Postseason series of paintings deals with gentrification of my home­town Split, Croatia as a consequence of post- conflict privatization crimes after break-up of Yugoslavia, following a complete reliance on tertiary sector of economy – tourism.

Split, 1979. The Koteks complex has been completed, as have the Poljud public pools and the Poljud football stadium; an underground railway tunnel has been opened from Kopilica to the city center. Split 3 is nearing completion… The city is being built, according to plan, for its citizens.

Split, 2019. So many apartments for rent you can hardly find an actual home among them. 70,000 new beds have been secured for private accommodation, the rising number of yearly overnight stays is celebrated, while I write this in my parents' home, saying my goodbyes to Split.

How much longer will citizens be treated merely as extras in the production of ''the Mediterranean As It Once Was''? Will tourism take a turn for the sustainable? What will remain written in the concrete? How about in the population census? And will my name be on it?

Split, 2020. Covid-19. Season becomes Postseason. Nobody is expecting tourists this summer.  What now?

Postseason

The enclosed rhyme scheme, exemplified by the first stanza of a (Petrarchan) sonnet, is here used to portray the four stages of a longterm relationship, in a series of four paintings.

a – The Headless Woman
I rejected love out of a fear of commitment. Like a headless bust among actual people, oblivious to my own handicap. The square format of the painting was chosen to represent stability, albeit an illusory one.

 b – The Labyrinth
The start of the relationship. My vagrancy, his pursuit, my evasion.

b – Chess  
Only the white queen and black king remain on the chess board. His depression has consumed the white king. Venus is there to pass judgement and to laugh. The game of chess is a lot like love. I don't know how to play chess.

a – Above the Situation
Observing the labyrinth from high up, I am above the situation. The square format of the painting now symbolizes stability without fear.


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Josipa Krolo