GEA – When Rocks Speak

GEA – When Rocks Speak

Exhibition “GEA – When Rocks Speak”
Natural History Museum Metković
5 December 2019, 6:00 PM

As early as the mid-19th century, Gjuro Pilar, one of the founders of geology as a scientific discipline in Croatia, stated that “the geologist is the first to pave the way for further exploration of the Earth’s crust, aimed at the rational use of underground resources.” Since then, the mission of geology has remained essentially the same, while continuously evolving through the application of new techniques, methods, and technologies. Through the exhibition “GEA – When Rocks Speak,” we sought to illustrate this idea using photographs and geological specimens.

The exhibition represents not only an important example of inter-museum cooperation but also a successful partnership between the long-established Croatian Natural History Museum, the younger and innovative Natural History Museum Metković, and the Croatian Geological Society, the leading professional organization dedicated to geology in Croatia.

The exhibition’s primary goal is to introduce visitors to the beauty and diversity of GEA—Mother Earth—and to tell the story of geology in an engaging and accessible way through photographs and museum objects, including rocks, minerals, and fossils.

The exhibited rocks, minerals, and fossils originate from geological collections across Croatia and represent specimens from various institutions.

The photographs featured in the exhibition were selected from the GEA photography competitions organized by the Croatian Geological Society since 2009. Each competition focused on a specific theme, and a jury selected forty photographs from numerous submissions for exhibition.

Competition themes included:

• 2009 – GEA Through the Lenses and Eyes of Croatian Geological Society Members
• 2010 – GEA in Blue
• 2011 – Geologists in Action
• 2013 – MicroGEA vs. MacroGEA
• 2016 – Cro-GEA, showcasing Croatia’s geological beauty
• 2017 – GEA(o)metry, exploring the relationship between geology and geometry through symmetry, spirals, meanders, waves, and other natural forms
• 2018 – GEA – Seasons
• 2019 – Black-and-White GEA

Over the years, these exhibitions have been presented at a number of major geological institutions, including INA, the Croatian Geological Institute, the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, and the Croatian Natural History Museum.

Visitors were invited to vote for their favourite photographs, and winners were selected each year. The photographs were later sold at charity auctions held during the annual assembly of the Croatian Geological Society, with all proceeds donated to charitable causes.

The photographs included in “GEA – When Rocks Speak” are not necessarily those that received the highest number of public votes or were considered the best in competition terms. Instead, they were chosen to illustrate the diversity of geology and the many ways in which Earth reveals itself to us.

The exhibition is organised into several thematic sections presenting:

• Geological fieldwork and the work of geologists
• The role of geology in the exploration and use of natural resources
• Karst landscapes and the influence of water on karst formations
• Geological structures
• Mineralogical and petrological characteristics of Croatia
• The microscopic world of rocks and minerals

Photographs of fossils were intentionally omitted, as fossils are presented through original specimens. The rich collections of the Croatian Natural History Museum, together with newly collected material, enabled the presentation of important and characteristic geological finds from the wider Metković area.

We hope that this exhibition will encourage further field research and contribute to the continued development of geological collections that will undoubtedly find their place in future permanent exhibitions of the Natural History Museum Metković.