Cool off – with fire!

As the air-conditioned interiors of museums are particularly appealing on hot summer days, consider spending an August day in Zagreb on a visit to the Ethnographic Museum, and cool off with fire in an informative and interesting exhibition of the same name.

Until mid-December, Zagreb’s Ethnographic Museum will feature an informative and interesting exhibition about one of life’s most important elements – fire. The exhibition, simply entitled “Fire”, has been organized in cooperation with the Fränkische Schweiz Museum Tüchersfeld from Pottenstein in Germany. The exhibition has been conceptually designed as a story, beginning with the historical aspects of the significance of fire itself, leading on to the way that fire has influenced modern lifestyles, art, economy…

In the cool of the museum, visitors will pass through the exhibition area, which consists of seven different sections. Beginning with the discovery of fire, the first section – named “Fire and Ice” – shows fire as a factor in ecology and evolution, in the form of the Sun, lightning, volcanoes and wildfires. The second section deals with fire and everyday life, from its first emergence to its modern forms in the shape of electric lighting and modern furnaces. This theme vividly explains the ways in which our ancestors made fire, how they maintained it, and what it was used for, as well as depicting the modern ways of using fire in our daily lives.

The third section, “Fire as a Work-Tool” deals with its importance in modern industry and production, while the fourth section, “Fire and Spirituality”, aims at its significance in religions and folklore. The following section is also very interesting: the “Fire and Law” section deals with the topic of burning heretics, witches and books as an integral motif of medieval Judgements of God. The final two sections revolve around modern terminology: “Fire, Sport and Entertainment” (sports victories, flare-displays, fireworks), while the last section, “Fire and Art”, deals with fire as a creative inspiration in various branches of art.