Sandra Križić Roban PhD

Biography

Sandra Križić Roban graduated from the Departments of Art History and Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. She holds a PhD in art history and is a critic, curator, lecturer and writer. She has been working at the Institute of Art History in Zagreb since 1992 and acted as the editor-in-chief of the art journal Život umjetnosti (2000–2017). Her research focuses on contemporary art, history and theory of photography, post-war architecture, and politics of public space and cultural memory.

She is the principal investigator on the scientific project Ekspozicija – Themes and Aspects of Croatian Photography from the 19^th Century until Today (2020–2024), funded by the Croatian Science Foundation. She was the Head of the project Postmedia and Non-institutional Art Practices from 1960s financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia (2014–2016), within which she organised two international conferences on contemporary arts, in collaboration with Leonida Kovač (Postmedia and Non-institutional Art Practices from the 1960s Onwards, 2014; Constructions of Memory, 2015), collected into the publication Postmedia and Non-institutional Art Practices since 1960s (2017). Križić Roban also led the project “The Cycle – European Training in Photographic Legacy Management” at the Institute of Art History (2020–2022), funded by the European Commission – the Creative Europe programme, together with the leading partner Spéos (FR) and partners Magnum (FR), Office for Photography (HR), and Deusto (ES).

She has been teaching the elective course “Culture of Memory – Memorial Sites, Monuments, Anti-monuments and Counter-monuments” at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb since 2018, and “Extended Practices – Artistic Themes, Media, Phenomena and Relationships from the 1970s to the Present” at the Humanities doctoral programme at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Split. In 2023, she will start teaching the core course “Photography and Visual Culture” at the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek. Holds the academic title of Assistant Professor since 2010 and is a PhD mentor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zadar.

Member of the Croatian Section of AICA; recipient of the Art Criticism Award (2006) of the Croatian Section of AICA and the Charter of the Croatian Society of Art Historians (2011).

In 2013, together with several colleagues, she established the Office for Photography, a non-profit association dedicated to contemporary photography. Her continuous research of and involvement with contemporary photography enabled her to be a partner on the project Forgotten Heritage – European Avant-Garde Art Online (2016–2018) and Not Yet Written Stories (2020–2022), funded by the European Commission – the Creative Europe programme, in collaboration with the Arton Foundation, Warsaw, KUMU Tallinn, Luca School of Art, Brussels, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art – Artists Database and Archive, Riga, and SCCA – Ljubljana Centre for Contemporary Arts, Ljubljana.

Križić Roban is the author of two comprehensive studies on contemporary photography and contemporary painting in Croatia: At Second Glance. The Positions of Contemporary Croatian Photography (2010), and Croatian Painting from 1945 until Today. Responsibility of Image at the Time of Impatient Look (2013). More recently, she has published monographs Branko Balić (with Irena Šimić), Vlado Martek – Preparing for Photography (2018) and Hana Miletić – Street Photography (2016). She edited numerous books published by the Institute of Art History, Office for Photography and the Križić Roban Gallery.

She hosted a number of retrospective exhibitions, as well as extensive thematic exhibitions, both at home and abroad. Her active work as an art critic from 1986 to this day includes numerous critiques, views, reviews, essays, and professional and scientific papers, in printed media, as well as broadcasted on radio and television.

In addition, she has published many comprehensive book chapters, scientific papers and catalogue essays.

Bibliography (selection)

Leaning Images. Reading Nasta Rojc and Ana Mušćet, in: Leonida Kovač, Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Ilse van Rijn, Ihab Saloul (eds.), W.G. Sebald's Artistic Legacies. Memory, Word and Image, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2023.

In the End, the Question Remains, Whether We Indeed Share Common Photographic Narratives, in: Common Photographic Narratives, Sandra Križić Roban, Alma Trauber, Darko Šimičić (eds.), Ured za fotografiju, Zagreb, 2022.

Who’s Looking At Me? Who am I/Are We Looking At?, Studia ethnologica Croatica, 34 (2022)

The Image as an Archive, Archive as Collage, in: Zlatan Vehabović. An Atlas of the Lesser World, Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, Zagreb, 2022.

Read Zidić!, A Creative Opus of Igor Zidić, Milan Bešlić, Božidar Petrač (eds.), Matica hrvatska, Zagreb, 2022.

