8th CROATIAN CONGRESS
ON NEUROREHABILITATION
AND RESTORATIVE NEUROLOGY
with international participation
Multidisciplinary Approach:
Challenges, Complications and Solutions
Dear colleagues and friends,
President of the Organizing Committee
350 unique tote bags and bookmarks for congress participants
The Naprej Maribor Centre, as a co-organizer of the 8th Croatian Congress of Neurorehabilitation and Restorative Neurology in Osijek, significantly enriches the congress program through its scientific and professional contributions.
A particularly special contribution from the Centre comes in the form of gifts for all congress participants.
The users of the Naprej Maribor Centre – individuals living with the consequences of severe brain injury – created unique gifts for all participants as part of their rehabilitation program: 350 handmade tote bags and 350 bookmarks.
Each bag is unique. They were created in creative workshops where the users, with great dedication, first hand-printed the designs and then carefully completed each bag. The bookmarks were also made in several stages – from laser cutting under the guidance of instructors to manual edge finishing – with every participant adding their personal touch of precision and creativity.
The entire process required patience, perseverance, and collaboration – values that the users of the Naprej Centre embody every day. They proudly presented their finished works in front of the camera, confirming that creativity and effort know no limits.
Exhibition of Works by Antonio Rendulić
The exhibition of works by Antonio Rendulić opens a space where art, personal experience, and the therapeutic process intertwine into a powerful expression of resilience and transformation.
The black-and-white prints, created using the soft wax technique, bear the imprints of wheelchair wheels. These are not merely physical traces, but symbolic records of everyday challenges and lifelong difficulties. Through the artistic process, these marks are transformed into a visual language that speaks of struggle, adaptation, and inner strength.
In addition to the prints, the exhibition presents acrylic paintings of rich colors and dynamic contrasts. Planes, lines, and chromatic relationships within them represent inner landscapes – spaces of pain, trauma, and vulnerability, but also moments of light, vitality, and renewal. Color becomes a means of self-regulation and inner balance, while the very act of creation functions as a psychotherapeutic process for addressing stress and trauma.
The process of art therapy has accompanied the author throughout different phases of his life, enabling him to recognize creativity as a resource for overcoming difficulties and a pathway toward healing. From a therapeutic perspective, these visual expressions serve as a bridge between bodily experience, emotional content, and cognitive processing, resulting in reduced tension, the reestablishment of integrity, and an increased sense of inner stability.
This exhibition is not only an aesthetic experience but also a testimony to the healing power of art – a space where personal traces become a universal message of hope, resilience, and the possibility of transformation.
The exhibition will be presented at Hotel Osijek during the 8th Croatian Congress of Neurorehabilitation and Restorative Neurology and will be accessible to all participants.
