Lana Čmajčanin

Lana Čmajčanin (b. 1983 in Sarajevo/BA) has an MA from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Sarajevo/BA (2007) and is currently a PhD scholar at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna/AT. Čmajčanin is engaged in an art practice that has a strong reference to specific places, addresses issues of geopolitical mapping and political contexts, and distinctly includes the role of women and the female body. Čmajčanin investigates the impact of political and social power structures and control mechanisms, and she raises issues of responsibility and manipulation. She explores geopolitical and structural violence, the politics of memory, the practices of nationalist politics and the neoliberal management of trauma. Čmajčanin lives and works between Sarajevo/BA and Vienna/AT.

Čmajčanin’s artworks have been exhibited among others at: Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana/SI (2019); 58th Venice Biennale, Venice/IT (2019); Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka/HR (2019); NGBK–Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin/DE (2019); Autostrada Biennale, Prizren/XK (2019); Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou/CN (2017); Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou/CN (2017); Pera Museum, Istanbul/TR (2016); Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna/AT (2016); Good Children Gallery, New Orleans/US (2016); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam/NL (2015); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow/RU (2015); IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow/RU (2014); Galerie du Jour agnès b, Paris/FR (2014).

The following artwork will be shown as part of the EVROVIZION.CROSSING STORIES AND SPACES project:

BALKANGREUEL – BALKAN CRUELTY, installation, print on fabric wallpaper, dimensions variable, Vienna/AT, 2019.
© Lana Čmajčanin

Lana Čmajčanin’s wallpaper installation BALKANGREUEL – BALKAN CRUELTY combines the design of Viennese toile de jouy with motifs from the graphic portfolio Balkangreuel, which was published in 1909 by Austrian author and illustrator Gottfried Sieben in an act closely tied to the annexation of Bosnia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Scenes in which Balkan soldiers carry out acts of barbarism, including brutal attacks on women, can be seen. Sieben’s publication reinforced the stereotype of the ‘wild and barbaric’ Balkans, and all the prejudices associated with it. With its mixture of floral motifs featuring flowers endemic to the Balkans, luxurious ornamentation, and depictions of violence, Čmajčanin visualises the creation of prejudices. In doing so, she reveals the mechanisms behind the supposedly civilised selfrepresentation and resolute otherness of the people of the Balkans. The impact of political and social power structures, as well as aspects of control and manipulation, are rendered visible.

This artwork is part of the ifa art collection.