibition, is available on the Museum’s Instagram profile and Facebook page.

Exhibition author

Gordana Viljetić, Senior Curator

Project associate

University of Zagreb – Academy of Fine Arts

Course instructor of Anthropology

of Art in Public Space

Assoc. Prof. Josip Zanki, PhD

Authors of artworks

Leonarda Fofić, Luka Kraljević, Mateo Sito, Ivana Šerić, Sara Škrlec, Iva Žepina (ALU Zagreb) i Lana Zubović (NACD Dublin)

Author of artistic performance

Vlasta Delimar

Expert associate

Željko Predojević, PhD

Exhibition set up

Clinica Studio d.o.o.

(Vedran Kasap, Ozana Ursić, Korana Mileusnić, Toni Bilić)

Visual identity / Graphic design

Clinica Studio d.o.o.

(Vedran Kasap, Ozana Ursić, Korana Mileusnić, Toni Bilić)

Catalogue layout

Korana Mileusnić (Clinica Studio d.o.o.)

Multimedia

Ethnographic Museum Zagreb Photo Archive, Croatian School Museum Photo Archive, Slatina’s Local History Museum Photo Archive, medijskapismenost.hr, VRT

Belgium and the University of Zagreb – Faculty of Political Science (EDUbox),

Zlatar High School (Radijske kapljice), Pučko otvoreno učilište Ogulin, Old Boys Network, Fortepan, Wikimedia Commons, Ivan Drobina, Nina Koydl, Morgan Mannino (Boston University, Metropolitan College), private archives

Content from social media (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) and narration

Ivana Blažoti, Antonio Brajković, Queen Alvona, Aneta Đ., Igor Jadan, Ivana Marketin, DoktoricaČetkica (Hana Stanković, DMD, Matko Stanković), Željko Predojević, PhD, Tihomila V., @grofdarkula

Proofreading and editing

Silvija Brkić Midžić

English translation

and proofreading

Lučana Banek

Paraphrase

Gordana Viljetić

Field records

Zvjezdana Antoš, PhD

(Blato, Korčula Island, 2023),

Gordana Viljetić

(Zagreb, Otočac, Dubrovnik, Labin,

Konjščina, Vinkovci, 2014 – 2025)

Transcription of the narration

Aneta Lea Baljak, Ana Kolonić, Gordana Viljetić

Audio editing

Ivan Drobina

Video editing

Lorena Martinić via CapCut

Set-up installation

Davor Filipčić, Adrijana Gašparić, Mislav Janošić, Kristina Matković, Marijana Najjar, Darijen Paša, Mislav Šemeš

Cleaning and preventive protection

Marijana Najjar, Kristina Matković

Marketing and Public Relations

Ivana Lušić, PhD

Social media Administrator and

Multimedia Content Associate

Lorena Martinić

IT support

Josip Belak

Educational program

Željka Jelavić, PhD,

Anastazija Petrović, Silvia Vrsalović

Associates on educational programs

Portal medijskapismenost.hr,

Centar za sigurniji internet

MUSEOcoLAB program

Gordana Viljetić

MUSEOcoLAB associates

Ivana Blažoti, Aneta Đurđinovski,

Igor Jadan, Ivana Marketin, Hana Stanković, Matko Stanković

Exhibition partner

Prostoria

The exhibition was made possible through funding of the City Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.