MKC
About the institution
The Multimedia Cultural Centre is an institution for organizing and presenting cultural and artistic programs in visual, film, music, and performing arts, which nurtures and promotes intermediality, interdisciplinarity, multimedia, experiment, and innovation.
The work of MKC is based on the idea of an open institution. In addition to producing its own program, the institution provides representatives of the independent cultural scene with space for work and presentation and cooperates with other institutions, associations, and creative individuals in co-production projects and initiatives.
In its exhibition, film, performance, and discursive programs, MKC aims to present the most relevant and diverse cross-section of contemporary artistic and cultural practice and to provide systematic support for the sustainable development of visual, film, music, and performing projects, as well as it deals in the long-term with the establishment of better conditions and frameworks for the presentation of contemporary art in Split. In addition to achieving its mission by organizing and producing art exhibitions, performances (dance, theatre, music), film, and other programs, MKC Split also organizes programs that open public dialogue (publishing, forums, lectures, presentations, and conversations).
Through the promotion of artists and art collectives from all over Croatia, MKC systematically works to raise the visibility and importance of the Youth Centre’s space in the context of a unique and important cultural object in Croatia.
HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION AND YOUTH CENTRE
Founded in 1998. as a city cultural institution that nurtures a research and interdisciplinary approach to work, MKC operated in the building of the former Old Hospital until 2005, after which it moved to the Youth Centre building, where it assumed the role of manager of the building, which it still manages today.
The construction of the Youth Centre, then the Socialist Youth Centre, an imposing building designed as a multipurpose concert and theatre space, began in 1974, on the eve of the Mediterranean Games in Split in 1979, but was interrupted and the building remained unfinished, unused and empty until the 1990s of the last century.
Artists and activists occupied the Youth Centre in 1994. with the “Art Squat” initiative, which was conceived as a multi-day presentation program of the then-independent cultural scene of Split. The duration of the program was extended from the initial few days to several months, after which occasional workshop programs, theatre rehearsals, and illegal parties took place in the building for the next two years. In 1996., the City of Split established the Youth Cultural Centre (KSM), an institution that took over the management of the Youth Centre until 2005., when MKC arrived in the building. During the years of activity of KSM, in 2001., the Coalition of Youth Associations (KUM) was founded by networking the majority of associations active at the time, and that same year it moved into the basement of the Youth Centre, where it still operates today.
PARTICIPATORY MANAGEMENT
Numerous civil society organizations operate in the Youth Centre today, using the Centre’s premises regularly or occasionally. MKC continuously cooperates with the Youth Centre Platform, an advocacy platform that has been operating in the Centre since 2012, on the improvement of the existing model of cooperation and management of the Youth Centre.
MKC, as the manager of the building, in addition to performing tasks related to the functioning and maintenance of the building of the Centre and technical support for program activities and security of the building, provides support to permanent and occasional users by realizing program collaborations, as well as providing space for the production and presentation of activities. Thus, the spaces Class, Triangle, Concrete Cinema, Amphitheatre, and Gallery are fully shared spaces available for reservation for programs that are in line with the program profile of the Youth Centre. All information related to a particular space are available on the link. MKC also, on an annual level, announces public tenders for the art-exhibition program.
In the last five years, over 120 different users have used the premises of the Youth Centre for the implementation of programs, including representatives of the independent and institutional cultural and artistic scene from Split and Croatia, as well as individual users (artists, journalists, musicians), of which 18 permanent users work and have premises in the building.
The idea of encouraging program collaborations is contained in the desire that spatial resources, as well as knowledge and skills, are mutually used and shared for the purpose of program diversification, but also to improve the working conditions of the users of the Centre’s space and to ensure the conditions and opportunities for the work and development of numerous cultural and artistic actors at the local and regional level.
Although in the role of the manager of the building, the Multimedia Cultural Centre is primarily itself a user of the Centre’s space and an active actor on the cultural and artistic local and national scene, and as such, although formally an institution, is close to the organizations operating in the Centre, which also deal with contemporary art production, presentation, and discursive programs. Developing a model of participatory management of the Youth Centre is a necessary step in order for the space to become even more open to new users and more democratic in decision-making and as such fulfills its mission and vision of a socio-cultural centre as a place responsible for the management and use of public resources.
Team and contacts
MKC Split / Dom mladih
Ulica slobode 28, Split
t: + 385 – (0)21 – 346 – 065
Director
Stefana Došen
razred@mkcsplit.hr
t: + 385 – (0)99 – 734 – 3232
Head of visual arts exhibition programme
mr.sc. Jasna Gluić
jasna.gluic@mkcsplit.hr
Head of film programme
Joško Jerončić
josko.jeroncic@mkcsplit.hr
Head of music programme
Luka Barbić
luka.barbic@mkcsplit.hr
Professional associate
Nela Sisarić
nela.sisaric@mkcsplit.hr
Program coordinator
Sanja Grbin
sanja.grbin@mkcsplit.hr
Secretary of the director
Jasmina Samaluk
jasmina.samaluk@mkcsplit.hr
mkcsplit@mkcsplit.hr
Caretaker
Joško Lovrić
domar@mkcsplit.hr
Technician
Ivor Koren
tehnika@mkcsplit.hr
t: + 385 – (0)99 – 341 – 4455