SEJLA KAMERIC - TENDA, NEVE, PACE (CURTAIN, SNOW, PEACE)

Sejla Kameric was born in Sarajevo (Bosnia), in 1976, where she now lives and works.

Sejla Kameric's study is driven by a political approach that characterises the first years of her career. Subsequently, her study becomes more intimist and conceptual, a form of individual maturity, in which the artist has placed intimate and familiar places and atmospheres at the centre of her images, also developed in various ‘ work in progress' activities always being updated and accompanied by the use of texts. Sejla Kameric uses different types of media: from video installations, to photographs, and media solutions in general.

This is how the artist describes her project for Storie urbane (Urban stories) , entitled Tenda, Neve, Pace (Curtain, Snow, Peace):

"I think that once again, as in the majority of my past works, I will adopt a self-reflection approach, even stronger in this case, since Limit and Boundary is a theme that I feel to be truly mine. I think I will work on this personal and intimate connection between myself and Reggio Emilia.

I can say that Reggio Emilia is indeed everything I was expecting to find. I like this town, even if I have only been here a few days, but however, I hope that the forthcoming days will be as pleasant as the past few days. I feel comfortable and I feel at home and this means a great deal for me.

I have often explored the Limit and Boundary theme since I started to do this work. I have always been attracted by this theme, I have often dealt with this theme in my projects, almost like a challenge. Now that I've been asked to approach this theme again I have thought a great deal about the previous works, and I have understood that just as I have matured, similarly my way of conceiving the Boundary theme has also changed. Whereas in the past I had a political sense, now I feel it is a much more personal and intimate, individual theme, the theme about limits that a person experiences in life and in some way must overcome or avoid.

Since this is a photographic project, I always have my four cameras with me, each camera is different from the other and in a certain way here again I feel a boundary among these cameras in terms of their different lens, and therefore also different points of view. So I am also following up on this small and new experiment.

The relationship between words and images is something that is really associated with my background, with my experience. I was originally a graphic designer and have always been accustomed to combining different components in my work. I adopt more or less the same principle in my artistic life, by associating words with the images, texts or slogans directed at the general public. I like this type of approach because it is very direct and in addition I like to work with people, in public spaces rather than in art galleries or in museums. In fact, often it is much easier to reach the general public, spectators, to impress them, often much more effectively compared with traditional contemporary art, by using the graphic media with which I have become accustomed".

[Extract from the interview made for the video-documentary entitled Molte città, Sguardi diversi (Many towns, Different views), prepared for the European Photography Week].

Official web site: www.sejlakameric.com.

A number of solo exhibitions

• 2005 - Untitled, Gandy Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic, curated by Michal Kolecek
• 2005 - Close, National Gallery of BH, Sarajevo, BH
• 2004 - Others and Dreams, Portikus Frankfurt am Miane, Germany, curated by Nikola Dietrich
• 2004 - FREI, public intervention, club transmediale 0.4 - (fly utopia!), festival for electronic music and related visual art, Berlin, Germany

A number of collective exhibitions

• 2005 - Another Expo - Beyond the Nation-States, June 2005: Gallery Level1, Kitakyushu, Japan
• 2005 - September 2005: Gallery White Box, New York, USA, curated by Shinya Watanabe
• 2005 - A River, a Bridge and a Dead Zone, Nicosia, Cyprus, curated by Katerina Gregos and Erden Kosova
• 2005 - Norway 2005 - Andre/Others, Sørlandet Art Museum, Kristiansand, Norway, curated by Frank Falch
• 2005 - The Giving Person, Palazzo Roccella, Napoli, Italy, curated by Lorand Hegyi
• 2005 - Fear, Artandgallery, Milan, Italy, curated by Manuela Gandini
• 2004 - Cosmopolis1: Microcosmos X Macrocosmos, State Museum of Contemporary Art and Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, curated by Magda Carneci
• 2004 - Onufri, National Gallery of Arts, Tirana, Albania, curated by Erzen Shkololli
• 2004 - Fiac, Paris Expo-Foire de l'Art Contemporain, Paris, France, presented by Gandy Gallery
• 2004 - Passage d'Europe, Musée d'Art Moderne, Saint-Etienne, France, curated by Lorand Hegyi
• 2004 - I am here and you are there, Galerie Für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany, curated by Barbara Steiner
• 2004 - Trading places, Pump House Gallery, London, UK, curated by B+B
• 2004 - Hot destination/Marginal destiny, House of Art Brno, Czech Republic, curated by Michal Kolecek