Garaža Kamba

402 km: Objects in the Mirror is a subtle gesture of both space and time. The simple act of driving and traveling isn’t much more in the work itself, and its tension arises from waiting for, waiting on and welcoming. Passivity of the act is the driving force of sorts: it forces to notice and start thinking about the distance of four hundred and two kilometers, of shared past and separating future, of some old and other new borders. About the relationships of individuals, communities, nations and supranational organizations. About the internal, internalized and external gazes.

The author’s journey from residence in Sarajevo to the “gallery” institution in Zagreb is symbolically marked by a series of manifestations and gazing syndromes.

These lands – never completely or unequivocally defined, and with internal shifting of the border to the neighbour – are sources of generalisation, stereotyping and theorising. The Balkans were previously seen as an oriental and European Turkish region, as a source of barbarism and backwardness, and are still strongly semantically marked although through more neutral terms such as Southeast Europe and Western Balkans. Via periods of transition and then liberalisation and democratization, the areas of external influences today – both of geopolitics and constructing of new cultural values – have just been bluntly forced from one system to the different ones. Moreover and especially in the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina reality, interests of foreign policies are inscribed in internalised – apologies -as the state’s affairs.

The issue of visibility, in all its tasks and meanings, of the artistic process is present here as one of the basis of performance. Linear monitoring of so-called “objective” data and “sound mind” knowledge (in this case Google Maps) encourages disapproval similar to the one explaining to the public the value of artistic achievements despite seemingly empty, simple and quick procedures that have been mastered by one.

The question of gaze is also crucial for the end of this performing in which the author knowingly draws unaware visitors. Namely, the act of travel is justified as artistic based on freely set gallery status of the garage. It is further intensified by marking the travel’s stage in a form of museum label. However, at the “peak” of the performance, in its resolution, the author’s presence and the act of parking return the space’s original axiom of a utility object, while simultaneously taking the view away from those eager to consider the process as well as the entirety. Therefore, there is nothing left but to raise a glass.

Gallery