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Red Crossing: Nick Tobier and Roland Graf at the Split Biennial

December 13, 2024

This year, Red Crossing, a participatory public art project by Stamps Professors Nick Tobier and Roland Graf, transformed the ancient Peristyl of Split — a UNESCO World Heritage site at the heart of Diocletian’s Palace — into a space of community and creativity.

Red crossing 51 Nick Tobier
Photo Credit: Zakalina Antonijevic

As part of the 42nd Split Salon, themed REGENERATION, the project invited participants to collectively raise a buoyant red walkway, reshaping the historic square into a vibrant zone of cooperation and joy. Drawing inspiration from Split’s traditional game of picking — where players collaborate to keep a ball aloft in shallow water—Red Crossing encouraged teams to find rhythms, blending individual expression with collective action.

The project redefines the role of public spaces, moving beyond spectatorship to active participation. Echoing Brett Rolfe’s concept of ​“innovative hothouses,” Red Crossing demonstrates how small, creative actions can spark powerful, joyful, and transformative moments in real life. With minimal material and willing collaborators, these acts offer a vision of inclusion, challenging the displacement and commercialization caused by mass tourism in Split’s urban core.

Red crossing 17 Nick Tobier
Red crossing 32 Nick Tobier
Red crossing 49 Nick Tobier

Photo Credit: Zakalina Antonijevic

This intervention aligns with a historical dialogue of artistic actions in Split, including the 1968 Red Peristyl, a radical act of painting the square red to disrupt order and decorum. Subsequent works, such as Ante Kuštre’s Green Peristyl (1988) and Igor Grubić’s Black Sphere (1998), continued to interrogate authority, consumption, and environmental themes. With Red Crossing, Tobier and Graf engage this legacy, offering a participatory antidote to the creeping spectatorship and commerce dominating public spaces.

Part of the Split Salon’s broader exploration of renewal and transformation, Red Crossing embodies the Salon’s mission to tackle contemporary global and local issues — environmental sustainability, socio-political change, and urban revitalization — through creative and often poetic interventions. The 42nd Split Salon, under the curatorial leadership of Jasmine Šarić, represents a landmark in Dalmatian art, showcasing works across the city and inviting artists and the public to reimagine the role of art in shaping society.