Universes in Universe - Worlds of Art

52nd Venice Biennale
10 June - 21 November 2007

Venice / 2007 / Tour / Roma Pavilion

18 of 25

Nihad Nino Pušija

 

 

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Triptych. 1996, 2007
Installation, wallpaper, photos, 60 x 55 cm each

For the last fifteen years, I have consciously chosen to live and photograph in Berlin. There is no other metropolis in the world in which two divided halves are trying to grow back together. Nowhere else can you find both the division, and the merging, between the East and West Bloc. In this time and place of transition, I have the unique opportunity to move around as an artist, exploring Berlin's microcosms of its streets, food stands and even park benches, as change in progress. Through my eyes, as a foreigner, and with the tool of artistic photography, the faces of the inhabitants become projections of the events.

Photography is used as a medium to (re)gain one's identity and self-image. This is true for the subjects I capture, as well as for my own experience and role within this societal process of transition. It becomes increasingly important for me to find strategies and approaches to communicate my own experiences as part of the whole and make them heard.

Roma and their unique personal stories are at the centre of attention in portrait photography series at the turn of this century. These photographs of individuals become defining documentaries for whole groups of people. It is my artistic goal to seek out microcosms, here, where I live and work, capturing the small changes and holding onto the unassuming, so that the resulting series of photographs will defy the vague generalisations of my surroundings and daily life.

Artist's statement

Print version
All texts and biographies

© Large photo: Haupt & Binder
Photo top right: Nihad Nino Pušija

 

* 1965 Sarajevo, Bosnia. Lives in Berlin, Germany.

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Venice / 2007 / Tour / Roma Pavilion