Visual identity of the 70th Dubrovnik Summer Festival, which will take place from 10 July to 25 August on almost twenty scenic and site-specific locations in Dubrovnik, is designed by Orsat Franković and Ana Opalić. The artists' starting point in conceptualising the design was the question of public space serving as a stage set, and this thematic guideline was set by the artistic leadership of the Festival.
As a cluster of open spaces within the fabric of the City, public space causes tension and confrontation of opposite ideas and interests. It is bipolar in nature, real and imagined at the same time, public and unavailable, monumental and provincial, everybody's, somebody's, nobody's... Be it in the service of the stage or life, space is a common resource to which we attribute collective meanings. The design of visual identity and posters opens up the question of those meanings.
- We have returned as observers to some mythical scenic spaces of the Festival. Knowing that we are different each time we return to them, we have created new photographs of those places, witnessing the time we live in and the circumstances that define us. By changing the view and with minimal lighting interventions, the familiar, seemingly emptied spaces are freed from the burden of former meanings and open up to new possibilities of their reading, transforming from spaces of memories into spaces of new potentiality. In our desire to move away from what is usual or expected when choosing typography and layout design, we have chosen some nontraditional solutions. Turning the logotype upside down also suggests our answer to the question whether the anniversary should be a commemoration or an opportunity for a new beginning – authors Orsat Franković and Ana Opalić wrote.
Orsat Franković is a graphic designer with twenty five years of experience in developing creative concepts by combining design methodologies and interdisciplinary approach. He is the author of a number of noted visual communication designs, and a large part of his professional engagement is dedicated to the field of culture and collaboration with the civil sector. He was the founder and creative director of the Laboratorium studio, and afterwards of the Flomaster studio, and the winner of numerous relevant international awards and recognitions, including ICOGRADA Excellence Award, AICA, ZGRAF Grand Prix, European Design Award, Red Dot and many others. He has collaborated with the Dubrovnik Summer Festival on several occasions as the author of visual identity and poster design.
Ana Opalić is a photographer and video and documentary film author. She has had solo exhibitions since 1991. She represented Croatia at the Venice Biennale with Boris Cvjetanović in 2003. She directed and filmed two documentaries: Još jednom (Ana Opalić and Noah Pintarić, 2014) and Lijek (2018), and she published two books of photographs: Brsalje (2017) and Dom (2018). As a cinematographer and photographer she collaborates with civil society organisations in various projects whose main goal is promotion of culture and protection and promotion of human rights. She is the founder of the website Contemporary Croatian Photography (www.croatian-photography.com).
The programme of the 70th Dubrovnik Summer Festival will be announced on Candlemas, 2 February.