Dragana Jurisic 'YU: The Lost Country'

Dragana Jurisic grew up in Yugoslavia, a country that ceased to exist in 1991. On the basis of a 1941 travel report by the British author Rebecca West she, together with her good friend Michal Iwanowski, travelled the states that came into being following the falling apart of her country of birth. It was initially meant to be a reconstruction of a lost home country, yet it became a chain of experiences showing how she herself changed during the course of time. It also demonstrates how photographs can give voice to the feeling of being uprooted. Next to Jurisic’s work, this exhibition displays photographs by Iwanowski for the first time as well.

A selection from the graduation work of Emma Döbken, Minerva Art Academy alumnus, shows former Yugoslavia from another angle, shaped by her memories of holidays and of her time as an exchange student.

‘Yu: The Lost Country’ is part of ‘Unfixing Histories’: five exhibitions in Groningen’s town centre that display a variety of works in which artists extricate history to apply an alternative way of looking at reality. ‘Unfixing Histories’ is initiated by Andrea Stultiens, who as an artist conducts research into photographic images and teaches at Minerva Art Academy.