Crossing
Lena Grossenbacher

Islands, as enclosed worlds prone to fantasy, hold a powerful fascination on human societies. In our collective imagination, they are unspoiled, paradisiacal places where nature reigns supreme. They are open to all kinds of projections, but also to all kinds of disillusionment and have always been a great source of inspiration for literature, visual art and film. All these mediums have fed the fascination they hold on us. Even today, films, documentary and social medias show glimpse of how to survive on a desert island, where to go on honeymoon or how to enjoy an all-inclusive holiday far away from home.

In the case of Brijuni, it’s by no means a deserted or abandoned island, but still a sparsely inhabited one. As a national park, only visitors staying officially in one of the accommodations can spend a night there. The island’s unspoiled beauty justifies the magnetism it exerts over visitors, but its history plays a part too. The archipelago is renowned for being one of the former residences of Tito, Josip Broz, the former president of Yugoslavia. Many who grew up in this country at that time dreamt of spending holidays on this luxurious island, which hosted numerous statesmen and cinema stars, and where the late president was spending half the year. But every visitor arrives on Brijuni with their own preconceptions about the place, depending on where they come from and what they have read, heard or seen about it. A tension is thus created between what they imagine the island to be and what it really is.

Hundreds of people cross the water each day to get there and like them after almost 24 hours of travel we board the ferry, our last step before arriving. Leaving the mainland, we look behind, but once on the water we start looking in front of us, to the territory we were about to dock. Time on the water is like suspended. We are gazing longingly at the coastline that would soon greet us, recalling what we heard about the island before. Crossing with the boat heightens our excitement. At our arrival, while docking everything we have imagined about this island slowly vanished to be replaces by fresh new impressions. What we thought we knew begins to be replaced by what we discover.

In this video I look at that in-between moment that repeats itself over and over again every day. Everyone who transits to Brijuni arrives, influenced by her or his personal, with her or his own preconceptions and expectations. These will be confirmed or refuted once the island is reached,… at the end of the crossing.