5th December 1978, 2007-2008

 

 

5th December 1978 deals with the department store Boska, – a modernist building in the centre of the city, which stood for decades as Banja Luka's landmark (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The building can be perceived as a symbol of communist time. It is paradoxically embodied in a department store as a symbol of consumer society. This system is long since gone, the years of war are over, but Boska has remained surprisingly unchanged. This installation doesn't serve as praise to the former communistic regime that put Boska into function; neither is criticising the effects of globalisation. It is seeking to re-imagine the micro-community of Boska in order to oppose the popular idea of obliterating this historical period which represents the dramatic loss of the promise of "a better future" - or any (acceptable) future, for that matter. In this project my artistic position is incorporated with the practice of Boskas's longest worker Mustafa Ekic – Muki. His effort in preserving and "curating" archival material but most of all his artistic work on his scrapbook that holds numerous photo-collages, is crucial. After our collaboration during the process of research, I took the responsibility as an artist to carry on the memory of Boska. The project is comprised of archive photographs of Boska's collective from 1978 to 2007, single channel video projection, video on monitor, slideshow developed in collaboration with Muki and publication.








excerpt from a 10' min. video