Zvono Award 2016

Skills: Duplex 2012-2018

Nina Komel (Winner of the Zvono Award 2016) was born in 1986 in Slavonski Brod, Croatia. She graduated in 2010 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Banja Luka, Department of Fine Arts, in the painting programme. She got her Master’s degree in 2012 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Novi Sad. Since 2013 she has been a permanent member of the aquarellist colony “Sava”. Komel lives and works in Brod and Novi Sad.

Starting point of my work is based on documenting personal experience inside a real space, using visual and non-visual language. My guiding idea rests on individual poetics. It helps me emphasise the experience of recognizing the absurd state and everyday banalities which belong to general experience. Using objective transformation during my work I strive towards the recognition of time in which I’m in, turning towards the “panopticon” project and ironizing it in my artistic practices. By occupying the real space, I talk about the context of getting isolated and I perceive reality as signs which inform the spectator about the states that culture, artists and works are in. Under the influence and pressure of culture, I wish to express the imposed feeling, thought and behaviour which constantly shape us.
In her installation Uslovna sloboda (Conditional Freedom, 2012), Komel is engaged in developing the narrative of conspiracy theory and the breakup of Yugoslavia. The technical realisation – establishment of sounds of international dial-in numbers as a prediction of the political situation that follows – was developped together with Duško Brković.

Solo exhibitions: 2013: Realan prostor i vizuelni jezik (Real Space and Visual Language), Gallery for the Young “Macut”, Novi Sad. 2008:  Kafa i cigarete (Coffee and cigarettes), Primary School “Boško Buha, Brod. Group exhibitions: 2015: Nova runda kulturnog dijaloga (A New Round of Cultural Dialogue), Cultural and educational community, Odžaci. 2014: Project retrospective Differencies, Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad. 2013-2015: Aquarellist Colony “Sava”, City Gallery, Brod. 2013: Differences, Project at SKC (Student Cultural Center), Belgrade. 2012-2014: Banja Luka Art Fest, Social and cultural centre “Incel”, Banja Luka. 2010-2013: Miniature exhibition Min-Max, Banski dvori, Banja Luka. 2008: Slobodan um (Free Mind), performance, Museum of Contemporary Art, Banja Luka. 2006-2009: The Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition, The Academy of Fine Arts, Banja Luka.

Alma Gačanin was born in 1988 in Sarajevo. She is currently finishing her Master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, Department of Art Education. She is a founder of the Association for Contemporary Art NAZOR. Gačanin lives and works in Sarajevo.

In her audio-visual work Show me yours I’ll show you mine (2015-2016), Gačanin explores and questions memories, childhood and social circumstances through the prism of first erotic experiences and their influence on behaviour and life that comes afterwards. Narrative stories, own poetry and non-narrative visuals play a equal role in her video works.Enes Žuljević was born in Mostar in 1985. He graduated in 2008 from the University “Džemal Bijedić”, Mostar, at the Department of Fine Arts, in the painting programme. In 2010 Cultural City Network from Graz awarded him a scholarship in the form of artist residency. Five years later, he was awarded the same form of scholarship by the Culture Department of the Provincal Government Styria.

Solo exhibitions: 2015: Ne podliježe selekciji (Does Not Succumb to Selection), performance, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo. 2014: Aural Stimuli (Alma Gačanin and Melisa Vreto), Gallery Black Box, Sarajevo. 2013: Otuđenje (Alienation), Raiffeisen Gallery, Sarajevo. 2015: Promotional exhibition NAZOR (Alma Gačanin, Melisa Vreto, Nina Jurešić, et al.), Kriterion, Sarajevo; Images of our time, Pera Müzesi, Istanbul; Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean 17, Fabrica del Vapore, Milan. 2012: Gemma Kunst schaun, International art biennial, Kunsthaus Sudhaus der Villacher Brauerei, Villach; Akademija u vremenu (Academy in time), Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo. 2011: Transform, National Academy of Art, Sofia.
Artist’s statement: My work is based on exploring and questioning erotica and love and their interpretations and manifestations in contemporary society. I question the meanings inside the nature and myself, constantly striving towards different aspects and perspectives. Having in mind that erotica and eroticism come from within, I become a central figure in my own work. I use my poetry and the image of myself as a starting point for work in the fields of video and sound. I am fascinated by experimental cinema and sci-fi literature, as well as by classical and minimalistic music. Due to this, in my work the aesthetics of video and the aesthetics in general are focused on the non-narrative expression.

