POGON – Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth in Croatia

The exchange program with POGON – Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth was initiated in 2009. POGON is a cultural center based on a hybrid model of public-civil partnership between the City of Zagreb and a coalition of NGOs working in the fields of independent culture and youth. Its key goal is to support the contemporary creation, presentation and reception of independent culture by providing its premises, technical equipment and support to associations, art organizations, informal groups and individuals free of charge, as well as by creating opportunities for learning, encounters and collaboration.

Every year, POGON supports the implementation of over one hundred different event formats from all spheres of culture and art (exhibitions, theatre and dance performances, contemporary circus performances, concerts, lectures, public forums, screenings, workshops, seminars, and other interdisciplinary, educational and discursive events). As such, POGON brings together a broad network of organizations, initiatives, and artists.

Building on this foundation, the purpose of the exchange with the Solitude Exchange Network program is to provide a platform aimed at fostering creative processes that address the extended field of urbanity.

The three-month residency in Zagreb hosts authors (artists, curators, architects, designers, and others) who approach urban issues with subtle complexity, in innovative ways through their practical, theoretical, research-based, artistic or interdisciplinary work. The intention underlying the residency encourages participants to take the city, preferably Zagreb, as an inspiration that can complement or channel their work, interests and even obsessions.

Preferred projects are those that can benefit from the time spent in Zagreb and its context, incorporating a dialogue or other forms of interaction with the local community or professionals from the independent cultural field during the development process.