3 Continuity was interrupted by short breaks; Rijeka became an autonomous city under the Hungarian Monarchy (1779), was occupied by Napoleon (1809 – 1814) and controversially was proclaimed a Hungarian port under unclear conditions by the CroatianHungarian Settlement of 1868). Trieste became a part of the Habsburg domain on 1382, while Rijeka has been integral part from 1527. 4 Rijeka and Trieste were both made free ports (1717 and 1719). Because of the mercury mine discovered there in the late fifteenth Century, Idrija’s importance gradually increased, so that in 1575 it became the private property of the Austrian Emperor; www.britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/605 126/Trieste, www.britan nica.com/EBchecked/topic /503665/Rijeka. 5 Idrija was about fifteen km from the border. Rijeka ended up being split into Italian and Yugoslav parts, considered as a subject by the collective “Association Without Borders” from Rijeka for the project. 6 Yugoslavia was the most liberal country within the Eastern block, and spared the Iron Curtain as such.
capitalism and socialism. The territory of Rijeka-Idrija-Trieste forms of a triangle and constitutes an area of approximately 350 kilometers. In the past it played a paradigmatic role as a site for smuggling, with obscure or neglected narratives inconsistent with, yet existing parallel to the actual (official) historical moment in the territories of Croatia, Italy and Slovenia. As such, the location can serve as an example to promote broader understanding of the phenomenon. All of the collaborating towns within the project shared a similar destiny in the past: they were under the sovereignty of the Habsburg Monarchy almost continually until the First World War.3 In the long period from eighteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth century, their populations were essentially multinational. Another common attribute of participating towns is their geographical position, which influenced their economical status: Trieste and Rijeka were port cities, while Idria, though a bit removed, played an important role over the three centuries.4 Sudden changes occurred after World War I with the decay of the Austro Hungarian Empire when designated towns close to newly drawn borders found themselves either isolated or divided.5 The Kingdom of Italy and Yugoslavia (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) established the Rapallo border (Treaty of Rapallo, November 12, 1920), which endangered multinationalism and multiculturalism in the area and encouraged nationalist movements in this difficult period during the first half of the twentieth century. The border created tension between different national groups empowered by the dictatorships that lead to World War II. As life become harder, friction between local people and the authorities also increased. Moreover, resultant re-divisions of the continent caused by war forced people to develop alternative methods of survival. Most of those smuggling did it for the sake of survival and not to build up surplus stock. In the period following the Second World War, Europe faced a kind of ‘stable disunity’, or better put, the exclusivity of the Eastern and Western blocks induced the ongoing potential threat of World War III, embodied in the Iron Curtain phenomenon.6 Motivated by this history and simultaneously confronted with new political circumstances within the wider region at the moment, the first public presentation held at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka offerred a comprehensive perspective, providing examples from a broad range of cases: contemporary human organ trafficking (Ana Smokrović), illegal immigrants and human rights abuse in Europe today (Cristiano Berti, Oliver Ressler and Zanny Begg, Hassan Abdelghani, the Police Museum), live testimony (Robert Tásnadi on Sandor Gojak, the owner of the Iron Curtain Museum 28