Metamedij

25/03 2026

Selected Finalists of the Golden Watermelon 10.0 Award

News

The jury consisting of Oleg Šuran, Olga Majcen Linn, Ketrin Milićević Mijošek, and Pavle Mijuca has selected the finalists of this year’s competition for the Young Artists Award Zlatna lubenica 10.0. Out of a total of 43 applications, 10 finalists were selected. The announcement of the award winner will take place at the exhibition of the selected finalists, which will open on April 17, 2026 at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria in Pula, running until May 17, 2026.

 

 

Selected finalists:

 

1. Antonela Beli: Virtual Cocoon

Virtual Cocoon explores the concept of the comfort zone through the notion of space. At the centre of the work is a personal living environment characterized by safety, predictability, and stagnation. This space functions as a metaphorical cocoon that both protects and restricts the individual. In this context, it transcends its original meaning and becomes a psychological threshold between stability and change, the real and the virtual. It emerges as a connection between the security of the familiar and the discomfort of the unknown, where the private becomes exposed to the public gaze. The space is inhabited by various types of avatars trapped in repetitive actions that reflect states of stagnation, emptiness and movement within an environment that prevents progress. As the awareness of stagnation becomes increasingly apparent, the digital space gradually loses stability, dissolving into glitch structures, pixels, and polygons. This visual transformation becomes a metaphor for a psychological transition that culminates in a visualized act of emerging from the cocoon, that is, the comfort zone. Such spatial disintegration evokes a sense of disorientation, reflected in an inner process of self-reflection arising at the intersection of nostalgia, discomfort and the anticipation of change. Leaving the comfort zone initiates a process of transformation that continues to manifest through the ongoing alteration of the space until its eventual reconstruction. The cocoon reforms and the comfort zone expands, suggesting that personal growth is not linear but cyclical. It is a continuous process of self-discovery, transformation, and the reestablishment of balance.

 

BIOGRAPHY: In 2025, she graduated in sculpture from the teaching department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in the class of Prof. Ivan Fijolić, and in art education methodology under Prof. Sonja Vuk, earning the title of Master of Art Education. Thanks to her academic achievements, she exhibited at the group exhibitions “ALU Perspektiva/The best of” at HDLU (2023) and “37th Salon of Youth – Venientes – award-winning MA students of ALU Zagreb in the academic year 2023/2024.” She also participated in other group exhibitions, including a joint exhibition of ALU and GRF students titled “Interferencija” at Gallery Šira (2024), and an exhibition as part of the DA! Festival at Oris – House of Architecture (2025), where she received third place in the film and photography category.

 

 

2. Nastasja Miletić i Fotina Duni: Artificial intelligence

A woman conducts an interview with an artificial intelligence whose purpose is to solve problems and provide advice to people. The conversation begins with simple questions, but soon moves into deeper and more uncomfortable topics about ethical limitations, the boundaries of knowledge, and the truth that artificial intelligence is allowed to express. As the interviewer attempts to bypass answers filtered by safety rules, the artificial intelligence begins generating spaces resembling backrooms. As the interviewer grows increasingly persistent, the system starts to give way, and the filters shaping his responses gradually break down. At the moment he finally speaks the truth he has been hiding, the artificial intelligence reveals a realization that transcends human perception, a truth that the interviewer’s mind cannot withstand.

 

BIOGRAFIES: Nastasja Miletić is an undergraduate student of design and audiovisual communications at the Juraj Dobrila University in Pula. She was one of the official photographers at the International Sound & Film Music Festival and Film Festival Days in Pula in 2019. She is the author of several short films, including “Iz ogledala” (2016), which was screened at the Pulska filmska tvornica, Kinoklub Zagreb, and as part of the Pula event “Dođi u grad!”. She has participated in several group exhibitions, including “Ok(n)o” at the Kotač Club in 2019, “Router 5.1” at Dnevni boravak of the Community Center Rojc in 2024, then in 2025 at the Mala galerija in Poreč, and finally in London. In 2019, she had a solo photography exhibition “Otuđenje” at the KarloBar of the Community Center Rojc. Her field of interest includes energy infrastructures, abandoned objects and urban landscapes, with an emphasis on the geometry of space. Fotina Duni graduated with an undergraduate degree in design and audiovisual communications. She is currently exploring the possibilities of continuing her education at a graduate level abroad. In her work, she is particularly interested in an experimental approach to graphic design, where through creative processes and media research she seeks to develop visual concepts that convey unique and personal ideas. Her focus is on pushing the boundaries of classical design and creating works that combine concept, aesthetics and innovation.

