Gdje odlaze slike iz naših sjećanja? Kada ih više ne prizivamo, ako ih ne obnavljamo svjesno ili nesvjesno, slike u našim sjećanjima slabe. Gube se kao staze u šumi koje zarastu jer ih nitko više ne gazi. Sve slike, emocije, osobe i priče koji su izgradili naše živote tonu u tihu unutarnju arhivu i podsvijest. Umjetnici im ne dopuštaju da nestanu. Umjetnost djeluje kao most između svjesnog i nesvjesnog, mjesto gdje ono gotovo zaboravljeno dobiva novi oblik i novu snagu. Upravo taj prostor između stvarnog i imaginarnog kroz cijelu ljudsku povijest na najprirodniji način premošćuje upravo - lutka. Lutke Jaseničanke donose osobnu priču, oživljena sjećanja koja su prokrčila zarasle staze za cijelu zajednicu raseljenih Jaseničana. Autorica izložbe kroz male scene uprizorenih sjećanja govori priču svojih predaka, a prvenstveno svoje majke koja je izradila lutke prema svojim sjećanjima. Proživjevši sretno djetinjstvo u selu na južnim obroncima Velebita, u krškom krajoliku čije kadrove osim velike planine ispunjavaju more i rijeka Zrmanja, Ana Brkić često je o njemu pričala svojoj djeci. Kao djevojčica upijala je slikovite događaje u vrijeme dok je selo Jasenice još bilo puno stanovnika koji su ga ispunjavali autentičnim životnim pričama. Njezin otac, mjesni učitelj i majka, švelja, živjeli su preko puta stare seoske škole, u središtu sela, te je kod njih uvijek bilo vrlo živo. Taj koloplet uspomena njena kći kroz ovaj umjetnički projekt oblikuje u trodimenzionalni fotoalbum u kojem sedamdesetak izloženih lutki predstavlja otjelovljenje ljudi, posebno žena iz jednog malog mjesta podno velike planine, a koje imaju gotovo mističnu snagu da nam pobude maštu i prenesu nas na obronke Velebita, na visoravni i u centar sela, pred crkvu i do gusterne, na proplanke i obalu Novigradskog mora. Pred nama su baštinske lutke koje predstavljaju iskrenu i izvornu poeziju koja živopisno dočarava nekadašnji život pod Velebitom, u selu Jasenice.
Bojana Vukojević idejna je začetnica koncepta Jaseničanki i autorica umjetničkog projekta čiji su kreativni procesi započeli pripovijedanjem nekoć djeda, pa majke, nastavili se majčinom izradom lutki i odjeće, bratovom izradom predmeta i pomagala, nakon čega Bojana lutkama oslikava lica i fotografira ih u scenografiji izvornog pejzaža sela te zaokružuje priču pripovjedačkim tekstovima koji donose dramatizaciju. Jaseničanke, dakle, nastaju složnim radom dijela obitelji koji razumije snagu ljepote baštine, a ta malena skupina sebe naziva kreativnim timom Baba Roga.
Ove male ručno rađene tekstilne lutke, višestruko su vrijedni radovi. Osim svoje umjetničke vrijednosti nose i etnološku vrijednost koju im pridodaje odjeća koju nose, frizure te predmeti i atributi koje drže u rukama. Odjeća na lutkama predstavlja do detalja rekreirane nošnje jaseničkih žena, u svim izvornim elementima i materijalima. Od početka projekta o Jaseničankama, pokazao se značajnim i njihov društveni značaj, posebno za gledatelje koji porijeklom dolaze iz sela s podvelebitskog i bukovičkog područja. Ovaj u početku mali projekt uspio je ostvariti veliki značaj pruživši im utjelovljene oblike za gotovo iščezla sjećanja. Osnažen je kulturni identitet zajednice raseljenih stanovnika ovih ruralnih krajeva i pokrenut proces obnove njegovih sjećanja i kulturne baštine.
Lutke kao predmet prate čovjeka kroz povijest svih kultura koje su ikada postojale. Pojavljuju se na samom pragu svjetskih civilizacija, a njihov je značaj u tome što predstavljaju personifikaciju, simbol i ideju višeg, idealnog ili drugačijeg svijeta. Lutka je jedna od najprivlačnijih i najvažnijih igračaka u djetinjstvu svakog pojedinca. Ona nas potiče na prelazak iz stvarnog u imaginarni svijet. Iako važna i sveprisutna u djetinjstvu svakoga od nas, danas ih u umjetnosti i primijenjenoj umjetnosti rijetko susrećemo, pojavljuju se izuzetno kao dio kazališne umjetnosti. Zapažajući jedinstvenost medija u kojem se izražava ovaj kreativni tim, ne treba zaboraviti da članovi Baba Roge dolaze iz Zadra, grada u kojem lutkarstvo ima poseban status. Zasluge za visoke umjetničke uspjehe Kazališta lutaka Zadar zaslužuje i umjetnik Luko Paljetak koji je niz godina bio glumac, dramaturg i redatelj zadarskih lutkara i koji je o lutki rekao: „Lutki je potrebna svaka pohvala. Lutke su sve izdržale. Lutke će sve izdržati. Lutke sve podnose, pogotovo u doba visokih drama vremena. Lutke iz dana u dan nude svoje istinske bajkovite svjetove kao stvarni uzorak, suprotstavljajući ga onim lažnim, uvijek široko nuđenim. Lutke rade za svjetlost, za radost dječjih osmijeha koji i njih ozare u trenutku savršenog spoja života – bajke i bajke – života.“
Nazivom izložbe „A di su ti ovce, baba?“ uvučeni smo u dramski zaplet priče i potragu koja nas vodi kroz selo i okolicu. Kroz prostor i događaje u selu vodi nas Baba, najvažnija od lutki Jaseničanki. Ova odlučna, ali melankolična Baba prolazi seoskim putevima i okolnim stazama tragajući za svojim ovcama, simbolizirajući pritom potragu za vremenom kada je selo bilo ispunjeno životom. Njezina potraga postaje mitsko putovanje prošlim vremenima, pogled u selo kakvo je nekada bilo, podsjećajući nas pritom na Priče iz davnine i lik stare Majke kojoj je u Šumi Striborovoj bio dan pogled
u selo njezine mladosti.
Gdje odlaze slike iz naših sjećanja? Možda upravo tamo gdje nastaju lutke kao što su Jaseničanke – u ruke koje pamte djetinjstvo, u niti koje nose boje zavičaja, u priče koje sjećanja čuvaju. Priča o Jaseničankama priča je o čuvanju identiteta. Uobičajene seoske priče ispričane kroz lutke poprimaju težinu mita i ponovno uspostavljaju zaboravljeni odnos s baštinom i zavičajem, jačajući osjećaj pripadnosti. Ove su lutke mali svjedoci sjećanja, pretočeni u oblik. U njima se spajaju ruke majki i baka s maštom današnjih umjetnica, pripovijedanje sa slikom i prošlost s budućnošću.
Zrinka Brkan Klarin
JASENIČANKE (THE WOMEN OF JASENICE) -
WHERE ARE YOUR SHEEP, GRANDMA?
Where do the images from our memories go? If we no longer consciously or unconsciously recall or refresh them, the images in our memories begin to fade. They disappear like overgrown forest paths that no one walks on anymore. All the images, emotions, people and stories that have shaped our lives sink into a silent inner archive and the subconscious. Artists do not allow them to disappear. Art acts as a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious, a place where what is almost forgotten takes on a new form and new strength. It is this space between the real and the imaginary that has, throughout human history, been most naturally bridged by dolls.
The Jaseničanke Dolls carry a personal story, revived memories that have cleared overgrown paths for the entire community of displaced people from Jasenice. Through small scenes of re-enacted memories, the exhibition’s creator tells the story of her ancestors, primarily her mother, who made the dolls based on her own recollections. Having had a happy childhood in the village on the southern slopes of Velebit, in a karst landscape framed by the great mountain, the sea, and the Zrmanja River, Ana Brkić often spoke about it to her children. As a girl, she absorbed the vivid events at a time when the village of Jasenice was still full of inhabitants who filled it with authentic life stories. Her father, the local teacher, and her mother, a seamstress, lived across the street from the old village school, in the centre of the village, and their home was always full of life. Through this artistic project, her daughter shapes this weave of memories into a three-dimensional photo album in which the seventy or so exhibited dolls embody the people, especially the women, from a small village at the foot of a great mountain, and who possess an almost mystical power to stir our imagination and transport us to the slopes of Velebit, to the plateaus, to the village centre, in front of the church and by the cistern, to the clearings, and the shore of the Novigrad Sea. These are heritage dolls that represent sincere and authentic poetry that vividly evokes life as it once was beneath Velebit, in the village of Jasenice.
Bojana Vukojević is the originator of the Jaseničanke concept and the author of the artistic project, whose creative pro-
cesses began with storytelling - first by her grandfather, then her mother - and continued with her mother making the dolls and their clothing, and her brother making objects and props. Bojana then paints the dolls’ faces and photographs them within the scenery of the village’s original landscape, rounding off the story with accompanying texts that add dramatisation. The Jaseničanke dolls are therefore the result of the harmonious work of a family who understand the powerful beauty of heritage, and this small group calls themselves the Baba Roga creative team.
These small handmade textile dolls are works of multiple significance. In addition to their artistic value, they also have ethnological value in the clothing they wear, the hairstyles they have, and the objects and attributes they hold in their hands. The clothing on the dolls represents meticulously recreated traditional costumes of the women of Jasenice, with all original elements and materials. From the beginning of the project about Jasenica women, their social significance also became clear, particularly for viewers originating from the sub-Velebit and Bukovica regions. This initially small project has achieved great significance by providing embodied forms for almost vanished memories. It has strengthened the cultural identity of the displaced inhabitants of these rural areas and initiated a process of renewing their memories and cultural heritage.
