The exhibition entitled "They are here", a painting and photography project by the fine artist Dimitrije Popović and the artistic photographer Marko Vrdoljak, will be opened tomorrow, in the Sponza Palace in Dubrovnik.
It is about twenty-one selected women from the Bible, from the Old and New Testaments, who embody well-known women from public life in Croatia. Art critic Branka Hlevnjak, the author of the text in the book accompanying this project, entitled "They are here", wants to emphasize the essence of femininity and to point out its topicality, i.e. modernity.
Biblical heroines, by their own choice, were embodied by, among other famous ladies, Zdenka Kovačiček, Tereza Kesovija, Alma Prica, Nina Badrić, Severina, Sandra Perković, Akla Vuica...
In the large-format portrait photographs of the author Marko Vrdoljak, Dimitrije Popović intervened in a painterly manner in such a way as to symbolically accentuate what made them special in their destinies with the realistic figures of the models, with figurative or abstract elements.
In the book, "They are here", each of the female characters follows a poeticized text by the theologian Anto Vučković, created on the basis of the biblical original.
The exhibition is also interesting in the fact that not one of the collaborators on the project has seen the definitive version of the character of the biblical woman that she embodied. This is one of the reasons why there is great media interest in this exhibition, the opening of which was confirmed by Clay Schroeder, the Hollywood producer of the films "Independence Day", "Titanic", "Batman Returns"...
After Dubrovnik, the cycle of works "They are here" will be presented in Zagreb at the end of the year, and several exhibitions abroad are also planned.
Filming of an art film about this project is in progress, directed by the young Croatian director Fran Juraj Prižmić.
Bonus video: