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    21.05.2025.

    Amer Kobašlija. Images: Book

    As part of the exhibition of the same name, held at the KRAK Center from 2 May to 23 May 2025, the Revizor Foundation and the KRAK Center published and presented a monograph titled Amer Kobašlija. Images – a unique visual diary chronicling a nomadic search for meaning, space, and belonging. The author of the publication, Irfan Hošić, provides a thoughtful interpretative framework for Kobašlija’s work within the local context, examining it through the lens of the artist’s origins while also exploring the deeper need to shape and preserve identity through the medium of painting. Spanning 176 pages, the book is structured into several chapters dedicated to the artist’s life and work, with a focus on key series such as Studios, Florida Diaries, and others. Hošić meticulously unravels the layers of Kobašlija’s oeuvre, engaging us in dialogue with related moments in art history, situating it within the context of the 1990s Bosnian-Herzegovinian migration, and examining the existential nomadism carried by that context.

    The study also addresses the socio-cultural habitus of the artist’s origins, specifically, the city of Banja Luka, from which he was displaced in his youth, resulting in an existential and identity dislocation that has been reflected in his artistic expression over the past thirty years. In addition to the scholarly study as its backbone, the book contains a conversation between the author, Irfan Hošić, and the artist, Amer Kobašlija, conducted over a past period and across various locations, from New York and Orlando to Bihać. Bringing together the author’s professional curatorial expertise on one hand, and an introspective introduction to the artist’s own practice on the other, along with an extensive catalogue of works covering most of his artistic output, the exhibition monograph Amer Kobašlija. Images represents an important document and reference point for reflecting on contemporary painting in general, as well as a trace of some of the questions concerning the position of painting in Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the example of an artist whose identity has been divergently shaped at the intersection and through the interplay of the American and Bosnian-Herzegovinian contexts. 

    The book is bilingual – besides Bosnian, it is also available in English. The foreword was written by American curator Patterson Sims; the academic review was provided by art historians Jonathan Blackwood and Claudia Zini; the interview was edited by Jane Hudak. The book was designed by Adnan Suljkanović, with Bosnian language editing and proofreading by Šeherzada Džafić. English translations were provided by Maša Halilović-Šišić, with proofreading of the English version by Claudia Zini. 

    The book’s CIP record is available in the COBISS system of the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina under ID number 64364806, and its ISBN is 978-9926-8381-6-4.

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    Photo: Adnan Suljkanović, 2025