May 3,2025 – opening of the Pop-up Museum which celebrates ballet art and is a memorial of the 30th anniversary of the rocket attack on ZagrebFrom the theatre — 30. April 2025.
On May 3, 2025, the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb launched the first edition of the theatre's Pop-up Museum. This new cultural project blends an innovative combination of theatre art and museum presentation, creating a space in which the visitors can experience the theatre in a completely new manner — interactively and dynamically.
The first exhibition is dedicated to ballet art and relates to the marking of the 200th performance of ballet Giselle as part of the celebration of 130 years of the building of the CNT in Zagreb and to the memory of the rocket attack on Zagreb in which on May 3, 1995, 17 ballet artists were wounded. The idea of the theatre Pop-up Museum will cover several annual exhibitions that will be on display for a few months, complementing the current production of the Croatian National Theatre and commemorating important events and individuals.
The general manager of the CNT in Zagreb Iva Hraste Sočo explained how this Pop-up Museum is designed as a space of dialogue, recollection and inspiration through which the theatre with these exhibitions will open the door to history but also to the things that make up the theatre of today – a place of live emotions. It is an honour to open the first edition of our theatre Pop – up Museum with an exhibition that connects the power of art and memory. Ballet Giselle symbolises beauty, dedication and timeless love while the exhibition on the rocket attack on Zagreb and the CNT in Zagreb, reminds us of the courage and resistance of the theatre and artists in the most difficult times, said the general manager Iva Hraste Sočo, who with the creative producer of the CNT in Zagreb Mario Gigović and curator Martina Petranović conceived this cultural format with a goal of offering art to a wider range of visitors.
The first performance of ballet Giselle at the CNT in Zagreb was on January 21, 1897, only two years after the opening of the theatre building. This pearl of the romantic ballets returned to the Zagreb stage 68 years later and until today had 8 premieres and along The Nutcracker and Swan Lake is one of the most performed and popular ballet of the CNT in Zagreb. The Donauballett project commenced on May 2, 1995 in Zagreb with choreographer Krzysztof Pastor and the ensemble who, along dancers in Zagreb hosted young dancers from European theatres. The creative energy was abruptly interrupted on May 3, 1995, by the rocket attack on Zagreb. One bomb fell through the glass roof of the ballet studio and exploded wounding 17 artists among which were the choreographer himself, ballet mistress Božica Lisak and the director of the ballet at that time Almira Osmanović.
The next edition of the Pop-up Museum in October this year will be dedicated to the 130th birth anniversary of composer Jakov Gotovac when Ero the Joker, one of the most popular works of the Croatian opera literature will be performed in a Gala evening. The audience will be able to see opera Stanac by Gotovac at the CNT in Zagreb as well as at the CNT in Split which will be a symbolic connection of the two cities with a long theatre tradition.
