AN INTERVIEW WITH BOSNIAN ARTIST TAIDA JASAREVIC The ‘Spiritual’ Matrix

The portrait of the Artist / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

Taida, your art career is very interesting. You gained your BA at ALU in Sarajevo 2002, moved to Japan and entered masters studies at Joshibi, where you were awarded a PhD in Fine Arts in 2010. I assume this part of your life was quite challenging. Today you live and work in Sarajevo. Can you tell us something more about your experience of studying in Japan?

I think the experience of living abroad opened my horizons and helped me to understand art in a wider, more global sense and allowed me to experience art through different and broader perspectives. Especially since Tokyo is one of the art centers of the world and I was able to see great shows by established contemporary artists as well as old masters. Being in direct contact with art woks gives another dimension to perception and experience of art and that is very important for an art students or a young artists. Experiencing art in different surroundings especially so different and specific like Japanese culture was magnificent but also challenging. Although there are many cultural differences I was more occupied with the things we shared in common. I could learn a lot from my Professors who were very dedicated teachers and whose work I admired before coming to Japan. It was like a dream come true. I think the Japanese are very dedicated, hard working and have a specific sensibility and sense for detail. And since printmaking is mostly about techniques and technical processes I think Japanese brought this art to its perfection.

Taida Jasarevic / Black, print, from the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

In Japan you gained your PhD in printmaking. Can you tell us more about the specifics of Japanese traditional printmaking, techniques, the materials they use and about tendencies within contemporary Japanese graphic art?

'Hanga' is word that means printmaking in Japanese. It consists of two ideograms, one is 'han' which means plate, the matrix and another is 'ga' meaning picture. 'Hanga' means pictures from the plate. And that is a traditional understanding of the printmaking medium in Japan. With the coming of new technologies such as photography and digital technologies the methods of production have changed, and the concept of printmaking has broadened, forcing the character 'han' to broaden its meaning to include any type of printed image. So the pure meaning of the term 'han' has been lost.

When we talk about tendencies in contemporary printmaking in Japan, it is like elsewhere, oriented towards new technologies. Printmaking has a very diverse expressive forms, which depend on the variety of techniques. Today it represents a medium that is constantly renewing itself, since its very nature is inclined to accept new technologies and innovations. Works by younger generation of Japanese artists reflect these tendencies, they are very diverse, some done with traditional printmaking techniques while others moved further by exploring the concept of indirectness and duplication in a broader sense of expression. In creating unique expressions the artists, especially young artists tend to move beyond the borders established by conventional printmaking.

Taida Jasarevic / Big Blue, print, from the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

How has that experience influenced your work?

Well, while I was a student I noticed that the traditional approach toward the medium is presented at art universities and certain skills are required in order to move forward. But in the final years of my studies, especially during my PhD research I was encouraged to think and approach the medium in a new and unconventional way and search for new meanings of the printed art form. In my work I used mostly intaglio techniques and the technique of photogravure which enabled me to transfer various kinds of images onto the copper matrix. So I was experimenting with various kinds of images which I re-created through the printmaking medium. This approach gave me a certain freedom to express myself in a more direct way.

Taida Jasarevic / The Flow, copper matrix, from the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

In your prints certain motifs dominate, such as water. Except being interesting as a print, how did water attract you in a metaphysical sense?

I have been working with digital images a lot in recent years. For an artist who previously had a traditional indirect approach towards the process of creating a printed image, the directness of new technologies opened a whole new world to me. I started feeling a lot of freedom in the way I was creating my art. Water was a main motif of my work for a long time but during this phase of my work I started perceiving the digital image itself like water. In its digital form the image is like the water carrying many unexplored meanings and forms.

For me the attributes of water act as a metaphor for the stream of life, in which we are drowned and lost, both spiritually and materially. Water is, therefore, like a medium through which our ego dissolves. Through this symbolic connotation I wanted to express my belief that in our life we go from one state to another, and sometimes we grow, sometimes we fall. Although we constantly change both physically and mentally, it is our essence that always stays the same. But it is on this journey that we somehow lose the connection with our essence. We are like droplets in the water stream. Our essence is the same (water) but we are dispersed into numerous states of being (water drops). Every single drop represents one state of our being. Life is nothing more than an attempt to find ourselves through the reunion of our real attributes. It is an attempt to return to our original, pure state of being, so as to reach the perfect state of balance.

Taida Jasarevic / Black Water, print, from the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

You are also using the medieval Bosnian script known as Bosančica, can you tell us something more about it?

Yes, in the second cycle 'Sky' I found Inspiration from the inscriptions on the medieval Bosnian tombstones and the Bosančica alphabet. This work was thematically related to tradition and cultural heritage and it questions the fragility of 'identity'. I started thinking about these topics after living for so many years abroad. For me this work is very poetic in a way because every part of it came out just very spontaneously as if in one breath. And I named it 'Sky'.

Taida Jasarevic / Sky, print, from the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

Taida Jasarevic / Sky, installation from the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

Taida Jasarevic / Sky, installation from the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

Where are the borders, in other words how much freedom of expression do you have in printmaking? Can you tell us something more about your experience in that field?

Your new exhibition 'Three Cycles' opened at Collegium Artisticum in Sarajevo. What can we see at the exhibition?

During my PhD studies I started exploring graphic art in three different ways, and since I am exhibiting these works together for the first time, in Sarajevo, I symbolically named the exhibition 'Three Cycles'.

The first cycle of my works named 'Black Water' examines the semantics of printmaking forms and the processes of image creation and transformation. In the second cycle named 'Sky' I am exploring relations between materials and space, and printed form as an installation. I made these works with handmade Japanese paper and intaglio and digital prints on Washi (Japanese) paper. And in the third cycle 'Above the Surface' I questioned the artwork and the observer in the relation of the specific ambience in which this communication happens. In transcendental sense the ambience, the space is the 'spiritual' matrix of the art work.

Hideo Yamazaki, Japanese Ambassador in BiH and Dzevad Hozo, the renowned Bosnian artist spoke at the opening of the exhibition in Sarajevo / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

From the exhibition 'Three Cycles', installation view / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

From the opening of the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

From the opening of the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

Taida Jasarevic / Above the Surface, from the exhibition 'Three Cycles' / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

Taida Jasarevic / The Flow, from the exhibition 'Three Cycles', 2009, 120x160cm, Intaglio / Photo ©: Islamic Arts Magazine

How would you describe the current art scene in Bosnia?

Bosnia and Herzegovina is as a very inspiring environment where all artists, committed to their work and working hard have achieved great results despite the difficult economic situation in our country and region. Many issues, like our cultural heritage, identity, social and political themes need stronger critical review through artistic or theoretical approach, with the attention and engagement. Of course I would love to see better connections among cultural institutions within Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the region and beyond. Also more funds to support artists in realizing their projects, as well as help in promoting our artists abroad, greater awareness of the importance of art, stronger criticism and definitely stronger support from our government towards all cultural institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Can you share your plans for the future?

I have a several invitations to exhibit my works, and I am planning to work on that during this year.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.