Wednesday, 16 September 2026 at 8 pm
The Upper Floor Gallery
On Wednesday, 16 September at 8 pm, the exhibition by Ivana Papić, entitled In Quest of Ljudoraha, will open at the Cultural and Information Centre.
The creature in the title is an imaginary organism that evolved in a speculative future. The exhibition's curator, Dora Derado Giljanović, explains the concept in more detail: "In the multimedia installation In Quest of Ljudoraha, the figure of the Ljudoraha represents far more than a fictional character. She is a hybrid of a woman and a wild walnut, a self-sufficient species without a male counterpart, who travels the Earth alone and plants the seeds she collects along the way, thereby seeking to help the environment heal.
Ivana Papić has been researching the invasive species known as the wild walnut, or the tree of heaven (Latin Ailanthus altissima), for years […] Although the tree of heaven was imported from Asia to Europe in the 18th century as an ornamental species, people could not have predicted its spread. This brings up a new situation, or “a new human problem” that requires adaptation. The artist emphasises this circumstance and creates her own speculative fiction, set in an unspecified time in the future 'after the so-called Great Geo-tectonic Event, an event that changed life on Earth'. It is a moment in which the human race has brought itself to a predicament, as a result of its own actions and misdeeds.
In Quest of Ljudoraha consists of five video works projected onto textured surfaces such as acoustic foam used in her sound installation, corrugated sheets made from recycled thermoplastic materials and sheet metal (possible archaeological remains of human civilisation from before this apocalyptic event).
Ivana Papić (Split, 1987) is a multimedia artist and educator who lives and works between Germany and Croatia. Using video, sound and objects in her art-research practice, the artist builds layered poetic works that touch upon the notions of migration, identity and belonging, from the perspective of the relationship between humans and flora. So far, she has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Croatia, Serbia, Germany and Peru, including solo exhibitions at MKC Gallery and Salon Galić in Split, Pogon multimedia hall in Zagreb and Podroom Gallery in Belgrade. As part of her artistic practice, she collaborates with universities, non-governmental organisations and local communities through seminars and workshops in artistic and speculative design. She holds a master's degree in Restoration (Academy of Fine Arts, Split, 2011), and Art in Context (UdK – Universität der Künste Berlin, 2022). At UdK, she is a member of the Klasse Klima collective, where she taught as part of the Studium Planetare pilot project. She also worked as a guest lecturer on the MA programme in Art in Context, as well as on Studium Generale.
The exhibition can be viewed until 6 October 2026.