Fragments of Identity

The Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo was founded in 1972 as the first Academy of Fine Arts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and became one of the forerunners in Bosnian contemporary art. Academy continued its operation throughout the war years (1992-1995) in besieged Sarajevo and participated in important international art projects.

Images of Our Time: Works From the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo brings together works in various media created by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as graduates of the six faculties of the academy, including painting, sculpture, art education, printmaking, graphic and product design. The works survey contemporary art in Bosnia Herzegovina and offer comments and reflections by its young artists on the history, and social, political, economic and cultural issues of the country, as well as discussing the use of traditional elements in contemporary contexts.

An engaged relationship to important social and economic issues overlaps with explorations and critiques of social reality, the space and time we live and act in and with examinations of identity.

Nedim Đikić, Prisoner of His Mind, 2012, Steel and Polyester, 28 x 22 x 28 cm

Lejla Cehajic, Woman with Mirror, 2010, Mixed Media, 22 x 27 x 21 cm

Hence a significant number of works focus on portraits and self-portraits that invite a re-examination of the premise of the great master of the avant-garde, Paul Klee, that every artist must have an ‘eye that sees’ and an ‘eye that feels’. Complex networks of social interactions and ways of ‘constructing one’s own identity’ make this task difficult and require responsibility.

The exhibition Images of Our Time:Works from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo took place at the Pera Museum between 04 September - 01 November 2015.