Prolonging Trauma. The Homeland War and Contemporary Croatian Photography, Život umjetnosti, 108 (2021)

Demanding a Place for Remembrance, in: Jasmina Bavoljak (ed.), We are building the Island, the Island is Building us. Environment of Remembrance, Udruga Goli otok “Ante Zemljar”, Zagreb, 2021.

Seeing Differently? Women and Photography in Croatia between 1950s and 1970s, Galerija umjetnina, Split, Narodni muzej, Zadar, Institut za povijest umjetnosti, Zagreb, 2021.

A Box, a Suitcase, a Museum. Photographic Records of Croatian Immigrants to the United States, in: Contact Zones. Photography, Migration, and Cultural Encounters in the United States, Justin Carville, Sigrid Lien (eds.), Leuven University Press, Leuven, 2021.

Common Images. The Oeuvre of the Curator and Art Historian Vlastimir Kusik, Život umjetnosti, 106 (2020)

Minor Photography? Women Photographers in Yugoslavia, Pre- and Post-WWII, Photography and Culture, 13 (2020)

Visual Arts, Architecture and Urban Planning in Croatia in 19^th and 20^th Century, in: Sanda Lucija Udier (ed.), Hrvatska na drugi pogled, Croaticum – Centar za hrvatski kao drugi i strani jezik; Srednja Europa; FF Press, Zagreb, 2019

Not only on Women’s Day: Women in Croatian Photography after the 1950s, in: Marika Kuźmicz (ed.), Revisiting Heritage, Arton Foundation, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, 2019.

Learning from Graz, in: Christine Frisinghelli, Christiane Kuhlmann, Christina Penetsdorfer (eds.), Camera Austria International. Labor für Fotografie und Theorie, Specor Books, Leipzig & Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, 2019

Protocol of Laugh. Elements of Humor in Proto- and Conceptual Croatian Photography, in: Liesbeth Decan, Mieke Bleyen (eds.), Photography Performing Humor, Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2019

Text in Tension, in: Vesna Mažuran (ed.), Anabel Zanze, Gliptotheque HAZU, Zagreb, 2019

Nezaobilazan vizualni krajolik, in: Irena Kraševac (ed.), 150 godina Hrvtaskog društva likovnih umjetnika, Zagreb: IPU & HDLU, 2018

A Slit Through Photography. Innovative Strategies in Croatian Photography during the 1960s and 1970s, in Photographies, 11 (2018)

A Lost State of Plenitude. Commemorating the Homeland War in Public Spaces in Croatia, in: Ann Murray (ed.), Constructing the Memory of War in Visual Culture since 1914. The Eye on War, New York: Routledge, 2018

Displacement in the Art Space, in: Juraj Belaj, Marijana Belaj, Siniša Krznar, Tajana Sekelj Ivančan, Tatjana Tkalčec (eds.), Sacralization of Landscape and Sacred Places, Zagreb: Institut za arheologiju, 2018

Discontinuity and/or Shelter? Monuments of the Homeland War in Public Space, in: Željko Heimer, Marin Sabolović (eds.), Simbol, identitet i Domovinski rat, Hrvatsko grboslovno i zastavoslovno društvo, Zagreb, 2016

Attempting a Survey, Archives, Re-Assemblances, and Surveys, Reinhard Braun (ed.), Camera Austria, Graz & Hrvatski fotosavez, Zagreb, 2014

Placed on the Scale of History, in: Elizabeth Vandeweghe, Gautier Platteau, Liz Wells (eds.), European Landscape Photography / Europäische Landschaftsfotografie, Bruxelles – München, Prestel Verlag, 2012

Characteristics of Modernity in the Architecture, Urbanism, and Interior Design after the Second World War, Socialism and Modernity. Art, Culture, Politics 1950–1974, Ljiljana Kolešnik (ed.), IPU&MSU, Zagreb, 2012 (co-author of the book and exhibition concept)

Complex Structures of Contemporary Artistic Practice from the 80's until Today; Hrvatska umjetnost. Povijest i spomenici, Milan Pelc (ed.), IPU – Školska knjiga, Zagreb, 2010

Recent conferences (selection)

What is the Image of Truth? Two Women Documenting the Aftermath of War in Croatia, Expanded Visualities. Photography & Emerging Technologies, 6th International Conference of Photography and Theory ICPT2022, Nicosia, Cyprus, 17–19 November 2022

