Visual ArtJAN 18, 2021

A Decade Of Enchantment With "The Tales Of The Wind" By Zdenko Bašić

Very few children fortunate enough to have someone to read them stories are able to resist the lure of fairytales. Most of them remain under their spell only for a brief time, some continue to read them throughout their lives and only a handful turn their hand on collecting, creating, and composing tales old and new. They come to be the storytellers.

Zdenko Bašić is one of them and 2021 marks a special occasion for a special book.

Born in Zagreb, Croatia, he has been working as an illustrator and animator since 2002, enriching many children’s books and collaborating with numerous American and European publishers, sweeping an armful of awards along the way.

Zdenko won the Grigor Vitez Award for Illustration in 2009 and 2014, and he is also a three-time recipient of Kiklop Award. His works were exhibited in Slovakia, Iran, and Japan, and in Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb, he held a big exhibition "The Shadows of the Wind" in 2017 after winning the Grand Prix at the Sixth Croatian Biennale of Illustration. In 2012 he was added to the International Board on Books for Young People Honours List (IBBY).

His film "Gulliver" wins the Grand Prix at Animateka Festival in Ljubljana, and in 2012 his animated/live-action film The Oars is awarded the Gold Medal of UNICA, World Festival of Non-commercial Filmmakers in Bulgaria. In 2017 he becomes the co-founder and the first Artistic Director of the Perun Festival in Velika Gorica, dedicated to forgotten folk tales and legends and, together with Spiritos Publishing House he comes with "The Goldsmith’s Treasure," which becomes a bestseller in 2018. Last year he published the book "Moguths – the Forgotten Guardians of Turopolje."

This year sees the tenth anniversary of "The Tales of the Wind," a collection of stories written and illustrated by him and inspired by the magical lore of the region he grew up in. As Zdenko was already considered a trailblazer in his home country, the collection was hailed for its originality and stormed the book world, smashing the sales records.

The book took seven years to complete and it is a treasure trove of weird, wild, and magical creatures like Fairies, Fates, The Unseen, Murks, Nigglers, Darkwalkers, and Houndgobs, to name a few. He adds to their lengthy list his own mysterious long-legged creatures, with tall hats, windswept hair, and fiery eyes, beckoning us into the world inspired Croatian folk-tales and folk beliefs that have been orally transmitted from generation to generation for centuries.

This Slavic legacy, preserved and disguised in Christianity merges with Celtic and Roman roots and this is what adds a special flavour to the Croatian cauldron of tales. This unique blend of traditions sets Croatian stories apart from the rest of the Slavic traditions.

The book has been translated into English and Zdenko is now ready to share it with the wider world, transferring the book into the digital format.

‘When we initiated this project,’ says Zdenko: ‘We could not have dreamed how profoundly the world would change in a span of a single year. Perhaps now when we see how easily our dreams crumble to dust,’ he adds: ‘We can better understand our ancient ancestors who wove legends around the natural events and causes that shaped and stamped their lives.’

Those were the tales passed down for generations. Nestled next to a crackling hearth, imagination had no bounds. The present world has lost this ability to listen, but also to tell tales… Still, the tales somehow survive and live on through the glow of the modern digital fire. They reach the ears of new kids who listen and observe this world in an entirely new way.

‘This book,’ says Zdenko: ‘Was inspired by stories and places in which I grew up, and those I encountered on the way – as my grandmothers used to tell me – my own two feet have trodden the hidden paths in the forests that change with the seasons and the passage of time. For many who are no longer around and the stories that they took with them. Buried and squashed under the weight of the contemporary world.’

It is this unearthed world of wonder that he invites us in. It is a journey well worth taking!

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