My Zagreb in the Drawings of Ivan Čižmek

The renowned Zagreb architect and urban planner Ivan Čižmek is among the best connoisseurs of his native Zagreb, as demonstrated by his maps of drawings.

He has recorded more than half a century of changes in the urban fabric. As an expert who perfected his skills in Paris during the tumultuous 1960s, he is drawn to the relationship between the old and new city. ‘Those countless suburbs that lean against each other,’ as Čižmek likes to say while quoting Vaništa, reveal to us a careful observer who loves the city and understands its reurbanization. Like no one before him, Čižmek has documented most of southern Zagreb, the Sava River and fishermen, Bundek and the verticals of buildings all the way to Sopot, Siget, and the exhibition hall. He has recorded the seasons and changes around the crescent of the Sava embankment towards Trnje, shifting his gaze to the slopes of Medvednica with the dominant cathedral towers, church bell towers alternating with the outlines of newly composed corporate skyscrapers that have emerged in the urban fabric.

From Dugave to the Surroundings
‘Where do I live?’ asks architect Čižmek and answers that question in his map of drawings dedicated to Zagreb. He provides countless answers, variations on a theme. From 1948 to 2000, he compiled more than 1,700 drawings into maps. Part of his drawing treasure, with vignettes, sketches, and textual notes, is united in the album ‘My Zagreb’ spanning as many as 286 pages. From this large sketchbook created during the spring of 2006, primarily outdoors while cycling and stopping in front of interesting motifs, 64 drawings were selected and presented in an exhibition at the Zrinski Gallery (until September 1) as part of the Zagreb Palace Hotel.
Čižmek’s depiction of Zagreb begins in Dugave, a settlement that emerged on what was once a low floodplain near the old Hrelić, which was shaped into an urban entity with buildings and greenery arranged around a circular road ring by him, Tomislav Odak, and collaborators. In a spatial drawing with a marker, Čižmek has shown how picturesque the views of New Zagreb and its surroundings are.

 Drawing with Explanation
Curious, he will escape by bicycle into the fields towards Buzin and Odra, and in his block that he always carries with him, he will draw a wooden Turopolje chapel and crucifix, the crown of an oak tree, and chickens in the yard. His drawings are supplemented with textual explanations, momentary thoughts, emotions, and topographical data. It is a ‘dialogue with the landscape, a neighbor on a walk,’ as he himself says… He explains that through drawing he engages in cultural battles to understand how things have developed. ‘To look is one thing, but to see is another. A walk with pauses initiates the drawing. A person who is not in a hurry, who has time to measure the silhouette of an object in the shimmering light of the landscape, can draw,’ says Čižmek.