GORDANA ANDJELIC GALIC
1949 - Born in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
1975 - Graduated from the Phylosophy Faculty in Sarajevo
1988 - Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo
1989 - Became a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Bosnia
Gordana is one of the most well-known contempory Bosnian Serb artists
in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her work has been featured throughout Europe
and there are a few of her projects that I think are absolutely
exceptional - so I'm going to share them here.
The first is called "The Whole City Graveyard". She toured major
European cities are constructed make-shift graveyards in city parks,
soccer stadiums, and all of the other places where Sarajevans were
forced to bury their dead during the war. The objective is to give
citizens of these other European cities some meager understanding of
what that was like.
Here is one such tour in Munich, Germany.
Kunst Macht Frei
SEJLA KAMERIC
1976 - Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
1994/1997 - Worked as part of TRIO SARAJEVO
1999 - Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo
I like Sejla Kameric mainly for her sense of humor. Her work is always
aimed at problems in society but she makes fun of them in a strange way.
My favorite example is the simple, but incredibly powerful display she
made simply by re-arranging policial posters. She changed nothing about
the posters, simply half-covered up one with another and created an
entirely new message.
This was the billboard originally. The Croatian party poster on the
left reads "Choice or extermination", the Bosniak poster on the right
reads "Vote for your own people".
This one reads "Extermination or Extermination", and "Vote for your own
people" - though the faces are covered, posing the question: Who's
people are you anyway?
This one, as well, is very simple but
very beautiful. She took down the "Closed for reconstruction" sign from
the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina and put up instead a
sign reading "Zauzeto", or occupied. Photographs placed in the windows
showed artists busy working and it made the entire reconstruction
process feel like a live exhibition in itself.
Lastly, one of her video works. This video stars Sejla herself in a
public service announcement, which runs backwards - a symbol of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, for a time, was running backwards.