During the performance ‘A poem from my accountant’, I recite an extensive hostile email thread/t romanticising and reclaiming the experience of being cancelled by a seemingly professional business persona.

“Visa Reveal Party” is a grotesque European Union fever dream performance art piece, utilizing the format of the gender reveal party. I play into the narrative flow of my previous works, where after a marriage for a visa, comes the finalization of the process, with the birth of a new legal citizen. For this performance, I orchestrated an event in which I questioned the societal systems to which I must conform as a foreigner in Holland. It is an exploration of bureaucratic marginalization and the surreal intricacies of the visa process. The crux of this performance revolved around the revelation of whether or not I had gotten my freelance artist visa, a journey that spanned 311 days. From the 14th of September 2022 to the 22nd of June 2023, I navigated the bureaucratic labyrinth in anticipation of this life-changing document. It's worth noting that the visa's validity spans two years, calculated from the application date rather than the date of issuance.

Photography: Diana Putavet

"Make Bosnia Sexy Again" serves as both the title of the project and my first solo exhibition in Bosnia and Herzegovina, commissioned by Vagon Gallery in Banja Luka. This project takes the form of a pseudo-documentary show, in which I adopt the persona of Miss Diaspora, a title I've bestowed upon myself. Miss Diaspora, originally hailing from Canada, is compelled to make her first-ever visit to her roots in Bosnia after winning this prestigious title. As Miss Diaspora, I embark on a journey through diverse narratives, delving into our desires for the places we call home, our places of upbringing, and sometimes, the places we leave behind. The overarching goal is to uncover how we can "Make Bosnia Sexy Again."


The inspiration for this work originates in beauty pageants, known for their requirement that women, in addition to exceptional physical beauty, must also exhibit thoughtfulness while responding to profound philosophical questions. By juxtaposing this unattainable ideal with the diaspora culture prevalent in the Balkans, I engage with relevant questions surrounding emigration, living standards, and universal human needs. To communicate these complex phenomena I communicated with random passersby in various Bosnian cities, including Banja Luka, Drvar, Bihac, Sarajevo, and Visoko.


As someone with roots in Bosnia and Herzegovina while living within the dynamic space between the Balkans and the diaspora, my work, "Make Bosnia Sexy Again," serves as a means to explore my internalized emotions related to my heritage, and of course, having a good time along the way.



Exhibition Photos: Dalibor Danilović

I collaborated with Hocus Bogus Publishing, a publishing house based in Rotterdam, led by Dennis Muñoz Espadiña, along with the residents of Hamburger Community in Roodkapje, Rotterdam. Together, we organized a group exhibition titled 'Riso_Paper-Scissors.' Hocus Bogus Publishing commissioned the residents to create a stop-motion animation using the riso printing technique. However, I decided to take a different approach by using a scan and copy office machine. For the exhibition's opening, I placed the copy machine in the center of the exhibition space, inviting the audience to participate. Attendees were encouraged to come to me and have different parts of their bodies scanned and printed. Each person could choose one body part, and we would scan that body part 15 times, as one second of animation requires 15 frames. Participants could experiment by moving the body part or adjusting black-and-white contrasts and scales. I would then archive the printed body parts for later use. The purpose of this interactive performance was to engage the audience in a discussion about 'biometrics' and whether they had ever encountered this process. According to Wikipedia, "Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics. Biometric authentication is used in computer science for identification and access control, and it is also used to identify individuals under surveillance."

This performance served as a research exploration into the world of biometrics and the discomfort associated with repeated biometric procedures, as I had to undergo this process almost every year when applying for a visa. I aimed to share this experience with the audience. The outcome of this performance is a short animation that incorporates all of the collected biometric scans.