19–30 October 2026
ANATOMY OF FRIENDSHIP
The Festival of Firsts, a multidisciplinary arts festival now in its 24th edition, takes place in Zagreb from 19 to 30 October at KNAP and KIC.
The central theme of this year's edition is Anatomy of Friendship, which explores what friendship consists of beyond its dictionary definition of a relationship between people founded on respect, trust and love. Is it even possible – in a world of all-pervasive conflict – to cultivate respect, trust and love for our fellow human beings and the companions with whom we share this planet?
Anthropologist Robin Dunbar concluded that humans have the capacity for close communication with a circle of 150 people. He narrowed this circle to five truly close friends. Jacques Derrida analysed philosophers’ reflections on friendship throughout history and concluded that friendships between women, and between women and men, were excluded from their ideas about friendship, and deemed impossible. This reading was criticised, among others, by feminist theorists Nancy Holland, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Dorothea Olkovoski as “empowering the traditional philosophical silence on women”. Heather Devere argues that Derrida's deconstruction should not necessarily be considered anti-women, as it ‘identifies numerous ways of discriminating against women... contributing to the postmodern feminist debate’.
What do artists and non-artists, those just entering a particular field of art, think about all these questions? Throughout the programme of exhibitions, discursive events and workshops, we will attempt to explore and answer these and other questions related to the theme of this year's 24th Festival of Firsts.
* Here is the programme of events at KIC, while the detailed programme for the Festival of Firsts, including timetables and locations, can be found at this LINK.
Tuesday 20 October 2026
SUROGATKINO KIC, Preradovićeva 5
5 pm / Presentation of the Scholarly Volume MYTH, BELIEF, SPACE
This volume is dedicated to Tomo Vinšćak, scientist, researcher and FRIEND on the tenth anniversary of his death. The volume has brought together authors whose contributions, engaging with the themes Tomo explored, seek to preserve the memory of their collaborator, colleague and friend.
Featuring: Tibor Komar and Marijana Belaj
Moderated by: Zdravko Popović
6 pm / Lecture and Introduction to an Interactive Presentation of the Installation
Jadran Kale: Landscapes of Friendship (On Dry-Stone Field Shelters)
Pseudodomes are dry-stone field shelters, a dozen of thousands of which still stand in the Croatian hinterland. At the top of one of the largest, the five-metre-high dry-stone structure Domaćinova bunja in Srima between Vodice and Šibenik, damage to the top was repaired by a friendly gathering. In the absence of an official repair method, the group used a lithophane overlay. This type of heritage has effectively given rise to an unofficial civil protection system, involving numerous associations and local initiatives. No official approach - often confused, ineffective and, in some cases, even detrimental - was involved.
KIC / UPPER FLOOR GALLERY, Preradovićeva 5
6:45 pm / Participatory Installation
Installation Landscapes of Friendship, by Jadran Kale with visitors
7 pm / Exhibition opening
Artists: Natasha Baković, Marlen Ban, Marina Burolo, Zdenko Bužek, Jadran Kale, Željko Zorica Šiš, Josip Pino Ivančić, Stanislav Habjan
Monday, 26 October 2026
SUROGATKINO KIC, Preradovićeva 5
6 pm / Book launch
Stanislav Habjan and guests: Friend Stanislav - Dialogues 2014-2024
Published in 2025 by the Croatian Design Society, the book "Friend Stanislav – Dialogues 2014–2024" brings together a decade of the author's conversations, artistic exchanges and collaborations with numerous interlocutors and friends from the Croatian cultural scene.
7 pm – 7:30 pm / Spoken Performance
Josip Pino Ivančić
One of the side effects of progress is the emergence of ‘superfluous people’. And however much we lack real solutions, however much it may not suit us, the natural environment for the elderly is togetherness…
7.30 pm–9 pm / Talk on Željko Zorica Šiša's Performance Series
Die Freundschaften (2010-2013)
Zorica's works are often organised as puzzles that the audience participates in solving. There is always a dose of cynicism, but also an ironic admiration for politics as the magical art of power. In his work, Zorica has used various media – film, video, archives, the web, music, food, performances by various groups and individuals, performance art, happenings and design - as well as forms that are key to the construction of a social community's identity: unveiling memorial plaques and monuments, celebrating civic and/or state anniversaries, taking solemn oaths, and so on.
This exhibition features a series of works on friendship that suggest a play on traditional Croatian cuisine (KroaTisch – Croatian table, but also an object /furniture/ around which agreements, capitulations, secret documents, accession treaties to alliances, anti-fascist alliances, love letters and work permits are signed on important historical occasions), and on the political phrase uttered when marking friendship between two states.
Performers: Marina Protrka Štimec, Agata Juniku and Karla Horvat Crnogaj
Moderator: Zdravko Popović
KIC / MEZZANINE, Preradovićeva 5
From 9:30 pm / Music Programme
Leo Beslać, singer and multi-instrumentalist
Remote Performances
A full-length piece of music for friends who have gone; a meditation in sound, like a letter that finds its way despite having no address. In the words of the band Para Lele: ‘Close to nothing, far from everything.’
The Festival of Firsts is held in collaboration with the KNAP Centre and the Cultural and Information Centre, with the support of the Zagreb City Office for Culture and Civil Society, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, and the Kultura Nova Foundation.