The exhibition of polyptychs “Sarajevo Houses” by academic painter and graphic artist Safet Zec will open tonight as part of the celebration of the 130th anniversary of the Sarajevo City Hall, one of the most important symbols of the cultural and historical identity of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The “Sarajevo Houses” cycle represents a powerful artistic homage to Sarajevo, in which Zec evokes the atmosphere of times gone by through motifs of old houses, windows, and courtyards.
“The large house on Bistrik in Sarajevo, in front of which I spent the first ten years of my life, is largely responsible for shaping my view of the world, as well as art. During that time of exile, after World War II, the house was inhabited permanently or occasionally by several families. The courtyard was a common gathering place and acted as a stage: children, neighbors, passersby,” Safet Zec wrote on his Facebook page about the announced exhibition.
“In the same courtyard, opposite that big house, there was a small one-story house where the eight of us lived. When I woke up, the first thing I would see was its facade and windows. Dilapidated, the color of old orange – warm, nostalgic colors that I still love today,” explained the maestro.
The big house is no more, as are almost all the people who lived in it at the time.
Zec writes that the graphic and painting opuses “Windows”, in his memory, are actually a kind of portrait of the people who shared those days with his family.
“Behind every window stood someone ‘known’, someone who was a part of my everyday life. We knew when someone came, left, painted or washed the windows, celebrated, when they changed the curtains. I suffered when someone left, traveled, passed away, but also when someone new arrived. That relatively short period of my childhood in Sarajevo will leave a deep mark on me, so that a whole cycle of Bistrica, and later other Sarajevo houses and windows. I called them ‘house-personalities’ because they had faces – like portraits, each window is special and interesting. They remember the joys, sorrows, everyday lives and emotions of their occupants and I hope that they will continue to live through me and my work,” concluded Safet Zec.
The exhibition will be open until June 10 this year in the large hall of the City Hall in Sarajevo.
