Proposal (for a better future)III and IV
During the KAMEN residency in Orah, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July and August of 2022, I worked on 'Proposal III and IV', a series of modular, painted cardboard sculptures.
The sculptures utilized used cardboard boxes, sourced from local supermarkets in Bileća and Trebinje. Beginning as packaging of products, vessels of a kind, 'Proposals' got reshaped into modular sculptures, installed, deinstalled, transported, rebuilt and adjusted several times, before finally being cut into pieces, stacked, tied up and thrown out at the local dump.
Kamen residency was situated at the Bileća lake, which was formed by one of Tito's dam projects, causing a valley full of villages to be submerged by water. The pieces were influenced by the sense of physical and ideological abandonment that I got from my daily observations of ruins of the villages emerging from the Bileća lake. Another large source of inspiration were the colors and shapes found in the remains of the socialist architecture in the area.
'Proposals' was exhibited in a two person exhibit, 'parallel relocations//relocated parallels' with KAMEN resident artist Vita Soul Wilmering. The exhibit was held at Kulturni Centar Trebinje and showcased the sculpture installation 'Proposal III' and Wimering’s sound and video installation 'Parallel Lake Bottom Cinema'.
A second presentation was held at the KAMEN residency a week later after the sculptures had been taken apart, rearranged and rebuilt into a new installation; 'Proposal IV'.
'Proposal' or 'Proposals for a better future', as the full title was meant to be, referred to ephemerality in both social structures and political ideas. 'Proposals' were mimicking leftovers from a past with a clear, but no longer approachable esthetic. Rearranging the modular sculptures made them into new proposals, but as the core elements always remained the same, one could wander how different those proposals are.
During the event around 'Proposal IV', it was pointed out to me how the pieces also resembled the seemingly rough but in actuality fragile structures of human relations and systems within a country or society.
