ORGANS IN CROATIA, 2006.

This was an exhibition about Organs in Croatia which (R)evolution did for Croatian Ministry of culture. I did art directing by doing the concept of the exhibition and setting up design for interactive cd-rom, info panels and setting up in the Mimara museum. Vedran Kolac did the programing of the cd-rom. Gorjan Agačević did the virtual organ, interactive part of the cd-rom, and set up the lights. Ozren Crnogorac has finished the panels and did a lot of running around:) It was quite good at the end.

The organ is a musical instrument on which the sound is produced by pressing the keys on its keyboard and by the circulation of the pumped air coming from the bellows through the pipes, generated in a mechanical, pneumatic or electric way. The air is being stored in the bellows under the constant and precise level of pressure, and drawn inside the bellows that are being pumped by the calcant (the person who pumps the bellows). Each of the keys of the keyboard has its corresponding pipe, and the range of these pipes from the lowest to the highest is called one rank. Organ has more ranks, and each is made in a way that the sound of its pipes gives the tone a different sound colour. By closing the one and opening the other or opening more manubrijs at the same time, the keys of the keyboard are being connected to one or more new registers and in that way not only the colour but also the power of the pipes is being changed.

The origin of the organ is unknown. The legend says it derived from the siringa (pan's pipe), shepherd's flue pipe and bagpipes. Ktesibij from Alexandria is connected with the first obvious shape of the organ, in the 3rd century B.C.

The significant part of the historic development of organs can be traced on 800 or so preserved organs, mostly of monumental value. The oldest archival data about organs in Croatia come from the 14th century, when they were mentioned as existing in Gradec in Zagreb, and in Dubrovnik. At that time the Church of St. Stosija in Zadar got one into its possession. Frier Urban, the builder of the organ in the Church of St. Marco in Venice, had built the organ for the Church in Trogir, of which only the casing doors, painted by Gentile Bellini in 1489, have been preserved until today. Around the year 1480 the Zagreb cathedral also got one organ, in Pula one are mentioned in 1417. In the year 1647 the Zagreb Cathedral got into possession the organ built by Gregor Strukl.

The oldest organs that have been preserved until today in Croatia are dated to the beginning of the 17th century, and these are the six small organs and positives from Lepoglava, Varaždin, Zlogonja i Vukovje.