Disputed Histories
digital and offset prints
variable dimensions
2012
The work Disputed Histories is a long-term project of public lectures, workshops and discussions that directly deal with the problem of writing and teaching history in primary and secondary schools in the former Yugoslavia.
After the disintegration of Yugoslavia, various versions of historical narratives appeared in the new states, where during socialism there was only one version of history.
The aim of this project is to explore, through creative practices and processes, the historic shift in the interpretation of historical events from the perspective of individual histories and identities and to open space for thinking of new positions from which more consistent historical narratives could be perceived.
The work in the Collection consists of five volumes / fanzines framed together with photo-documentation of the workshops held in Banja Luka (Vol. 1: “Our Latest Hysteria”, a compilation of history textbooks for the eighth grade of primary school in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, 2010), Berlin. (Vol. 2: “Migrations and Expulsions”, a comparative analysis of the data on migrations and expulsions of people during the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, found in history textbooks in the countries of the former Yugoslavia and Germany, 2011), 52nd October Salon in Belgrade (“Istina / Evërteta” [truth in the Serbian / Albanian language], comparative analysis of Kosovo and Serbian history textbooks, 2011), Rijeka (Vol. 4: “Socialism Then and Never”, 2013) and, again in Banja Luka, in 2014 (Vol. 5: “Sarajevo Assassination”, through the doctrinaire eyes of the textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Yugoslavia, Austria, etc.).
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, October Salon Collection and the artist
Purchase Contract: III-5-163/27.5.2016.
Inventory No. 1419
Photo: Milan Kralj
Selected Bibliography:
All the material related to the Disputed History Project, documentary material, list of textbooks and more detailed information can be found at http://www.irational.org/vahida/history/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Vahida Ramujkić (1973, Belgrade, Serbia) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. From 1998 to 2007, she stayed in Barcelona, where she founded the Rotor Collective, which conceives its research on the border of art, activism and social studies. She is the author of various projects, such as Disputed Histories, Documentary Embroidery, Microcultures, etc. In many years of her work in the spheres of visual arts and activism, Vahida Ramujkić has dealt with social relations and the relations with the material environment, creating the conditions for designing of methodologies for collaborative learning and working. Therefore, she often works within a collective (Rotor, Barcelona, 2001–2007; Irational.org, transnationally, since 2012, ReEX, since 2015, Minipogon, since 2017, etc.) and develops her work through long-term research projects. She often uses the inclusive method and open structure to invite the participants to involve in the collective work, formed like a mosaic from individual interventions and solutions. In that sense, her work is rather environmental or contextual in nature – it creates conditions or situations to inspire new creative moments and transformations at the personal and social level. More information at http://www.irational.org/cgi-bin/vahida/projects/index.pl