ABOUT
Media-augmented textile developed and animated for the exhibition "Palimpsest of ‘89" by Azra Akšamija, an artistic installation exploring the role of cultural institutions in shaping the common heritage of Yugoslavia through the lens of Sarajevo’s history.
PALIMPSEST of '89
" The underlying thesis is that [ Yugoslavia / Sarajevo's ] history has been “written and rewritten” through the work of institutions that have been framing and preserving a common heritage. [ … ]
The [ … ] idea translates into a "palimpsestic carpet," which proposes a way of thinking about the creation of heritage of the commons through the weaving of integrative and disintegrative narratives and policies related to cultural institutions. [ … ]
Carpet iconography functions like a form of storytelling and history writing. The carpet patterns of this exhibition depict the creation of a commons’ heritage through certain cultural institutions that were founded throughout various periods of Sarajevo’s history:
1. The Pre-Modern (Pre-Ottoman and Ottoman)
2. The Modern / Austro-Hungarian
3. The Modern / Socialist
4. The Post-Dayton Period (1995–2016).
Each of these periods translates into a layer of the palimpsestic carpet. [ … ] more and more symbols are added to the carpet, while others are revised or erased. The largest, central space of the exhibition focuses on the period of the War of 1992–95 as well as on the now, represented through an analog / digital carpet in the center of the space. This carpet brings together the constantly changing digital animation of all of these patterns from all exhibition rooms with the realtime crisis of the commons' heritage today and in the future. "
– Azra Akšamija, project author, from the Boston Globe