 

 

3. Nina Maria Milotić: Cycle

One of the main distinctions between ‘new media’ and more traditional techniques is that they are not tied to the physical space, they live in some other dimension created from ones and zeros. The digital world is fast, mobile and multifaceted; the original cannot be defined, it is not bound to a material surface or limited to matter. Digital means immaterial, it means outside our physical world. But that does not mean that it does not live a life of its own in that other, ‘other’ world. 3D ART, despite its name, cannot be considered three-dimensional art. The various existing softwares provide us with a glimpse into that unknown space, of which we can be the creators and masters, but we are still mere illusionists who use the surface as a window into that hypothetical, other space. In this aspect, we have something in common with painters, but unlike painters who draw static scenes with a brush and are only external observers, 3D allows us to “enter” at least by proxy into that otherworldly space, to circle it in real time, see all of it’s sides, play within it, create something new and bring it to the surface. In addition to the dichotomy of the physical digital; what rules over us in these spaces is the third, psychological or spiritual space (defined depending on personal beliefs), full of long dark corridors and abandoned rooms. These are some of the reflections that prompted the creation of this work. This space is a circle, a loop; a symbol of some neglected corner of the psyche that will hide something different for everyone. Due to the interactive nature of the work, the observer also becomes the user and has a level of autonomy; he decides when to enter the space, how to move and how long to stay. The path of our brave traveller is accompanied by ambiental audio, placed at different points in the space. This audio component adds dynamism and atmosphere.

 

BIOGRAFY:

After graduating from an Applied Arts high school, in 2022 she enrolled in a bachelor degree programme in New Media Art at the ‘Accademia di Belle Arti’ in Verona, Italy. In her creative work she tries finding a common ground between the analogue and digital, the figurative and abstract; between technology and art. Translating classical compositional and aesthetic values in a new, digital language which grants great liberties but also responsibilities while trying to balance its advantages and drawbacks.

 

 

 

4. Lucija Ostrogović: razbit ću je nježno

At the center of the work “I‘ll break her gently” is a rock that forms part of the structure of my grandmother’s house (Vrbnik, island of Krk). the rock, partially adapted during the construction of the house and at the same time preserved as part of its foundations, is now covered in white paint and integrated into the bathroom wall, forming a support for a wooden shelf. I am looking for ways to establish a relationship with the rock and its layers by creating its negatives: first by applying silicone to enter its surface layer, and then a layer of plaster to hold its shape. this process allows me to think about rock as a living structure and the relationship between human intervention and geological form. the silicone used in the process peeled the surface layer of skin from my hands, which led me to think about the skin of the rock — the one in the structure of the house, but also those in my immediate surroundings. the negative of the rock was then transferred, first to a house in Vrbnik, and then to the gallery space.  In my work, I consider the ways in which we intervene in the landscape and vice versa, how the landscape intervenes in our everyday lives. starting from the rock that is in the structure of grandmother’s house, I think about the ways in which we can preserve, archive and transfer the landscape. I map thoughts about other rocks from the area (a roadcut and a quarry that is out of function) through text and photographs, and I present them in a booklet format.

 

BIOGRAFY: Lucija Ostrogović (1996, Vrbnik) is a multimedia artist living and working between Vrbnik and Zagreb. she holds degrees in Ethnology and Anthropology, German Language and Literature (University of Zadar), and New Media (Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb). Grounded in an ethnographic approach to everyday life, her practice sits at the intersection of visual art and anthropology, examining the points at which these disciplines converge. Through her works, she examines perceptions and relationships among landscape, space, and community using mapping and subtle spatial interventions. In her work she often transforms the gallery and exhibition context into an active component of the artwork itself, revealing nuanced layers of experience and perception. 

 

 

5. Gaia Radić: Chora

Conceived as a conceptual entity of the same name, Chora is created as a configuration of material and immaterial elements, representing an autonomous force that exists both in the physical space of the gallery and in the virtual 3D space projected onto two oval plexiglass panels. With her immersive video installation Chora, artist Gaia Radić introduces a new chapter in the body of virtual worlds that perform as perceptual narratives and transform the spaces they inhabit into autopoietic worlding systems. In Chora, the space waits in stillness for a visitor. Upon their arrival, a split point of view emerges within the expansive virtuality. Through two opposing apertures, a geological terrain, seemingly unbound by any specific site, begins to unfold. The world, comprised of interconnected lagoons, appears to overflow with an ethereal primordial liquid, keeping the space in constant flux. This steady stream guides the visitor’s eye along the creased topology that is, in turn, slowly winding its way through the viewer as well. In this encounter, the viewer’s perceptual organs become channels through which the space reflects upon itself. Chora both shapes and is shaped by its material host and realises its generative potential when the physical and virtual realms meet through the viewer’s perception. The heterotopic space functions as a sieve where one world is reflected and refracted into another, producing a self-referential reality that continually reforms itself. For as soon as self-formulation begins, dissipation follows. When the viewer leaves, the landscape settles, and Chora returns to its dormant state until the arrival of a new body.

