NMMU – NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN ART HOSTS A SCREENING AND BOOK LAUNCH OF THE “MIRROR” PROJECT
VENUE
Mama Club / Multimedia Institute, Preradovićeva 18, Zagreb
DATE / TIME
11. June. 2026, 19:00
LINE UP
Branko Franceschi, introducing the project
Basak Senova, presenting the project and the book
LINE UP
Branko Franceschi, introducing the project
Basak Senova, presenting the project and the book
Screening of the ACT IV, featuring
“Kwassa Kwassa” (2015) by Superflex (DK)
“The Theory of Displacement (Fragment #1) (2008) by Johan Thom (ZA)
“A Turtle in Ten Seconds” (2023) by Rojda Tuğrul (TR/AT)
“The River” (2024) by Herrana Adisu (ET/US)
As one of the projects of Agrigento Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2025, the Mirror project was realised in collaboration with The Atlas (of Creative Mechanisms): [Curating–Conducting]. Curated by Basak Senova and Jonatan Habib Engqvist, the project partnered with eight institutions across Europe, and the National Museum of Modern Art (Zagreb) is the first institution to host a screening and book launch in 2026.
Agrigento, designated the Italian Capital of Culture for 2025 (Agrigento Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2025), has structured its programme around four thematic elements: Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. The “Mirror” project is presented under the theme of ‘Water’. The Mediterranean region has always generated and orchestrated a unique understanding of imagination through unexpected associative processes, with water as an overarching motif. The project operated as an analogy for observing a broken mirror and its fragments. In this context, the project’s main curatorial objective was to mirror various elements onto one another: the city of Agrigento, the element of water, films, photographs, music, and the audience, creating a strong, unified experience at Teatro Pirandello Agrigento, with a scheduled programme spanning a month. This experience was also captured in a book, published by ARUCAD Press, that reflects and intertwines these elements, narrated through a script from the perspective of a stray cat named ‘Zurfarari’.
The participating artists of the Mirror project are Ali Cherri (LB/FR), Almagul Menlibeyeva (KZ/DE), Cristiana de Marchi (IT/LB/AE), Egle Oddo (IT/FI), Emilija Škarnulytė (LT), Francesco Bellina (IT), Hera Büyüktasciyan (TR), Herrana Addisu (ET/US), Icelandic Love Corporation (IS), Isa Rosenberger (AT), Jesper Just (DE), Johan Thom (ZA), Larissa Sansour (PS/UK) – Søren Lind (DK/UK), Marcus Neustetter (AT), Marja Helander (FI), The ZoNE (AT), Maria Lantz (SE), Nisrine Boukhari (SY/AT), Oya Silbery (CY), Rojda Tugrul (TR/AT), Ramesch Daha (AT), Superflex (DK), Theresa Traore Dahlberg (SE), Wael Shawky (EG), and William Kentridge (ZA).
The Mirror project consisted of three interconnected chapters. The first chapter is the experimental exhibition held on the stage of Teatro Pirandello in Agrigento. It combined a film screening with photographs, inviting the audience to step onto the stage to experience the photographs in a unique exhibition setup and watch the films as opera audiences. The second chapter was the book that mirrors art and the city of Agrigento. It processed observations through the eyes of a stray cat hovering around the city. The third chapter entails the dissemination of the film programme and the book to partner institutions in different cities across Europe in 2026: Istanbul Modern (Istanbul), Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), Kunsthaus Dahlem (Berlin), Liljevalchs Konsthall (Stockholm), National Museum of Modern Art (Zagreb), The Art Rooms, ARUCAD (Kyrenia) and CVAR Centre of Visual Arts and Research (Nicosia); Cyprus, and The Reykjanes Art Museum (Reykjavik).
During the first chapter in Agrigento, Branko Franceschi (the director of the NMMA – National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb), Dorothea Schöne (the director of Kunsthaus Dahlem, Berlin), Oya Silbery (artist and the director of Art Rooms, ARUCAD, Kyrenia) and Maria Lantz (artist) came together for a public programme titled Prelude, moderated by the curators, for an on-stage dialogue. The entire programme was simultaneously translated from/to Italian by Margherita Orlando from Agrigento, Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2025. Most of the photographs in the exhibition on the stage were produced in Agrigento. An edition of Johan Thom’s large-format photograph and an original work of printed puzzles by Maria Lantz were donated to Teatro Luigi Pirandello.
The spatial, perceptual, and sensory interventions of the Mirror project will be further explored through a critical and reflexive exchange by the curators and documented in the forthcoming publication The Atlas in 2027.
The Mirror project has been executed in collaboration with The Atlas (of Creative Mechanisms): [Curating–Conducting], a PEEK project awarded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and hosted by the Institute of Art Sciences and Art Education at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. https://the-atlas.uni-ak.ac.at/mirror/
The book can be accessed online via:
https://the-atlas.uni-ak.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Mirror_online.pdf
