Lauba – People and Art House
The 12th edition of Zgraf takes place at Lauba – People and Art House. The history of Lauba, a former riding stable of the Austro-Hungarian army equitation barracks, with its centennial upcyclings and renovations, represents an architectural Social Rerun.
Lauba is the first city of Zagreb protected cultural heritage site successfully transformed into a contemporary exhibition space. Built primarily as a riding stable of the Austro-Hungarian arm in 1910, it later became the weaving mill of the Zagreb Textile Mill and kept this use until 2008. The former riding stable celebrated its 100th birthday with a renovation, an exceptional project honoured with countless accolades and merits, including the annual Croatian Architects Association Award Bernardo Bernardi.
The opening of the renovated building in 2011 gave Zagreb not just another museum of a contemporary art gallery, but quite an innovative venue dedicated to all the spheres of visual art and culture, a venue with a potential of sparking a dialogue in society – neighbourhood, local and broader community. Lauba is a laboratory for experiments in contemporary culture, designed as a platform for the presentation of Croatian and international cultural production and a mediator in circulating information about innovative cultural and artistic practices.
Due to its multi-use character, Lauba is open to new collaborations and interesting projects and actively works with organisations and individuals from different areas – from visual arts to contemporary science, music, dance, film and theatre. Some of the pioneering steps for Zagreb and Croatia were custom-designed for Lauba.