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Danica Dakić's Zenica Trilogy at Bosnia Pavilion explores post-socialist transition through video and gilded shovel.

exhibition · 2026-04-19

In 2019, Danica Dakić showcased her work, Zenica Trilogy, at the Venice Biennale, representing Bosnia and Herzegovina. This three-part video installation delves into Zenica's evolution from a socialist industrial hub to a society reshaped by conflict, highlighting class awareness through its architectural landscape. The first piece, Zgrada (The Building), is an essay film featuring Zoran, a theater employee, who intertwines personal narratives with the deterioration of the Bosnian National Theater. Scena (The Stage) portrays a young woman sprinting across the theater's stage, symbolizing the stagnation in post-war Bosnia. Lastly, Čistač (The Cleaner) follows brothers Adil, a war refugee promoting organ donation, and his sibling, a street cleaner, critiquing the remnants of Cold War modernism and the shift in socialist narratives.

Key facts

  • Danica Dakić represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2019 Venice Biennale
  • Zenica Trilogy consists of three videos: Zgrada, Scena, and Čistač
  • The work examines Zenica's transition from socialist industrial center to post-conflict society
  • A gilded shovel references shock worker Alija Sirotanović, a 1947 mining record-setter
  • The installation avoids ethnographic spectacle by focusing on built environments and lived experience
  • Dakić has lived outside Bosnia and Herzegovina for over three decades
  • The work connects to debates about Cold War modernism and Yugoslav architectural legacy
  • Zenica was a main industrial production center in socialist Yugoslavia

Entities

Artists

  • Danica Dakić
  • Uroš Čvoro
  • Chrisoula Lionis
  • Vladimir Nikolić
  • Claire Bishop
  • Renata Salecl
  • Dušan Džamonja
  • Walter Gropius
  • Jennifer Allora
  • Guillermo Calzadilla
  • Stef Jansen
  • Igor Grubić
  • Sven Spieker
  • Sun Yuan
  • Peng Yu
  • Alija Sirotanović
  • Zoran

Institutions

  • Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Venice Biennale
  • Bosnian National Theater Zenica
  • ARTMargins Online
  • Croatian Pavilion
  • Arsenale
  • CNN
  • Routledge
  • Berghahn
  • Bloomsbury
  • VG Bild-Kunst Bonn
  • Zabranjeno Pušenje

Locations

  • Zenica
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Venice
  • Italy
  • Sarajevo
  • Yugoslavia
  • Central Bosnia
  • London
  • United Kingdom
  • New York
  • United States
  • Berlin
  • Germany
  • Bonn
  • EU

Sources