Appeal for the Croatian Association of Artists
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The Croatian Association of Artists is the oldest art association on the territory of Croatia and in the Balkan region. It has been active since 1868 under different names (Croatian Association of Visual Artists, Association of Visual Artists, and the Croatian Association of Artists). Its members have throughout history given an invaluable contribution to both the local and European cultural scene with artists such as Ivan Meštrović ,Julije Kniefer and Sanja Iveković. The seat of the association is the Meštrović Pavilion, on the square of the Victims of Fascism in Zagreb. The building was designed according to the ideas and plans of Ivan Meštrović and was built in 1938 with the donations and funds from the Croatian Association of Artists and the King of Yugoslavia. In the year 1939 the board of Trustees of the building sign a contract, which gave the financial and artistic administration of the building to the Croatian Association of Arts.
The building was unlawfully taken away from the Croatian artist association in 1941 by the Fascist government of the time, and transformed into a Mosque. Under the second totalitarian regime (Communist) it was transformed into the Museum of the Revolution. After a huge public outcry and media campaign the building was returned in the early nineties (1993) to the Croatian Association of Artists. We have to mention that the ownership of the building was never resolved, both the City of Zagreb and the Republic of Croatia are laying claim to the space. Regardless of this since the very conception of the building the purpose of the building was to create a space for the arts and as such the rightful successor of the building is the Croatian Association of Artists. Each year the association holds about 40 exhibits (both international and national), various events and free creative and educational workshops for more then 1000 people.
The reason for this appeal is that the city of Zagreb, with no prior warning or explanation or revised contract has raised the rent of the building from 5,700.00 kuna (750 Euro) to 44,071.00kuna (5900 Euro) a month.
The Croatian Association of artists is a non-profit organization which due to the situation in the country and in culture is already dealing with an extremely challenging financial situation. To accept such a raise in the rent would mean the automatic closure of the association, its work and its expulsion from its historic center in the Meštrović Pavilion. The building has been already twice taken from the visual artists, first by the Fascist government and then by the Communist regime.
We appeal to you to help us to not have this building again forcefully removed, in order to be fill the cities budget, which has been exhausted due to years of mismanagement and corruption. The inability of the politicians to see the cultural worth of such a historic space and the various propositions that they have for the building (such as an automobile showroom) shows us their total lack of understanding and disinterest in regards to Croatian culture.
We would also like to remind you that this building was constructed with the money donated by the visual artists in Croatia, and designed with them in mind and as such should remain to them. We ask of the Assembly of the city of Zagreb and authorizes in power to return the rent to the previous amount or to remove it completely. The Croatian Association of Artists is addressing the European Parliament of Culture to support the association’s rightful place in this historical building. We would ask your help and advice, if it becomes necessary to create a petition, which we would send to all cultural institutions in Europe. We are ready to provide any additional information or documents that you may require to better understand this situation.
President
Josip Zanki
Director
Gaella A. Gottwald
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