Shadow Casters ( hr, Bacači sjenki) is a non-profit organization from

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

(

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

) working as an international artistic and production platform for interdisciplinary cooperations in intermedia arts in urban context. It was founded in 2002 by artists

Boris Bakal Boris Bakal (born September 18, 1959 in Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near ...

and Željko Serdarević, with Katarina Pejović, Stanko Juzbašić, Vanja Žanko, Srećko Horvat, Sandra Uskoković, Leo Vukelić and other collaborators. Since 2006 they are a Clubture Network member. Shadow Casters initially started as a project of ''Orchestra Stolpnik'' in Bologna in 2001. As an organization it is focused on intercultural dialogue, creating projects and platforms for cultural exchanges between Croatian and international artists and art professionals, and questions concepts of individual and

collective identity Collective identity is the shared sense of belonging to a group. In sociology In 1989, Alberto Melucci published ''Nomads of the Present'', which introduces his model of collective identity based on studies of the social movements of the 1980s ...

. Its projects encourage discussion about the nature and contradictions of the ongoing

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

processes and deals with social, political and cultural topics that point to important problems in society.

Key works, topics and poetics

Shadow Casters realized a number of domestic and international projects creating performative, educational, multimedia or socially engaged (most often) time-based works and questioning relations between man and space: as a study of cities, as poetic-detective urban journeys ''Shadow Casters''; as an interweaving of the material space of the performance and the real time of the actor with the virtual space and the delayed time of the film theater in the trilogy based on Kafka named ''Process_City (Process_in_Progress, Ex-position, Vacation From History)''; as an entry into the microcosm of a skyscraper and a multidimensional discovery of its past, present and future ''Čovjek je Prostor: Vitić_pleše'', a multimedia archive of urban events that become the tool for studying the hypertextuality of space Re-collecting City/Re-collecting Time; theater trilogy ''On togetherness'' (''Explicit Contents, ®evolution: Master Class, Male/Female-Female/Male''), multimedia installation ''History of Vacation'', etc. Retrospective exhibition ''All in All 20'' ( hr, Sve-jedno 20) in Zagreb, presented key projects and concepts from past 20 years of work in playful and interactive way.

Productions

In first 20 years over 150 artists from more than 50 countries participated in projects realized and presented at festivals and events in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Bologna, Graz, Ljubljana, Pisa, Belgrade, Marseille, Leiden, Genoa, Podgorica and New York, in cooperation with partners (Urban Festival, Days of Croatian Film, Eurokaz Festival, MI2 Institute, Art workshop Lazareti and Karantena Festival, Croatia; Exodus Festival and Modern Gallery, Slovenia; CinemaTeatro LUX, Fabbrica Europa, Stagione di Caccia festival and Orchestra Stolpnik, Italy; CENPI and Centar Rex, SCG; Stadt Park Galerie, Graz, Austria; LFK&La FRICHE, France;

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

, The Netherlands; Media Center The Kitchen, Dancing in The Streets,

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, USA). Shadow Casters were supported by the Zagreb Office for Culture, Education and Sports of the City of Zagreb, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, sponsors (like

Zagrebačka banka Zagrebačka banka d.d. is the largest bank in Croatia, owned by UniCredit group of Italy. It was the first Croatian bank to become fully privatised in 1989 and the first one to be listed at the Zagreb Stock Exchange in 1995. It is one of 24 compan ...

, Erste Bank, Ergonet, etc.) and foundations (Zaklada Kultura nova, National Foundation for the Development of Civil Society, Trust for Mutual Understanding, ArtsLink, European Cultural Foundation ECF) state agencies and offices (Office of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and Gender Equality, and Agency for Electronic Media) and many others.

References

{{reflist

External links

Homepage of Shadow Casters

Presentation of Shadow Casters at Columbia

Information on Shadow Casters on Clubture Network

Shadow Casters on Kulturpunkt
* Websites of projects
FrooomShadowcastersZidneNovineExpozicija
Croatian contemporary artists Organizations based in Zagreb Interdisciplinary artists Artist groups and collectives based in Zagreb Performing groups established in the 2000s Performing arts in Zagreb