Nicoline van Harskamp - DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and ...
Nicoline van Harskamp - DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and ...
Nicoline van Harskamp - DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and ...
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GDJE SE SVE TEK TREBA DOGODITI / WHERE EVERYTHING IS YET TO HAPPEN<br />
Radenko Milak<br />
Banja Luka – A Site <strong>for</strong> Contemporary Art?<br />
It is not about finally abolishing nationalism <strong>for</strong> all times, but about civilizing it to some extent –<br />
at least to the extent of letting the others live their lives decently.<br />
- Ugo Vlaisavljević<br />
The issue of constitutional political system has been the most difficult <strong>and</strong> most important<br />
one <strong>for</strong> Bosnia <strong>and</strong> Herzegovina, a state that – fourteen years after the war – still<br />
stagnates in solving some of its crucial problems in terms of re<strong>for</strong>m. Putting it bluntly,<br />
our society is radically divided <strong>and</strong> the new generations tend to grow up in hatred<br />
towards all that is different <strong>and</strong> represents “the other”. The confinement of the Bosnian-<br />
Herzegovinian society within its 19th-century ideas seems like a part of the endless<br />
process of national identification that has been ongoing <strong>for</strong> the past hundred years. But<br />
perhaps it is precisely this political reality that can become a site <strong>for</strong> contemporary art?<br />
Zones of crisis, a divided society, the question of unsolved national identities – all these<br />
aspects may <strong>for</strong>m an essential context <strong>for</strong> artists to engage in new projects <strong>and</strong> new<br />
productions. Moreover, with a regional specificity provided by the geographic position<br />
of Banja Luka: its closeness to Zagreb, its narrow ties to Belgrade, <strong>and</strong> its orientation<br />
towards Sarajevo as the capital of Bosnia <strong>and</strong> Herzegovina.<br />
The contemporary Bosnian-Herzegovinian art scene exists primarily owing to the<br />
great enthusiasm of artists <strong>and</strong> artistic organizations or institutions on the territory of<br />
Republika Srpska <strong>and</strong> all of Bosnia <strong>and</strong> Herzegovina. SpaPort is an initiative launched<br />
by the Centre <strong>for</strong> Visual Communications Protok in the framework of a project entitled<br />
Reviving the Local Art Scene. Its aim has been to create, through various initiatives <strong>and</strong><br />
programmes, an environment that will be suitable <strong>for</strong> developing a local art scene <strong>and</strong><br />
establish the conditions <strong>for</strong> artistic production in various cultural contexts. In the past<br />
two years, we have realized various educational programmes within SpaPort (lectures,<br />
presentations, workshops) intended <strong>for</strong> the students of the Academy of Fine Arts, as well<br />
as <strong>for</strong> wider audiences, in order to achieve better local visibility <strong>and</strong> cultural cooperation<br />
in the region.<br />
Owing primarily to the financial support of Swiss Cultural Programme, this has been the<br />
second year in which the Centre <strong>for</strong> Visual Communications Protok organized an exhibition<br />
of both regional <strong>and</strong> international character. The Council of SpaPort <strong>and</strong> especially<br />
the curating duo of Antonia Majača <strong>and</strong> I<strong>van</strong>a Bago, has had a significant role in initiating<br />
this project. The suggestion of the curators, supported by the Board, was to realize a<br />
long-term project entitled Where Everything Is Yet to Happen over the period of 2009/2010