UNFOLDING ELSEWHERES

“The lacuna that is part of the listening process is given prominence in Velibor Božović’s text prints titled Listening, How Did You Get Here. They are transcripts of interviews with members of the Bosnian diaspora displaced by the war of 1990’s. But, in the exhibited pieces, the transcripts although complete are fragmented and contain deliberate omissions. They condense long conversations into a brief text. They do so through an elimination of many syntactic elements, causing a breakdown of language such that the stories are never fully given away, and neither do they become so particular as to turn in the stories of an “other”. Their instability as coherent texts allows the reader to move in and out of points of familiarity and strangeness. In Božović’s act of listening, and translation and transcription, there is a desire to share stories, but also to underscore the complicated process of sharing and retelling.”

- text by Zeenat Nagree from AS IT RISES INTO THE AIR: LISTENING IN PRACTICE curatorial note

Exhibited: Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, India, 2019 / Galerie d’art Desjardins, Drummondville, QC, 2021 / Center for Contemporary Culture KRAK, Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023 / Noorderlicht International Photo Festival, Akerk, Groningen, 2023

Curatorial response by Zeenat Nagree to the project Unfolding Elsewheres: