ANDREJ ĐERKOVIĆ

Srebrenicaekspres / 2007
Bus station Vijećnica, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, July 11 2007
Bus station Place des Nations, Genève, Switzerland, July 11 2009
Bus station Mtskheta, Georgia, October 2010
Tbilisi Bus station, Georgia, October 2010
Bus station Gori, Georgia, October 2010
Galeri Artist, Ankara, Turkiye, July 11 2012
Rathaus, Kassel, Germany, October 2012
Vesterbros Torv, Kopenhagen, Denmark, October 2012
Bus stop Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, January 2013
Bus stop Eleftheria square, Thessaloniki, Greece, July 11 2013
Piramida, Tirana, Albania, July 11 2015
The Anteroom Gallery, Port Chalmers, New Zealand, July 11 2015
Avenida Félix Cuevas, Ciudad de México, Mexico, December 2016
Wondall Road - Manly West, Brisbane, Australia, July 11 2018
Even that I didn't wanted to use prefix Srebrenica in the name of the exhibition, in the time when we are unconsciously loosing the sense of this word that represent our personal and collective tragedy, the work is based on the name of the local bus company „Srebrenicaekspres“. The same word „express “can be read in two ways, both ways very tragically. We can watch it through the translation of the word „express“, which means: quick, urgent, specific, what we can find in unthinkable quickness of killing of big number of people, while this same expression we can also look cynical and even hopelessly watching the „quickness“ of finding the mass graves which are result of again unthinkable aim to cover such crime.
During my 20 years of work related mostly to my personal experience during the siege of Sarajevo, two of my works are related to Srebrenica and both done in collaboration with Mothers, so this work will also follow that line. Life of the mothers is in the buses. In the buses they were separated from their beloved, in the buses they were expelled from Srebrenica, they are in the buses when they go to Srebrenica on July 11th, they are in the buses when they go to Tribunal for War Crimes in The Hague, so I turned the bus station behind the National Library in Sarajevo into the station of the mothers who are waiting the bus... into the station of their lives. The work is getting more credibility, in the moment when the group of the trucks transporting the identified bodies from Visoko (identification centre) to Srebrenica is passing through Sarajevo in counter-direction and in its passage through the capital, passes nearby this station, symbolizing the only wish of the Mothers, their beloved to be found and when they pass once this station they can go together with them home... To Srebrenica.
After Sarajevo, the work was exposed on July 11, 2009, on Place des Nations in front of the United Nations Building in Geneva, Switzerland, and in October 2010 on the bus station in Tbilisi, Mtskheta and Gori in Georgia. On July 11, 2012, on the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the work was shown under the curatorship of Zeynep Yasa and Müzeyyen Çağlar Güler in Galeri Artist in the capital of Turkiye, Ankara. In October 2012, the work was shown in front of Rathaus in German city of Kassel and on the square Vesterbros Torv in Copenhagen in Denmark, while in January 2013, it was exposed on the bus stop of Centre Georges Pompidou in French capital, Paris. On July 11th the same year, the work was exposed on Eleftheria Square in Thessaloniki in Greece, marking the 70th anniversary of the first deportation of Greek jews from this square. On 20th anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica, the work was shown on July 11 in Piramida in albanian capital of Tirana and in The Anteroom Gallery in Port Chalmers on New Zealand. In November 2016, the work was exhibited on major Metrobus station in central avenue Avenida Félix Cuevas of Mexican capital, Ciudad de México. On July 11, 2018. the work was installed on bus station of Wondall Road - Manly West in australian city of Brisbane.
Photo above: Galeri Artist Ankara
Photo down: Abribus Centre Georges Pompidou Paris
