Free Space

Within the framework of the #Freiraum European project, 38 Goethe-Instituts and their partners in the arts and civil society were developing creative answers to the questions of the state of freedom in Europe’s cities. Rijeka and Luxembourg have been randomly chosen as a tandem which subsequently developed a LUXFLUX project, which deals with the two dimensions of the topic of freedom: Luxembourg is questioning public space as a space of freedom, while Rijeka is wondering whether or not we can guarantee individual freedom(s) in our society. After a series of workshops in the two cities during 2018, teams from Rijeka and Luxembourg exchanged their conclusions and guidelines, using them as the starting point for creating artworks and projects.

Designers Leo Kirinčić and Maša Poljanec presented in November 2018 in Rijeka the exhibition CASE STUDY OF RED AND BLUE. Their speculative design installation has a starting point in the conclusions of the workshop on the freedom of space, held by Dr. Katrin Becker at the University of Luxembourg. The installation closely relates to Rijeka, dealing with the problematics of a specific architecture project of socialist housing construction, whose important aspect was the creation of an environment where the tenants would have a meeting place and where they would be able to create a community.

The installation focuses on two housing complexes, Red and Blue, built in 1978. Their architect Ninoslav Kučan wanted to create a complex that will fulfil the basic needs of its tenants. Therefore, he planned a promenade in between the complexes with shops, kindergarten, bars, meeting places, etc. But, the ideas in architecture are only sometimes realized as planned, sometimes they are totally rejected, or, as in most cases, only partially realized.

The installation is based on a comparative analysis of those two complexes, trying to find out why certain decisions were taken and how those decisions impacted on the lives of the present tenants.