WITHOUT RED

Šejla Kamerić: 1395 Days Without Red, Legat Gallery owned by Milica Zorić and Rodoljub Čolaković, Belgrade, 23th May -24th June 2012

By: Vladimir Bjeličić

Twenty years after the siege of the city and as part of Sarajevo Days Festival, Milica Zorić’s and Rodoljub Čolaković’s Legat Gallery presented an independent exhibition by Bosnian artist Šejla Kamerić ’’1395 Days Without Red’’. The title refers to the number of days the Bosnian capital was under siege, when people were advised not to wear anything red, because the snipers could immediately spot them. Šejla Kamerić is a well-known artist throughout the region, but this is her first independent exhibition in Belgrade. Locally, she has been known only by her cooperation with Uroš Đurić. Šejla Kamerić has been creating art for over a decade and is part of the regional contemporary art scene thanks to her authentic socially engaged work. She uses different media (video, photography, installations) to present traumas of war as the main topic, i.e. to present her personal experience of the military conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990’s, as well as various other processes that create or erase national identity. Her work was created during several periods, some of them even a decade ago, which makes this exhibition a presentation of her overall work.

Exhibition has two layers or individual segments, set on two floors, It comprises of two films, a video animation, a photograph and several objects. The general impression is that film works are the exhibition’s backbone. Video Happiness, filmed in Berlin, has a metaphoric way of recording daily activities of two women of different age in specific circumstances during war. The younger woman walks through the city, fetching water, while the older one sits in silence of her room, without electricity. The eponymous film 1395 Days Without Red was created in collaboration with the Albanian artist Anri Sala. It shows a nameless hero (artist’s alter-ego) walking through Sarajevo in silence, with snippets from a concert by the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra. The artist often performs dance routines with ‘’passers-by’’, which is reminiscent of people who were running in the streets during the bombing of the city. Classical music (Tchaikovsky – Symphony No.VI) follows the plot of the film, occasionally pompous and grand, soothing or dramatic. This music tries to communicate and present emotions of fear and insecurity of personal and collective human destinies.

These two films are very similar. Form of non-verbal theatre, subtle framing of the lead actresses’ faces, their fears and obvious alienation, music and basic colours create the drama. Symbolic images of the empty city, the passers-by, changing of seasons and ruined facades paint an allegorical image of war, which is characteristic of both films.

Animation Sunset is based on a single colour photograph showing Warsaw ghetto in flames during an uprising back in 1943. Projected on a monitor, it stands as a painting, as some sort of memento mori, a quiet warning of terrors of human suffering. There are two works that reflect a certain dose of irony; a message from a fortune cookie You will never be the last in line, you will always excel and a photograph of a poster with the same sign, from UNHCR evacuation centre just outside Sarajevo.

In installations, the artist uses sewing and weaving, establishing a direct connection with early feminist art which insisted on these activities as primarily and immanently female. Red Carpet is a long piece of patchwork made of  clothes belonging to the people of Sarajevo. She also uses personal objects for A Tear – Mash Allah (object in a frame), for an installation called If I sleep it will be double, and for Measure, in order to tackle the intimate experience of war. These works seem to function as fragments of human destinies, whose colours and tactility emphasise the human need to record past events in objects they use every day.

Although this exhibition is conceptually very clear and stable, it raises a question of how much objectivity can there is in manipulation of war as its main topic and how to tackle such a topic. The artist found herself in an interesting situation, because she has lived and worked in Germany since 2007. Her new environment with different social and political circumstances (in a way, Germany is still tackling its own history from the Second World War), gave her an opportunity to create a certain distance from her own traumatic experience, to try to create her own universal narration. On the other hand, engaged art, regardless of its topic, is defined by the market and demands of political correctness of its public sponsors, making it empty and trendy. Regardless of either trendiness or genuinely personal intention, it remains unclear why the film 1395 Days Without Red lasts 60 minutes, when it could have been 15 minutes, like the video Happiness. The audience would have been more focused and the metaphor would have been clearer.

“Truth, responsibility and reconciliation” are important aspects of facing the past and relating to it. Visual art has numerous ways and means of commenting and tackling the past. It remains unclear whether the artist’s strategy for this topic is adequate, especially in regard to her communication with the audience. She decided on complete stylisation that trapped her in larpourlartism. Since, feminism says that intimate is political, then Kamerić’s work is correct. In short, this ‘’female’’ exhibition is suggestive and very bold, with universal and unpretentious way of presenting all horrors of war and human suffering.