ZARKO KAIC MEMORIAL IN OSIJEK, CROATIA by ATMOSFERA™
the winner of the first prize at the public competition of the Croatian Radiotelevision,
dedicated to cameraman Zarko Kaic. The co-author of the sculpture is visual artist Bozica Dea Matasic.
The sculpture consists of two parts. The first one is the mound, slightly sloped from the curb towards the center of the roundabout, reaching the height of 2 m, and the second one is rectangular self-supporting stainless steel structure – a frame partly buried in the mound. The frame has no filling.
The central part of the roundabout with a diameter of 30 m, located at the entrance to the city of Osijek from the village of Brijest. In this place Zarko Kaic, born 1949, a cameraman for the Croatian television, lost his life in 1991. He died with a camera in his hand, witnessing the truth. The view of the driver is the most common view of the sculpture.
For the cameraman, the film frame is the shape through which he perceives, documents and reproduces the world. The traditional ratio of television image in this work symbolically summarizes the suffering of Zarko Kaic.
The oversized frame is stopped in motion and fall. The rectangle changes into square depending on the of perspective, thus symbolically connecting with the elements of the Croatian visual identity. The frame is partly buried in the mound, but although that part is not visible to the eye, we feel and we sense the whole. Thus the awareness of victims who are no longer with us becomes a part of our identity.
The roundabout is 29 m wide in diameter and 2 meters high in its center. The dimensions of the metal structure of the sculpture are 12,0 x 8,8 m with 0,40 x 0,40 cross section. The inclination of the frame towards the ground is 76 degrees.
Self-supporting profiles made of stainless steel with the above-mentioned dimensions are ordered and delivered from a Swiss factory where they have been pre-cut and laser-welded in square-edged parts. The parts were welded on-site into a frame that was then mounted using special cranes.
The traffic was shut down the day of the Memorial opening. All members of Kaic’s large family have fit in the frame, which rounded off the story of Kaic and witnessing the truth. The Croatian television made a special documentary covering the memorial site.
