Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Oliver Mikulić
Zagreb is richer for an entirely new attraction this autumn – in the tunnel Grič under the Gornji Grad in Zagreb, which was built during the Second World War and which was only recently opened to the public, a unique multimedia and interactive exhibition called “Croatia je Hrvatska!” was set up. It’s a kind of a time machine through the last 13 decades of Croatian history. In addition, the exhibition is unique in that it is unfinished, and each visitor has the opportunity to include a part of their own history and the history of their family in the exhibition. In just a week after the opening, the exhibition was visited by more than 16 thousand citizens and tourists, which is a kind of a record. Standing behind the exhibition is Croatia Insurance, the oldest insurance company in this part of Europe, the Croatian insurance industry leader and the former leader of the Yugoslav insurance market. Co-organizer is the Tourist Board of the City of Zagreb, which has turned Zagreb into the most attractive destination of Europe by choice of European Best Destinations. And the most deserving for this unusual historical story are three domestic agencies: Millenium promocija, which is in charge of the content of the exhibition, and Bruketa & Žinić and Brigada, who creatively conceived the exhibition. The author of the idea and content concept is Professor Božo Skoko, one of the partners at Millenium and an expert on the identity and image of the state, while the most famous Croatian creative, Davor Bruketa, along with the first man of Brigada, Damjan Geber, led the team responsible for installation and visual attractions.
Photo: Damjan Geber, Davor Bruketa, Predrag Grubić and Božo Skoko
Visitors to the exhibition in the tunnel Grič in the center of Zagreb are welcomed by a special metal construction, a “tunnel inside the tunnel” that looks like a framework featuring more than two hundred historical artefacts. The tunnel itself has been transformed into a time machine that takes visitors through numerous economic, social, cultural, artistic and other events of Croatian history. There you can meet numerous Croatian icons, but also professor Baltazar from the cartoons, you can try out Tesla’s inventions, spend time with Partisans in a real-life trench, follow the construction of Zagreb, testify to the opening of the Zagreb Fair and Zagreb Television, but also welcome the entry of Croatia into the EU.
The Croatia je Hrvatska exhibition extends across the whole main tunnel that is 350 meters long, and connects the Mesnička and Radićeva streets, but also through four lateral pipes of the tunnel which are over 200 meters long, with a total area of 2,100 square meters. The exhibition’s contents are divided into 13 decades, characterized by interesting events, people and objects from a certain historical period and completely different atmosphere in every decade. The exhibition plays with the emotions of visitors, so visitors walk through the exhibition going through different moods, but also surprises. Everything is packed with various multimedia, digital and interactive content, and every decade comes with the music that was popular then, according to the choice of Croatia Records, the former Jugoton.
The four connecting tunnels also hide many interactive surprises for visitors: the first tunnel is dedicated to the stay of Nikola Tesla in Zagreb in 1892. In the second tunnel, visitors are greeted by the gloomy atmosphere of the Second World War, with a real trench, barbed wire, and sometimes “real” partisans can be found there. At the end of this tunnel visitors can see the first Croatian sound film Lisinski by Oktavijan Miletić, which was created during the war. The third tunnel brings the happy sixties with legendary dancers and songs, in an original cafe of that time, while in the fourth tunnel visitors enter the future in which they can put their own messages on the wall of the tunnel using light effects.
The biggest surprise of the exhibition is certainly the “rain hall”, the central tunnel hall, which extends after the Second World War, and in which the rain is falling all the time, with holograms of famous Zagreb people projected on the rain drops. In order not to slip, visitors must borrow an umbrella when entering the “rain hall”. The rain hall is conceived as a sort of “purgatory” of all the woes of the war, so we can step into a brighter future.
Walking through the exhibition, visitors will notice that the thread that connects all historical periods is related to the business of the largest Croatian insurance company, Croatia osiguranje, which in the best possible way symbolizes the economic development of the country. Namely, the founding of Croatia Insurance was initiated in 1874. Responsible for this, believe it or not, was the great writer August Šenoa. It began to operate ten years after in the challenging times of Austro-Hungarian rule.
“Hrvatska and Croatia are synonymous. And Hrvatska (Croatia) and Croatia Insurance are inextricably linked, not only in symbolic, but also in social, economic and political terms. Without a strong and self-aware Hrvatska, Croatia is unimaginable, and the history of Hrvatska without Croatia’s efforts related to economic self-sufficiency, the strengthening of national consciousness, the protection and preservation of the property of the Croatian man, would definitely be far poorer and underdeveloped,” says one of the authors of the exhibition, Božo Skoko. The idea for the exhibition was created three years ago, when the new majority owner, Adris Group, wanted to mark the 130th anniversary of the company in a dignified way. We realized that it was not a common corporation, but a part of Croatian heritage. Namely, Croatia Insurance for decades has been a symbol of Croatian economic development, in its history we can observe all the problems and bright moments of Croatian society in the past thirteen decades. “The history of this insurance company, in fact, is the history of the Croatian economy. And the developmental path of Croatia in an extremely picturesque way tells us how the state structures and borders have changed, how the national institutions and entrepreneurship have strengthened, and how the awareness of Croatian society developed, especially the villages. Croatia was a supporter of numerous Croatian giants and was a supporter of advanced ideas on the social and economic development of Croatia – from Zagreb’s city fathers (who founded the company), through the leader of the Croatian village, Stjepan Radić (with whom they worked together on the rise of the Croatian village) and the leader of the Croatian Spring (on the eve of which the name Croatia was proudly returned) to our days, marked by the creation of an independent Croatia, the Homeland War and the entering the European union of nations and peoples”, Skoko said.
The team of authors, who spent three years exploring archives to better illustrate the connections between Croatia and Hrvatska, say that they have been surprised by the innovativeness through all these years. The company offered life insurance since 1900. In 1898, they expanded their operations to Bosnia and Herzegovina, opening their main offices in Sarajevo and Mostar … In Bosnia and Herzegovina (from which tiles Osigurala Croatia – Insured by Croatia engraved in Arabic arrived) chroniclers recorded interesting information about the exceptional responsibility and professionalism of Croatia, but also the feel of its managers for the right moment in terms of image building. In 1903, in the great fire that hit Travnik, huge properties of a large number of insurance users of Croatia were burned down. In just one day, Croatia successfully liquidated as many as 42 damage claims, and came to a good voice, resulting in a staggering increase in popularity and the number of clients. Company leadership knew that “a good voice reaches far”, and that the best public relations start with more than just correct relationship with the insured!
As was already said, the specialty of the exhibition is the opportunity for visitors to actively participate in its setting, and change it literally from day to day. Namely, the organizers decided that this will be an interactive exhibition where visitors will be able to embed pieces of their own history in the exhibition, people with whom they spend time, or places and events that still evoke memories in them. Visitors can participate in the exhibition by creating their own history photos or photos of their ancestors on their own social networking profiles Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #PovijestPisemoSami and a short description of who is in the photo. Every week, the exhibition organizers select a series of incoming photos that will be printed and included in the exhibition. Apart from becoming an integral part of the exhibition, Croatia Insurance has provided valuable prizes for the luckiest participants. Last week, the well-known blogger Ella Dvornik put her family memories up, and at the same time memories of her famous grandfather and actor Boris, and her father, legendary Dino Dvornik.
“The exhibition is a great project that we have been preparing for the past two or three years, because when we took Croatia Insurance into the Adris system, we promised to keep and promote the values of the long tradition of this company and this is our contribution to fostering all important components of history and everyday life, as well as a message that key values never become old,” said Predrag Grubić, director of corporate communications at Adris and one of those responsible for bringing this idea of Croatian creative to life.