Caput Mortuum
2010
Medium:
Metal construction, water, textile
150 × 400 × 400 cm
(Textile with iron oxide impression 1150 × 450 cm; crystallized iron oxide print 15 × 15 cm)
Installation view:
Caput Mortuum, SC Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia, 2010
Work Description:
Caput Mortuum unfolds as a site-specific installation developed for the atrium of the Italian Pavilion (Theatre &TD) within the Student Centre complex in Zagreb. At its core, the work resurrects a long-disused modernist fountain, turning its industrial relic into a stage for reflection on decay, transformation, and time.
The title, Caput mortuum (Latin for “dead head”), refers to the alchemical residue left after chemical transmutation—a pigment once called rosso veneziano or mummy brown, historically derived from decomposed organic matter. In this sense, Vujičić’s installation functions as both process and allegory: a meditation on matter’s decay and art’s persistence, an emblem of mortality turned into aesthetic and metaphysical form.
As the iron stains consume the fabric over time, the work enacts its own disappearance, embodying melancholy as both subject and method. What remains is not an image, but a trace—an emblem of entropy and remembrance.
Photo credits:
Studio Silvio Vujičić