Tara Murray
St Albans artist Saidin Salkic’s take on the COVID-19 pandemic will be on show half a world away.
The former Bosnian refugee, who is a leading contemporary artist, will have a permanent exhibition installed at Australia’s consulate in Sarajevo.
It was commissioned by Australia’s embassy in Vienna, which oversees the Sarajevo consulate.
Salkic’s exhibition, called ‘Human angst and joy’, deals with human emotions amid the COVID-19-inspired state of human angst and pain.
The exhibition reflects on Salkic’s personal experience and is in many ways inspired by the Srebrenica genocide.
Salkic was 12 years old when Bosnian Serb troops overran the United Nations declared “safe area” where he, his mother and sister, and thousands of other Bosnian Muslims had sought refuge in July 1995.
Salkic, who is known as Mido, says that the times we live in are a source of pain but the exhibition also showcases the great human ability to feel sublime joy at the same time and within the same consciousness.
“This unique national recognition is a great honour for me, to get the chance to unite two of my favourite countries in this way; Bosnia and Australia,” he said.
“The aim of this exhibition is to make everyone more human and more connected and closer together and more understanding of each other as equal, unique beings that we are.
“It is also great to know that I have risen from those muddy refugee tent floors on which I stood as a boy, to now be at the forefront of my new country, to symbolise its progressiveness and strength with my art on the international stage.”
