The Passage Art Residency 2026 welcomes two international artists to the region this October. Erola Arcalís (Menorca/London) and SofijaSilvia (Silvia Potočki) (Pula/Paris) will each develop a new site-specific photographic project in dialogue with two distinctive places in the Wittenberg region.
The Passage Art-Residency-Programme is part of KOBRA Cultural Network Wittenberg. The project ‘Kontinuitäten, Brüche, Ausblicke (KOBRA)’ is part of the programme “Aller.Land – zusammen gestalten. Strukturen stärken.” The network explores continuities, discontinuities and future perspectives within the cultural landscape between the Fläming region and the Dübener Heide. As a central element of the network, the Passage residencies enable international artists to engage with the region’s landscapes, archives and histories in close collaboration with local partner institutions.

SofijaSilvia has been selected for the residency at the former Zschornewitz coal-fired power plant (Ferropolis Foundation for Industrial Heritage). Her photographic practice explores the relationship between nature, history, and human perception. Focusing on how we inhabit and relate to landscape, she will examine the traces of industrial activity alongside ongoing processes of ecological transformation, creating poetic images that invite new ways of seeing landscapes in transition.

Erola Arcalís has been selected for the residency at the Research Library for Reformation Studies (RFB) in Wittenberg. Her multidisciplinary practice combines photography and writing to explore the formation of individual and collective memory. During her residency, she will work with the library’s historical collections to investigate how images, literature and archives shape the production and transmission of knowledge and collective memory.

More about Passage Art residency Programme

Artists featured in the exhibition:
Marina Abramović, Breda Beban, Otti Berger, Jagoda Buić, Vlasta Delimar, Marina Ercegović, Jadranka Fatur, Zvjezdana Fio, Vera Fischer, Sanja Iveković, Jagoda Kaloper, Ivan Kožarić, Annette Messager, Marijana Muljević, Damir Očko, Ana Opalić, Eglė Rakauskaitė, Lala Raščić, Martha Rosler, Carolee Schneemann, Edita Schubert, Seka Severin Tudja, SofijaSilvia, Drago Trumbetaš, and Branka Uzur.
Exhibition author: Zdenka Badovinac & MSU curatorial team
Exhibition design: Marko Tadić
Signage and graphic concept: Damir Gamulin
Graphic layout: Martin Peranović
Visual identity of the Collection as a Verb cycle: Igor Grubić 

The Museum of Contemporary Art will soon present the fourth segment of the permanent display Collection as a Verb, an exhibition section that continues to explore the idea of multiple narratives and fluid transitions between them.

Drawing on artistic practices that have been clearly articulated on the local scene since the 1970s through the programmes of the former Contemporary Art Gallery (today MSU), this segment emphasizes the key role of the institution and its actors in shaping a new generation of artists, particularly female artists.

Through curatorial visions and the support of directors such as Marijan Susovski and Davor Matičević, as well as curator Želimir Koščević, the scene evolved towards a more open and experimental exhibition model. Group and solo exhibitions, including those engaging public space, enabled the affirmation of new artistic voices and the transavantgarde tendencies of the 1980s.

The new segment brings together works that resist fixed identities and clear boundaries. Instead, they embody fragmented subjectivities and explore spaces in between: the socially accepted and the marginalized, the feminine and the masculine, the normalized and the rejected. The exhibition rejects singular narratives and binary oppositions, opening up space for “something third” as a fluid, shifting zone of meaning.

Inspired by Vera Fischer’s 1973 exhibition Flowers and Non-Flowers, this segment develops the concept of an in-between space in which opposites coexist as part of the same context. We conceive this context as a network of vibrating states, shaped through different materials, processes, and social experiences.

work in show Emergence

More about the exhibition

The exhibition features works by the following artists: Luan Bajraktari, Đanino Božić, Dora Ramljak, Zoe Miloš, Martin Sommer, Rui Miguel Leitão Ferreira, Maja Marković, Shuvo Rafiqul, Christian Rothwangl, Hanakam&Schuller, Petar Brajnovović, Tomislav Brajnović, Matija Debeljuh, Karin Ferrari, William Mackrell, Igor Grubić, Marcelo Viquez, Tina Gverović, Ulrike Lienbacher, Milijana Babić & Nada Žgank, Stefanie De Vos, Miran Šabić, Ana Sladetić, Angelika Wischermann, Iva Horvat, Imre Nagy, Petra Pletikos, Dominik Vuković, Rosmarie Lukasser, Petra Mrša, Franz Riedl, SofijaSilvia, Andreas Werner, Jelena Bando, Ivars Drulle, Linus Riepler, Davor Sanvincenti, Christian Eisenberger, Bernd Oppl, Anja Ronacher, and Dino Zrnec.

