The project “Making the Invisible Visible” by organisation LAB852 transforms Croatian scientific research into an artistic experience intended for a European audience. The project was developed as part of the Jelsa Art Biennale and the European project CO-VISION – Mapping Natural Heritage, with the Croatian version presented at the Signal Festival in Prague, a festival of digital and light art.
Martin Pošta, director of the Signal Festival, is of Croatian origin, which further links this international event with the Croatian project. At the centre of the project is the phenomenon of invisible waves “trapped” around Lastovo, which bring nutrients from the depths and support the richness of marine life. Research by Professor Zrinka Ljubešić and her team from the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, became the starting point for a collaboration between artists and scientists.
This collaboration resulted in artistic works, among which stands out Island Pulse by Ivan Marušić Klif and Francisco Rocha Gonçalves – an audiovisual performance and installation based on wave data, accompanied by a multimedia exhibition. The artistic works are part of a wider educational and communication campaign titled Making the Invisible Visible.
The campaign raises awareness of the importance of preserving Adriatic biodiversity and the need for greater protection of the areas around Lastovo where the ITWs phenomenon, or no-take zone, has been recorded. The Croatian Tourist Board has published guidelines for sustainable nautical tourism, further emphasising the importance of responsible behaviour towards the marine environment.
The work Island Pulse was also presented at the first sustainability conference organised by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, GreenCultureCon. CO-VISION connects eight international artistic teams with scientists and local communities, and is co-financed by European Union funds through the Creative Europe programme. The works and stories of the project are available in the CO-VISION European Digital Archive.
