Balkanization, Friday Exit, group show curated by Žarko Aleksić­ and Jelena Micić 08-23/04/2016

Balkanization is a specific state of mind, identifying a peculiar aftertaste of your transformation, the way you call yourself after you are balkanize, the way you write your name in a worksheet of a document, the vigor of new money in your hands, the sound of the language before and after, the pride or shame at the moment you cross a border to your newly formed, tightly wrapped into apparel, land.

Division into smaller private unities has always been a mental desire stored at the distant shelves of a cellar. As it is claimed, separation occurs when individuals reject the dominant or host culture in favor of preserving their culture of origin. We observe balkanization in European Union now, in Ukraine for the last year, throughout the history of all times. Оne way or another, in larger scale, we ourselves are the bodies, units of land, the imaginary territory and highly protected state. On a daily basis humans create circles around themselves, so called own autonomous states in a relation to a society, government, choices. In over secured, enclosed with fences outfit or dressed in democratic fabrics, we interact with one another in the flow of endless bonds.

In the work I’m experimenting with appearance of a balkanized state, on my body, as if it would be the animated persona. Based on people’s interrogation of their imaginary land, I’m creating the visualization of all the mentioned aspects included. During conversations I’ll try to find out the classical European representation of their desired nation. Based on dialogues, each person asserts one material object to represent themselves in terms of balkanization.