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Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines Siniša Labrović’s politically engaged street art performance in Zagreb (2022) and its subsequent ethnographic representations, exploring how they unwrite dominant narratives of the 2020 earthquakes and potentially contribute to urban transformation, recovery and justice.

Paper Abstract:

In the aftermath of the 2020 earthquakes that struck the cities of Zagreb and Petrinja, as well as the surrounding regions, questions of recovery, justice, and urban transformation have become central to social, political, and media narratives in Croatia. This case study, based on long-term ethnographic research, examines the conceptual artist Siniša Labrović's politically engaged performance, held in Zagreb's streets in July 2022. At the time, Zagreb was in a "waiting phase," identified in the research as a period of anticipation for systematic state-led reconstruction efforts. The artistic intervention, created during this time of great uncertainty, addressed the socio-political responses and consequences of the earthquakes.

The paper explores the potential of performance art and ethnographic representations to disrupt dominant political narratives of the city's reconstruction. It considers how this performance can foster transformation and envision more just urban spaces, temporalities, and narratives. Additionally, it reflects on my dual role as a city resident and ethnographer, observing and participating in the event, while reengaging with the urban past (but also futures) through various academic representations of the performance later on.

The leading premise is that the event’s re-emergence in different temporal and spatial locations—through both the performance itself and subsequent representations—disrupts conventional relationships between past, present, and future. At the same time, it challenges the divide between the “written” and the tacit. These disruptions open pathways to addressing evolving questions about recovery by examining the complex entanglements and contestations of urban life in the post-earthquake period from diverse perspectives.