Action in public space   

A piece of The Big Picture

The Big Picture, Ana Zubak’s urban action, will be held on the 30th of June 2011 at the foot of the Cibona Tower (Dražen Petrović Square 3) and on the 1st of July 2011 at the foot of the Ilica Skyscraper (Ilica 1) from 1 till 3 pm. The Big Picture addresses the disappearance of the public and accessible-to-the-public space by its conversion into private space. Inspired by the fact that the vista of the Ilica Skyscraper in the very centre of the city was in the past available to all, as well as the fact that today this is no longer the case, Zubak decided to lower the vista down to the ground level. Zubak highlights: “We are symbolically transporting the panoramic views, which a handful of powerful people enjoy, into a public space in large formats. We are offering passers-by the opportunity to have their picture taken in front of those same panoramic views of Zagreb, and we are printing them off personalized photographs in the form of postcards on the spot.”

As opposed to the previously public, today’s private vista space is only possible to visit with complicated negotiations that have no known, written and established procedure. It is only possible to rely on the good will of the private owners, and, while humbly fulfilling their requests, to catch a part of the big picture. There is no reason to fully side with the argument that all city spaces should be available to the public, nor would such a situation necessarily result in greater democratization or greater participation of citizens in the public sphere, but at the same time it is not unimportant which and what kind of spaces are owned today by those whose power is measured by capital. Thus it is important to keep the memory alive of those spaces that used to belong to us, and, on the basis of that memory, to persevere in the keeping of those spaces that we are left with.