INVENT/TURA, Mapping Territories and Histories, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Production: April - May 2010 Artist Talk/ Panel: April 22nd 2010 | 6 pm | Banja Luka Exhibition: May 24th – June 24th 2010 | Banja Luka and Mostar

„INVENT|TURA, Mapping Territories and Histories, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH)” examines the mechanisms of writing history in BH by the means of contemporary visual arts and literature and consists of the production of new artworks and texts, a theoretical reflection on the topic in form of a panel and the presentation of the results in exhibitions and readings.

The interdisciplinary project, on the one hand, records and narrates the complex historical layers in BH. On the other hand, INVENT|TURA examines critically the mechanisms of writing history and fathoms the dialectical tension of “forgetting” and “constructing” specific narratives.

INVENT|TURA develops its ideas along the interface of research and art productions. The project draws on the assumption that only an active knowledge about the complex past of BH renders possible to imagine a present and future state of the society.

BACKGROUND Trapped between the past and a future yet to come, the society in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) is in a state of transition. It seems to wait for a message in a bottle reaching the country and announcing that it has achieved what it was waiting for - but, unfortunately, there is only a narrow access to the ocean and the bottle is only vaguely to be perceived. What remains is a kind of calm before the storm of changes that are yet to happen.

The country, 18 years after its foundation as an independent state, still struggles with the fact that crucial preconditions for the formation of a sovereign democratic state are lacking: The inefficient division of the country, as realized with the Dayton Agreement, hinders the process of political decision-making, the international community still clings to its protectorate towards the state and the divided society defines itself along ethno-national lines. National, ethnic or religious differences still aren’t perceived as enrichment but as obstacle.

BH seems to prolong the story of the problematical antithetical periphery to the center (Marija Todorova). In all kinds of perspectives: It seems to be the periphery of Europe, the periphery of representative democracies, the periphery of Catholicism, the periphery of Islam, the periphery of Orthodoxy, the periphery of... Maybe the list could be endlessly continued. But turning the perspective, BH can at the same time be perceived as the very center of issues that will become crucial for religiously and culturally diversifying Western societies: It is in this country where the concept of representative democracies is to be debated, where forms of collective identities beyond ethno-national terms are to be discussed, and where the relationship between politics and religion is to be disputed.

In this perspective, BH turns into a focal point of issues of utmost importance to be debated in Western societies. Therefore, BH is like a nutshell where these issues can be analyzed paradigmatically.

The project INVENT|TURA will be summarized by a publication.

The project is supported by: Mostarski teatar mladih, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, City of Banja Luka, Goethe-Institut

INVENT/TURA, Mapping Territories and Histories, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Interdisziplinäres Projekt
Kuratoren: Sibylla Hausmann, Karin Rolle

Künstler (Ausstellung 'INVENT/TURA, Mapping Territories and Histories, Bosnia and Herzegovina'): Igor Bosnjak, Mladen Bundalo, Marko Raguz, Marko Tomas
Teilnehmer (Panel/Artist-Talk): Sead Djulic, Herbordt / Mohren, Danijela Majstorovic, Radenko Milak, Rebecca Wilton