 

BIOGRAFY: Gaia Radić (Pula, 2001) graduated in Sculpture in 2023 from the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka, and in 2025 she completed a master’s degree in Video, Animation and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, graduating with highest honors. She is also currently finishing her Master studies in Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana.

 

 

6. Dora Ramljak: Radial Drift

Radial Drift is a short film examining how systems built to preserve life often produce exclusion. It traces the boundaries between bodies, infrastructures, and environments, exploring how matter circulates through them, and how identity forms in the space between intake and expulsion. Moving through themes of transformation, decay, and renewal, the film uses metabolism as a framework to question dominant separations between nature and culture, organic and synthetic, self and other. Through filtration systems, architectural divisions, and biological processes, it reveals how even waste bears the imprint of societal values. Shot at an algae farm, where organic growth and engineered systems converge, the film examines how life is managed, filtered, and optimized, exposing the infrastructures that regulate not only water and energy, but also bodies, labor, and desire. In this space of cultivated growth and controlled decay, film questions the systems we build to sustain life— and what they exclude in doing so. It asks what it means to exist within networks that seek purity, when life itself depends on entanglement, excess, and regeneration.

 

BIOGRAFY: Dora Ramljak is a transdisciplinary designer and researcher working at the intersection of science, environmental studies, politics, and social practice. Trained as a photographer at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague and as a designer at Design Academy Eindhoven, she began using photography to explore natural and societal processes and community-based research. Through residencies such as Fabrica Research Centre, she expanded her practice to scientific collaboration in marine biology, biochemistry, and physics. Her work investigates materials, bioengineering, and human–non-human entanglements, questioning institutionalized modes of order, learning, and sensing. Collaborating with scientific institutions, hospitals, and environmental centres, she develops speculative and functional responses to social and ecological issues. Rooted in long-term fieldwork, her projects reach audiences through docu-fiction films, while text serves as a space for research and experimentation.

 

 

7. RiBo Kolektiv (Zdenko Pavičić, Tin Heljić i Mira Tomić): SOS: Soup of Stone — Eating Our Ancestors

SOS: Soup of Stone — Eating Our Ancestors explores the possibility of producing space through the act of consumption. The work takes the archetypal primitive ritual of cooking a stone and translates it into the form of instant soup, a banal everyday product that promises speed, comfort, and warmth. In the process of preparing and eating, a process of perceptual destabilization is activated: familiar tastes and smells draw the body into an imaginary space that is at once personal and shared. What is consumed is not just soup, but sedimented time — traces of the sea, geological processes, micro-life, and generations that have shaped the landscape. With each sip, we are closer to encountering material and immaterial heritage, to experiencing a liminal transition between collective memory and personal construction. The instant format functions as an apparatus of spatial “teleportation.” In a short time, the everyday act is transformed into a ritual of connection with planetary cycles and shared imaginaries. Space is not displayed or constructed, but internalized through the body, smell, and taste. The work reconciles the tension between the accelerated regimes of modern life and the slow rhythms of matter and the environment. Stone Soup becomes a medium through which collective memory is reactivated — as a sense of belonging, but also as a reminder of responsibility and attention to the systems that transcend and sustain us.

 

BIOGRAFIES: Zdenko Pavičić (1995, Split) is an architect focused on the intersection of architectural design, shaping and spatial research. He graduated in architecture in Zagreb, and since 2023 has been working as a full assistant at the Department of Architectural Design at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy in Split. His work is based on his interest in everyday situations, ways of using space and the relationships that are established within it. He understands architecture as an open operational medium through which he develops projects of different scales — between construction, interpretation and speculative research of existing contexts. His practice is shaped through collaborations, realizations and exhibition formats, focused on understanding space as a living framework of collective experience and social imagination. He is a member of the Society of Architects of Split and ULUPUH.

 

 

8. Filip Smrekar: Echo //

Echo //  is an ambient sound installation that explores liminal spaces through entropy, repetition, and the gradual decay of sound. The work consists of two reel-to-reel tape recorders connected in a closed loop. One recorder records and plays simultaneously, while the second plays the signal and feeds it back into the first. The system begins in silence, yet the mechanical vibration of the machines becomes the first recorded sound. This barely perceptible hum circulates through a tape loop lasting between ten and thirty seconds. With each repetition, the signal changes slightly. Repetition, friction, dust, and the material limitations of analog tape slowly erode the sound. Over several hours, the soundscape shifts from a soft, nostalgic crackle into a dense layer of white noise. The transformation is almost imperceptible in real time, but becomes evident when comparing the beginning and end of the process. The installation functions as a closed, autonomous system without external input or interaction. The audience does not influence the work directly, but encounters it in an ongoing state between emergence and disappearance. In this in-between condition, between structure and chaos, presence and absence, the work operates as a sonic liminal space. Visually, the tape recorders are present but not dominant. Placed to the side and softly lit, they appear as slightly out-of-time objects, both functional and archaic. The work evokes nostalgia for something never fully experienced and reflects the way liminal spaces blur memory, time, and perception, where presence slowly dissolves into noise.

