Pop-up exhibition “The Festival of Anguish” at DC Open Air

Visitors to the DC Rojc Open Air Festival will have the opportunity to enjoy multiple forms of art simultaneously. “The Festival of Anguish” is the title of a pop-up exhibition by renowned sculptor Mario Devčić and artist Tea Rajković, which will take place at the heart of the festival. The exhibition’s name carries a dual meaning: it interprets the complexity of everything that surrounds us, as well as our inner worlds, while also creating a departure from the traditional. We usually perceive a festival as a celebration—light and optimism, while anguish is mostly seen as suffering, darkness, and pessimism. By combining these paradoxes, we aim to broaden the space and spectrum of understanding, allowing us to see the shades that exist in between. The festival represents an event that encompasses a full spectrum of emotions. It follows its natural course with rises, peaks, and falls, symbolizing human nature, life, and vitality.

At DC Rojc Open Air 2025, Mario Devčić will present his unique sculptural works to the audience, while Tea Rajković will exhibit her paintings.

Works Exhibited at the Louvre

Mario Devčić is an award-winning Croatian sculptor. Growing up during wartime profoundly shaped his thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and observations, which have become the most frequent leitmotifs of his surrealist works. Although motionless and silent, his sculptures are easily manifested through a symbolic scream, powerfully exposing and speaking about the terrifying realities before and after the war, as well as its consequences.

The use of mixed-media techniques in his sculptures is highly significant on multiple levels. By combining age-old materials such as clay and wood with more modern ones like metal and plastic, Devčić symbolically bridges the past and the present. He intertwines rawness with harshness, reminding us how experiences from the past shape our present.

At the same time, the motif of open mouths (in addition to the aforementioned silent scream) present in many of his sculptures speaks of hunger, most often a metaphysical hunger, one that transcends the boundaries of individuals, communities, and societies. This hunger painfully divides and, ultimately, dehumanizes and reduces to nothingness. Despite the seemingly fatalistic and pessimistic expression, the artist describes his creative process as healing, and everything that emerges from it – as optimistic.

Numerous Awards and Recognitions

Mario Devčić has exhibited his works at exhibitions around the world, including the Louvre in Paris, the Venice Biennale, International Surrealism Now in Portugal, the Florence Biennale, TRIBUTE 2020 AMEDEO MODIGLIANI, Art Weeks China, and many other art events.

Over the years, Devčić’s work has been honored with numerous international awards and recognitions, including the Michelangelo Prize, Genius of Italy – Rome, the Leonardo da Vinci Prize, Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, first prize at ArTrip Moscow, second prize at Art Weeks China, and many others.

Dark Creativity with a Bright Future

Tea Rajković was born in 2000. She is currently a second-year master’s student in Applied Arts at the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka. During her undergraduate studies, she focused on sculpture, and in that period she presented her sculptural works at a group exhibition in 2018, under the mentorship of sculptor Mario Devčić, at the Living Room of the Rojc Community Center in Pula. The following year, she held a solo exhibition at the Goathell Metal Fest in Pula. In 2023, she showcased her paintings and glass works at the Šćorice Festival in Pićan.

She is participating in the 1st Croatian Biennale of Artistic Glass in Zadar (2024). She is also involved in the XIIxII 2025 Istra-Istria project, where she is exhibiting as part of a group show in Raša. In recognition of her outstanding achievement during her undergraduate studies, she will exhibit her works at the APURI Gallery in December 2024. Additionally, her glass works are featured in the group exhibition “Photography and Glass” marking the 20th anniversary of the Academy of Applied Arts, held at V.B.Z. in March this year. Her first solo exhibition will take place on June 27th in Labin.

Artist: Mario Devčić; photos: Tomislav Pliško