Presentation of Edition Biškupić release marking 30 years of diplomatic relations between Croatia and Japan
On 16 June 2023, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) hosted a special programme presenting the release by Edition Biškupić marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Croatia and Japan. Entitled “Hospital haiku” (Haiku iz bolnice) and featuring poetry by distinguished Croatian poet, translator and Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Luko Paljetak and prints by award-winning visual artist and Associate Professor at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts Miran Šabić, the release has been put on display in the Library’s grand lobby and will remain on view until 28 June 2023.
After a welcome address by the Director General of the National and University Library in Zagreb Dr Ivanka Stričević and subsequent addresses by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the Republic of Croatia His Excellency Mr Iso Masato and Croatian Minister of Culture and Media and Dr Nina Obuljen Koržinek, the exclusive release was presented by its editor-in-chief, the founder and curator of Edition Biškupić Božo Biškupić, Head of the Print Collection of the National and University Library in Zagreb Tamara Ilić-Olujić, author of the prints Miran Šabić, one of the authors of the poems’ Japanese translation Tomislav Mikuljan and Fellows of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Sibila Petlevski and Drago Štambuk.
The presentation programme included a reading of Paljetak’s poems in Croatian by Senior Public Relations Adviser at the NSK Marketing and Communications Section Dobrila Zvonarek and in Japanese by the Third Secretary at the Embassy of Japan to the Republic of Croatia, the embassy’s cultural attaché and together with Tomislav Mikuljan the author of the poems’ translation into Japanese Mr Yutaro Nishida.
Edition Biškupić releases have been bringing together visual artists and the artists of the written word since the beginning of the 1970s, intertwining in unique ways the visual and verbal art discourses.
Copies of the release labelled A and B were made for and donated to the National and University Library in Zagreb and Japan’s national library, National Diet Library Japan.
“Haiku iz bolnice”, the 2023 release by Edition Biškupić featuring haiku poems by distinguished Croatian writer and Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Luko Paljetak, in Croatian and Japanese, and prints by award-winning visual artist and Associate Professor at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts Miran Šabić, and marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Croatia and Japan, presented at the National and University in Library in Zagreb and remaining on view in the Library’s grand lobby until 28 June 2023.
