iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

I would love to spend more time on Bluesky, but the endless stream of the U.S. politics is so draining. I'd prefer to learn about other countries.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Glad to speak with Peter Korchnak on Remembering Yugoslavia about the legacy of non-alignment, erased Global South student histories, and the urgency behind the Nonaligned Archive. 🎧 yugoblok.com/nonaligned-m... 🌍 www.arhivnesvrstanih.org #nonalignedarchive #Zagreb

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I really really wanna see this!

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Mohamad Bazzi @mbazzi.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

It’s a good day for Mahmoud Darwish — “The Prison Cell”

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Privileged to hear the brilliant Panafrican Society in Croatia yesterday at the Human Rights Film Festival. The # of Africans in Croatia ranges from a few hundred to thousands—listen to the realities of living in a small peripheral country desperately trying to prove its whiteness.

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Panel on racism and culture: Oladayo and Abbey from PADUH - Panafričko društvo u Hrvatskoj - HRFF

YouTube video by Petra Matic

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Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

A photo I posted of graffiti in Syria in 2014. "One day the war will be over and I will return to my poem" I hope they will return to their poem

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

In case you find yourself in Sofia this weekend, my short film The City That Has Peace will be playing at Toplocentrala as part of the Forgetting to Remember exhibition, curated by Simina Neagu, along with works of Voin de Voin, Simina Neagu, and Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan.

Forgetting to Remember, Toplocentrala Gallery - Cube, Exhibition, Authors: Simina Neagu, Voin de Voin, Petra Matic, Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, Curators: Simina Neagu, 06-15 December 2024, Opening 6.12.2024., 18:00 hour

Toplocentrala Toplocentrala
Toplocentrala Toplocentrala

Center for Contemporary Arts
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Home Programme Visual Arts Forgetting to Remember

06-15 December 2024

Toplocentrala Gallery - Cube

Opening

06.12.2024., 18:00 hour

Visiting hours

Tuesday - Friday 14:00 - 20:00 | Saturday - Sunday 12:00 - 21:00 | Monday - Not open
Forgetting to Remember

Exhibition Screening

The screening brings together four moving image works dealing with questions of preserving histories and uncovering the latent traces of the past: "23 August" (2023) by Simina Neagu, "The City That Has Peace" (2023) by Petra Matic, "The Ghost of Culture" (2023) by Voin de Voin, and “Citrus Tristeza” (2018) by Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan. The title, "Forgetting to Remember", alludes to the dangers of forgetting one's history, erasing one's archive and as a result, potentially repeating old errors, which all four works echo in some way.

Whether we're delving deeper into forgotten moments of solidarity still encapsulated in the architecture of Bucharest and Zagreb, revisiting utopian ideals in the National Palace of Culture or NDK in Sofia, or meditating on the latency of the "fascist virus" as understood by Hungarian anthropologist Karl Polanyi at the beginning of the 20th century, the works move us between the past and the potential of perhaps, a different future. What is there to be uncovered? What lies dormant beneath the pavement, as we go about our daily lives? What needs to be remembered? These are some of the questions that we are left with to answer or to continue grappling with in perpetuity.

- Simina Neagu, curator of the screenings

„23 August” (2023), Simina Neagu, 25’ 24”
'23 August' focuses on the 4th World Festival of Youth and Students that took place in Bucharest, Romania in 1953. In the spirit of recuperating a hopeful, partly utopian story of transnational solidarity for future generations, the story is told through the perspective of two activists – John La Rose, from Trinidad, and Paul Joseph, from South Africa, who forged a life-long friendship after meeting at this anti-colonial and anti-imperialist festival. The film includes archival materials from the John La Rose Estate and George Padmore Institute, fiction and a new interview with Paul Joseph and his daughter Nadia Joseph, as well as archival images from the Senate House Library.
„The Ghost of Culture” (2023), Voin de Voin, 11’ 32”
The film “The Ghost of Culture” drifts between the utopian idea of a universal palace of Culture where different art forms/disciplines merge in order to meet the needs of a larger audience. The film uses archive footage from the construction site dating back to 1977 combined with the actual opening of the palace. Buzzing actions and movement of people draw a picture of prosperity and national Socialist pride, in large.
The year is 2023 — The National Palace of Culture aka NDK — a ghost building – semi private semi public, where entering becomes an obstacle. The second part of the film exposes the power structure dynamics at present, when it becomes apparent that hierarchical and authoritarian principles are still in place and they serve as an active tool and treatment to both citizens and workers by the ones in supreme positions.
The documentary style of the camera captures the present state of affairs and digs into the complex narrative or redirection, or the inability to access or unmask. The movie leaves us with the shadow of both – the benefit and the doubt, of what is there to be uncovered?

