Distant neighbourhood – Dubrovnik

Art Center Lazareti, (Dubrovnik, Croatia)
September 2004

Artists from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro have been reunited in a joint exhibition under the title “Distant Neighbourhoods – Restoring Closeness”. Even if tension lingers on between their countries, they succeeded to present works of art under the same theme: rising above the distance imposed by the political conflicts and reestablishing broken links and communications.

Curators of the exhibition are Dunja Blažević, art critic and Director of Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Art; Slaven Tolj, artist and Director of Art Centre “Lazareti”; and Svetlana Racanović, art critic and Director of Nansen Dialogue Centre Montenegro.

They chose three cities marked by the war of the 1990s to present the exhibition: Dubrovnik (Croatia), Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Cetinje (Montenegro).

Svetlana Racanović: “The aim is to grasp the thin line that could link the broken, to inspire and encourage curiosity about the Others that can become an impulse and condition for developing one’s own self.”

Dunja Blažević: “The exhibition was created as a result of the desire and need to become reacquaint ourselves and to establish a dialogue with the OTHER and to overcome the spatial (political) and mental (ethno-ideological) borders between neighboring countries.”

Slaven Tolj & Srđana Cvijetić: “What all the exhibited works have in common is the meditation i.e. reflection which necessarily implies auto-reflection as the consequence of the states and processes we are all together experiencing.”

The Nansen Dialogue Centre Montenegro and the Nansen Dialogue Centre Mostar organized the event in partnership with the “Lazareti” Art Centre (Dubrovnik), the Croatian House “Herceg-Stjepan Kosača” (Mostar), the Center for Contemporary Art (Sarajevo) and the National Museum of Montenegro (Cetinje).

Participating artists: Ben Cain & Tina Gverović (Croatia) – “Yes or No”; Ivana Jelavić (Croatia) – “Self-portrait”; Luko Piplica (Croatia) – “Murga”; Danica Dakić (Bosnia & Herzegovina) – “Talo Vas”; Edo Numankadić (Bosnia & Herzegovina) – “The Sarajevo / Mostar / Cetinje Box”; Natalija Vujošević & Jelena Tomašević (Montenegro) – “Keeping up Appearances”; Jusuf Hadžifejzović (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – “Group Portrait with Family and Friends”; Kurt & Plasto (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – “Triple Cash”; Igor Rakčević (Montenegro) – without title; Milija Pavićević (Montenegro) – “Your Brother Jusuf”; Vesko Gagović (Montenegro) – “Hygiene”