3 to 10, Trees

Photography installation that reflects on deep emotional connection with local landscape of Dubrovnik through life-long observing and contemplating ten trees on top of Srđ hill. Shot in simple passer-by manner and shaped in a walk-through city map.

The photographs from this installation (2018), as well as the other works in the cycle „3 to 10, Trees” (2015-2020) derived from my life-long observance of ten pine trees on the top of Srđ hill in Dubrovnik. They are visual constant of my memory, its topological and emotional reference, my personal time-machine with its own timing that grows and ages with me.

Photographs in the installation were made through a number of contemplative walks, from the locations that I remember seeing the trees from throughout my entire life when walking through the City. In this long and emotional process, I also climbed the hill to finally meet them "in person". Name of this work and cycle also reflects this long time continuum of observing, remembering and counting - a kind of longing, as my first memories when I was three years old, are ones of counting them wrongly from far away place of my childhood courtyard - I counted 3 trees on top of the hill.

The installation is a central piece of the cycle and it consists of 15 photographs that were picked from the overall body of taken photographs. Put in the space, they create photographic gaze map of Dubrovnik. When walking through the installation - you are walking through the City itself and by doing so, a new relation to it is created, the one that is more accurate, local and intimate, rather the one used in purposes of mass tourism - the problem this City is faced with. In that sense, the work is taking a visual critical stand towards this problem.

By collecting stories and photographs about the trees from other citizens, I find out that my assumption about the significance of the tress was right. As part of my work, I propose that the trees get the status of living monument - that they are proclaimed an intangible cultural heritage of City of Dubrovnik because of their ambiental, emotional local historical significance: the future one City builds, should be the one that cherishes and cares about its citizens and environmet.

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The installation and other works from cycle were exposed on several solo and collective exhibitions in Croatia and were a part of large project The Visible Ones about female artists in Croatia 2023/2024

Techincal information:
15 photographs on stands UV printed on steel plates
Dimensions of photography 19 x 29 cm, height of stand 175 cm
Dimensions of the setup and number of exposed photographic elements are variable.
Recommendation: at least 6 elements and 15m2