THE DAMNED DAM

performance series, exhibition

2010

Lala Raščić’s project The Damned Dam departs from a real event when the broadcasting of a radio drama Catastrophe caused a panic in the Bosnian town of Lukavac similar to that of Orson Wells’s War of the Worlds. The motif of the flood is embedded in the fictional narrative that is composed on the basis of field research on specific locations and events in the region. The narrative strategies that the artist employs in her work are now, in the project The Damned Dam, informed by Bosnian traditions of oral literature. Based on the study of these traditional forms, the artist delivers a fantasy love story set in the future intersected with socio-policial connotations.

A long term research period resulted with a narrative about Tarik and Merima in the form of video and series of eight aquarells illustrating their adventures. Exhibition in POGON Jedinstvo in Zagreb summed up all the elements of this complex work, creating the ambiance balancing on the edge of reality and fiction. Along with video installation and docu-exhibition, the organized event was structured around discursive/performative program: interpretations of the work by art historian Ivana Bago and artist Siniša Labrović, artist talk, performance and final discussion with experts from various fields.

partners: DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and Variables, Zagreb, KONTEKST, Beograd, i SCCA, Sarajevo

collaboration: Pogon – Zagreb Center for independent culture and youth