Pain Suffers No Form - SEJLA KAMERIC

Artist SEJLA KAMERIC sits down for DSCENE interview with Contributing Editor SLAVICA PESHIC to talk about the significance of a place of birth, her most prominent work and feminism.

- SLAVICA PESHIC

The European art scene has become your second playground early on, but you keep returning to the Balkans. What does your origin mean for your work? - Origin is an obstacle. But it is the problems and the obstacles that make us look for solutions. That’s how we learn, discover, and grow. My biggest drive may be in having no sense of belonging. I am lonely by nature. I love the freedom that comes with loneliness, but I also suffer for it. To be born in the Balkans is not very lucky if you see yourself as a free person. It’s an obstacle. But there are places in the world with many more problems and misfortunes. So my struggle with the Balkans is not the worst thing. In fact, I have accepted it as a form of exercise—it keeps me fit. I didn’t want to run away and forget, so I come back to fight. We were not born in a place that offers the privilege of being relaxed.

You survived the siege of Sarajevo and were whiteness to heinous crimes that took place there, so the motif of war victims is present in your work. After many years of working with that subject, do you feel that you have redeemed the victims or that at least a basic human right to justice has been satisfied? - Unfortunately, there is no redemption or a basic human right to justice. The world is not a fair place. Art cannot fix things. Negation of crimes is a preparation for new crimes. Humans are an invasive species. We change slowly. Art helps, sometimes it educates, and sometimes it simply feeds the soul and the mind. One of the ways to survive a war is to refuse to be a victim. Resistance is a mental game. The mind is often the only weapon of defense.