BREDA BEBAN
MONEYSTAINS
Read in Italian
Read in Croatian
We kindly invite you to the promotion of the book Moneystains by Breda Beban,
on Monday, June 5, 2023, at 7:00 p.m.
Institute for Contemporary Art
Trg kralja Tomislava 20, Zagreb
Editor and afterword to the book: Dubravka Šantolić Cherubini
Publisher: Institute for Contemporary Art
The book was published in the program of the Trieste Contemporanea Library (coordinator: Elettra Maria Spolverini) in the libraryline edition (coordinators: Giuliana Carbi Jesurun & Janka Vukmir), intended for the publication of yet unpublished works by artists or authors from the realm of European contemporary art. Moneystains was published in Trieste in late 2022 in the original English edition and in Italian translation and is the first published book in the libraryline edition. Now they are joined by the first Croatian translation. The publisher of all editions is the Institute for Contemporary Art.
The book is printed in a small edition and will not be distributed commercially. It is intended exclusively for cultural and educational purposes. We would like to thank Boško Beban for providing the text for publication.
The book Moneystains brings a hitherto unpublished film script that is in the legacy of Breda Beban. The original text was written in 1996-1997.
The script was presented at the IFFR – International Film Festival in Rotterdam in 1998, where it aroused considerable interest, both from the festival jury and from other producers. Subsequently, following the sudden tragic death of Hrvoje Horvatić, then her partner (who also helped in drafting the text), and an unexpected problem with the English producer, Breda decided not to make the film despite having finalized the choice of musical tracks and the form of the screenplay which is now published here.
(from the afterword by D. Šantolić Cherubini)
We worked for eighteen months, had a bust-up. Stopped. Started again. It was everything writing in collaboration should be, enervating, exhausting, inspirational.
(Chris Darke)
Accompanying text by Chris Darke
Translation by Bartol Babić Vukmir
Designed by Giulia Lantier
128 pages; 120×210 mm
ISBN 978-953-8027-15-4
About authors
Breda Beban (1952 – 2012) was an artist, filmmaker and curator/creative producer whose work deals with contemporary notions of subjectivity and emotion that occur on the margins of big stories about geography, politics and love. Breda Beban’s films and photographs are recognized as unique expressions of intimacy, vulnerability and authenticity.
Born in Novi Sad, ex-Yugoslavia in 1952, Breda Beban was raised in Macedonia and Croatia. She studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Starting her career as a painter and performance artist, she began to work with film, video, and photography after meeting her partner and collaborator Hrvoje Horvatić in the mid-eighties. Exiled together in 1991 after outbreak of the war in former Yugoslavia, they travelled from place to place before eventually settling in London, where they continued their collaboration until Horvatić’s untimely death in 1997. Working independently and/or in collaboration with other artists or filmmaker, she has fashioned a range of productions that have been exhibited at major museums of contemporary art in Europe and the U.S.
Breda Beban lived in London and Sheffield, where she was Professor of Media Arts at Sheffield Hallam University. She passed away in 2012, leaving various projects uncompleted.
Hrvoje Horvatić (1958 – 1997) studied at the Academy for Film and Television in Zagreb.
He worked in Yugoslavia and in UK, in collaboration with Breda Beban, on numerous features and documentaries and he directed also a few short films. Together with Breda Beban and Chris Darke, he worked on the feature-film script Moneystains.
Chris Darke is a London-based writer and film critic. His work has appeared in many magazines including Sight & Sound, Film Comment and Cahiers du cinema. He is also the author of several books including La Jetée (BFI Film Classics) 2016, Light Readings: Film Criticism and Screen Arts (2000).