Jelena Fužinato was born in 1984 in Prnjavor. She graduated in 2009 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in the painting programme. She’s been attending the post-graduate study at the Berlin University of Arts since 2012. In 2014, she participated in the Curating, Mediating and Managing Art programme at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Department of Art. Fužinato lives and works in Prnjavor and Berlin.

In my practice I approach the institutional context problematics from the artistic, mediating and curatorial position. I work with a format of museum and archive in order to create off-archives and para-museums. My works are often contraposition from the central narratives and often talk about marginal social positions of things and beings. My practice is based on questions about the cultural heritage, politics and production of knowledge and education. The projects that I work on are often long-lasting and multimedia projects with a complex outcome.
Work description:
In her multimedia installation Arhiva Teodora Vujića (The Archive of Teodor Vujić, 2014), Fužinato creates a collection of objects with symbolic values and legal documents whose aim is to reconstruct the life of Teodor Vujić and the history of one family. She thereby raises questions about the identity in the changeable geopolitical context of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 100 years.

Solo exhibitions: 2013: Može li žena napraviti veliko delo? (Can a Woman Create a Great Work of Art?), workshop, exhibition and panel discussion, European Centre for Culture and Debate “Grad” Belgrade; Gozba za veliko delo (Feast for a Great Work of Art), performance exhibition, City Gallery, Požega. 2012: Potreba nepotrebnog (Necessity for the Unnecessary), Contemporary Art Gallery, Smederevo; Muzej (Museum), Cultural Centre “Ribnica”, Kraljevo. 2011: Bakine priče (Grandma’s Stories), Cultural Centre of Novi Sad, Novi Sad. Group exhibitions: 2015: Für Garderobe wird nicht gehaftet, Angewandte Innovation Laboratory, Vienna. 2014: The museum of excluded contents, International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg. 2011: Pogledi (The Views), Galerija 73, Belgrade.
Artist’s statement:

Enes Žuljević lives and works in Mostar.

Even though I can’t remember my early years, I know that the events from that period still have an effect on me. Members of my family often retell the events from the past which I then reconstruct. I learn from them and revive the parts from my life which I thought were gone. My works, relying on those reconstructed stories, historical facts and my incomplete memories tell my personal story, but they also talk about universal themes such as anxiety, fear, vulnerability, submissiveness and loss. I use different techniques to create my works. In recent years I have produced short animated films which emerged from my sketches and other drawings. Animation as an expressive media allows me to revive the memories and construct new narratives.
Work descriptions:
In his silent animation Trapped in a Loop (2014) Žuljević questions the cause-and-effect link between memories and creation of an identity, while in Herzegovina loaded and reloaded (2015) the artist creates a digital collage of historic-cultural monuments connected to the region of Herzegovina, presenting their mutual intertwining and conflicts.

Group exhibitions: 2015: International Video Festival Digital Big Screen, Delavski dom, Trbovlje. 2014: Minimum- maximum 4, Kriza-Crisis, Banski dvori, Banja Luka; Slowness, Group Global 3000, Berlin. 2013: Arrivals – Departures, Galerie Centrum, Graz; Minimum maximum 4, Kriza-Crisis, Rappaz Museum, Basel; Schenken als Problem, Group Global 3000, Berlin. 2009: Art work exhibition (Mustafa Mulahusejnović and Enes Žuljević), Bosnian Cultural Centre, Gračanica. 2008: Exhibition of graduate students in fine arts from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatian Lodge “Herceg Stjepan Kosača”, Mostar.

Text edit: Asija Ismaijlovski, Sandra Bradvić
Translation: Leijla Bakić