The Vučetić – The Discovery of Dactiloscopy in Solving Crimes exhibition opened at Munich’s magnificent Palace of Justice on Wednesday, July 10th in the frame of the Kroatien Kreativ 2013 festival showcasing Croatian culture and encompassing some one hundred exhibitions, promo events and shows in cities across Germany.
This Croatian Heritage Foundation multimedia exhibition featuring the work of Croatian emigrant from the island of Hvar Ivan Vučetić (who died and is buried in Argentina) premiered five years ago as a collaboration between author and project coordinator Ljerka Galic and the Police Museum in La Plata, Argentina to mark the 150th anniversary of Vučetić’s birth.
The Munich showing is the eight incarnation of the exhibition following those in Zagreb, Pula, Opatija, Hvar, Split, Trieste and Milan, and marks both the 155th anniversary of Ivan Vučetić’s birth and Croatia’s accession to the European Union.
Financial and logistical support for the exhibition (along with the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the Croatian Heritage Foundation) was provided by the Bavarian-Croatian Association whose president Konrad Kobler welcomed the visitors. Also on hand to welcome the gathered were Bavarian Justice Minister Beate Merk and Croatian General Consul in Munich Petar Uzorinac.
Exhibition author Ljerka Galic spoke about the project which, at first glance departs from the context of presenting Croatian heritage, but does encompass the segment of culture, the judiciary and science in which Ivan Vučetić demonstrated through his discovery how the identity of every individual is preserved in the face of globalisation and an aspiration for the primacy of human rights in which the wrongly accused have a window to liberty and justice.
The special guests at the opening were presented a memento of the occasion: scarves with the biography of Ivan Vučetić in German in the form of a fingerprint.
Text by: Ljerka Galic