Our Team

Claudia Zini

CEO, Founder

Claudia is an Italian art historian and independent curator, focusing her professional interests on visual arts dealing with the aftermath of war and violence. In 2019, she completed a Ph.D. at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, with a focus on the impact of war and genocide on contemporary artistic production in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the same year, she served as one of the curators of the Bosnian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Currently, Claudia resides in Sarajevo, where she serves as the founder and director of Kuma International, a research center dedicated to visual arts from post-conflict societies, established in 2018. The center primarily focuses on teaching and promoting Bosnian art, with particular attention to themes of conflict, memory preservation, and trauma recovery through art. During her time in Sarajevo, Claudia has curated numerous educational workshops and artistic projects. She has co-edited the books Sarajevo Unfolding (Buybook, 2020) and Unsafe Goražde (Kuma International, 2022), and served as the editor of Sarajevo 1992-1996 (Kuma International, 2023). Additionally, she has organized six editions of the renowned Kuma Summer School, a program dedicated to visual arts produced in the context of war and genocide.

Irfan Hošić

Founder

Irfan completed his PhD at the Department of Art History at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, in 2011. His research encompasses modern and contemporary art, design, fashion, and architecture. He was a curator-in-residence at the Singapore Art Museum (2024), Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the College for Creative Studies and Wayne State University in Detroit (2019/2020), and a post-doctoral researcher at Ghent University (2013/2014). He is the author of the books “Slika krize. Kulturne i umjetničke prilike u Bosni i Hercegovini 1990-2020” (Image of Crisis: Cultural and Artistic Circumstances in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1990-2020, Buybook, Sarajevo, 2024) and “Iz/Van konteksta” (Out of Context, Connectum Sarajevo, 2013). Hošić is also the editor-in-chief of the nomadic zine Revizor. He curated the Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), as well as several other exhibitions such as “In Search of ‘Other’ Space of Belonging” (2021), “Didactic Wall by Mladen Miljanović” (2019), “Artefacts of a Future Past” (2017) and more. He is the founder and president of the Foundation Revizor (2016) as well as the founder and artistic director of the Center for Contemporary Culture KRAK (Bihać, 2020). He teaches Art History and Modern Art and Design at the Textile Department at the University of Bihać.

Izela Kešmer

Founder

Izela completed her Master’s degree at the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo. Since 2014, she has worked at the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art Sarajevo as a program coordinator, project manager, and chief administrative officer. In 2017, she collaborated with the Ars Aevi team on organizing the exhibition “Nove Opere da Nove Collezioni” held at the Italian Parliament in Rome. In 2016, she joined the organizational team of the International Literature Festival Bookstan. In 2015, she contributed to organizing the exhibition held on the occasion of the BiH Presidency of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. She currently works at the Museum of the City of Sarajevo as an office administrator, assisting the museum staff in the realization of exhibition projects and other cultural activities for several years.

Enrico Dagnino

Head of Photography and Film Department

Enrico is an Italian photojournalist with an extensive international career. He began his work as a photojournalist in the late 1980s, covering pivotal events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Velvet Revolution in Prague. He documented the uprisings in Romania and the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, covering conflicts in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Enrico documented the Arab-Israeli conflict, the wars in Chechnya, Yemen, Somalia, and Nagorno-Karabakh, the Rwandan refugee crisis, the Kabila offensive in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). In 2011, he captured the Arab Spring revolutions and the conflict in Libya. Decades of Enrico’s work have been showcased in two retrospective exhibitions: the first in 2015 at the Enrico Navarra Gallery in Paris, and the second at the Duplex100m2 gallery in Sarajevo in 2016 during the WARM Festival. His first documentary film, “Spring Break Iraq” (2002), was presented at the Turin Film Festival, while “Unsafe Goražde” (2022) premiered in Goražde during the 30th-anniversary commemorations of the beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was later shown in Sarajevo during the Italian Cinema Week promoted by the Italian Embassy. Enrico is currently working on his third documentary film about Mexican photographer Bernardino Hernandez and the war on drug cartels. He is the co-editor of the book “Unsafe Goražde,” published by Kuma International in 2022. In 2023, his photography book “Sarajevo 1992-1996,” featuring his photographs from the siege of Sarajevo, was published by Kuma International.

Ferida Abdagić

Project Manager

Ferida holds an undergraduate degree in World Literature from the University of Sarajevo and is a New Media Designer and Adobe specialist from IT Academy, Serbia. With over 15 years of experience in the communication industry, she has gained professional expertise in human relations, journalism, creative content, project management, storytelling, product placement, marketing strategy, and design of print, audio, video, and digital assets. Since 2007, she has worked with national and international organizations of all scales, government and private companies, designing, planning, and executing comprehensive communication strategies and developing detailed activity plans. Her experience includes collaborations with international organizations such as EUDEL, GIZ, UN Women (New York), Save the Children (NWB), UNDP, UNICEF, and USAID.

 

Lejla Odobašić Novo

Head of Architecture Department

Lejla is a licensed architect with the Ontario Association of Architects in Canada and currently teaches at the International Burch University, Department of Architecture. She obtained her Bachelor and Master degrees at the University of Waterloo in Canada and her PhD at the International Burch University. Prior to IBU, Lejla also taught at the University of Waterloo both in Canada and at the Rome campus, and she has participated in numerous international workshops and conferences. She conducts research on the role of culture within architecture, exploring how culture can be used as a regenerative tool in addressing conflicted and contentious places. Within this field, she has carried out projects, exhibitions, publications, and other cultural initiatives. Additionally, Lejla has worked in various architectural practices in Canada and internationally, including Toronto, London, Madrid, Rome, and Istanbul.

Selver Učanbarlić

Creative Strategist

Selver has expertise in architecture and social impact. Committed to creating positive change, he has dedicated his career to working with NGOs such as Dani Arhitekture, Asocijacija Arhitekata, and Aarhus Center Sarajevo, as well as other mission-driven organizations. With a background in architecture from the University of Sarajevo and the University of Stuttgart, Selver brings a deep understanding of design and planning to his work. He has worked on various projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad aimed at improving the lives of marginalized communities. Additionally, he is a talented photographer and videographer. He serves as the Creative Director at Mahala Magazine, Kuma’s first editorial project, which was born in 2021 as a result of a two-week workshop on photojournalism held by Enrico Dagnino.

Amina Hećimović

Social Media Manager

Amina completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Traffic and Communication, in 2021. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the same institution and has 3 years of experience in creating social media visuals and managing social networks. Amina has also completed a 4-month intensive course for community managers. Her participation in an entrepreneurial camp sharpened her soft skills and demonstrated her adaptability and ability to handle teamwork challenges. She has served as a member of the young PR team representing the Canton of Sarajevo and Munja Incubator.