Location: Studio 21 (Velebitska 66)

Date: September 9 – September 20, 2025

The Split exhibition replaces traditional museum labels with therapeutic questions, inviting visitors to interpret art as a form of personal therapy.

Instead of learning when a work was created or which artistic style it belongs to, visitors to Art & Therapy at Studio 21 Gallery will encounter an unexpected question: “How can this artwork comfort me, calm me, and help me?”

The exhibition of seven contemporary artists introduces a completely different approach to museum texts. Instead of historical facts, each work is accompanied by a therapeutic prompt designed to help viewers explore their own emotions through art.

For example, alongside the black sculpture The Last Tree by Dražen Pejković, visitors read: “Th is sculpture does not try to comfort us with false promises – its fragile vertical speaks the language recognized by anyone who has ever had to start over. Is there beauty in accepting finality not as defeat, but as a condition for authentic living?”

“We often think we need to be experts to understand art,” explains the exhibition curator Dora Derado Giljanović. “But maybe the truth is the complete opposite — maybe art can help us understand ourselves.”

This approach is based on philosopher Alain de Botton’s book Art as Therapy, which proposes reorganizing museums by emotions rather than historical periods. Instead of Renaissance or Modern Art galleries, imagine galleries of Hope, Memory, or Growth.

The exhibition features works by Joško Buljanović (Joko Bird), Alma Čače, Karin Grenc, Tisja Kljaković Braić, Josip Mijić, Marina Otchude Say Gynt, and Dražen Pejković.

In the coming months, art therapy workshops with a licensed art therapist are also planned, in line with the goals of the art& project, within which the exhibition is held: to show the public that they need not fear art. On the contrary, art can become part of their everyday lives, serve their spiritual and emotional well-being, and enrich their existence.

More information about the exhibition is available on the Facebook page of Studio 21.