„The City That Has Peace” (2023), Petra Matic, 8’ 41”
"The City That Has Peace" is a documentary film following the rise and fall of Zagreb's International Student Friendship Club. Exploring topics of solidarity, war, and community, Sam Bushara and Mohamed Al Younis lead us through the largely forgotten history of Non-Aligned Zagreb. The film follows their arrival to an unknown place as young students from former colonies, through the height of the city's multicultural youth centre concentrated in the International Student Friendship Club, ending with the Club's eviction and arson in the wartime 1990s, symbolised by the flawed, lonely statue of Croatia's first president Franjo Tuđman. Looking back on their journeys, they reflect on the tenderness and unity they encountered in Zagreb but which are no longer there.
‘Citrus Tristeza’,(2018) Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, 15’14”
Citrus Tristeza is a virus that has led to the death of millions of citrus trees all over the world and has rendered millions of others useless for production. Farmers gave it the name tristeza (sadness), referring to the devastation produced by the disease.
The citrus virus appeared after the First World War and historically coincides with the rise of fascism in Europe.
Benera and Estefan reflect on this historic coincidence, inspired by the unpublished text by Karl Polanyi, The fascist virus (1934). Polanyi identifies fascism with a virus that is always present in society but stays invisible, in a latent state, becoming virulent in times of systemic crisis.
The artists are writing on the city walls by using the juice of squeezed lemons. While the lemon juice slowly evaporates, the text disappears before it can be read.

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Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team · 28/11/2024

Ever wanted to see the world through someone else’s eyes?

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If you know you know @privatechand.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

I have started teaching Sara Ahmed’s the organization of hate routinely as I deal with a decidedly more right wing student body post Covid and nothing has been more effective. To explain that love- of a sovereign community abstract, unreal and narrowly defined- is the beginning of hate is effective.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Odur Ronald is one of my favorite contemporary artists. He just represented Uganda at the Venice Bienniale. This is his work "National Budget"

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Introduce yourself with some jobs you've done apart from what you do now 1. Hostel cleaner 2. Guest manager in nautical tourism (living on the yacht) 3. Ceramic souvenir painter 4. Gold buyer 5. Band/tour manager 6. Language tutor 7. Bicycle courier 8. Train stewardess (one I despised the most)

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有靈 Yo-Ling (他/they) @yolingwrites.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Please consider boosting Li's call for support and send her as many good vibes as you can. Words can't describe what she must be going through right now after over a decade of being stealth... Below is a Twitter screenshot of Li's latest post in English.

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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

I was massively attacked when I last said this (including on instagram and linked in because some folks are batshit) so naturally I say it again: the word “terrorist” is a racialized slur that people of conscience should stop using all together.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Museum of Archaeology, University of Ghana

Map of Africa with "African voices" names on it: Onyekachi Wambu, Njoki Ngumi, Afolasade Adewumi, Flower Manase, Prince Folarin Shyllon, Chimamanda Ngozi, Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant, Nana Oforiatta Ayim, Wazi Apoh, Nosmot Gbadamosi, Mobutu Sese Seko, Sylvie Njobati, Florence Mulagula, Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula, Faustin Linyekula, Achille Mbembe, Vicensia Shule Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, Salome Kiwara-Wilson, Donald Deya, Eromo Egbejule, Kwame Opoku, Molemo Moiloa, Bonaventure Ndikung, George Okello Abungu, Frezer Getachew Haile, El Hadje Malik Ndiaye, Ekpo Eyo, Peju Layiwola, Kodzo Gavua, Princess Marilyn Douala Bell, Felwine Sarr, Ngaire Blankenberg, Sylvie Njobati, Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula, Onyekachi Wambu, Ciraj Rassool, Zacharys Anger Gundu, Rudo Sithole, Afolasade Adewumi, Chief Ne Kuko, Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, Ore Disu, Aba Mansah Efiya-Dzidzienyo

