Almissa

About

The Almissa Open Art con­tem­por­ary art fest­iv­al in Omiš was launched in 2010 with the aim of extend­ing con­tem­por­ary art with­in the milieus that are, as a rule, always isol­ated from these and sim­il­ar events. With this, the Omiš pop­u­la­tion and their guests, in the middle of the tour­ist sea­son, met with still unknown forms of artist­ic expres­sion. With this shift, both in access and in geo­graphy, it has sens­it­ized and included a wider range of audi­ences, and the long-stand­ing prac­tice of the fest­iv­al has grown with locals.

At the very begin­ning, the fest­iv­al included vari­ous exhib­i­tions, install­a­tions, per­form­ance pro­grams, mostly tak­ing place on Mira­bela Fort­ress, gradu­ally des­cend­ing into the city. The approach that includes artists’ unan­nounced and uncon­ven­tion­al strolls in the streets and between people abol­ishes the tra­di­tion­al fest­iv­al form and the bound­ar­ies between the audi­ence and the artists. All of them became part of the artist­ic pro­cess, and the clas­sic­al term “audi­ence” is avoided. This non-typ­ic­al approach, devoid of isol­a­tion and pre­ten­tious­ness, con­nects artists and people. Art is cre­ated in their co-exist­ence, and it is not a sep­ar­ate entity. Every year, a num­ber of local and affil­i­ated Croa­tian artists are par­ti­cip­at­ing in the pro­gram. The spe­cificity of Almissa is also emphas­ized by the dele­tion of clas­sic forms of organ­iz­a­tion and exhib­it­ing — the role of the cur­at­or is played each year by anoth­er artists. The cur­at­or – artist chooses the theme of the fest­iv­al, they invite artists and take care of the medi­ation of the whole pro­cess. The bound­ar­ies of the roles are gone, and it is art itself what unites them. Almissa aims to bring its pro­gram closer to every­one; it does not remain deaf to com­ments and cri­ti­cism, which rep­res­ent a kind of inspir­a­tion as well. An exper­i­ment­al approach to the role of artists, audi­ences and art is a spe­cificity of Almissa and opens up more new possibilities.

Ana Bratić