STAMP DAY

Motif: Post box on the building of the Croatian Post headquarters Postage Stamp – Attribute of Statehood If any island, however small it may be, wishes to become a state, it will issue a postage stamp. This stamp will in turn bestow upon the island the mark of statehood in the same way that the sea marks its borders. The dense and closed form makes the island limitless. The postage stamp is an islet in the sea of history and geography in relation to which it has to define itself. Particularly in the case when history starts from scratch and geography must be adapted to it. On the 25th of June 1991 the Croatian Parliament, Sabor, proclaimed the independence of the Republic of Croatia. Even before the international recognition, on the 9th of September 1991, a definitive postage stamp with the name of the new state was issued. Fifteen years have passed since then and the Croatian Post is celebrating this anniversary. The postage stamp accompanied the birth of the Republic of Croatia, expressed its fundamental values, important dates, events and insignia. The tricolour flag and coat of arms have finally become the legal iconographic design of postage stamps. Being entitled to the same rights in the participation for applications for European themes will be felt as drawing closer to the European community... However, this golden layer of triumph could never cover the crime of the aggression against Croatia and the suffering of the war years. Despite the passing of time, time that supposedly heals the wounds, those tiny serrated rectangles will still retain the cry of the child from Vukovar, memories of the Croatian National Guard, or the pride of the defence of Šibenik crying out: “Both! Both of them have been brought down!” (referring to enemy planes). Besides being an attribute of statehood, the postage stamp is also the source of information on the present and past, history and geography, art and science, culture and sport, fauna and flora... The postage stamp is not a passive accompaniment of the centenary calendar. It evaluates anew all the mentioned areas, throwing new light upon the previously suppressed and proscribed contents. The postage stamp can also make contemporary history. It is an element of uniting Croatia with the world, whether by issues covering common themes or by joint issues with postal administrations of particular countries (Austria, Vatican, Slovakia, The Czech Republic, Belgium, Hungary ...). The small postage stamp intimately participates in our everyday life and its rituals. The postage stamp itself becomes a greeting card and a fine thought for the one to whom the letter is sent. The postage stamp has celebrated many holidays with us so far, among them fifteen Christmas feasts. In order to produce a postage stamp the work of many specialists is necessary. First of all these are professionals from two printing houses who have printed postage stamps in these fifteen years using the most modern technologies: “Zrinski” from Čakovec and the Croatian Printing Institute from Zagreb. There are also the members of the Committee in charge of the selection of motifs, visual and graphic designs of postage stamps, those who look after the artistic and culturology level of the Croatian philatelic production. Finally, there are some fifty creators, prominent painters and designers who have, by creating Croatian postage stamps for fifteen years, influenced the perception of the world about Croatia and its identity: Zlatko Jakuš, Boris Bućan, Boris Ljubičić, Miroslav Šutej, Zdravko Tišljar, Mladen Veža, Zlatko Keser, Lovro Artuković, Nevenka Arbanas, Hrvoje Šercar, Zvonimir Lončarić, Ivica Šiško, Frane Paro, Rudolf Labaš, Eugen Kokot, Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač, Ivica Antolčić, Zlatko Čular, Ratko Janjić, Josip Botteri Dini, Darko Jakić, Nada and Vilko Žiljak, Toni Nikolić, Želimir Borić, Dragutin Cifrek, Petar Jakelić, Josip Biffel, Vojo Radoičić, Đuro Seder, Danijel Popović, Vladimir Buzolić Stegu, Nenad Dogan, Maja Franić, Ana Žaja and Mario Petrak. Quite early on young designers have also started cooperating: Ivica Belinić, Nikola Šiško, still students at that time Orsat Franković and Sanja Kirinić, Dubravka Zglavnik Horvat, as well as former students of the Academy of Visual Arts Dragan Žilić and Sanja Rešček, Sabina Rešić, Maja Danica Pečanić and Borut Benčina. Some of the contemporary visual artists and photographers have handed over their works of art in order to allow reproduction prints of them used on postage stamps: Marija Ujević, Ivan Lacković Croata, Dalibor Martinis, Milivoj Bijelić, Ivo Deković, Željko Kipke, Martina Kramer, Mirko Zrinščak, Goran Petercol, Ivo Pervan, Damir Fabijanić and others. Croatian postage stamps have been praised and caught attention on account of being modern, of the youth and innovative solutions, which had been a particular concern. Croatian postage stamps have received world recognition and secured high reputation in this specific field for Croatia. It goes for philatelic prizes for the most beautiful and best postage stamps, as well as for those awarded for their artistic and designer value that were given to us at competitions. The competitions are organized by the French philatelic magazines Timbroloisirs, Wipa – the Austrian Philatelic Association from Vienna, the Philatelic Association of seven communities of the Veneto region from Asiago and the international philatelic competitions that are organized by the World Postal Association. Exactly on the tenth anniversary of issuing stamps, the Croatian Post received the Asiago prize and golden medal of the President of the Italian Republic. The postage stamp that had won the prize was the one dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Society of Croatian Writers which was designed by the young designer Orsat Franković. This prize is considered to be the philatelic Oscar, or better - small Nobel, and it was awarded to Croatia by the eminent world artists like the film director Ermanno Olmi and the writer Mario Rigoni Stern... On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary we again received the same prize for the work of the same author: “Bread and Vine”, postage stamps on the subject of gastronomy from the series “Europe”, and in Asiago they won prizes as the finest in the world in the year 2005. Open to very different aesthetic and visual values, the Croatian Post introduced to the world stage postage stamps that are visually continuously renewed and create surprise. These are the traditional beauty of realistic scenes, witty designer abbreviations, filigree graphic print-outs, courageous framing of massive motifs, painter-like shaping of surfaces, skilful usage of verbal signs, visual evocations of the heritage and futuristic minimalism. Complying to the routine of issues of definitive postage stamps, the Croatian Post has given the country legitimacy by their postage stamps as possibly no other institution before, primarily by being contemporary, by their variety and authors’ authenticity. Thus, by producing new postage stamps, the Croatian Post started building up a new philatelic public. Even more than that: it turned into a marked and stimulating factor of visual culture in Croatia. The postage stamp, this small island of civilization and culture, protects its autonomy in favourable and unfavourable circumstances, in peace and unrest, competing with strained circumstances and educating the public for a new understanding. Such a small island is a lighthouse whose beams reach to great distances. Dr Željka Čorak