Baranja Dreaming is the first part of a personal tetralogy by Tomislav Marcijuš, followed by the upcoming project Everything is the Same, but it Hurts More, which is scheduled to be published in May of next year. The tetralogy also includes the titles Baranja 2.0 and After all.
«Every departure takes us back to a new beginning, teaching us to discover something new within ourselves. We are the result of all those who came before us. The legacy of our families, both good and bad, is part of who we are. Unlike the cities where we rush around frantically, in village life everything is about community, not the individual». As a child, Marcijuš did not fully grasp this concept, and with Baranja Dreaming, the goal is to reconnect with a community, an environment, and a learning process.
«Baranja is the place of my roots. A dreamy region where life moves slowly and where you feel nostalgia for every season. Baranja is a diverse and serene landscape, where the misty fields remind me of a dream from which I never awoke. Where winter seems endless, and even the smell of burning has its own beauty. Baranja is a melancholic part of Eastern Croatia that has influenced my work, my behavior, and my way of life. We’re not just talking about the nature and landscapes of Baranja; in it, all life is one» explains the photographer.
The project tells of the days spent in the countryside and—at the same time—the desire to escape from that same place, a feeling that shaped the young Marcijuš while he was searching for something better, without realizing he had grown up in a wonderful environment, as he now puts it. In a dreamy fog, surrounded by the most important people in his life. What emerges from this project is that in searching for something greater and more meaningful, we often forget about the space and the people around us. Likewise, we overlook the small signs along the way, signs that ultimately lead us to those big things we had only dreamed of.
«The feeling endures; I carry with me all those places in Baranja that I photographed in the beginning, wherever I go, unconsciously transferring all those emotions to my future ideas. The lyrical photographs you see before you, created over the past ten years, intimately question how much control we have over ourselves to shape what we will become through landscapes and years» concludes Marcijuš.
With Baranja Dreaming, Tomislav Marcijuš invites us to reflect on the relationship between the past and the present, between who we are and who we might become, all through the lens of nostalgia and the rural beauty of Baranja.
