The Project

Reconstruction of a political prison from the communist era: Changuu Island (Tanzania), Saipan (Japan), Sakhalin (Russia), Robben Island (South Africa), Alcatraz (USA) and Goli Otok (Croatia) shared the same bad reputation, like an archipelago of prison islands. In the meantime, most of them have been transformed into desirable tourist destinations, while Goli Otok – once a "secret of state", now covered by 20,000 controversial web sites – is waiting for a new beginning. Now and then, the press talks about potential concessionaries: mouflon hunters, artists, former prisoners, adventurers, gamblers, skiers.

The strategy of cognitive cartography is resolving leftover issues of memory, history and politics. Past-future coding is criss-crossed as a new strategy for the society that worships no more “labor” but high and green technology as mirror image of sin-absolved society.

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Site / Croatian Archipelago Prison Island History

Space of Goli otok ( “barren island”) is burdened by the historical memory which goes beyond the area of the island – it is a territory that in a dreadful way marked the lives of innocent people who were considered the enemies of Yugoslavia state in the early 50s, not only form Croatia but from the whole region, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, Monte Negro, Macedonia, Slovenia…

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Visions

In the nineties, the new social system brought new values. New protagonists appeared: supposed landowners, artists, former convicts, hunters… They all had their visions of using the “new” Goli Island.

Former convicts gathered in the association “Ante Zemljar” from Zagreb do not approach the issue of the memorial area from any position of ownership, except “on the basis of our slave work that erected all the buildings and the entire infrastructure”.

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Memorial area

Because of its natural and historical features, Goli Island as a memorial area and a “world heritage location” needs to be seen as a whole, where we differentiate zones of memorial areas and zones of complementary contents.

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Existing urban plans and regulations

Currently, Goli Island is under the concession of the hunting association “Kuna” from Lopari, which uses it as hunting grounds, while the Spatial Plan of the City of Rab from 2004 foresaw a limited construction of accommodation capacities on Goli Island (hotels, boarding houses) for 1,900 beds on 19.1 hectares and 2,500 beds on 28.5 hectares. The submarine environment of the Goli Island archipelago consisting of the islands of Goli, Sveti Grgur and Prvić'5f, was turned into a special natural reserve.

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Initiatives - Goli Otok becomes a memorial zone?

Parliament’s Committee for human rights calls upon the Government to prepare The Act on Preservation of Memorial Zone Goli Otok

In parallel with the ”screening” of the Republic of Croatia to access the EU, the members of the association “Ante Zemljar” from Zagreb initiated the first session about Goli Island in the Croatian Parliament, held on 14 December 2005. The Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights and National Minorities supported the proposal of the association and called upon the Government of the Republic of Croatia to cooperate with all stakeholders to prepare the Act on the Protection of the Memorial Area of Goli Island. It is strange that such an important fact for the history of Croatia is brought up only now. It seems it could have been initiated only by those who deal with human rights, since here we can see the right to remembrance as a human right, commented dr. Furio Radin, president of the Committee.

Matra, Croatian Archipelago New Lighthouses – reader as a base for an international competition

Taking into consideration outcomes of a research as well as approach that generated a research within the Pilot Project for Goli otok, Prime Minister Sanader and his advisor on spatial planning issues Mr. Jerko Rosin commissioned Matra team to prepare documentation for the organization of an international competition.

Team of experts that would participate in a reader production (historians, curators, architects, ecologists, ex-prisoners, governmental institutions etc.) was formed. In order to organize a production a Workshop was held at Goli otok with a Theme: Memorial area at the ex prison island (04 and 05 May 2007).

The final team of experts and structure of the Reader was formed as followed:

Curatorial concept
Leonida Kovac, PhD, Museum for the contemporary art

Historical research
Berislav Jandric, PhD, Croatian Institute for History

Sociological research
Vedrana Spajic – Vrkas, PhD, Research and Education Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Citizenship at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb

Spatial plans and regulation
Gordana Uroda, Primorsko – Goranska County

Topography
Sonja Jurkovic, PhD, Architectural Faculty Zagreb

Programming
STUDIO UP

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Collaboration with local community

Research on the development of an memorial centre by STUDIO UP architects 36N23S56W was developed in a close cooperation with local community: NGO of ex-prisoners “Ante Zemljar”, City of Rab, County of Rijeka, Croatia, Tourist office Lopar, Multimedia center “Palach”, Rijeka.

Even though local authorities (City of Rab, Lopar municipality) support the initiative of NGO “Ante Zemljar” for establishment and constitution of the Memorial area Goli otok, intial decision, program, as well as establishment of required legal framework should be conducted on a higher level. Decision to honor a human suffering of people under communist regime reaches far beyond the boundaries of neighboring communities at the island of Rab and a desire of people that survived the terror to leave a testament which distressingly reveals the suffering under the past and contemporary dictatorship’s regimes.