* Opening: Saturday, 18 Oct 2025 at 12 AM
In the nineteenth edition of the SintArt cycle, featured artist Nika Radić will deal with the theme of extending green surfaces in urban spaces, one of the key issues of contemporary life marked by accelerating spatial changes and growing climate uncertainty. A theme that requires us to reassess our current ways of thinking and acting in space. Plants have been the focus of Nika Radić's artistic interest in the last few years, exploring the ways they perceive and communicate. She examines the possibility of a more balanced relationship between man and nature and the ways in which natural systems can become models for a more sustainable way of contemplating urban life.
In the exhibition project called "1/3", the artist starts from the idea of biologist Stefano Mancuso, one of the founders of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV), who stated in an interview that a simple and effective way to mitigate climate change would be to transform a third of all roads into forests. Building on that thought, Nika Radić develops a spatial-visual experiment that explores the relationship between the urban fabric and natural processes and considers the possibility that nature will once again take a more active role in shaping the city. She thus questions the incumbent notions on the function and structure of urban spaces, encouraging us to think about sustainable models for living in the city and the possible ways in which man and nature can coexist in future urban environments.
Similar thoughts on the transformation of the city can be found in the work of Vjenceslav Richter, who recognizes traffic as one of the main limitations of modern life in his analyses of urbanism, and considers the loss of time in everyday movement to be one of the greatest difficulties in the life of a modern person. In response to this problem, Richter develops the utopian project "Synthurbanism" in which he seeks to connect the various functions of everyday life - housing, work, leisure - into a single spatial system in order to reduce the need for movement. In this framework, he incorporates nature in the architectural structure as its integral element, thereby expanding the understanding of space and its possibilities within the framework of urban planning.
Although Mancuso and Richter approach the problem from different sides, one from the climate science point of view and the other from the urban planning perspective, they nevertheless agree that a radical reduction in traffic areas is a necessary prerequisite for better quality of life in the city. It is at this juxtaposition that Nika Radić's exhibition project "1/3" comes to life, which explores the relationship between nature and urban space through the possibility of nature once again becoming its active formative element. Like Richter's utopian designs, the artist uses architectural methods of representation to explore what would happen to Zagreb if a third of the roads were turned into forests. Such an imagined transformation questions the boundary between built and green space by planting trees and instead of a utopian vision offers the possibility of a city that develops in balance with nature.
Nika Radić has an MA in Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where she currently teaches at the Sculpture Department, and an MA in Art History at the University of Vienna. Her artistic practice focuses on researching communication and perception, using various media, from video and installations to photographs and spatial interventions. After many years of exploring communication, she has been focusing her research on plants since 2022, using the experience she has gained to bring new knowledge about plants closer to a wider audience and connect scientific approaches, artistic experience and everyday life through artistic work. She has been exhibiting regularly since 1992 and has participated in more than two hundred group and solo exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. Her works have been presented in numerous museums and galleries, including Kunsthaus Graz, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, Račić Gallery in Zagreb, Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Helmhaus in Zurich and CLB in Berlin.
Curated by Vesna Meštrić
The program has been realized with support by the City of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.
SintArt 19: Nika Radić — 1/3
Opening: 18 Oct 2025 at 12 AM
Duration: 18 Oct 2025 – 8 Feb 2026
The Vjenceslav Richter and Nade Kareš Richter Collection, Vrhovec 38
Richter Collection opening hours: Wednesdays and Saturdays from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM
(on other days of the week, visits to the Collection are possible with prior notice at richter@msu.hr)
