save the space

Place
Bihać
Year
2016
Place
Bihać /BA
Year
2016
Institution
Gradska Galerija, Bihać /BA
Curator
Jasmina Merz, Irfan Hošic
Technique
Performance with participants, cloth banners
Photographer
Irfan Hošic, Bihać /DE
Montage
Archive Mischa Kuball, Düsseldorf /DE

Since its founding in 1989 the city gallery Gradska Galerija in Bihać has become a central place for cultural exchange and critical discourse. It contributes significantly to the identity of the city. As a reaction to the announcement that the gallery would give up its premises in the city center, the action oscillates between performance, demonstration, and house squatting. At different sites of the city a mass of people outlines the floor plan of the gallery in a 1:1 scale. All the participants hold a continuous black ribbon with the inscription “Save the Space” or “Uštedite Prostor.” The floor plan of the gallery’s space reconstructed by human bodies illustrates once more the social dimension of the consequences that the closure brings and transports the silent protest into public space. In the scope of a symposium, to which are invited the artist and intellectuals with a personal connection to Bihać from within the country and from elsewhere, the significance of cultural institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be interrogated and discussed. (JO)

Press

Husak, Amir, "U potrazi za "treceprostorom": umjetnost socijalne prakse u Bihacu", in: REVIZOR, March 2018.

Publication

Culture front Bihać / Kulturna fronta Bihać. #NeDamoGaleriju
Editor: Irfan Hošić

Bihać • 2016