The talk “It is not red, it is blood” will take us on a journey through Jureša’s practice, proposing to break the silence surrounding traumatic historical events that invisibly connect us. Starting with Mira, Study for a Portrait, Branka Benčić and Jelena Jureša will explore the fragility of memory and the heaviness of absence, subtly leading us towards the complexity of exile and place(lessness) thematised in Song that will be on the view at Out of Sight. Towards the end of the talk Jureša’s methodology in which she is able to unveil a rhizome-like structure behind what we often perceive as compartmentalized historical events will become evident while presenting her upcoming film Aphasia [1]. Like the bullet from the FN Herstal 1910 pistol that became emblematic of the First World War, and connected Bosnia, Serbia, Austria and Belgium in their seemingly disparate fates, the film likewise brings together events, through the history of racism and eugenics, focusing on the blind spots of history and the difficulty of speaking about the troubled past.
We would like to end this invitation for the talk and the exhibition with a quote from Jelena Jureša’s book It is not red, it is blood. Not blood, red. written in her last letter to C: “There is a particular kind of vulnerability that comes with hope. With surrendering yourself to it. Maybe hope is somewhere in between. Maybe it does not need to be delineated.”
The talk is organised in collaboration with Kunstenpunt, followed by the opening reception of Jelena Jureša’s solo exhibition Song.
1. The film Aphasia by Jelena Jureša is produced by ARGOS, co-produced by: Contour-kunstcentrum nona, KASK School of Arts, Zagreb Youth Theatre (ZKM) and supported by Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF).
