Recruitment Centers for the Artists

Artists Recruit Centre
Pozzo Franz is the first location of the Recruitment Center for the Artist, and it is a local toponym representing industrial heritage leftover, where people still live squating their own appartments. It is rare and authentic phenomena, completly forgotten in between clash of economy and political systems.

Concept and initiative questioning the role of artist in society, focusing on “what is” and “if there is?” useful art. Recruiting Canters are being set up in rural and post-industrial areas, areas cut off from the new economy trends, isolated with negative narratives, labelled with subtexts of local policies and framed by social exclusion of “otherness”, areas that has lost its purpose or visionary ideas of prosperity, where the human spirit is resilient but the body is in pain and where only content is basic life survival. There is no “contemporary art” living there.

It started in 2012 as an intervention in real life circumstances and everyday narratives in community of Krapan, a little settlement in Municipality of Raša, Istria region, Croatia, with around 200 inhabitants. Pozzo Franz is a local toponym representing industrial heritage leftover of the former coal mines, where people still live squatting their own apartments. It is rare and authentic phenomena lost within many transitions, and completely forgotten by local and regional goverence.

The main keywords representing Krapan are: history of coal mining, pre-industrial Europe, early bank investments, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild, Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Napoleon, Mussolini, World war I, World war II, mobility, migration of people, migration of borders, cultural landscape, industrial revolution, technical innovations, melioration, first miners’ strike, Giuseppina Martinuzzi, social innovations, multiethnicity, multicultural, monoeconomy, collective memory,…,;

After the last economic transition and state collapse, the coal mines of Istria region were closed and all of underground and up ground infrastructure were lost within corruptive transactions, including all those buildings of Krapan where people still live without legislative option to claim their own property.

In last 5 years, through very slow process, Krapan become vibrant place of attention thanks to art practice and participation of all inhabitants. Artists and other professionals of different backgrounds are coming and participating in different ways to support the community and “hold lights” on issues together with community.

Activities are covering different topics and determining economic, historic, legal, urban, social and general context of Krapan cultural landscape. The activities will continue until the key problems will be solved and property will be returned to people.

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PozzoFranz is under production umbrella of Polygon – Centre for Cultural Research and Project Development; Supported by Ministry of Culture RH, European Cultural Foundation; and it is part of two international artistic and cultural platforms: Mines of culture multilatheral claster within SEE region and IM International;