[wzslider] By: Harriet Crawford
For photographer Nihad Nine Pušija, ‘White Horse: Neglected Europeans’ is not only an exhibition, but also a homecoming. Pušija was born in Sarajevo though he has spent the last 20 years living in Berlin and travelling Europe, documenting the lives of Roma across the continent by camera. The show, held by the Center for Contemporary Art with the City Gallery Collegium Artisticum, is his first in the capital for ten years; he is “very happy” to be back. The artist struggled to slough off the journalists who blocked his embrace of the many family members who attended the exhibition’s opening.
The artist explained that the starting point for his work is an interest in the “margins of society”, where the Roma feature prominently as Europe’s – and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s – largest minority. The images give you an insight into Romani communities of Italy, Kosovo and Germany. Pušija has forged close relationships with the individuals whose lives he captures. He returns to the same communities over the years and has been visiting the same Roma in Rome for a decade. The scenes are intimate and fight the reduction of the Roma to ‘gypsy’ folklore. Although few photographs document the Bosnian Roma, the exhibition features local Romani artist Rifeta Bajramović. Two of his sculptures accompany Pušija’s work, displaying traditional copper craftsmanship.
Pušija’s work is firstly art photography; he showed at the 2007 and 2011 Venice Biennale. Yet the images cannot fail to be political in a country where discrimination against the Roma is widespread and institutional. In 2009, BiH’s very constitution was ruled by the European Court of Human Rights to be discriminatory against so-called ‘others’, such as Roma and Jews. The Government has so far failed to implement the ruling from the ‘Sejdic-Finci’ case; Roma are still prevented from running for the presidency and parliament’s upper house.
Pušija found that he had a special connection with the Roma because of relatives who were part of Romani communities in BiH. When asked about his personal connection to the Roma, the artist replied simply: “Everybody has Roma origin[s], everyone has gypsy inside.”.
Caption for photo of ‘Duldung Deluxe’:
‘Duldung’ is a German legal status of ‘temporary suspension of deportation’ which is given to many of the Roma immigrants in Germany. It was also the name of Pušija’s show that was in Sarajevo in 1999.
Note:
Finding the show is not easy, but worth the hunt. Descend below ground into a bizarrely quiet shopping centre, walk past the shops peddling electronics, hair extensions and manicures until the end, and turn left. And there, ‘Gradska galerija Collegium artisticum’ is, in the far back left-hand corner.
Where: Collegium Artisticum, Terezije bb, 71000 Sarajevo
When: until 21 May 2013
Mon-Sat, 10:00 – 18:00
