Photography Exhibition: Marko Krnjajić – Traces of Inhabitants

Traces of Inhabitants by Marko Krnjajić is a series of photographs taken across Istria that gently transports us into a kind of time capsule.

The scenes depicted, which we might have thought belonged to history or the recent past, are in fact still part of our everyday lives. Perhaps we simply no longer pay attention to them, or have learned to ignore them.

The materials are the same as they were half a century ago, although a few elements, predominantly plastic, stand out from this timeless Mediterranean landscape.

The photographs take us back to a time when the courtyard was an extension of the living space, especially in summer, offering shade beneath a vine-covered pergola or the broad canopy of a mulberry tree. It was a place to spend time outdoors, rather than merely a neatly kept, mown garden with flowers or, quite simply, another much-needed parking space.

By combining traces of the past with more recent additions, such as plastic patio tables and chairs, trampolines, improvised garden showers made from old water heaters, façades crowded with outdoor air-conditioning units, and the more modern entrances of apartment buildings constructed in the late 1970s and 1980s, adorned with satellite dishes, Krnjajić brings the “inhabitants” to the foreground. He reminds us that they are still here, that they still live in these places and, to some extent, do as they please.

Krnjajić’s photographs border on the grotesque, presenting comic scenes that seem to have been lifted from some forgotten Fellini film, its colours heightened, while time itself appears to have stood still. Yet it is not time that has stopped. Time moves forward, following its course through the environment that surrounds us and shapes our mentality. What has come to a standstill, however, is urban culture. Time has moved on, but our modus vivendi has remained unchanged: an attitude of indifference, a quiet conviction that no one can tell us what to do.

Gallery opening hours: Monday–Friday: 10:30 AM–1:30 PM / 5:00 PM–9:00 PM; Saturday: 10:30 AM–2:30 PM. Admission is free.