Professional Visit to the Exhibition “Blue, Purple, Green, Yellow,” Organized by the Association for Culture and Arts “Crvena”

As part of the course “Contemporary Tendencies in Art Theory and History,” students from the second cycle of studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Sarajevo, accompanied by Assistant Professor Anja Bogojević, visited the exhibition “Blue, Purple, Green, Yellow” on Wednesday, 8 January 2025. This exhibition was organized and produced by the Association for Culture and Arts “Crvena” in their space located at Augusta Brauna 14.

The exhibition showcased the works of eight younger-generation Bosnian-Herzegovinian artists, including recent graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts – Adela Jušić, Alma Gačanin, Jelena Fužinato, Kasja Jerlagić, Lana Čmajčanin, Mila Panić, Milena Ivić, and Saša Tatić.

The guided tour for students was led by Andreja Dugandžić, the exhibition curator, and Alma Gačanin, one of the exhibitors. “Blue, Purple, Green, Yellow” represents a significant advancement on the Bosnian-Herzegovinian art scene as well as in the public domain, using artistic means to address one of the pressing issues within Bosnian-Herzegovinian society and highlighting how art serves as a tool for critically examining and actively engaging in the struggle for basic human rights and a life free from violence.

Statement of the Exhibition:

The exhibition “Blue, Purple, Green, Yellow” endeavors to confront systemic violence against women through various artistic perspectives. Centuries of uninterrupted struggle have demonstrated the resilience of patriarchy, its deep roots and resistance, its capacity for transformation over time, and its collaboration with prevailing systems, as well as the determination of the forces that sustain and nurture it. The very title of the exhibition references a powerful yet often overlooked process of healing from violence. Blue, Purple, Green, and Yellow represent the stages of bruising – each color embodies a different phase of pain, trauma, and recovery. Bruises narrate not merely the tale of a blow; they are a visual representation of the body's response to injury, a cycle that shifts from dark to light as healing commences. This metaphor reflects the journey many women experience: a painful, enduring process that is neither linear nor straightforward, but rather irregular and uncertain.

The ambition of the exhibition is to indicate the pathways societies must traverse in the ultimate break from regimes of violence, dominance, and coercion. It aspires to signal a comprehensive goal of healing, transformation, and revolution. This exhibition forms part of a long narrative about this journey. Eight artists, alongside us, present to the audience eight personal reckonings with violence, aspects of this experience as both collective and universal while simultaneously embodying the multiplicity of faces and forms. From diverse perspectives, the artists respond to violence that is both institutional and insidiously pervasive, always poised to raise its ugly head, claiming another part of us. A system that remains utterly deaf to our cries: “None anymore,” “None anymore,” “None anymore!”

This exhibition is not merely an artistic event; it is an act of solidarity, struggle, and resistance.