Over the past ten years, the picturesque Istrian village of Kuberton has become an inspiring place for numerous Croatian and international artists. The result of this decade of encounters and creative work is a rich and heterogeneous body of works donated by the artists to the collection of Muzej Lapidarium and to the Krinzinger Collection in Vienna. The works on view are visual dialogues between contemporary artistic sensibility, the museum’s historical material, and the mystical interior of Istria.

AiR Kuberton is organised by Muzej Lapidarium and Galerie KrinzingerMore about the exhibition

Not so long ago my four year old son asked me, "Are mountains living beings? Is the ocean a living being?" He thanked the wind this past summer for bringing him a breeze of fresh air while walking in extreme heat. He experiences everything as animate.

I see the Atelier as animate, like a very old person whose passing is imminent. I wonder what will happen to the wisdom and knowledge this place holds after it goes through renovation. What will remain, what will be carried on?

I am responding to the pulsating energy of the place radiating through the layers of history that are peeling off its walls. The Atelier is fragile, cracking under the weight of time, like a very old person. I am thinking about interconnectedness of nature and architecture, culture, society, creation, education and heritage, about the cyclicity of life and transformation, about fragility and resistance.

This exhibition was born in my thoughts in this very place and then manifested itself in physical form at the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science Zagreb, titled Pendulum. Now, evolved and morphed like a living organism adapting to a new environment, is coming back and shifts from speaking about relationships between people and nature, to contemplating the relationships between places, architecture and cities with nature and man.
SofijaSilvia
(excerpt from the statement)

Vernissage:
Saturday, 8 February, 14h—18h

Finissage:
Saturday, 8 March, 14h—18h

Open on Fridays, 15—19h

Participatory talk with SofijaSilvia, Barbara Bulc, tom Jeffreys:
Wednesday 5 March, 18h30

Atelier 11
11 Cité Falguière, 75015 Paris

Exhibition curator: Irena Bekić
Chus Martinez: essay in response to the exhibition for an upcoming publication
Barbara Bulc: creative steward

Organised by L'AiR Arts and Art Pavilion Zagreb
With support from City of Zagreb and Region of Istria

'The inter – institutional project and exhibition The Visible Ones represents more than eighty female authors, studies and indicates the pronouncedly low representation of women artists in art collections of museum institutions, and also presents certain aspects and mapping of the contemporary artistic practice of women artists in Croatia.
With this project, we seek to indicate the contemporary fine art production of women artists, which is marked by great achievements, but is nevertheless insufficiently visible.
...
In order to gain more visibility for the project, the Museum of Contemporary Art collaborates with institutions which follow contemporary production in their programmatic determinants: Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Museum of Fine Arts Osijek, Museum of Fine Arts Split, and MMSU Rijeka.'

msu.hr/dogadanja/the-visible-ones/1166/en.html

Invited to set up an exhibition in the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia, SofijaSilvia takes the space of the garden as a starting point, a found state and established semantic field. She creates a site-specific installation using the space, including the context it carries, as an artistic resource and material equal to all others that she handles: that is exhibited photographs, photographed environments and subjects.

Pendulum, 22nd April to 11th June 2023

During her residency with L'AiR ARTS at Atelier 11, SofijaSilvia will be working on her upcoming solo show that will be held from April through June 2023 at the Botanical Garden of Zagreb and organised by the Art Pavilion in Zagreb, Croatia.

Meet Silvia at the Open Studio event at the Atelier 11 on November 19th, 2022.

In fall 2019 I was invited to take part in European Eyes on Japan/Japan Today vol.22 project, organised by EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee in collaboration with Rijeka 2020-European Capital of Culture.
I went to Mie Prefecture and was based in Ise-City, the home to the most sacred Shinto shrines Naiku and Geku. In and around Ise-City there are over a hundred shrines. I also visited Kumano Kodō, the ancient pilgrimage routes, that are listed as part of UNESCO world heritage sites. As the Covid-19 crisis hit shortly after my return to Europe, the exhibitions that were planned in the capitals of culture, Rijeka in Croatia and Galway in Ireland, didn't happen.

