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Introduction to digital archive by Dubravka Šantolić Cherubini

This archive is being created with the help of those who knew your work closely: representatives from cultural institutions, colleagues, family, and friends. It is unfinished, and it will probably always remain so. Like you, it remains open – to memories, fragments, documents, and gestures offered by those who feel connected to you and wish to keep your presence alive.

I began collecting material for this archive because I felt I had to. After fifty years of friendship, it seemed the most natural thing to do. We had known each other since early childhood. Over time, our friendship quietly turned into collaboration. With you, there was never a clear boundary between life and work. Friends became collaborators, collaborators became friends, held together by trust, curiosity, and care.

I know how privileged I was to witness the birth of some of your ideas and works. The time we spent together in London, Trieste, on the island of Ugljan, and during our journeys through the Balkans was never just time spent together. It was a space for thinking, talking, imagining—a workshop without walls. I remember how I became one of the women in Beautiful Exile; how in Guča we noticed the Romani dancer Marija, followed her, and slowly understood that she would become the centre of your film; and how happy you were during the days of your exhibition in Venice during the Biennale. You carried those days with you. In your most difficult moments, you would return to them, holding them close as some of the happiest of your life.

That you left us so early feels unbearably wrong. There were still so many ideas unfolding, so many projects unfinished. What remains is your work, your presence within it, and the responsibility—and privilege—of remembering, caring, and continuing to listen.

Portraits

Breda Beban at the exhibition Nova holandska umjetnost, Zagreb, 1981. Photograph by Fedor Vučemilović. Private collection.
Fedor VučemilovićBreda Beban at the exhibition Nova holandska umjetnost, Zagreb, 1981. Photograph by Fedor Vučemilović. Private collection.
Breda Beban and Hrvoje Horvatić at Images des destructions, Le Mans, 1993. Photograph by Žarko Vijatović. Private collection.
Žarko VijatovićBreda Beban and Hrvoje Horvatić at Images des destructions, Le Mans, 1993. Photograph by Žarko Vijatović. Private collection.
Breda Beban with her painting, Zagreb, 1981. Photograph by Boris Cvjetanović. Private collection.
Boris CvjetanovićBreda Beban with her painting, Zagreb, 1981. Photograph by Boris Cvjetanović. Private collection.
Breda Beban in Zagreb. Photograph by Goran Pavelić Pipo. Archive collection.
Goran Pavelić PipoBreda Beban in Zagreb. Photograph by Goran Pavelić Pipo. Archive collection.
Portrait of Breda Beban, Zagreb, 1991. Photograph by Darko Bavoljak. Private collection.
Darko BavoljakPortrait of Breda Beban, Zagreb, 1991. Photograph by Darko Bavoljak. Private collection.
Breda Beban, portrait 1 by Mijo Vesovic, private collection
Breda Beban, portrait 1 by Mijo Vesovic, private collection
Portrait of Breda Beban, Zagreb, 1981. Photograph by Siniša Knaflec. Archive collection.
Siniša KnaflecPortrait of Breda Beban, Zagreb, 1981. Photograph by Siniša Knaflec. Archive collection.
Portrait of Breda Beban, London, early 2000s. Photograph by Ferdy Carabott. Private collection.
Ferdy CarabottPortrait of Breda Beban, London, early 2000s. Photograph by Ferdy Carabott. Private collection.

Acknowledgements

Deep gratitude to the expert advisers and supporters who have helped organise Breda Beban’s exhibitions since 2012:

Giuliana Carbi Jesurun, art historian, curator, publisher of the catalogues and books about Breda Beban and the President of Trieste Contemporanea, Trieste, Italy

Miha Colner, art historian and curator at Božidar Jakac Art Museum, Kostanjevica na Krki, Slovenia;

Ana Čavić, visual artist, performer, poet, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Gordana Dobrić, ex curator at KCB, Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Serbia

Branko Franceschi, art historian, curator and director of the National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, Croatia

Sergio Grmek Germani, film critic and historian, director of the film festival I mille occhi, Trieste, Italy

Kalfayan Galleries, Athens, Greece

Sanja Kojić Mladenov; director and Svetlana Mladenov, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia

Miroljub Mima Marjanović, art historian and editor in chief of the SEEcult.org, portal for culture and art in Serbia and South-Eastern Europe, Belgrade, Serbia

Tihomir Milovac, ex curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Croatia

Ivan Berislav Vodopija, antiquarian, writer and curator, Zagreb, Croatia

Sarita Vujković, ex director and senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Janka Vukmir, art historian, art critic, curator, co-publisher of the Breda Beban’s screenplay Moneystains and the President of the Institute for Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia.

A heartfelt thank you to the artist-photographers for their generous friendship and for contributing their portraits of Breda for this Website:

Darko Bavoljak, Croatia

Ferdy Carabott, UK

Boris Cvjetanović, Croatia

Siniša Knaflec (1958-2026), USA

Milisav Mijo Vesović, Croatia

Goran Pavelić Pipo, Croatia

Žarko Vijatović, France

Fedor Vučemilović, Croatia

Special thanks go to the authors, art critics, and former collaborators whose texts and reviews are preserved in the archive; their historical insights and past writings remain essential to documenting and celebrating Breda Beban’s legacy on this website. A special acknowledgment is also extended to the authors who contributed new texts on the artist’s work for this platform:

Dunja Blažević, art historian, art critic, curator, Serbia

Sonja Briski Uzelac, art and visual culture theorist, visual artist, university professor specializing in the theory and history of modern and contemporary art and image history, Member of professional associations (AICA, ULUS, HDLU, DPUH)Zagreb, Croatia;

Miha Colner, art historian, curator, Slovenia

Ana Čavić, visual artist, performer, Slovenia

Chris Darke, writer, film critic, UK

Ješa Denegri, art historian , art critic, Serbia

Branko Franceschi, art historian, curator, Croatia

Biljana Kašić, feminist and postcolonial theorist, civil activist and researcher; co-founder and coordinator of the Centre for Women’s Studies in Zagreb and Professor (Rtd) at the Department of Sociology, University of Zadar, Croatia

Želimir Koščević, art historian, art critic, curator, Croatia

Antun Maračić (1950-2023), artist, art critic, Croatia

Miroljub Mima Marjanović, art historian, Serbia

Marko Sosič (1958-2021), writer, theatre and film director, Italy

Jeremy Welsh, visual artist, professor of Fine Art at Faculty of Architecture & Fine Art at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

Finally, heartfelt thanks to Breda’s friends for their constant moral support, and especially to her brother, Milan Šosterič, her son Boško Beban and my son Aldo Cherubini for their immense trust. Without everyone mentioned above, this project of the archive would not have been possible.