An exhibition by Smirna Kulenović, Nataša Mackuljak and Sanja Lasić

March 8 – 22, 2023 at Manifesto

Kuma International and the Austrian cultural forum Sarajevo were excited to support the exhibition “Labors of Care” that opened in Sarajevo on March 8 on International Women’s Day at the gallery Manifesto.

The exhibition showed the works of three women artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina currently residing in Vienna: Smirna Kulenović, Sanja Lasić and Nataša Mackuljak. Within a collaborative artistic research project, the artists jointly re-interpret historical and contemporary feminist discourses related to the ideas of resistance, labor and care.

It explored a common intersecting point in the artists’ work, that of the role of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, their contributions to society, and the challenges they have faced throughout history, by juxtaposing artistic positions from three generations of women artists who migrated to Austria during three different decades and socio-political circumstances:  While the work of Sanja Lasić deals with traditional women’s labor and visual heritage, Nataša Mackuljak has a closer look at women’s antifascist resistance during World War II in Yugoslavia, while Smirna Kulenović focuses on collective action and care in the aftermath of the Bosnian war.

The exhibition was followed by the workshop “Redrawing the Bosnian ćilim” by Sanja Lasić on March 10 at Manifesto. Together with local and international participants, the artist explored elements of women labour related to the production of visual cultural heritage, vowed into traditional Bosnian carpets.