TONKA MALEKOVIĆ & SOPHIA FREIDHOFF
COMPOSITIONS OF FLOW
1.-12.10.2025.
MEŠTROVIĆ PAVILION PROGRAM
ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM IN ZAGREB

We continue the Meštrović Pavillion Program with solo exhibition of Tonka Maleković and Sophia Freidhoff – COMPOSITIONS OF FLOW, which will open on Wednesday, October 1st at 7PM at Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb (Trg Mažuranića 14). The exhibition remains open until 12.10.2025.

In her foreword, Martina Miholić emphasizes:
The project is based on a two-year research of migration movements in the Danube region, carried out in collaboration with scientist Sophia Freidhoff, and through an interdisciplinary approach it intertwines artistic practice with the methodology of social sciences. Compositions of Flow investigates the interwoven effects of migration on both social and individual levels, addressing diverse groups affected by migration, and connects symbolic, geographical, cultural, economic, and phenomenological aspects with the aim of encouraging dialogue on an empathetic level and shifting the understanding of this complex phenomenon.
The video installation Compositions of Flow (2023) invites viewers to look from Regensburg’s historic Stone bridge toward the Danube, where water streams past a massive pier—suggesting motion and change while the pier itself remains firm and stable. This visual metaphor articulates the inner tension and ambivalence many migrants experience when contemplating the decision to leave their homeland – how their lives change, to what extent they improve, and which alternatives remain open. The installation, inherently site-specific, strategically links the historic bridge, a symbol of transition and movement, with Maximilianstraße, the main pedestrian and traffic axis of the contemporary city, underscoring the ways in which migration generates and reshapes the dynamics of urban space. Project participants actively contributed to the installation by donating or lending personal items – suitcases symbolizing transition, travel, and the baggage of life – which were later transposed into the video format.

Preface

Biographies:
Tonka Maleković is a visual artist and a planner of socio-spatial transformations toward sustainability. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and at RWTH Aachen University. Since 2003, she has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, received several awards and grants, and participated in various artist-in-residence programs. She is a co-founder of Loose Association, the City at the Second Glance project, and the outdoor gallery for ephemeral interventions LiberSPACE. Maleković often works collaboratively, creating site-specific, participatory actions and temporary installations in public space. In her projects, she reassembles existing contexts to uncover hidden narratives.

Sophia Freidhoff holds a master’s degree in eastern european studies and a bachelor’s degree in history, classical philology, and southeast european studies from the university of regensburg. She has lived and studied in Romania and is currently based in Erfurt, Germany, where she works as a Counselor on Labour and Employment Rights for EU migrants. Her research interests include migration and the freedom of movement in the EU, and in 2023 she co-conducted in collaboriation with the artist Tonka Maleković a sociological study on labor migration as part of the socio-artistic project Compositions of Flow.

Organizer

Partner

 

 

Supported by

Realizes as a part of: AiR Interventions 2023, donumenta e.V. Regensburg
Special thanks to the organisation Novi prostori kulture