Graphics of Rebellion at MMSU: a three-day workshop on activist print and posters ends with a pop-up exhibition in Benčić
At the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, from May 6 to 8, 2026, the second edition of the workshop
Graphics of Rebellion – Intensive of Activist Print #2 is being held, a program that connects graphic design, printing techniques, visual culture, and social engagement. The workshop has been announced as a three-day intensive dedicated to exploring the ways in which visual language is used to express resistance, solidarity, and ideas of social change. The program will be held in the afternoon sessions, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and will end with a public presentation of works on a mobile kiosk in the courtyard of the Benčić district, on Saturday, May 9, at 12 p.m.
According to the MMSU announcement, the workshop is intended primarily for young people who want to try poster design and think about activism through design. Participation is limited by the number of places, and the application deadline was April 30, 2026, with the obligation to participate during all three days of the program. This positions the workshop as a working and educational format, and not only as a one-time lecture or demonstration of a printing technique. The emphasis is on the process: from becoming familiar with historical and contemporary examples of activist graphics, through joint discussion, to the creation and printing of works that will then leave the closed museum space and be presented in the public setting of Benčić.
The poster as a political language and a tool of joint action
At the center of the workshop is the poster, a medium that throughout history has often been simultaneously an artistic, communicative, and political tool. Posters, banners, leaflets, guerrilla interventions in space, and digital graphics are not only accompanying materials of social movements, but often shape the way in which the public recognizes their messages. Precisely for this reason, the Graphics of Rebellion program starts from the question of how visual expressions convey political positions, how they connect communities, and how they can help in imagining a fairer social space. In that sense, the workshop does not treat design as neutral decoration, but as a language that can encourage participation, discussion, and the public visibility of topics that concern the wider community.
According to the program description, participants will deal with different graphic formats and strategies: from posters and banners to interventions in space and digital environments. An important part of the program is joint reflection on historical examples and contemporary practices. Such an approach makes it possible for activist graphics to be viewed not only through aesthetics, but also through the social context in which it emerges. A poster can be fast, direct, and clear, but it can also be layered, poetic, and open to different readings. In both cases, its effect depends on the relationship between image, text, space, and audience.
The workshop will introduce participants to the basic terminology of design, printing, and media production. Familiarization with analogue and digital collage-making, ecological techniques, and the preparation of materials for appropriate media has also been announced. In this way, the program crosses the boundary between theoretical conversation and practical work. Participants will not only talk about the role of design in public space, but through their own works they will examine how a message is shaped, multiplied, and distributed. Such a format is especially important at a time when political and social communication increasingly takes place on digital platforms, while the physical poster retains its power precisely because it enters the concrete space of the city.
Riso printing as a link between craft, experiment, and the independent scene
The works created in the workshop will be printed on a riso printer, a technique that combines elements of digital and analogue printing. Riso is known for its specific graphic quality, visible layers of color, the tactility of the print, and the possibility of quickly multiplying a larger number of copies. Because of its economy and speed, since the 1980s this technique has often been associated with independent publishing, fanzines, social movements, communities, and activist practices. In the context of the Graphics of Rebellion workshop, riso is not only a technical means, but also part of a broader culture of self-organized, collaborative, and more accessible printing.
The workshop leader is
Ana Labudović, a designer and printer who works in Rijeka and is connected with the Riso and Friends project. In publicly available descriptions of her work, her activity at the intersection of design, specialized riso printing, independent culture, civil society, and education is emphasized. The Riso and Friends project is developing as a collaborative framework for printing, learning, experimentation, and independent publishing. Precisely such a practice naturally continues into a workshop that wants to enable young participants to understand design as a tool of expression, but also as a method of joint work.
Riso printing is especially suitable for a program dedicated to the activist poster because it carries within itself the tension between speed and manual character. The print is often not perfectly uniform, colors can overlap in unexpected ways, and the process requires planning layers and materials. Instead of hiding such characteristics, riso turns them into a recognizable aesthetic. For workshop participants, this means that the printing process can become part of thinking about the message: how to choose a color, how to emphasize a word, how to combine image and typography, how to accept an error as part of the visual language, and how to create a strong public sign from a limited number of means.
