Biljana Bošnjaković (Verona, Italy): SPRING
- duration: 9 min
- watch: 28th March 2019 at 8 pm UTC
SPRING video art by Biljana Bosnjakovic
Inspired by the Iranian festival of Nowruz (using some typical symbols: lighting the fire, bringing the real mirror as a mask on my face, growing the green grass), I have meditated on the rebirth of life, on the Spring that arises from Winter, on the light that would not exist without darkness. The dark, motionless and seemingly dead soil is actually fertile and generates life. It is a generating fountain of all the creatures. The Earth is female. She nourishes and sustains us. The Earth is a Mother. The fruitful seeds that sprout in her womb, are protected and enveloped by her. I worship the Earth, considering Her deeply sacred: the source of life and a regenerative force. Any form of known existence is manifested through Her sacral power. Water, forests, mountains, vegetation – she is a tireless spring. A spring of life! (“Terra” in Italian, as well as “Zemlja” in Serbian language, means both soil and Earth, and is the feminine gender.)
Biljana Bosnjakovic Italy, March 2017
BIO: Born in 1970 in the small town of Užice (Serbia), Biljana Bošnjaković moved to Rome in 1992 and has lived and worked in Verona since 2002.
An extremely versatile artist, Biljana continuously experiments with a variety of techniques to express her concerns and torments and without ever dwelling on a single medium. She moves from photography to performance art, from sculpture and installation to video art, where she alone coordinates, curates and creates every single achievement.
In the development of her works, Biljana often focuses attention on her own body and has created multimedia installations and live performances that interact with the audience. These include:
– Video “Mutazione” screened at Aula Magna of the University of Verona in 2007;
– Video “Thus Spoke Palladio” commissioned with the support of CISA Andrea Palladio from Vicenza, in 2008;
– Video installation “Zodiac for Stockhausen” with the Verona Philharmonic Orchestra at the Camploy Theatre in Verona, in 2009;
– Theatrical performance “Prekid” for the Angel Art Gallery from Milan and the Cell63 Art Gallery from Berlin, at Verona Art Fair in 2010;
– Performance “Woman” at ACUD Theatre in Berlin, as a part of the MPA-B (Month of Performance Art Berlin) in 2012;
– Performance “Hyperouranios” for Melepere ArteContemporanea, at Festival della Filosofia, Modena, Italy, 2014;
– Performance “YΠEΡOYPANΙOΣ” for The Gnarl Festival, at Lincoln Performing Arts Center, Lincoln (UK), in October 2014;
– performance “Untitled” for Compass Live Art Festival, in Holy Trinity Church, Leeds (UK) in 2014;
– performance “Madre Natura”, at Cell63 Art Gallery, for MPA-B, curated by Dagmar I. Glausnitzer-Smith & Luisa Catucci in 2015:
http://www.cell63.com/cell63/nnessw360-2015;
– photography exhibition “This Is My Church” and video screening “La Vita”, curated by Paola Zucchello, at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa in 2015;
– video performance “Acqua” for International Performance Art Event “Future Of Imagination 10”, curated by Snezana Golubovic and Jason Lim, Singapore 2015;
– presentation of Biljana’s work during the International Performance Art Workshop & Symposium, at Department of Fine Art, Kurukshetra University, India 2016;
– performance “Bandha” in collaboration with artist Parag Sonarghare (India), for Morni Hills Performance Art Biennale, at Govt Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigargh, India 2016;
– performance “Purge”, curated by Richard Rabensaat at Teufelsberg, Berlin, 2016;
– video art “Spring” for ARTA Contemporary Art Institute, in Khoramabad, Iran, 2017.
In 2015 Biljana was initiator, founder, manager & Artistic Director of the Stapari International Arts Summer Festival, in her native village Stapari, near Užice, in Serbia: https://www.facebook.com/Stapari.Summer.Fest
The next steps of her artistic research are recently shifting to the observation of the influence of weather and natural elements on her art, which is executed and performed in open spaces. What she intends to do is to allow the environment to intervene on every step of the evolution of her works. It is as though she feels the need to fuse and merge with Nature, in an effort to return to – as well as the search for – the Self.
“The Nature has an important role in my work although set in an urban context.
I need the Green!
I love the Trees, their presence, their strength and the silence.
As long as there are Trees close to me, and the Birds singing, and the Lichens and Mosses growing, I feel safe.
What hurts me the most, is the fact that we are torturing and killing beautiful and innocence Animals and Trees only so we can live through convenience. It tears my heart up to see what we are doing to this Earth.
Most of the times my art reflects those emotions.” Biljana Bosnjakovic
ARTIST’S WEBSITE