Digesting Dayton
Participatory project, photography, food (2012/17)
This interactive installation in the form of a buffet was part of a series events involving Bosnian communities, first in Boston, then later in Ljubljana. All attendees were invited to participate. A map of Bosnia-Herzegovina was sewn onto the tablecloth. The food was arranged along the internal political borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina: the border of the Serb Republic and the cantons of the Bosniak-Croat Federation as they were settled in the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995. Paradoxically, while the American-brokered peace proposal was intended to maintain Bosnian unity, in practice it induced an internal political fragmentation of the country. The signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement de-facto legalized the division of the Bosnian population along clear-cut ethnic and national categories, tacitly recognizing the earlier genocide and “ethnic cleansing.” As the event participants enjoyed the tasty treats, they were also symbolically “eating away” the borders of post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina. Visitors originating from Bosnia were invited to stick a toothpick on this tablecloth-map, marking the places they came from, making a map of the Bosnian diaspora community in Boston. This project was documented by a sequence of photographs of its different stages during the evening.
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Project first produced for the Intercultural Mixer: Discover Bosnia at American Islamic Congress (AIC) in Boston, organized by Edina Škaljic (2012); and commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana for the exhibition The Heritage of 1989. Case Study: The Second Yugoslav Documents Exhibition, 2017.
Materials: White tablecloth with red embroidery, styrofoam board, Bosnian beef sausages, dried meat, cherry tomatoes, 50 toothpicks with US flags.
Dimensions: tablecloth, 120 x 200 cm; food, variable
Concept and design: Azra Akšamija
Production: Azra Akšamija, Lillian Harden (embroidery); Edina Škaljic (buffet in Boston), Adela Železnik (buffet in Ljubljana)
Also see: Akšamija, Azra. Museum Solidarity Lobby. Ljubljana: Museum of Modern Art, 2018.