To Narrate, Animate, Turn into Text – Photographs of Refugees in El Shat from the Croatian State Archives, Discovering Dalmatia VII – Travel Stories: The Grand Tour, Travellers, Travel Itineraries, Travelogues, Split, Hrvatska, 8–11 December 2021

Women's Section of the Photoclub Zagreb – Contribution to the Knowledge of Woman Photography in Croatia between 1950s and 1970s, 17. Dani Cvita Fiskovića – Žene u/o umjetnosti, Imotski, Croatia, 28–30 October 2021

Stories that Need to be Told: Forgotten Women's Photography in Eastern Europe, CAA-Getty Global Conversation III: The Challenges, Disobediences and Resistances of Art in the Transnational Imagination, New York, USA (online), 12 February 2021

Leaning Images: Reading Nasta Rojc and Ana Mušćet, Memory, Word and Image: W. G. Sebald's Artistic Legacies, University Library – University of Amsterdam, 12–14 December 2019

Minor Photography? Women in Photography over the Course of Three Post-War Decades in Croatia, Fast Forward: How do women work?, Starr Cinema, Tate Modern, London, UK, 30 November – 2 December 2019

Instead of Material Turn, Memory Studies Association Third Annual Conference, Complutense University Madrid, 25–28 June 2019

Prolonging Trauma: The Homeland War and Contemporary Croatian Photography, Photographies and Conflict: Archiving & Consuming Images of Strife, 5th International Conference of Photography and Theory ICPT2018, Famagusta Gate, Nicosia, Cipar, 22–24 November 2018

Box, Suitcase, Museum – Photographic Records of Croatian Immigrants to the USA, Photography, Migration and Cultural Encounters in America, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire – Dublin, 20–22 June 2018

Not Only on Women's Day – Women in Croatian Photography after the 1950', Revisiting Heritage, Warsaw National Museum & Fondacja Arton, Warsaw, 7–8 June 2018

Experiments and Innovative Strategies in Croatian Photography during the 1960s and 1970s, CAA Getty International Program, Los Angeles, 19–23 February 2018

Experiment, Concept, Quest – Three Stories from Southeast Europe, Fast Forward: Women in Photography, Vilnius, Lithuania, 3–4 November 2017

A Cut through Photography. Innovative Strategies in Croatian Photography during the 1960s and 1970s, Photographies Conference, London, 18–19 May 2017

Counter-Monument to a Monument, War, Revolution and Memory, Zagreb, 17–18 February 2017

Elements of Humor in Proto- and Conceptual Photography in Croatia, Photography Performing Humor, LUCA School of Arts, Brussel, 13–14 April 2016

Betrayal of the Painting, Neverending Painting, MSU, Zagreb, 3–4 October 2015

The Age of Monuments: Sculptural, Architectural, Urbanistic, and Other Ways of Commemorating the Homeland War in Croatia, War in Visual Arts, University Cork, Ireland, September 12–14, 2013

Curatorial projects (selected)

Phony Smile, Galerija Fotografija (Ljubljana, 2023); Cut and Paste – Collages of Nada Vrkljan-Križić and Inka Švertasek (P74, Ljubljana, 2022); ‘Soft’ Shooting? Women Photography in Croatia (Križevci, Zadar, 2021.; Zagreb, 2020.); Anabel Zanze (Split, 2019; Zagreb, 2019); Jochen Lempert (with Maren Lübbke-Tidow, Zagreb, Beč, 2018); The Most Beautiful Place in the World – Contemporary Slovenian Photography (Zagreb, 2016; Osijek, 2017), Archives, Re-Assemblances, and Surveys – Contemporary Photography in Austria (with Reinhard Braun, Zagreb; Osijek, 2014), and Zero Point of Meaning. Non-functional, Non-representational, Elementary, Experimental and Conceptual Photography in Croatia (Zagreb, 2011; Camera Austria, Graz, 2013)

Research grants

• Goethe-Institute (Akademie der Künste – Bauarchiv, Berlin, 2000)
• AICA (MuseumQuartier, Vienna, 2003)
• French Institute (Courant du monde, Paris, 2003)
• Styrian Provincial Government (Graz, 2009)
• DAAD (Berlin, November 2013–January 2014)
• Institute Adam Mickiewicz (Warsaw, Krakov, Łodz, 2015, 2017, 2019)
• CAA Getty International Program (Los Angeles, 2018; New York 2020–2021)