TISAK. TWENTY-THREE KIOSKS

AUTHORS: Marko Ercegović Igor Lasić

PUBLISHER: BLOK – Local Base for Culture Refreshment

EDITOR: Vesna Vuković

PHOTOGRAPHS: Marko Ercegović

TEXTS: Igor Lasić, Vesna Vuković

DESIGN: Igor Kuduz — KB5

TRANSLATION: Dunja Bakić

LANGUAGE: Croatian/English

PUBLISHED IN: 2023

PRINT RUN: 280

PRICE: 20 EUR

(...) The authors, photographer Marko Ercegović and journalist Igor Lasić, focused on what is least noticeable at kiosks flooded with different types of products and various services – workers, primarily women, because this is a predominantly female job. The purpose of the approach used, shots of rich product ornamentality without empty surfaces or surfaces without products or advertisements, as well as the repetitiveness of the series, is to visually expose the effect consumerism imperative has on – female workers. The photographs are accompanied by the workers’ statements, collected by Igor Lasić during his research. They tell us about their dissatisfaction with the salary, treatment by their bosses, but also by demanding customers who are always right, about cramped space, particularly about the fact that they do not have access to a sanitation facility, but also about positive aspects of their job: communication with the neighbors, solidarity among workers, and autonomy they enjoy due to isolation of the kiosk, as opposed to jobs in large stores.

(...) The intention of this book is to present that story from the inside of the kiosk. It resulted from the collaboration between photographer Ercegović, who uses the aesthetics of small gestures to observe and catch ephemeral moments, and journalist Lasić, who followed privatization processes throughout his work, with the curatorial support provided by us from BLOK, a collective active in the field of socially engaged art practice, focusing regularly on post-socialist transformations of space and society. The book was preceded by the exhibition in the New BAZA gallery in Zagreb (October 2020) and its iterations at the OTOK Gallery in Dubrovnik (June 2021), Salon Galić Gallery in Split (February 2022), and the Green Room Gallery in Zabok (June 2022). Analogous to the exhibition-reportage, the book exhibits twenty-three photographs with accompanying statements. A text by Igor Lasić provides an introduction to the series, positioning the work into its extended social context: the transition of the Tisak company, but also the history of the institution of street kiosks within the framework of modernity. In contrast to its modest title, Tisak is not just the story of the twenty-three kiosks, but also the story of the transformation of the media industry and degradation of workers’ rights it brought about.

(FROM THE PREFACE)

With the financial support of: City of Zagreb Office for Culture, International Relations and Civil Society, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia