Olga Florenskaya about her exhibition: "The fabric collages made over the two months of my residency at the Dukley European Art Community, depict the exploits and adventures of several Montenegrin captains.
This topic arose because of several reasons:
The Dukley Art Center is located in the building of the former Yugoslav shipping company Jugooceanija, whose windows offer beautiful views of the Bay of Kotor, the ancient city of Kotor and many of the surrounding coastal villages.
The towns and villages surrounding the Bay of Kotor, have long been famous for their sailors and shipbuilding.
In the towns of Kotor and Perast I found excellent maritime museums, displaying many paintings of the local captains and their ships. Here one can find both prominent figures such as Admiral Matija Zmajević – associate of Peter I, or the captain Ivo Visin who circumnavigated the globe, as well as unremarkable characters such as Captain Gligorije Širović – who fell overboard at night and was miraculously rescued.
For my fabrics I usually choose ‘touching and heroic’ subjects. The stories about Montenegrin captains fit perfectly; their journeys, battles with the pirates, wondrous escapes, etc. "