To Breda
Introduction to the digital archive by Dubravka
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.
Dubravka
The Open Nature of the Archive
This online repository is actively cared for and continuously fed with archival documents, exhibition catalogues, video stills, and critical texts. If you possess documentation, correspondence, photographs, or personal recollections related to Breda Beban’s works and life, we warmly invite you to contribute to this living memorial.