KRAK, the Center for Contemporary Culture in Bihać (Bosnia and Herzegovina), was established in 2020 as a result of endeavors in the field of critical theory, art/design practice, and civic engagement. Its conceptual framework is shaped by post-socialist and post-industrial characteristics – specifically, the unsuccessful and painful transition from Yugoslav socialism into post-Yugoslav neoliberal capitalism. This period has been marked by conflicted relations, depopulation, poverty, and trauma. KRAK focuses on contemporary culture, including visual arts, design, and social theory as a frame for proactive practice. It is conceived as a participatory project involving different protagonists who use the tools of social engagement and urban transformation to foster learning, informal education, and cultural exchange. KRAK launched its first program in 2021, critically addressing and discussing the issues of migrations, identity, public space, and visual culture.
Irfan Hošić holds a PhD from the Department of Art History at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb. His field of research is Bosnian art of the 20th and 21st centuries. He won the BIRN Journalism Award (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Belgrade) in 2012 and the Patterns Lectures Award from the Erste Stiftung and WUS Austria in Vienna in 2016. Irfan Hošić was the curator of the Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), entitled Garden of Delights by artist Mladen Miljanović. In 2013, he was a lecturer at the Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan, and in 2019 at the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University (USA). He won the Basileus Scholarship for a ten-month postdoctoral research stay at the University of Ghent (Belgium) in 2013/2014, a Weiser scholarship for a research project at the University of Michigan (USA) in 2015, and a Green Tech scholarship for a research stay at the University of Paderborn (Germany) in 2017. During 2019/2020, as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar, he attended the College for Creative Studies and Wayne State University in Detroit (USA). In 2017, he founded the Revizor Foundation. Hošić currently holds the position of Associate Professor at the University of Bihać. He writes reviews and works as a curator.
Bosnia-Herzegovina and plethora of borders
Since the fall of Yugoslavia in the nineties, Bosnia-Herzegovina, as one of the six former Yugoslav republics, has remained caught in a complicated political situation shaped by Serbian/Croatian separatism and Bosnian unitarism. Divided into two semi-autonomous and self-governing units, and under extensive international supervision, Bosnia and Herzegovina has struggled with an unsuccessful transition from socialism to capitalism and from war to peace. Formalized by the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, the country emerged as a dynamic laboratory for global diplomacy efforts and a variety of social experiments. In that context, the question of borders has been a focal point for diverse artistic research. Artists use state, regional, cantonal, and mental borders as artistic elements loaded with various meanings. The spectrum of interpretation for this artistic vocabulary ranges from narration to fiction. In the Bosnian case, the border has often been perceived as a symbol of isolation, division, enslavement, insecurity, threat, and conflict. This presentation examines artworks made by Gordana Anđelić Galić, Lovro Artuković, Maja Bajević, Nermin Duraković, Šejla Kamerić, Mladen Miljanović, Borjana Mrđa, Alma Suljević, and others.
Mehmed Mahmutović graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Bihać, Department of Marketing and Management, in 2021. From 2017 to 2018, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Youth Press Association in BiH. In 2018, representing the Schüler Helfen Leben Foundation in BiH, he was appointed Ambassador of Youth and Activism for his activist work. The same year, at the Brave New Media Festival in Belgrade, he won the award for the best photograph, presented by Deutsche Welle. He also received a Recognition for the contribution and promotion of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Bihać, and a Letter of Appreciation for his contribution to the development of this institution on the occasion of its 20th anniversary. He also won an Award for the use of the library and other services from the Federal Ministry of Education. He worked as a correspondent for the BHRT Youth Program. He is a member of the editorial board of the youth magazine Karike. He writes poetry and prose, which has been published on several regional web portals, including Insp.rs and Blacksheep.rs.
Silence and Echoes of a Landscape
A conversation with poet, photographer, and cultural worker Mehmed Mahmutović about landscape, human heritage, family history, and the social, political, cultural, and environmental complexities of a homeland. Mehmed will share stories from his art-practice that’s been shaped by the post-genocide and postwar context of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the everyday echoes demand attention and reflection. Participants will hear selected poems from his debut poetry book Nikakav plivač (Unresourceful Swimmer), a culmination of reflections on navigating the society in which he grew up and by which he was shaped. The book consists of 57 poems, through which the poet digs and sifts through the rules and norms of the surroundings. He will reflect on his activist path and projects like Urban Poetry, an initiative that brings poetry into the public space. This poetry picnic is an invitation to pause, listen, reflect, transform, and make a dialogue more open.
Adnan Suljkanović graduated from the Department of Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Sarajevo, in 2008. From 2006, he worked at the marketing agencies Direct Media and BBDO, where he gained experience working with clients such as m:tel, UNDP and EUPM. He has been working as a freelance designer since 2010 and his clients include Collegium Artisticum City Gallery, Bosniak Institute, Gazi Husrev-beg Library and others. He has received numerous recognitions and awards, such as the Golden Badge of the University of Sarajevo and the Student of the Generation of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo in 2008, and the Favorite Design Award for packaging design in 2016. His work has been exhibited at the Pera Museum in Istanbul and the Magdalena Festival in Maribor, and has been included in Asim Đelilović's book Museum in Exile. He is a member of ULUPUBiH. He is currently pursuing postgraduate studies at the Department of Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Sarajevo.
KRAK guests:
Nermin Duraković is a visual artist and educator who works within the field of socially and politically engaged art. He has been working as an Associate Professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and over the past two decades, he has contributed to the development of various cultural and social initiatives. Among other projects, Duraković has been working with the structural understanding of migration politics, making a number of art projects, exhibitions and lectures that relates to this topic.
Artist's webpage.
Addressing Migration Politics through Art
On May 9th 2025, he will discuss how visual artists can engage with and address the complexities of migration politics. The lecture will be structured around some of his own projects and reflections, connecting art production with the ethical and moral questions that often emerge when working within this topic.
Dino Dupanović earned his master'sdegree in 2015 at the Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy, Universityof Sarajevo. He completed his doctoral studies at the same faculty, defending his dissertation titled The Bihać Region 1941–1942 in the Culture of Memory. He has published several professional, review, and scholarly papers, as well as asignificant number of reviews, in both Bosnian and English, published in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia. He has also served as a promoter for several publications in the field of history. He is one of the founders of the History Students Club ISHA Sarajevo and the Association of Historians Veritas historiae, of which he is currently the president. In the field of museology,he has implemented two temporary and two permanent museum exhibitions, making a significant contribution to museum work in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was a member of the international project team Was ist Walter. Since 2019, he has been employed at the Public Institution Museum of the Una-Sana Canton as the head of the historical department. Since September 2021, he has held the position of director of this institution.
