The work "BEKTEŠI" is part of the same-titled series of works (2018-2021), in which I question the complexity of my own identity, search for my roots, and strive to find a place where there are members of society who will accept me as their own. The feeling of non-belonging and alienation stems from a complexly constructed "diasporic" identity. I was born in Belgrade, and my parents were born in Kosovo. Now, I live in Sarajevo. I possess three passports and three ID cards. While as a child, my peers collected pictures of football players, I collected nationalities. Each of my presentations was a separate inquiry into my origins, and I could never find an accurate and simple answer. This cycle of works was created along the path of our intimate history, which, in the artistic process, becomes a symbol of the general-semantic unit of the common language with which we attempt to define ourselves. The work "BEKTEŠI" is an installation in public space, presented in the form of a billboard, serving as a commentary that challenges national intolerance in the society of today's former Yugoslavia, the stigmas and prejudices deeply ingrained in the language we use, and the universal question "who am I?" The work was exhibited at the first Youth Biennale in Belgrade, Serbia.
Billboard
Photo-documentation: Bojan Stojčić
Belgrade, Serbia
2021.