Praputnjak Revisited

In March 2018 I was in Praputnjak (Croatia) for the first time. I was there as a photographer during the Kick-off meeting of Tandem Fryslân. Before visiting Praputnjak, I already spoke with Ivona Milosh about her village, when she was a participant of the partner forum, in November 2017.

Praputnjak is a small village, with officially around 750 inhabitants, situated close to Rijeka. Praputnjak itself is a long village; the main road, with houses on two sides. Around the church, there are some streets. If you look on a map to the borders of Praputnjak, you can see the grounds of the village start at sea level, and they go up till the top of the mountains. In this area, you can find a lot of landscapes, nature, cultural heritage.

During the first visit, we discussed the idea of making a book about Praputnjak, as a kind of monument. A monument for villages at the crossroad in time; will they survive, or will they turn into ghost villages, with holiday apartments only?

Now that Tandem Fryslân is over, and Rijeka 2020 is on the horizon, it was the perfect time to visit Ivona again, and make plans for a nice project next year.

Not only did we talk, but we also started with an exhibition.

During the kick-off meeting, we had a beautiful evening to meet the locals; the cultural centre was completely filled with people.

Now, one year later, Ivona wanted to show the villagers what happened in the past year of Tandem Fryslân. So, we made up a photo exhibition and invited the villagers.

Around fifty people visited the exhibition and spent their Sunday evening with us.

It was great to be back, as we had some fruitful days, preparing the exhibition, and making plans for 2020.

I am looking forward to going back next year again.

Thanks, Tandem, for making it possible for us!

Ivona Milosh – Tandem Fryslân
Guido Bosua – Participant of Tandem C&P, and Tandem photographer