Arts/Culture: Places: Art Trips to Eastern Europe

Art Trips to Eastern Europe

Gioia Zwack, founder of behind-the-scenes travel operator The Other Europe, spoke to Indagare about what makes eastern and central Europe so exciting at the moment and how to plan a visit.

What inspired you to found the company?

I wanted to share what I’ve learned from many years of doing projects and research in the central-eastern European region. It’s an area I have had significant exposure to, and it is less understood and known than many other parts of Europe.

What is the biggest misconception about travel in eastern/central Europe?

That time has stood still and what’s worth seeing is its past. One has to keep in mind that glasnost and perestroika happened in the mid-late 1980s. There’s a new generation that has grown up “connected.” There is a vibrant contemporary and intellectual scene in several places and there are hip hotels and restaurants. The governments and economies are changing, although fitfully at times. Most countries are now on the mark for inclusion in the EU, and several are preparing for the transition to the Euro, no easy task. To see old-world Hapsburg central Europe or World War II Europe is fascinating, to be sure, but if you focus solely on the past, a whole new culture is missing from your experience.

What destination in eastern/central Europe do you find most surprising?

I am impressed with the behind the scenes current intellectuals and artists of Croatia. I am also impressed by how seriously the Croatians take their artistic and cultural history.

What are some of your favorite cities to visit?

I’m a real fan of the new Vienna. It has blossomed anything I could have imagined when I used to spend time there as a bored teenager. Krakow is beautiful, as well, and has a sophisticated intelligentsia. I have a soft spot for Split and the intellectual and artistic culture of several parts of Croatia including Zagreb and Hvar. Of course, Berlin is electric.

What do you think are some cities that will become hot spots in the near future?

Vilnius, Lithuania, the Split-Dubrovnik passage, Riga, Latvia and Krakow. Keep an eye on Belgrade and Sarajevo as well.

For an art aficionado, what are some lesser-known museums not to miss?

In Croatia, I love the Ivan Mestrovic Museum (Promenade of Ivan Meštrović 46; (385) 021-340-800; www.mdc.hr) in Split, which celebrates the country’s greatest sculptor; the Modern Museum (Put Frana Supila 23; 385-20-426 590; www.ugdubrovnik.hr) in Dubrovnik housed in an exceptionally beautiful building; and the small Museum of Naïve Art (Sv. Ćirila i Metoda 3, Gornji Grad; 385-1-485-1911; www.hmnu.org) in Zagreb.

In Prague, I love Meda Mladek’s serene Kampa Museum. There is also an enormous new contemporary art museum in the city, which opened in June, called DOX (Vojtešská 8; 42-022-493-0927; www.doxprague.cz). In Graz, Austria, there is an excellent museum of contemporary art called Grazer Kunsthaus (Landesmuseum Joanneum, Lendkai 1; 43-316/8017-9200; www.kunsthausgraz.steiermark.at).

As a heads up for upcoming excitement, Vilnius, Lithuania, has a positively popping art scene which has won it a new Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum to be completed in 2013 by the architect Zaha Hadid. Likewise its Baltic neighbor Riga has a new contemporary art museum in progress by Rem Koolhaas to be finished in 2011. Berlin reputedly has more art galleries than any city in the world except New York. Finally, Trieste is deeply involved in promoting the art of central and eastern Europe as well as of the Mediterranean, which will increasingly make it an “it” destination, which it has not been since Habsburg days.

Where do you hope to travel with the Other Europe?

We will start with our inaugural program: Prague and the Viennaartweek this November [2008]. Other upcoming programs include two trips to Croatia (late spring and early autumn 2009) for visual arts, culture and history which we are very excited about. These will include an overnight in Kotor, Montenegro. For next spring we are also planning a Castles of the Czech Republic and Austria jaunt, which will be hosted by their owners.

In the pipeline are Transylvania, including the Bukovina; the Baltics and their exploding art scene; Berlin ; and a four-day jaunt to Trieste and Slovenia. We are also considering a special event in the Salzburg lake district for New Years for three days, which will merge the sophisticated, historic, folkloric and rural bawdiness of the Salzkammergut region. It should be great fun and interesting, and of course the area is stunningly beautiful.