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