Metamedij

02/07 2025

Golden Watermelon 9.0- Special Award of the Lapidarium Museum Presented to Leo Subanović

News

As part of the ninth edition of the Golden Watermelon award for young artists, the Lapidarium Museum has presented a special award to mark the 30th anniversary of the work and activity of Galerija-Galleria Rigo. The award, which consists of a solo exhibition in 2025 at Galerija Rigo, was granted to Leo Subanović, selected by curator Jerica Ziherl.

 

 

 

Leo Subanović (Zagreb, 1999) is an artist who graduated from the School of Applied Arts and Design, specializing in Textile Design, and continued his studies at the Faculty of Textile Technology in Zagreb. He took his first steps in the world of textiles during childhood, performing as a member of the puppet troupe of the Zagreb Youth Theatre, led by Natalia Murat-Dean, at the World Festival of Puppetry (PiF). While still in high school, in 2016, he won an award for a group project in the product design category at the 43rd Ambienta fair in Zagreb. Later, during his university studies, he collaborated with the company ReGalerija on carpet production, for which he received a special mention at the Croatian Design Exhibition 21/22. In 2023, he took part in the Textile Biennial in Slovenia.

In 2025, he was selected as one of the seven finalists for the Golden Watermelon award for young artists by a professional jury consisting of Oleg Šura, Ketrin Milićević Mijošek, Olga Majcen Linn, and Dora Ramljak. His work I Live on the Internet is exhibited as part of the finalists’ exhibition titled accelerate.exe at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria in Pula, on view until May 18, 2025.

The work explores the artist’s own transformation into a digital medium, resulting in a metamorphosis of the body into a computer reflecting the merging of human and technology. By scanning his own body and transforming it into a Jacquard tapestry, the piece examines the relationship between the digital and the material. Sending the work for textile processing thousands of kilometers away illustrates the digital exchange of data. The choice of the USA as the production site for the Jacquard emphasizes its technological dominance and global influence in the digital space.

The colors in the tapestry emerge through optical blending during the weaving process, mirroring how colors are created in the RGB system on digital screens highlighting the fusion of the organic and the digital. The work poses questions such as: “What remains of us when we become a stream of data?” and “Who controls it?” Scans of the artist’s own body become textile patterns, informational fragments of virtual reality. By removing physical presence, the work questions identity and ownership in the digital age. Through the combination of traditional weaving and digital tools, the piece encourages reflection on the future of human existence.

The Golden Watermelon award for young artists was initiated in 2017 by the Metamedij Association with the aim of creating a dynamic platform for the critical examination of contemporary cultural phenomena through the lens of new media and interdisciplinary artistic practices. Each year, through a carefully crafted conceptual framework, the competition encourages young artists and collectives to explore complex social, technological, and cultural constellations — from questioning existing social structures in the digital age to investigating the intersections between science and art, language, and media context. What sets the Golden Watermelon apart is its ability to construct an intellectual space that interweaves theory, critical practice, and experimental artistic approaches. By supporting the development of young artists working at the crossroads of new media, interdisciplinary research, and innovative practices, the project continuously maps the dynamic transformations of the contemporary Croatian art scene. Through collaboration with leading local experts and cultural institutions, the Golden Watermelon award becomes a generator of theoretical discourse that examines the border zones between art, technology, social theory, and critical practice.