Aeration, installation - 60th Zagreb Salon 2025.

The work Aeration is an art installation placed on the facade of the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, which was completely renovated after the earthquake in the fall of 2024. This building, which has undergone numerous energy changes through the process of abandonment, relocation and renovation, now once again emphasizes its identity as an institution that provides protection and gathering for all students, professors and pupils who reside in it. The installation aims to symbolically aerate the space, making it more walkable and gentle during the duration of the Zagreb Salon, and invites visitors to interact with the building. The installation consists of gigantic textile curtains, inviting passers-by to pass through them and explore the possibilities that textiles offer as a material. The soft, tactile materials of the curtains, which bend and crumble under the hand, create a sense of incompleteness, fragility and insufficiency. Unlike traditional sculptures made of stone, wood or bronze, which exude permanence and stability, textiles emphasize a sense of vulnerability and helplessness. The materials of the installation suggest traces of human touch and encourage viewers to interact, while promoting textiles as a material that nurtures and heals. The closeness of man and fabric places textiles high on the hierarchical scale of sculptural materials, enriching artistic expression with its unique character and design possibilities. "Aeration" is therefore not only a spatial intervention, but also a ritual act that invites co-creation and renewal through touch and play, emphasizing the transformative power of textiles in a contemporary artistic context.

The artistic tandem Antonija Balić and Marijana Županić Benić combine sculpture, performance and science in the contemplation of space, body and materials. Their joint work stems from many years of work at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, where they both teach and develop contemporary approaches to art education. Antonija Balić, born in 1969 in India, graduated and received her doctorate in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Her work is marked by the exploration of tactility, fragility and emotional layers of materials, and she has had twenty solo and a number of group exhibitions and several awards for her artistic work. Marijana Županić Benić, born in 1977, began her artistic career as a member of the experimental ensemble Fasade at the Zagreb Youth Theatre, and then continued to explore puppetry, visual theatre and the theatre of poetic images. She received her doctorate in pedagogy from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. In addition to her pedagogical and scientific work, she is an active artist. She has exhibited at twelve solo exhibitions and numerous group and international exhibitions.