Critic's Extended Engagement with Maja Ruznic's Berlin Exhibition Reveals Deeper Layers

In November 2024, a critic undertook an experiment of repeatedly visiting a single exhibition to test the limits of sustained viewing. The subject was Maja Ruznic's show at Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin, titled "Mutter," featuring 14 figurative paintings with modernist influences. Ruznic, born in Bosnia-Herzegovina and based in New Mexico, creates work informed by her experience fleeing the Bosnian war as a child. The critic made multiple visits, observing details like the stippling technique in "Sea People" (2023–24) and the symbolic connections in "Azmira & Maja" (2023–24), a double portrait of the artist and her mother based on a photo from an Austrian refugee camp. Through repeated exposure, initial impressions of decorative abstraction gave way to recognition of themes like memory, displacement, and shamanism, particularly in works such as "Grandmother" (2024) and "The Helpers" (2023–24). The critic noted the exhibition's exploration of inaccessibility of the past and the hope that lost loved ones remain present. The experiment highlighted the tension between quick categorization and the substantive rewards of prolonged looking, revealing Ruznic's sincere engagement with traumatic personal history through her artistic vocabulary.