Autonomous Province, multimedial installation, 2020.
"Autonomous Province" is multimedial artwork consisted of four segments: a written statement in which I declare myself an autonomous province, a flag and coat of arms of autonomous province, and a video. The written statement is certified by an administrative officer of the Municipality Centar in Sarajevo. Although the seal of the local self-governed unit-the municipality, does not give legal validity, or legitimacy to the statement, nor does it confirm its truthfulness, it is a legal and administrative confirmation of the statement’s authenticity. At the same time, the certification of the statement is a symbolical confirmation of the peculiarities on which basis I "fought for the specific status within the state - the status of an autonomous province". The video depicts the process of drawing the autonomous province borders. I am laying on a cloth in the fetus position and drawing the borders of my own body - the borders of the autonomous province. In later creative process, the cloth is transformed into a unique flag of the autonomous province, while the coat of arms, made by using mixed techniques, represents an object in which ideological meaning of five-legged star is recontextualized.
The act of declaring the status of the autonomous province is a critical reflection on writing and erasing of the borders in former SFR Yugoslavia, and writing new histories by which those writings, or erasings are legitimized. Within this artwork, I am questioning meanings of the established political and ideological discourse, simultaneously reflecting on the bigoted past and present, and unforeseeable future. By recontextualizing signs and symbols, I am ironizing the enthroned social narratives and questioning the notions of truth, legitimacy, autonomy and freedom.