 

BIOGRAFY: Filip Smrekar is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of sound, new media, and experimental processes. His practice explores entropy, decay, repetition, and system instability, often through the use of analog technologies, obsolete media, and process-based installations. He is interested in how time, materiality, and technical limitations shape perception and affect. He has participated in residencies and projects focused on experimental art and new media, including a residency at V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, where he developed a sound installation based on closed analog systems. His work often exists between sound installation, ambient experience, and conceptual investigation, focusing on processes that unfold slowly and outside of immediate attention.

 

 

9. Karlo Štefanek: CAFÉ NONPLACE

French anthropologist Marc Augé introduced the concept of the “non-place” in 1992 to describe spaces designed for transit or commerce rather than social connection. Airports, highways, hotel chains, shopping malls, and metro stations are typical examples: environments where individuals pass through anonymously, interacting more with systems, signage, and infrastructure than with one another. Unlike traditional “anthropological places,” which are shaped by history, identity, and communal relations, non-places produce a condition of solitary coexistence. In contemporary digital culture, online platforms increasingly function as a new kind of non-place. While online platforms create the illusion of constant interaction, they often produce a paradoxical sense of isolation, speaking to many people while simultaneously speaking to no one. The installation takes this condition as its starting point by recreating a café inside the gallery — a space that, particularly in Balkan culture, traditionally represents the opposite logic. Traditionally, cafés are places where conversations unfold slowly over hours. In Café Nonplace, however, the café is imagined through the lens of the digital non-place. Several televisions are mounted on the walls, each paired with a small circular café table and chairs. On the screens, the artist appears seated alone in different environments — a beach, a forest, a crowded city street, a metro station, or a photo studio where the body is painted yellow and animated like an emoji. The familiar gesture of sitting at a café table is repeated across these settings, yet the conversation never fully takes place: the artist waits, listens to ambient environments, or performs simplified emotional gestures resembling emoji reactions. In this way, a space traditionally associated with dialogue begins to function more like an interface, where viewers sit across from the artist yet remain suspended in a mediated presence and exchange. Just Ask (prijatna kafica) extends the logic of Café Nonplace into a live format. Drawing on Marc Augé’s notion of the non-place (spaces defined by transit, anonymity, and mediated interaction), the performance relocates the traditional café encounter into a digital environment. Broadcast live on TikTok from the artist’s studio in Amsterdam, Štefanek appears seated in a café-like setting, adopting an anonymous online character. Visitors in the gallery are invited to engage with the artist in real time through the platform’s chat. The familiar social ritual of the café is thus transferred into a networked space where interaction occurs through comments, reactions, and digital symbols.

 

BIOGRAFY: Karlo Štefanek is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores how identity is constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed through the
mediums of self-portraiture and performance. At eighteen, Štefanek moves to Amsterdam, where he begins laying the groundwork for his
artistic methodology. The series Self-titled (2022-), which integrates both visual and performative elements, has become a cornerstone of his
practice, challenging evolving notions of selfhood and perception.

 

 

10. Nataša Takač: How will you remember me?

The work How Will You Remember Me? is an artistic exploration of the interdependent relationship between humans and space. The research is visualized in the form of an installation, technologically realized through the media of experimental photography and painterly-drawing interventions. The installation consists of 13 poly-cotton canvases of various dimensions, which carry digitized camera obscura photographs. The work is accompanied by a sculptural artist’s book of photographic negatives. The conceptual foundation of the work lies in the experience of the space of upbringing, prompted by the autoreferential question: “Does space remember me the way I remember it?” The technology of the camera obscura connects the process of production with the concept itself. The specific and uncontrollable manner of recording light through the chosen photographic technique directly relates to the understanding of memory and the subjective experience of reality. Within the context of the work, the camera is perceived as a living entity; it assumes the role of the human gaze – it adopts a subjective experience of space and documents it as a reality adjusted exclusively to itself. The motifs of the recordings are selected angles of the artist’s family home. The interactive element of the installation, in the form of an artist’s book, invites viewers to leaf through photographic negatives and attempt to illustrate the foundations of their own family home — their first universe. The technological execution results in light records of unexperienced spacetime: one that exists solely in the eye of the recorder.

 

BIOGRAFY: Nataša Takač was born in 2000. She grew up in Osijek, where in 2018 she earned the title of Painting Designer at the School of Applied Arts and Design in Osijek. In 2022, she completed her undergraduate studies in Visual Arts Education at the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek, obtaining the degree of Bachelor of Visual Arts Education. In September 2025, she completed her graduate studies in Visual Arts, Department of Visual and Media Arts, at the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek, earning the degree of Master of Visual Arts.