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

My 2023 interview with ruangrupa. We talked property, collectivism, visa inequality, culture financing, rest, and using one's own languages. kulturpunkt.hr/rubrike/alte...

kulturpunkt.hr

Alternative Economies of Collectivity

I met members of the Indonesian art collective ruangrupa for the first time in the summer of 2021 when I ...

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

We're attending a meetup of African and European museum professionals. I've spent the last two days in my hotel room recovering from a cold, and just woke up to a bunch of messages from my colleagues checking in on me 🥹🥹🥹. I feel so grateful. Community is EVERYTHING. Relationships are EVERYTHING

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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Have not seen much on here on Sudan, so I'm amplifying this horrific report that shows the number who are killed is higher than previously estimated. Adding here other writing to read to understand this war that has displaced over 11 million people; the highest displacement crisis globally. 🧵

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Nahel Belgherze @wxnb.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

The Philippines have now been hit by four typhoons in the span of just 10 days. Can't say I recall ever seeing this before.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Africans officially made it to Croatia in the 20th century. At the Sorbonne in Paris in 1934, the Croatian linguist Petar Guberina met Aimé Césaire, and the two students soon became the best of friends. open.substack.com/pub/petramat...

open.substack.com

Briefly on Africa in Croatia

Although there is no evidence of an African presence on Croatian territory before the 19th century, Croatia's proximity to Africa makes it possible to envision these connections going back a long way.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

One key principle of my NGO Jutro: everyone who works with us gets paid, unless they prefer to volunteer their work. While we enjoy engaging with theory, we strongly believe in prioritizing financial support for our contributors. Tangible comes first.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

The Point of No Return, Elmina Castle, Ghana

Open window with a view of a stone beach, a palm tree and the sea that took thousands to the New World, in case they survived.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

We are proud to work with Živi Atelje DK, a leading Croatian art collective, and their Žene ženama (Women2Women) initiative of migrant women. Together, we run Živa škola (Living School), a youth program exploring collective learning. Here, we are mixing wild clay collected from Grmoščica Hill.

A table in a green forest, where four hands are sifting and mixing wild clay gathered from the site.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

In Jutro, we organise book clubs where we talk about the legacies of colonialism and seek ways of healing from it. We have been lucky to host Jelena Savić, Dr. Sunnie Rucker-Chang, Tomislav Augustinčić, Damjan Roce, and in this photo, Majed Marouf, former Ambassador of Palestine in Bosnia.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

The Non-Aligned Archive (Arhiv Nesvrstanih) is the most exciting project I am working on. It is a digital archive documenting the presence of African, Asian, and American communities in Croatia, and will be publicly presented in May 2025, online and offline.

International Student Friendship Club in Zagreb, probably 1960s. International and local students performing together on the stage, wearing traditional clothes.

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

I want to introduce my work. Last week, Jutro, the NGO I co-founded in my hometown Zagreb, Croatia, hosted the excellent Roma theorist and artivist Jelena Savić, currently at the University of Uppsala. If you understand BCS, you can watch this interview youtu.be/mpxGZA8CzbY?...

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U pravom licu #4 - Jelena Savić

YouTube video by VIDA

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Petra Matić @petramatic.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Yay, looks like a Twitter-free world is finally possible! Hello from gorgeous Ghana, Accra, where I am currently having a cold. Please enjoy a photo of my lunch.

An opened styrofoam container with a plastic bag full of shito sauce, and filled with waakye, garu, spaghetti, and plantain.

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Izzy Fox, PhD 🍉 @izzyfox.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

PSA for newbies: Please include ALT text on your images. This is an inclusive space for blind and visually impaired people. Don't arrive late to the party and ignore a bunch of people. Also, please share this skeet, rather than liking it, to ensure the message gets delivered. Thanks!

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