Work description
ECHO OF THE LOST CITY is a sound installation that addresses the state of Dubrovnik’s historic city centre, from which the life that once shaped its everyday character is gradually disappearing.
Transformed into a tourist backdrop of apartments, souvenir shops and restaurants, the historic city centre increasingly functions as a space subordinated to tourism. As a result, the urban fabric is left without permanent residents and functions connected to their everyday lives, and is gradually losing its own character.
As the way of life changes, so does its sonic identity. Children’s play, as a strong sign of the vitality of the city (children’s voices, laughter, shouting, running, jumping, etc.), once filled the streets, but has now almost disappeared.
With this installation, I reintroduce the sounds of children’s play into the city’s public space, precisely in the places where it once took place. The sound intervention thus temporarily returns to the space something that has disappeared from it: sounds that were once part of the everyday life of the city.
The installation was set up during the winter, in January and February 2027, outside the tourist season, when the old city is almost empty, at ten locations within the historic city centre.
The selection of locations is based on local memory. Nada Bore, a Dubrovnik native who lived and played in the historic city centre as a child in the 1950s, as well as several of her contemporaries, were involved in the process. Their memories served to identify specific places where children once played and thus became part of the artistic process.
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Fotogalerija
Author
Nenad Laktašić (b.1967, Zagreb) graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb. Works as sound installations artist, scenographer and animator on animated films.
Member of Croatian Association of Film Professionals HDFD. Lives and works in Zagreb.