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On 23 February, the Centre for Humanities at ZRS Koper hosted the opening of the exhibition Visions by academic painter Gregor Žitko. The exhibition is open to visitors during working hours from Monday to Friday at Kreljeva 6, Koper. The opening was followed by an evening discussion hosted by Dr Lucija Čok, who welcomed historian and art historian Dr Salvator Žitko as her guest.
The exhibition curator, Dejan Mehmedovič, wrote about the artist and his latest work:
“The central motif, the central figure in these images, is the window. The paintings can be seen as still lifes or as landscapes emerging from interior spaces. The window is a frequent narrative element in painting, allowing for a particular way of conveying content. Symbolically, the window represents sight – an open eye gazing into space. Every image is essentially a window – a framed view through a window from the originating interior, from within oneself.”
Gregor Žitko was born in 1992 in Koper. In 2019, he graduated with distinction from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, specialising in painting under the mentorship of Professor Bojan Gorenc. He has participated in several solo and group exhibitions and currently lives and works in Portorož.
Following the exhibition opening, the audience, which filled the hall of the Tiepolo-Gravisi Palace – home to the Centre for Humanities of ZRS Koper – was addressed by Dr Lucija Čok and her guest, Dr Salvator Žitko. They discussed the role of the French language, used by the educated elite and nobility of Koper during the Enlightenment and up to the Congress of Vienna (from the 17th to the 19th centuries), beginning with the library of Count Francesco Grisoni (1772–1841), which contained nearly 4,000 books in Italian, French, Latin, and German.
Dr Žitko also presented his work on the first cultural-historical guide to Koper from the late 18th century, titled Cavresaneries – Curiosités de Capodistria / Curiosities of Koper (Koper–Capodistria, 2025). The guide was written in French by Agostino Carli-Rubbia, son of the Koper erudite Gian Rinaldo Carli, for a friend visiting Koper.
Dr Lucija Čok and Dr Salvator Žitko emphasised that historical knowledge about Venetian Koper should not remain confined to libraries and researchers’ offices, but should also be made accessible to the wider public. After the presentation, they were joined by Veselin Mišković, co-author of the publication.