Guest Post

Uncovering Bosnia and Herzegovina

Perri Kostecki, WKU Installation Art student

From February 26 – March 2, 2018, the WKU Department of Art, the Office of International Programs, and others in the Bowling Green community collaborated to bring three Bosnian artists to campus to create semi-permanent installations at the Kentucky Museum. In their small hometown of Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, artists Damir Sarač, Anel Lepić, and Muhamed Bešlagić discovered a dilapidated grain factory in 2015 and set to work on their first collaborative large scale work. It would evolve into their signature wall-cut mural. The three artists had different talents, but the combination of a street artist, painter, and architect turned out to be a successful match. The town of Visoko is a close community and the economy is not in the best condition, which allowed for the three artists to dedicate just over two months of full time work in the factory creating art on the walls. The group became the HAD Artist Collective, an acronym created to conceal their names if they were ever discovered for their extracurricular efforts. However, instead of trouble, fate allowed instead for the group to host a public show to share their work with their community. The successful reception by their community paved the way for HAD to begin their next large work: “The Silence Project,” consisting of larger portraiture and a memorial to the lives lost in the Bosnian War.

Across the ocean, in the United States of America, Western Kentucky’s faculty and Office of International Programs named it the year of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This encouraged projects, community programs, and cultural education for both the university and Bowling Green. Additionally, faculty were able to study and to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina. This experience, during summer 2017, brought painting professor Yvonne Petkus to multiple galleries and exhibitions in Bosnia and Herzegovina where she met the HAD artist collective. Professor Petkus then masterminded a plan to bring the HAD to WKU’s campus for a demonstration and an artist talk.  Two of the HAD Artist Collective made the journey to the US. Their videographer and media expert, Ilhana Babić, also joined them in their travels.

Once in the United States the artists went straight to work on two small walls, built specifically for their visit in the WKU Kentucky Museum courtyard. Mike Nichols, drawing professor and fresco artist, and the knowledgeable Kentucky Museum staff constructed these fresco-style walls from a special blend of limestone and other materials. These surfaces provided a ‘canvas’ the HAD Artist Collective could work upon, and even carve away with chisels and pneumatic tools. 

            

The artists began the workshop, which included the presence of over 150 students, by gridding out large portraits and using acrylic paint and water to create the details. The grid system they implemented required graphite pencils and long wooden planks as straight edges. The students began this preliminary process using detailed sketches and measurements predetermined by the HAD. Then as Anel and Hamo engaged in a silent choreography, the face of an elderly woman emerged from the wall. Bystanders were enamored by the control and poise of the team. When their image was mostly dry, they used power tools to chip away the shadowed layers and some of the background, thus creating a relief effect. Carving away the wall is destructive but simultaneously additive, creating a dimension of depth to the face.

            

HAD often chooses the subjects for their works by photographing people they term ‘abandoned’ individuals, making an intimate connection between the faces and the essence of the person. Their artistic marks convey thoughtful attention to preserving the memory of the person. As observers, we were affected by this emotional residue the artists were able to preserve from the aura of the person. The delicate and careful birth of the image has a reverence because of the premeditation the HAD puts into the design. Also being lucky enough to participate in the final efforts I was able to experience a type of emotional relief, ironically while creating a physical relief. The uncovering of the face in the wall was a surprising discovery, because even though we had carefully gridded the spots we would remove, the final project included marks and textures that were spontaneous.

This revelation was my first glimpse of understanding the HAD’s motivation, although I doubt I could ever fully grasp the heart behind their work. Ilhana had asserted in their artist talk that their world back home was dangerous and unstable, that survival was forefront in most minds. She said that the artist’s desire to create must be stronger than their desire to survive. This is the only explanation I can imagine for the harm’s way and the scrutiny from their community they subject themselves to. I noticed the camaraderie and emotional healing that HAD collective artists Anel, Hamo and Damir are able to derive from their wall cut process. I am especially grateful for the generosity and acceptance the artists were able to give to each of us as we participated in their workshop. Their patience and teaching exceeded even the art; the value of their visit truly changed my perception of creating and the strength of the human heart. They are humble and probably do not see themselves as great teachers or even role models, but each of them overcame hardship, supported each other, and selflessly created the memory of another. They could have chosen to tell only their own story, but instead they used their talents to give a home and a voice to all the abandoned people of their country. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to work alongside the HAD artist collective, and to help install the Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center Art Department gallery where a number of other Bosnian and Slavic artists have work on exhibition. I am reminded of another notion from Ilhana: that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a vast and all-encompassing culture, and that the hardships of their history do not outweigh the tolerance, exploration, and positive aspects of the diverse people of the region. The HAD artist collective demonstrate the resilience and creative voice of progress.