I.N.R.I. / 2009

Small church of St. Cross (Crkvica Sv. Križa)

Vrbnik, Island Krk, Croatia 

 

The work is consisting from the wooden crucifix in the shape of the anti-tank cross, which was one of the most significant visual symbols of the siege of Sarajevo. As on the original crucifix, on the top it, there is acronym INRI, in this case, crafted hand-made in Kazandžiluk (Coppersmiths street) in Sarajevo. By putting the crucifix through the symbolism of the anti-tank cross, this intervention in the public space is hiding deep human message with aim of uniting conceptual form and insertion into the architectural context of Small church of St. Cross. Here also, through scribes and disruptions under different angles of the work, as well as in the case of original anti-tank cross, we come to the reduction of the form in which wooden material (also material of the primary crucifix), is giving the impression of mass and fulfills, so by putting the work in the middle of the space of Small church of St. Cross, the work is truly becoming physical and visual obstacle in the same, it’s enforcing us to stop and to get one totally new perception. Perception that bear the symbolic and association on past period of the siege of Sarajevo, in which the concept of the work, deprived any other narrative talking, act perfectly in the service of memento to those, whose life’s were divided.

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On 25th anniversary of the siege of Sarajevo in 2017, the work was exposed on Piazza San Pietro in Vatican. Sarajevo’s crafted hand-made acronym INRI, in this intervention in the space was installed on the cross-shaped wooden barrier in front of the St. Peter's Basilica.