Therefore we decided to make the movie 'The Sound of Water'.

Project: European Eyes on Japan / Japan Today vol.22
Organisers: EU-Japan Fest Japan Commitee
In collaboration with: Rijeka 2020 ― European Capital of Culture
Artistic director: Mikiko Kikuta
Assistant: Ryusuke Kagioka
Editing and sound design: Ilija ILIA Smiljanić

Solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia

On October 25th, the International Day of Artists, the exhibition 'drive through' was opened. 12 Istrian artists present their works exhibited in a sorts of 'outdoor gallery' -- on 12 billboards and 12 locations, along the roads of Istria, Croatia. The aim of the exhibition is to maintain a relationship with the audience during this difficult time of social restrictions.
The selector of the 'drive trough' exhibition is Dragana Sapanjoš, who invited 12 Istrian artists to present their works in the public space: Davor Sanvincenti, Dean Skira, Dragana Sapanjoš, Goran Petercol, Matija Debeljuh, Matija Ferlin, Robert Pauletta, Sara Gortan, SofijaSilvia, Šikuti Machine, Tea Bičić and Vibor Juhas.
The organizer of the Creative Autumn in Istria is IKA - Istrian Cultural Agency-Agenzia culturale Istriana with the cooperation of HUIU - Croatian Association of Interdisciplinary Artists, Grahm Development Center, Atanor, Picto Gallery, Labin Art Express XXII and Istria County-Istrian Region.

Detail of photo detail from the 'Garage' series, 2017
Location: D300 road - Buje-Petrovija
Direction: Buje towards Umag

https://www.photomonitor.co.uk/sofijasilvia-dust-to-dust/

Exhibition "Space for Everything Possible" at the European Parliament in Brussels

Opening 4th March 2020

The exhibition "Space for Everything Possible", jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture and the European Parliament, is being held as part of Croatia's presidency of the Council of the European Union 2020. The curators of the exhibition are Sylvia Binger and Vladimir Čajkovac. Combining works by Croatian artists from the European Parliament's Collection and works by invited authors, the exhibition's curators give an overview of Croatian contemporary art production, providing insight into the diversity of individual poetics and practices.
The exhibition will feature works by Sanja Iveković, Duje Jurić, Ivan Kožarić, Vlado Martek, OKO, Viktor Popović, SofjaSilvia, Slaven Tolj, Josip Vaništa and Zlatan Vehabović.

Above: Survivor, 2015

Residency

SofijaSilvia has been selected for the 'European Eyes on Japan - Japan Today' program Vol.22, in collaboration with European Capitals of Culture 2020.

Ongoing since 1999, "European Eyes on Japan" photography project (https://www.eu-japanfest.org/n- english/project/japantoday/) invites photographers from Europe to photograph in Japanese prefectures, developing projects around the theme “Japan Today”. The goal is to make this collection an opportunity for the Japanese to reclaim aspects of their everyday life that are neglected, and at the same time it is an opportunity for Europeans to deepen their knowledge of Japan.

The photographs taken in Japan are collected in a publication and exhibited in European Capitals of Culture and the prefecture in Japan where the photographers photographed.

One photographer from Ireland and one from Croatia have been invited for vol.22. The Capital of Culture in 2020 in Croatia is Rijeka, and the prefacture that SofijaSilvia will work in is Mie.

Dust to Dust

book
21 x 26 cm
21 photos
44 pages
essay by Tatjana Gromača
design by Lana Cavar
published by Muzej-Muzeo Lapidarium

In 2019 KRINZINGER PROJEKTE opens the exhibition 'ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE 2018'.
The exhibition presents works created in the course of the last year's Krinzinger residency program in Vienna (AT), Petőmihályfa (HU), Kuberton (HR), and Sri Lanka (LKA).
The exhibiting artists were taking part in the residency at the invitation of Dr. Ursula Krinzinger.
Since it started operating in 2002, the Krinzinger Projekte - a project space and extension of the Galerie Krinzinger - has been realizing a successful international program consisting of thematic group exhibitions displaying fresh artistic positions.
The group exhibition consists of eleven positions presented by the local and international contemporary artists: Stefanie De Vos, Rui Miguel Leitão Ferreira, Franz Graf, Rosmarie Lukasser, Zsolt Molnár, Petra Mrša, Shuvo Rafiqul, Franz Riedl, SofijaSilvia, Claudia Schumann, Andreas Werner