sebas-velasco-croatia-2“Explorare necesse est” Rijeka (Croatia) for Spajalica Project curated by MMSU. Hvala to Sasha Bogojev, Natasa, Slaven, Branko, Veljko, the crew from Nemo bar and all the people from Rijeka.
The title “Explorare Necesse Est” was taken from a conversation with the main character portrayed in the piece. While meeting him at his workplace on the first day, we talked about music, books and art, and he mentioned the importance of exploring new things (both in art and in general). This fully matched the general idea of the project, especially when he mentioned he is originally from Bosnia. Since the idea of the project was to celebrate the diversity, I decide to paint his portrait as sort of homage to the workers of Rijeka that moved here from all over the region.
Paper factory, port, shipyard, and people coming from others parts of former Yugoslavia, was pretty interseting for me, so I enjoyed the rich history and all the different communities living together without nationalism or tension.
I also found Rijeka’s industrial night citycape very inspiring and visually (as well as personally), enjoyed the trips with Nataša to Hartera and the industrial street, 3rd May shipyard, the roads, railway, river. Hope to get back soon!

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Author: Fran

Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.