Bosnian Girl is an art work by a visual artist Šejla Kamerić that started in 2003 as a public project consisting of postcards, posters, billboards, that is exhibited either as an intervention into public space or as a black and white photograph in various dimensions. It was done in collaboration with photographer Tarik Samarah.
Description and Analysis
Denigrating phrases about Bosnian women are superimposed over a black and white photograph of the artist staring straight at the viewer. Taken from graffiti written by an unknown Dutch soldier in 1994/5, a member of the Royal Netherlands Army who, as part of the UN Protection Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-95, were responsible for protecting the Srebrenica safe area. The artist’s gaze is unflinching, direct and challenges not just the words pushed onto her, and all Bosnian women, but invites us to see their new form of identity – where victimhood and prejudice, the past and the future are intertwined in co-existing opposition. Originally a series of posters publicly displayed on the 2003 anniversary of the Srebenica genocide, this work has become iconic of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, a direct confrontation of war crimes committed against women and the prejudices that came during and after it. Part of the multiple permanent exhibitions and museum collections, Bosnian Girl is also on view as part of the permanent exhibition in the Memorial Centre Potočari, Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Selected Exhibitions
2003 The Gorges of the Balkans, curated by Rene Block, 30.08. – 23.11.2003, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany.
2003 Balkan Konzulat: Sarajevo, curated by Lejla Hodžić, October – November 2003, Rotor Gallery, Graz, Austria.
2005 Another Expo – Beyond the Nation-States, curated by Shinya Watanabe, June 2005, Gallery Level1, Kitakyushu, Japan.
2005 Another Expo – Beyond the Nation-States, curated by Shinya Watanabe, September 2005, Gallery White Box, New York, USA.
2007 L‘enfer, C‘est les Autres / ‘Hell is… other people’, 22.07. – 09.09.2007, curated by Nathalie Zonnenberg, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
2008 Cutting Realities: Gender Strategies in Art, curated by Walter Seidl, 23.09.-29.11.2008, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, USA.
2009 Gender Check - Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe, curated by Bojana Pejić, 13.11.2009 - 14.11.2010, Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, Austria.
2009 Windows upon Oceans – 8. Baltic Biennial of Contemporary Art,Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie, Szczecin, Poland.
2010 A Pair of Left Shoes, curated by Tihomir Milovac, 16.04. –27.05.2010, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Croatia.
2010 No More Drama, Röda Sten Centre for Contemporary Art and Culture, Göteborg, Sweden.
2011 1395 Days without Red, Museum of contemporary art Belgrade, Serbia.
2012 9th Gwangju Biennale: Round Table, Artistic Co-directors: Sunjung Kim, Mami Kataoka, Carol Yinghua Lu, Nancy Adajania, Wassan AI-Khudhairi, Alia Swastika, 7 September – 11 November 2012, Various venues, Gwangju, South Korea.
2012 Šejla Kamerić - 1395 Days without Red, 30.11.2012 – 20.01.2013, CAC Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania.
2013 Public Diary, 5th Yebisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions, curated by Keiko Okamura, 08. – 28.02. 2013, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan.
2014 Memory Lane – Contemporary Art Scene from Bosnia and Herzegovina, curated by Pierre Courtin, 07.06. – 26.07. 2014, Galerie du Jour-agnés b., Paris, France.
2015 Autonomy of Self. Rejecting violence with the lens in former Ottoman territories, curated by Joy Stacy, 11.09. – 31.10.2015, P21 Gallery, London, UK.
2015 30 Years After, curated by Erzen Shkololli, 04.05. - 04.06.2015, National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtina, Kosovo.
2015 When the Heart Goes Bing Bam Boom, curated by, curated by Başak Doğa Temür, 11.12. 2015 – 28.02.2016, Arter – Space for Art, Vehbi Koç Foundation, Istanbul
2018 I Really Really Really Really Really, curated by Peter Tomaž Dobrila, 09.11. – 01.12.2018, ACE Kibla, Maribor.
