The Zagreb Portal

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It was late one summer night in the mid-2010s, walking through a wooded campus on the north side of Zagreb, when we found it: a portal amongst the trees.

An ominous gateway to nowhere.

Flanking the portal, silent, open-mouthed apparitions emerged from the gloom – like Munch’s The Scream but with a third eye apiece, positioned in the middle of their foreheads.

Two figures appeared on each side of the gate.

Three of these wore the gestures of the Three Wise Monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

The fourth was something else though, a screaming figure with arms clutched across its chest.

On one side of the portal, carved numerals spelled out MMVIII: 2008. The other side was marked MMXIII, for 2013.

Of course I walked through the gate, half hoping that something might happen.

Of course nothing did.

Situated on the grounds of Zagreb’s Academy of Fine Arts (ALU), it’s probably safe to assume that the gateway was some kind of student project. I would share more information if I could. I would love to know its title, for instance, and who made it. I wonder if it’s still there today.

Nevertheless, experiencing the portal the way we did – as an inexplicable totem, a surprise encounter in the woods at night – I can’t help but feel that’s exactly what the artist(s) might have hoped for.