Walls of Pandora, installation, 10x1.5 m, 2019.
As an art student finishing Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, who was soon to ‘be left on her own’, I started asking myself: ‘What to do now?’. Aware of the fact that art scene in Bosnia is rather a dying flower than a blossoming rose, I started questioning and analyzing the reasons of present situation. It did not take me a lot of time to come to realization that ‘small’, ‘unhealthy’, ‘local’ ideologies, along with undeveloped economy are suppressing the artistic and cultural development. It also came to me very quickly that those ‘small’ ideologies are nothing but a drop in the ocean of global ‘game of power and ruling ideology’. Therefore, to represent the global game of power, I used local Bosnian children games as a motive. The games I am creating using collages have no inner logic, and ‘rules of playing’ are impossible to get. Just like in the game of power, you see the game, you ‘know’ the game, but you will never be able to participate in the game.
Collages representing the games are placed onto drawings of mathematical and science formulas. Math and science are discovered by people in order to help people understand the nature and life around them. Some people say the same thing about ideologies. However, ideology is created by men, by is the strongest oppressor of men. ‘The creator is kneeling in front of his creation’ (Marx). There we see the difference between ideology and science, although they seem to have a lot in common. Science, as creation, is not placing itself as oppressor, but ideology is, which is the reason why I used drawing of formulas as metaphor of logic and reason, which are suppressed and ‘covered with’ children games, a metaphor of ideological nonsense.
Players of the games are a man (inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s distinction between a man and a citizen), a citizen and symbol of power and ruling ideology. Since the games are abandoned by logic and reason, the rules are unknown and always will be, the chances of man’s and citizen’s winning are non existing. The winning would mean that ether man, or citizen have absolute power and are free of oppression. Words, phrases and common song verses are used to give hints of what is going on in the games, but to give a humourous side to it.
To be aware of ideological games and general unfreedom in contemporary society is the key to prevent ourselves of being used by ideology. You might not get away from it, but you can be aware of it.
The work is consisted of 4 drawings-collages forming a 10 meters long installation.
