Theme: Parallel Realities
For the 19th edition of Facade Gallery, created through CROZ’s long-standing collaboration with the Croatian Association of Fine Artists, HDLU, the CROZ façade becomes a meeting point of different possible worlds.
This year’s theme, Parallel Realities, was selected by Suzana Horvatić, last year’s winner, who imagined it as a reflection on choice, possibility, and the many directions a life can take
A theme shaped by choice
For Suzana Horvatić, parallel realities are not distant science-fiction worlds, but something much closer to everyday life.
In the interview, she describes them through a simple image: standing at a traffic light, with the possibility to turn left or right. Each decision opens a different path. To her, this is where our greatest power lies, in the way we choose our actions and shape what comes next.
Poetry and contemporary life
Jelena Sokić responded to the theme with I Thought It Was All About Poetry, a work that speaks about the relationship between our primal, poetic self and the demands of contemporary life.
For the artist, these two realities are not in conflict. Instead, the poetic way of seeing the world helps us carry and understand the pressures of modern life.
From intimate work to public space
The painting was created as an intimate and introspective work, which makes its transformation into a large-scale façade piece even more powerful.
What began as a personal visual story now enters the public space, where it can be experienced by people passing through the city. At this scale, the work becomes physical, present, and open to dialogue.
About the artist
Jelena Sokić is a painter originally from Split, whose artistic practice has been shaped by movement, study, and more than 20 years of continuous work and research.
She studied in Ljubljana and describes painting not as something separate from her life, but as one of its constants. Her work is deeply connected to her inner world, poetic sensitivity, and the visual stories that emerge from that space.
More about the artist and her work can be found at her Instagram page.
On view in Zagreb
For the next six months, I Thought It Was All About Poetry will overlook Zagreb from the CROZ building, inviting passersby to pause and consider the parallel realities we move through every day: the practical and the poetic, the visible and the inner, the path taken and the one left behind.
Exhibition details
Location: CROZ headquarters façade, visible from the intersection of Slavonska Avenue and Marin Držić Avenue, Zagreb
Duration: On view for the next six months
