The Vučedol Orion

architect Željko Kovačić
project Exhibition in the National Museum, Ljubljana, Slovenia
written by Aleksandar Durman

 

The Vučedol Orion exhibition, which won architect Željko Kovačić the Grand Prix for 2002 at the 37th Zagreb Salon, has been put on in the National Museum, Ljubljana. There, thanks to the adjustable lighting on the ceiling of the room, the only criticisms of the Vukovar and Zagreb displays of this fairly demanding exhibition (those related to the lighting) have been corrected.

 

Since I did not want the Vučedol Orion to be a sensation of an exhibition, about the oldest known European calendar, but rather primarily a depiction of the Vučedol idea of the world, Kovačić displayed it in such a way that the calendar remained just a draw for something that at first glance does not ring too promisingly in the ears of a potential audience. Sixty or so vessels, some entire, some shards of ceramics, and seven skulls, had to conjure up the cognitive level of the world that was available to ancient Vučedol man, that is, the exclusively non-material world of the culture of 5,000 years ago, from the end of the European Copper Age.