Bosnian Girls, Art, and Nationalism

This book is the first academic study of contemporary feminist art in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Focusing on art from BiH-a Former Yugoslav republic that has been largely overlooked in the literature-this book demonstrates the unique contributions by artists in understanding the intersection of gender and class with nationalism in a post-conflict society. Examining the historical precedents and drawing on conversations with the artists, this book examines the way in which artists present a counterpoint to the toxic normative culture of remembrance. It provides an argument for feminist art as a mode of remembrance and anti-nationalist collectivity in a region that has been subject to prolonged instability and crisis. This book will be of interest to scholars in contemporary art, feminist studies, war and conflict studies, and European studies.

UroS Cvoro is Associate Professor in Art Theory at UNSW Sydney. His research interests are contemporary art and politics from the region of Former Yugoslavia, cultural representations of nationalism and post-socialist and post-conflict art. His books include Post-Conflict Monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2020), Transitional Aesthetics: Art at the Edge of Europe (2018), and Turbo-folk Music and Cultural Representations of National Identity in Former Yugoslavia (2014). With Kit Messham-Muir, he is co-author of Images of War in Contemporary Art (2021) and The Trump Effect (2022).

Introduction; 1. Bosnian girls and red feminism against militarist patriarchal nationalism 2. Care in the work of BiH feminist artists 3. Tradition against patriarchy in the work of Sandra Dukic, Lala RaScic, and Selma Selman 4. Feminising the Gastarbeiter in the work of Mila Panic, SaSa Tatic, and Alma Gacanin; Afterword