Nine Views

Nine Views (Croatian: Devet pogleda) is an ambiental installation in Zagreb, Croatia which, together with the sculpture Prizemljeno Sunce (The Grounded Sun), makes up a consistent model of solar system.

Prizemljeno Sunce by Ivan Kožarić was first displayed in 1971 by the building of the Croatian National Theatre, and since then changed location a few times. Since 1994 it has been situated in the Bogovićeva Street. It is simply a bronze sphere around 2 metres in diameter.

In 2004, artist Davor Preis had a two-week exhibition in the Josip Račić Exhibition Hall in Margaretska Street in Zagreb, and afterwards he placed 9 models of the planets of the solar system around Zagreb, to complete a model of the entire solar system. The models’ sizes as well as their distances from the Prizemljeno Sunce are all in the same scale as the Prizemljeno Sunce itself.

Preis did this installation with very little or no publicity, so his installation isn’t well known among citizens of Zagreb. On a few occasions individuals or small groups of people, particularly physics students, “discovered” that there was a model of the solar system in Zagreb. One of the earliest efforts to find all of the planets was started in November 2004 on the web forum of the student section of Croatian Physics Society.

The locations of the planets are as follows:

• Mercury - 3 Margaretska Street
• Venus - 3 Ban Josip Jelačić Square
• Earth - 9 Varšavska Street
• Mars - 21 Tkalčićeva Street
• Jupiter - 71 Voćarska Street
• Saturn - 1 Račićeva Street
• Uranus - 9 Siget
• Neptune - Kozari Way
• Pluto - Bologna Alley (underpass) - included in the installation before being demoted to dwarf planet