As part of the dissemination of the MIKOM project’s research and its broader engagement with the educational and cultural sectors, project team member Dr Nikolina Belošević delivered an invited lecture entitled “Drawing – Interlace – Nation: From a Universal Early Medieval Motif to a Contemporary Sign of Croatian Identity.”
The lecture was presented at the National Professional Conference for Teachers of Visual Arts, Drawing as a Universal Means of Expression in Visual Art, held on 27–28 August 2026 at the First Sušak Croatian Gymnasium in Rijeka. The conference was organized by the Education and Teacher Training Agency and brought together teachers and educators in the field of visual arts from all counties of the Republic of Croatia.
The lecture addressed the transformation of the interlace motif from a non-figurative decorative form in Early Medieval art into a powerful symbol associated with Croatian cultural and national identity. In this context, it also presented questions of visual interpretation, cultural memory, and the changing meanings attributed to artistic motifs across different historical and contemporary contexts.
The participation of a MIKOM project team member in a national professional conference for visual arts educators represents an important contribution to the dissemination of the project’s research findings beyond the academic community and to strengthening dialogue between scholarly research, education, and the wider public.