Dolls, as objects, have accompanied humans throughout the history of every culture that has ever existed. They appear at the very dawn of world civilisations, and their significance lies in their ability to personify, symbolise, and represent a higher, ideal or different world. A doll is one of the most appealing and important toys in the childhood of every individual. It encourages us to cross from the real into the imaginary world. Although important and ever-present in all our childhoods, today we rarely encounter them in art and applied art; they appear only exceptionally as part of theatrical art. Noting the uniqueness of the medium in which this creative team expresses itself, it should not be forgotten that the members of the Baba Roga come from Zadar, a city where puppetry holds a special status. Credit for the high artistic achievements of the Zadar Puppet Theatre is also due to the artist Luko Paljetak, who for many years was an actor, playwright and director of the Zadar puppeteers and who said of puppets: “Puppets deserve every praise. Puppets have endured everything. Puppets will endure anything. Puppets tolerate everything, especially in times
of great dramas. Day after day, puppets offer their true fairy-tale worlds as a real example, contrasting them with the false ones, always widely offered. Puppets work for the light, for the joy of children’s smiles, which illuminate them in a moment of the perfect union – of life and fairy-tale, and fairy-tale and life.”
The exhibition title “Where Are Your Sheep, Grandma?” draws us into the dramatic plot of the story and a quest that leads us through the village and its surroundings. Baba (Grandmother), the most important of the Jaseničanke dolls, guides us through the village spaces and events. This determined yet melancholic Baba walks the village roads and nearby paths in search of her sheep, symbolizing a search for the time when the village was full of life. Her search becomes a mythical journey through past times, a glimpse into the village as it once was, recalling Croatian Tales of Long Ago and the character of the old Mother in “Stribor’s Forest” who was granted a vision of her childhood village.
Where do the images from our memories go? Perhaps precisely to the places where dolls like the Jaseničanke are created – to hands that remember childhood, to threads that carry the colours of their homeland, to stories that preserve memories. The story of the women of Jasenice is a story of preserving identity. Ordinary village tales, told through dolls, take on the weight of myth and re-establish a forgotten relationship with heritage and homeland, reinforcing a sense of belonging. These dolls are small witnesses to memory, transformed into form. In them, the hands of mothers and grandmothers meet the imagination of today’s artists, storytelling merges with imagery, and the past with the future.
Zrinka Brkan Klarin
BOJANA VUKOJEVIĆ rođena je u Zadru 1979. godine. Zvanje profesora likovne kulture stekla je 2007. godine na Akademiji primijenjenih umjetnosti u Rijeci, s užom specijalizacijom u slikarstvu, a od 2009. godine radi kao nastavnik stručnih predmeta u Školi primijenjene umjetnosti i dizajna Zadar.
Kroz svoj umjetnički razvoj bila je u doticaju s različitim umjetničkim praksama, a svoj autorski umjetnički rad prikazala je dosad kroz više skupnih izložbi te nekoliko samostalnih, od kojih je najzapaženija bila izložba intimnih portreta i minijatura kukaca pod nazivom „Starosjedioci... i njima je Božić“. Aktivno se bavi stvaralaštvom u području ilustracije, slikarstva i umjetničke instalacije, a za online pop-kulturni magazin „Perkatonic“ predstavlja vizualne priče i piše umjetničke osvrte.
Umjetnički projekt „Jaseničanke“ pokreće 2023. godine i u sklopu rada u kreativnom timu Baba Roga sudjeluje u stvaranju, promociji i izlaganju originalnih baštinskih lutaka i pripadajućih priča i zapisa, promičući materijalnu i nematerijalnu baštinu podvelebitskog kraja.
Član je Hrvatskog društva likovnih umjetnika od 2008. godine.
BOJANA VUKOJEVIĆ (Bojana Vukojević was born in Zadar in 1979. She graduated in 2007 from the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka with a degree in Art Education, specialising in painting. Since 2009, she has been teaching vocational subjects at the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zadar. Throughout her artistic development, she has engaged with various artistic practices, and she has exhibited her work in numerous group and several solo exhibitions, the most notable of which was the exhibition of intimate portraits and insect miniatures titled “Starosjedioci... i njima je Božić“ (“Natives - ...and Christmas Is Theirs Too“). She is actively involved in illustration, painting and installation art, and regularly contributes visual stories and art reviews to the online pop culture magazine “Perkatonic“.
In 2023, she launched the Jaseničanke art project and, as part of the Baba Roga creative team, participates in the creation, promotion and exhibition of original heritage dolls together with their accompanying stories and records, promoting both the tangible and intangible heritage of the sub-Velebit region. She has been a member of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists since 2008.
