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Petra Matić

@petramatic.bsky.social

1.8K followers 6.3K following 30 posts

Balkan girl uncovering Non-Aligned histories. Dreamer and doer in a world where the funding is the curator. Educated by ruangrupa, New Art School Modality, Bureau d'Études, and BLOK. 2024 fellow of TheMuseumsLab and Global Cultural Relations.

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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 · 15/12/2024

Gregory Orr

Two things poems
Teach:

Death of the body-
Best accept it.

Death of the heart-
Better not.

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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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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 · 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 · 17/11/2024

Accra sunset

Sunset over Accra. In the forefront is a yard with a few trees. On the left there's a traintrack, on the right there's a road, different houses and buildings and a lot of vegetation. The first street lights are on.

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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

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

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