“Interessenkonflikt” (“Conflict of Interest”) is a joint exhibition by Croatian artists Boris Bare and Ema Marković Imbrija, realized within the framework of Magic Carpets Artist in Residence 2025.
Location: Openspace Innsbruck, Mentlgasse 12b
Opening: 01.10., 18:00 Uhr
Opening hours 01.10.– 04.10., 14:00 –19:00 Uhr
The illustration series by Urban Art artist Boris Bare addresses one of the most sensitive and significant issues in the post-Yugoslav context: the privatization and sell-off of once important industrial and commercial enterprises – from the Uljanik shipyard in Pula and the “3. Maj” shipbuilding company in Rijeka to the Tomos engine factory in Koper, Nama in Zagreb, Zastava in Kragujevac, and JAT in Belgrade. Bare explores plundering, collective forgetting, and the scars left behind by this economic transformation. His works are provocative, often ironic, and depict a world beyond individual influence.
In contrast, Ema Marković Imbrija offers with her sculptures an intimate glimpse into the “small cosmos” of everyday people. Her figures speak of closeness, fragility, and personal experience.
The juxtaposition of these two artistic perspectives creates a dialogue about identity, conflicts of interest, misappropriation, and life in a region shaped by political upheavals. At the same time, the consequences of large-scale emigration and migration become visible, which continue to shape the social fabric to this day.
Boris Bare (Zagreb) is a street art artist known for large-scale murals and his project Pimp My Pump. In Innsbruck, he will work on floor and wall murals in public spaces. He is also the founder of Art Parks in Zagreb and Pula, which are now recognized as significant hubs for urban culture and creative expression. His murals are characterized by rich colors and socially engaged themes. His art lives in public spaces, transforming them into open galleries and creating a strong connection between art, space, and people. In Innsbruck, he will focus on floor murals in public areas—drawing inspiration from urban textures, neighborhoods, and community involvement. The goal is to collaboratively create visual markers in the district and to understand public space as a potential for collective design.
Ema Marković Imbrija, born in 1997 in Zagreb, completed her studies in Costume Design at the Faculty of Textile Technology, University of Zagreb. For many years, she has been giving new life to waste materials, shaping them into her own small worlds. Using papier-mâché, she models figures—women, animals, and furniture—and incorporates textiles, wood, plastic, and metal. Her inspiration comes from everyday life and her surroundings, with a focus on figures and objects to which she has felt a deep connection since early childhood. Through her work, Ema makes a subtle yet meaningful contribution to waste reduction.
The artists were selected for the residency in cooperation with the Croatian partner organization Lab 852.
Magic Carpets is a platform uniting 17 cultural organisations that create oppo[/learn_more]
rtunities for emerging artists and curators to travel across Europe and together with local communities create new artworks that are social engaged and highlight the local specificities trough different kind of storrytelling. Since 2017, the main focus of the “Magic Carpets” platform has been to increase the visibility and circulation of emerging European artists and curators.
International platform Partners:
Kaunas Biennial (Litauen), OPENART (Schweden), Lab852 (Kroatien), Tbilisi International Photo Festival (Georgien), Jam Factory Art Centre (Ukraine), Latitudo Art Projects (Italien), Wrocławski Instytut Kultury (Polen), IDEIAS EMERGENTES (Portugal), Fundatia META (Rumänien), New Theatre Institute of Latvia (Lettland), Novo Kulturno Naselje (Serbien), České Budějovice – Kulturhauptstadt 2028 (Tschechien), Unfinished Foundation (Malta), openspace.innsbruck (Österreich).
Assoziierte Partner:innen: Centre Claude Cahun (Frankreich), Diyalog Derneği (Türkei), Folkestone Fringe (UK)
Curatorial Team:
Danijela Oberhofer Tonković and Brigitte Egger
Magic Carpets Organization (Austria): Openspace Innsbruck, Mentlgasse 12b
Supported by Creative Europe of the European Union, City of Innsbruck, Land Tirol, and BMKWMS.
