According to the competition rules, this award includes a six-week stay in New York and solo exhibitions in the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Republika Srpska in Banja Luka (the latter one took place in 2007). SCCA marked its tenth anniversary with these exhibitions as well. Why was Lala Rascic’s exhibition chosen to mark the first decade of the Centre? For two reasons: firstly, a new way of using different media in visual art; secondly, Lala’s active artistic involvement.

One of the criteria for supporting and promoting a new art practice (incorporated in the programme policy of SCCA and ZVONO Award) is: researches in the domain of media contemporary art uses and the development of these media. The exhibited works of art at Lala’s first exhibition in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the best examples of that contemporary practice – a symbolic unity of different media: video performance, drawings, artefacts and objects (stage props and costumes used in the video mise-en-scene).

The second reason for selecting this artist’s exhibition in order to celebrate the tenth anniversary of SCCA is a form of introducing a new generation of artists, and here we do not mean only people of the same age group. Difference between the first group of female and male artists, who formed and created a new art scene in Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war in Bosnia (from 1997 onwards) and who were promoted by SCCA, can be seen in their way of thinking, behaviour and articulating relevant and controversial socio-political issues filtered through their individual experiences, which usually means ‘an active involvement in art’. Lala’s working process in all of its aspects, both forms and themes, symbolically opens that new chapter in art which is being created within space and time we might call zone of disturbance (Sylvia Eiblmayr).

In order to understand Lala Rascic’s work it is necessary to mention some biographical references which show this artist’s psychological and emotional profile and represent a contextual frame of her personal and artistic development. At the beginning of the war in Bosnia and the siege of Sarajevo, Lala came as a refugee to Zagreb, where she continued her education and graduated from the Academy of Art. Neither her place of birth nor her place of residence does she feel as her own. She started a nomad way of living, and this time it was by her own choice, and not because she had been forced to do it. It was a choice determined by her professional orientation. Now you can find her anywhere in the world, in Amsterdam or Istanbul, New York or Vienna etc. But, she shifted her base from Zagreb to Sarajevo in the past few years.

Her view of the world is marked by a life on the margins of society and a search for identity/identities. At the same time, in order to learn more about herself, Lala uses her intellectual/theoretical background and stronghold, not only her past personal experience or the collective one. Non-affiliation, a nomad way of living and a life behind the visible represent the origins of her active involvement in art.

Many of us have gone through the same things. That is why we find her work to be so important.

“We do not need to belong, we can live in fiction, we can get lost and never to be found again. That is the rapport I establish with my art; that is the reason I create art”, states Lala Rascic.

Lala Rascic applies that “nomad” strategy in her art. She mixes reality and fiction and uses an ample and diverse referential repertoire (ranging from art theory to the history of media) in order to warn us about some ignored social phenomena – difficult, neglected and unsolved social issues of our time. One might say that those are the common places in today’s art. But, what is new then? Lala’s “amusing” way of dealing with those issues generated by our reality is new, ranging from the consequences of war traumas and exile to the issues of personal and collective identity and the “other”. Those novelties can be seen, on one hand, in ostensible buoyancy, humour and ironic distance in Lala’s story-telling, and in the media structure of her works, on the other hand.

We have selected four works for Lala Rascic’s first exhibition in Belgrade. They illustrate variety of themes and this artist’s methodology of work in the best way, as well as our criterion and reasons for making such a choice of Lala’s works of art.

The artist received ZVONO Award for her work “The Invisibles” in 2005, when she began her collaboration with SCCA. “Sorry, Wrong Number” (2006/07) was created between the artist’s two works: “The Invisibles” and “Everything is Connected” (2007). Lala did the latter one for her first solo exhibition in Sarajevo and Banja Luka. Her latest work “Individual Utopias” (2008), which has not been exhibited in Bosnia and Herzegovina yet, is the result of collaboration between SCCA and the Italian organisation Connecting Cultures on a project called “Art and Survival” in which Lala Rascic has taken part in together with her fellow artists.

Lala Rascic’s works of art represent a complex synthesis of different art genres. The main referential point is radio drama, a very popular genre in the first half of the twentieth century, because it enables her to merge and demonstrate all of her talents: literary talent, acting, performing, drawing, and painting.

All the elements of working process are equally important. They are an integral part of the exhibition which represents a parcours through all the stage of creating: from Lala’s personal literary model in the form of a drama, a visual presentation of the story – drawings of protagonists/characters, single frames/scenes and props, to the final product – a video performance (a rehearsal of her radio drama).

Depending on a subject-matter or phenomenon the artist examines, she uses adequate visual or language codes: colloquial speech, argot, a suitable radio, film or literary genre. The story base of her work makes a plot. It is a story with one or more characters. These characters are fictitious and the artist-author herself creates and plays them.

Another novelty is the artist’s latest work called “Individual Utopias”. It is based upon an authentic event and real people who have taken part in a humanitarian-art workshop called “Art and Survival”.

The story for this audio drama/performance was inspired or, better said, provoked by the event in which the artist herself had taken part. According to Lala’s interpretation of one of many unfortunate donor projects, which had been organized and realized an Italian organization this time, in collaboration with a local institution, i.e. the Sarajevo Centre for Contemporary Art (in charge of the selection of the artists who know how to work with a group of the disabled), the entire event turned into a tragicomedy with a cynical ending. Namely, its last phase should be in Milan. The organizers, and we do not doubt in their best intentions, will present this successfully carried out project there before a selected public in order to justify the invested means. Lala should be its living proof because she has contributed immensely to a happy end of the entire project. This image of international help and, in most cases, poorly invested donors money in our region, has its artistic interpretation and (insider) critical way of looking at things for the first time.

But, the most valuable thing is that Lala has gained benefits from this true story, both in an artistic way and a material one. Namely, she succeeded in obtaining some financial means from the same international donor for another segment of her project “Individual Utopias”. It should appear in the form of book. But this book will be a work of art.

By Dunja Blazevic