16/9/2004
Sejla Kameric
Portikus, Frankfurt
Others and Dreams. The first comprehensive solo exhibition from the Bosnian artist, Sejla Kameric is composed of three works. The exhibition reads as a systematic attempt to unfold and investigate the relationship between the perception of one's self and that of the 'other'. In an often confrontational manner, she reveals dominant frameworks as constituents for the knowledge of one's self and of 'the other' - dissecting these structures through various means. Her characteristic method is to copy or mimic details that she immediately appropriates and re-inserts into new contexts.
Others and Dreams
The first comprehensive solo exhibition from the Bosnian artist, Sejla Kameric (*1976) is composed of three works. The exhibition reads as a systematic attempt to unfold and investigate the relationship between the perception of one's self and that of the 'other'. In an often confrontational manner, she reveals dominant frameworks as constituents for the knowledge of one's self and of 'the other' - dissecting these structures through various means. Her characteristic method is to copy or mimic details that she immediately appropriates and re-inserts into new contexts.
The Project, Bosnian Girl, that she developed in 2003 and will be found during the exhibition in Frankfurt as a poster campaign throughout the city, has already been seen in other cities in the form of posters, postcards, billboards or as advertisements in magazines and newspapers. Here, the juxtaposition of these opposing perspectives becomes very clear. The image shows a portrait of the artist with some graffiti written by an unknown Dutch soldier 1994/95 on the wall of the barracks in Potocari, Srebrenica. The Royal Netherlands Army troops were stationed in Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of the UN Peace Operation UNPROFOR 1992-95 and were responsible for the protection of the Srebrenica region. Although the work here is clearly directly linked with the tragedies of Srebrenica, she also refers simultaneously to worldwide-spread micro-racism as well as the great discrepancy between the conceptions of that 'self' and that from 'the other'.
The video work, Dream House, 2002, will be on display in the exhibition space. A refugee camp building in the vicinity of Sarajevo is transposed against changing landscapes seeming to fulfill a hopeful dream of a future change of locality. This place that represents both transit and inertia finds itself in movement and separates itself out its original surroundings and situation.
With national identity as a construction, Sejla Kameric will also deal with the conflicts arising out of belonging to an amorphous crowd of the so-called 'other' and the possibility of escaping into a personal dream world in the newest Portikus publication Others and Dreams. This book is produced not only in conjunction with the exhibition but as an individual work and an intrinsic element to the exhibition itself.
Sejla Kameric belongs to the generation of artists from Sarajevo who grew up during the war as the city was fired upon and besieged for three and a half years. With this exhibition she speaks remarkably about how it feels to be constantly denigrated and discusses the problems of the accompanying mechanisms of exclusion.
Opening Friday, September 17, 2004, 8:00 pm
Invitation to press conference
on Friday, September 17, 2004, 11:00 am
Portikus im Leinwandhaus Weckmarkt 17 D-60311 Frankfurt am Main