Off the Wall – From Embroidered to Virtually Shared Values

Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb (through December 31, 2025)

The exhibition Off the Wall – From Embroidered to Virtually Shared Values by Gordana Viljetić, made in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Zagreb and performance artist Vlasta Delimar, presents the Ethnographic Museum's collection of wall hangings.

In the urban areas of Central Europe, wall hangings became popular in the late 19th century, and in the 1920s and 1930s we can also find them in rural areas, and soon they became a general fashion. Although wall hangings initially had a practical role—protecting the wall from splashes—they were quickly supplemented with easily remembered messages related to the promotion of personal hygiene, healthy eating or etiquette, which, in addition to their decorative nature, strengthened their communicative significance.

The scenes and messages on the wall hangings very often reflect the stereotypical male-female division of roles in the patriarchal household of the 20th century, whether they encourage it, ironically comment on it, or resist it, and as such they are extremely valuable documents of the time.

By evoking memories of classic scenes within kitchen environments—centers of close socializing with family members, neighbors, and guests of past generations—the exhibition confronts the multi-layered phenomenon of the kitchen wall with contemporary practices of posting on various social media, providing a platform for intergenerational exchange of views and experiences about shared values within society and community.

Between the Corset and the Jersey – Women in Sports (1874–1939)

Zagreb City Museum (through September 28, 2025)

Through clothing items, sports equipment, and printed documents, the exhibition of the Croatian Sports Museum presents the social position of women between traditional roles embodied in the constraining corset and the desire for independence and freedom symbolized by the to the jersey, in a period that began with the introduction of physical education as a mandatory subject.

The presence of women in sport is a phenomenon that reflects social, economic, cultural, and political circumstances. In the context of physical exercise, women became a subject of debate, as questions were raised about the need for and purpose of their sporting activities, their morality, and appropriate clothing, which, in the late 19th century, involved covering nearly the entire body, making it impractical for physical exercise. Women's sports activities challenged the socially defined frameworks in which they lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, attempting to assign them new roles, in which they would continue to be primarily mothers and guardians of tradition, but also fashionable women, which was advocated in the interwar period.

Togas, damask and power – Historical Textiles and the Official Robes of the Dubrovnik Republic

Dubrovnik Museums – Cultural History Museum (through March 31, 2025)

The exhibition presents the collection of official ceremonial uniforms of the Dubrovnik Republic, especially the Rector's togas, giving the audience a deeper insight into the clothing culture of the Dubrovnik aristocracy. This extremely valuable collection has been presented to the public after a long period of conservation and restoration.

In addition to the official uniforms, the exhibition presents a selection of historical textiles for various purposes, which are kept at the Cultural and Historical Museum of the Dubrovnik Museums. It provides a brief overview of different typologies of silk fabrics, as well as the development of decor through the periods. Most are silk damasks created in Italian silk workshops from the second half of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century.

 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018