The program in the museum and the works' exit into public space
MMSU announces the workshop as a combination of practical work and joint reflection, and its conclusion is planned outside the classic exhibition format. After three days of work, the resulting posters and graphic materials will be presented through a pop-up exhibition on a mobile kiosk in the courtyard of the Benčić district. This final step is important because it returns the works to the space of the public, where activist graphics most often gain their full meaning. Instead of remaining only exercises in the workshop, the prints will become a temporary public exhibition and a communication event open to visitors.
The Benčić district is not a random backdrop here. It is a former industrial complex that, through a long process of revitalization, has been transformed into an important cultural space of Rijeka. In this environment there are institutions and programs that connect contemporary art, museum activity, library culture, children’s and educational content, and public spaces intended for encounters. In the official descriptions of the Benčić project, the City of Rijeka highlights it as one of the significant cultural-infrastructural interventions, and MMSU is among the key institutions operating in that space. For visitors coming to the final presentation, information about
accommodation near Benčić may also be useful, especially if they combine the program with a tour of other cultural content in Rijeka.
The final pop-up exhibition on the kiosk in the courtyard of Benčić additionally emphasizes the idea of accessibility. The kiosk as a format recalls the distribution of newspapers, leaflets, proclamations, and small editions, that is, the places where visual and textual messages meet everyday passers-by. In the context of activist graphics, such a choice is symbolically clear: the message does not remain locked in the white gallery space, but moves closer to an informal, transient, and public way of communication. In this way, the workshop also gains an urban dimension, because the works created in the museum briefly change the atmosphere of the courtyard and inscribe themselves into the cultural everyday life of the district.
MMSU as a place of education, experiment, and contemporary visual culture
The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka operates at the address Krešimirova 26c, in the space of the former Rikard Benčić factory. According to information published on the Museum’s pages, regular opening hours are from Tuesday to Friday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., while group visits on working days are possible by prior announcement in the morning term. Although the Graphics of Rebellion workshop is a separate program with applications and a limited number of participants, its holding at MMSU fits into a broader museum practice that does not view art only through exhibitions, but also through educational, participatory, and research formats.
Such programs open the question of the role of the museum in contemporary society. A museum is not only an institution that preserves collections and presents exhibitions, but can also be a space of learning, public discussion, and experiment. The workshop on activist print shows this dimension especially strongly, because it introduces participants to the history and practice of visual communication that often emerged outside academic and institutional frameworks. The program explicitly mentions familiarization with posters from museum collections, but also with examples not necessarily created by trained designers, but by artists, autodidacts, and various actors of social movements.
Such an expanded view of design is important because it shows that graphic culture is not reserved only for professional studios, agencies, or specialized designers. It also emerges in collectives, student circles, initiatives, neighborhood actions, cultural centers, and independent printing practices. The workshop can therefore be an entry into understanding design as a social skill: a way to make a complex idea visible, to translate a personal position into a shared message, and to encourage public space to react.
Who the workshop is for and what participants can gain
The program is especially aimed at young people who want to try poster design and open topics of activism through design. This does not necessarily mean that participants are expected to have previous professional experience in graphic design or printing. According to the description of the methodology, the workshop includes the basics of design, printing, media production, and an introduction to different working techniques. Such an approach enables the participation of people who are only entering the field of visual communication, but also of those who already have experience and want to connect their work with socially engaged topics.
An important condition of the program is participation during all three days. This shows that the workshop is not based on the quick adoption of ready-made solutions, but on the gradual development of an idea, conversation, and joint learning. Participants will have the opportunity to think about the message, shape the visual language, prepare materials for printing, and see how their works behave as prints. In that process, they can learn how design decisions affect readability, emotional tone, and the political clarity of the message. It is possible to expect that special attention will also be devoted to the relationship between individual expression and collective voice, because activist graphics often emerge precisely between personal motivation and a common goal.
