Maja Simišić is a multimedia artist who focuses on everyday battles and finds ways to turn them to her advantage. The methods she uses to bring down existing gender and class problems in their work, were built by analyzing the expectations set by modern social structures and historical narratives. As a woman from the Balkans who lives and works in the Western world, her artistic practice is deeply influenced, on the one hand, by the perception of Eastern European in Western society, and on the other, by the way in which people from the Balkans were raised, their fundamental beliefs and the role of women in both of these contexts. Maja Simišić presents difficult topics with lightness and humor characteristic of her character. Extremely individualistic in nature, rooted in identity and identity politics, the artist asks the audience to question what is in front of them. With a bit of absurdity and a lot of satire, she helps us see that all our realities are connected and that we need understanding and some willingness to accept differences to make real change. In her work Make Bosnia Sexy Again, Simišić strives to use all the previously mentioned methods specific to her artistic practice in order to create a pseudo-documentary show. Taking on an alter ego called Miss Diaspora, she wanders through numerous narratives, without a specific goal, to explore what we want from the places we live in, the places we grow up in, and in some cases the places we leave. Simišić finds the starting point of his work in beauty contests, which are characterized by the fact that a woman, in addition to her extraordinary physical beauty, must show forethought while giving answers to serious philosophical questions. Combining this unattainable ideal with the diaspora cult that reigns in the Balkans, she approaches relevant questions about emigration, living standards and general human needs with ease and wit. As someone who has roots in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but spends her life in the Balkans-diaspora relationship, Maja Simišić strives to explore internalized feelings related to her origins with her work (and of course to have fun along the way).
Jovana Trifuljesko – kustoskinja izložbe
