The work Mira, Study for a Portrait can be described as a multimedia pseudo biographical work, following the life of an unknown woman Mira and her family, from the period before her birth until her tragic death.
By means of archive material, photographs and video, used and combined within a specifically considered model of presentation, a family history of Bosnian Jews, Mira’s ancestors in revived, which went through the cruellest ordeal in the camps on the territory of former Yugoslavia. Upon first glance, we can think about a biography of a woman and a country, as well as documenting of an epoch. Yet, this is an illusion, as the geography of time in this piece is very specific. Although, photographs and video stills suggests the places which a viewer visits again and again while watching a video installation, its meaning is complemented every time with new events and histories.
The exhibition in the Salon is the first presentation of a project in Belgrade that took years in the making. Immersive two-channel video installation dominates the gallery space, as the basis of the piece, followed by a series of accompanying photos.
The exhibition catalogue, envisioned as a reader on the topic of this piece, will be published by the end of exhibition. The catalogue will contain the texts by Una Popović (Curator at MoCA), Branka Benčić (independent curator from Zagreb), Christel Stapler, Professor of Theatre, Performance and Media Studies at the University of Gent, Sarah Mendelsohn (multimedia artists from USA), as well as correspondence between Anita Stojnić (theoretician of art and media, Faculty of Media and Communications, Belgrade) and the artist. The partner in the realization of this publication is City Gallery Osijek.
Accompanying program:
Saturday, April 16 at 6pm – a talk with the artist Jelena Jureša and Aneta Stojnić, theoretician of art and media (Faculty for Media and Communication, Belgrade). The topic of the discussion will be work “Mira, Study for a Portrait”, as well as author’s re-examination of the boundaries of memory and politics of historisation. The moderator of the talk is Una Popović.