For the public that does not participate in the workshop, the most visible part of the program will be the final presentation on May 9 in the courtyard of Benčić. The pop-up exhibition provides insight into the results of the three-day work, but also into the way in which young authors think about the themes of resistance, solidarity, and social change. Since the program takes place in a cultural district, visitors to the final exhibition can connect it with other content in that part of the city, and for arrival from outside Rijeka, information about the
accommodation offer in Rijeka is also practical.
Activist graphics between history and the present
The activist poster has a long history, but the Graphics of Rebellion workshop does not approach it as a closed historical genre. On the contrary, the program connects historical examples and contemporary practices, including digital environments and guerrilla interventions in space. This is important because today’s visual communication does not take place only on walls, bulletin boards, and printed posters. Messages also spread through social networks, in the form of digital visuals, short texts, memes, stickers, projections, and hybrid campaigns that simultaneously live in physical and online space.
Despite digital dominance, the printed poster still has a special power. Its physical presence requires an encounter in space, and its material character reminds us that a message is not only data on a screen. A print can be carried, pasted, exchanged, preserved, or reused. In the riso technique, this material aspect becomes even more pronounced: color, paper, texture, and possible irregularities create the impression of work that is not completely industrial, but bears the trace of process and human decision. Precisely for this reason, in recent years riso has become an important tool for independent publishers, artists, designers, and various collectives that want to produce small editions and visually recognizable materials.
The workshop at MMSU can therefore also be read as a reminder that the struggle for public space is not conducted only through grand political speeches and institutional decisions, but also through images, words, colors, and signs. Activist graphics do not always have to offer final answers. Sometimes their strength lies in opening a question, mobilizing attention, connecting people, or creating a visual trace of some shared concern. Graphics of Rebellion brings together education, art, and social imagination precisely in this field.
Benčić as the stage of the final presentation
The choice of the Benčić courtyard for the final pop-up exhibition further strengthens the public character of the workshop. Benčić is a space in which Rijeka’s industrial past meets new cultural functions, and such a context suits a program that questions the relationship between art, design, and social action. The former factory complex has been transformed into a cultural district, and precisely such spaces often become places of experiment, encounters of different audiences, and the creation of new urban habits. In this environment, the posters created in the workshop will not be only final works, but also temporary comments on the public space in which they are presented.
According to the announcement, the pop-up exhibition will be held on Saturday, May 9, at 12 p.m. on a mobile kiosk in the courtyard of the Benčić district. The format is short in time, but in terms of content it is focused on the visibility of the work and the process that preceded it. For participants, this means a public presentation of their own ideas, and for visitors the possibility to see how a concrete visual material develops from a workshop, conversation, and printing experiment. The final presentation can at the same time open the question of how similar educational and participatory programs can continue to develop in the museum and city context.
The program Graphics of Rebellion – Intensive of Activist Print #2 shows how design can be learned through a theme, a position, and joint work, and not only through formal exercises. At the center are not only beautifully designed posters, but the understanding that graphic language has social consequences: it can include or exclude, simplify or open a topic, reproduce existing patterns or offer a different image of togetherness. Precisely because of this, the workshop at MMSU has a broader significance than the three-day program itself. It reminds us that a print can be both a trace of learning, and a sign of solidarity, and an invitation to think about the space in which social messages are created, shared, and read.
Sources:- Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka – official announcement of the workshop Graphics of Rebellion – Intensive of Activist Print #2, with program dates, workshop description, application information, and the final pop-up exhibition (link)- MojaRijeka – announcement of the workshop and pop-up exhibition, with additional information about leader Ana Labudović, riso printing, and the purpose of the program (link)- Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka – official information about the Museum’s address and opening hours (link)- City of Rijeka / Enter Rijeka – description of the Art Quarter Benčić project and the revitalization of the former Rikard Benčić industrial complex (link)- City of Rijeka – information about the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in the space of the former Rikard Benčić factory and the development of Rijeka’s art quarter (link)- Riso and Friends – information about the residency program and the collaborative context of riso printing, independent publishing, art, design, activism, and education (link)- Vizkultura – interview with Ana Labudović about the Riso and Friends project, risograph printing, and work in Rijeka (link)
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