Cres Memory Project

Cres Memory Project is an exhibition at the Cres Museum, created in collaboration with New York photographer Gildo Spadoni.
His parents, Gildo and Antoinette, were emigrants originally from Cres: Gildo was born in 1912 in Cres, and Antoinette in 1924 in Astoria (NY), to a mother from Cres.

In 1951, they decided to visit their homeland, as the first Cres emigrants to return to the island. They arrived in Cres by boat, bringing the help that, in the difficult conditions after World War II, was very much needed: food, clothes, tools. Their visit lasted about a month and caused great interest in the small town. Everyone came to see them: relatives, friends, acquaintances.
During that visit, Antoinette Spadoni took an exceptional series of photographs showing Cres and its inhabitants. There are more than two hundred photographs – mostly portraits. All are reproduced in the catalog, and one hundred and thirty-five are on display.
 The idea of this project is not only to display the photos, but also to collect memories.
Namely, Antoinette Spadoni did not record the names of the people she photographed. However, there are people from Cres who still remember them and whose memories the Museum has collected.
In this way, we connected American photographs that lack data and Cres memory, which lacks a visual trace.