Non-Aligned Map, Published on 8th of August 1976 as a supplement in daily newspaper POLITIKA, Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, Family Archive, portrait from family album. 2024, Light box, 67 x 47in
Olja Triaška Stefanović
Slovakia
Visual
Artist in Residence
↗ www.oljastefanovic.com
Artist Statement
I am visual artist and photographer born in the former Yugoslavia but who emigrated to Bratislava, Slovakia during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. My artistic work often explores this biographical journey i.e. the historical, political, and cultural context of the former Yugoslavia, as well as the consequences of the 1990s civil wars. In this context, my interdisciplinary visual research frequently addresses topics such as the Non-Aligned Movement, decolonization, utopia, solidarity, and the (in)visible traces of the Cold War era. I work with photography, sound and video recordings and archive materials. In recent projects, my work is more engaged with the questions of how and in what way global politics and decisions effects our personal histories, lives and collective futures.
While at Headlands
I will develop a series of works that focus on memory and forgetting in the historical, political and cultural context of the Cold War. My interdisciplinary visual research will focus on archive photography, materials and recording sounds and video of the former military Nike Missile site with its unique history. All of these will be presented in the form of an installation using the sound, archival materials photography and video. Maintaining a studio at Headlands will impact my work in several ways; providing a unique environment, with its history and location; with a community of artists; allowing me to explore historical experience and narratives with the local community at the Nike site; affording me time and space to develop my project and refine my practice.
