Luiza Margan: Concert for a Sewing Machine and a Tree
4-channel sound installation, 2012
Concert for a Sewing Machine and a Tree (2012) is a 4-channel sound installation conceived as part of the artist’s research of the ongoing “disappearance” of public space in Croatia. Its starting points were the recently bankrupt Kamensko textile factory in Zagreb, the protest of its workers, and the politically questionable renaming of the city square around it. The local government’s non-transparent project of repurposing the land of the factory and the privatization of the area mark the beginning of the gentrification of that part of the city.
The artist raised the questions: Who defines public space and for whom? What role could the citizens play?
The work is a composition of sounds of manual and machine work recoded in one of the still existing textile factories in Zagreb. Originally, it was conceived and presented as a 4-channel public sound installation in the park in front of the former factory building. The sounds of work occupied the square unannounced three times a day, “stitching up” public space and bringing the sound of work back to the square, thus creating a new space within the space. When shown in a gallery, the work is accompanied by an artist-made publication.
Sound recording: Milan Čekić, Luiza Margan
Sound design: Milan Čekić, Luiza Margan
Concept: Luiza Margan
Production: Urban Festival, Zagreb
Graphic design: Laurenz Feinig
Text: Luiza Margan
Proof reading: Chiara Rudel
Cover photo: Ovidiu Anton
Concept & production: Luiza Margan
Copy right: Luiza Margan
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Luiza Margan was born in Rijeka, Croatia. She currently resides and works in Austria and Croatia. Margan has exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions in museums and institutions across Europe. She received the OHO Award for young artists in Slovenia in 2007, and the THT-Museum of Contemporary Art Award in Croatia in 2012.
Artist's web page: luizamargan.net
