ANDREJ ĐERKOVIĆ
Srebrenicaekspres x Simone Weil
Pavillon Simon Weil
Genève, Switzerland
From march 31 to June 16, 2026, éminent Swiss artists Thomas Hirschhorn present a temporary and ephemeral monument in Geneva, a tribute to the French philosopher Simone Weil. Transforming the cultural center “Pavillon Sicli” into the “Pavillon Simone Weil”, this living artwork is part of an artistic approach that Hirschhorn describes as “presence and production” and it is maintained by the artists’ continuous presence on site and daily production in collaboration with the inhabitants of Geneva, and it consequently take the form of a space for reflection and creation, open to the public seven days a week for 78 days.
As a part of the Pavillon and at the personal invitation of Thomas Hirschhorn, Đerković installed his long-standing work “Srebrenicaekspres” which since 2017 has been installed on abribus (bus shelters) in Tbilisi (Georgie), Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (France), Place des Nation in Geneva (Switzerland), Eleftheria Square in Thessaloniki (Greece), Wondall Road in Brisbane (Australia), Veesterbros Torv in Copenhagen (Denmark), Pyramid in Tirana (Albania), Piazza IV Novembre in Ancona (Italy), Avenida Félix Cuevas in Ciudad de México (Mexico) and in The Anteroom Gallery in Port Chalmers (New Zealand) and Galeri artist in Ankara (Türkiye).
"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 International 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 getted more credibility, in the moment when the group of the trucks transporting the identified bodies from Visoko (identification centre) to Srebrenica passed through Sarajevo in counter-direction and in its passage through the capital, passed 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."
Simone Weil (1909-1943) was an influential French philosopher and social activist, known for her radical blend of intellect and spirituality, and active radical empathetic approach to suffering and uncompromising search for truth and advocacy for the disempowered. Often described as the “conscience of the left”, she participated in the Spanish Civil War, which influenced her philosophy of embodiment, which was deeply rooted in practice and life, not just theory.
In line with her personal approach to suffering and her criticism of modern society due to the loss of moral and spiritual ties with the past and community, Đerković placed a portrait of Simone Weil from 1936 alongside his photographic portraits of Srebrenica mothers and turned the “Simone Weil Pavillon” into a kind of abribus that follows the idea of his work “Srebrenicaekspres”.
