ANDREJ ĐERKOVIĆ
Desires/Dreams (1995/2025)
Andrej Đerković x Almir Imširević
Marshal Tito / Dalmatinska Street Sarajevo
ephemeral intervention in public space
Modern art is full of examples of “empty spaces”, white on white paintings or panels, starting from Raushenberg’s monochrome installations. Drawing on countless examples of artworks with so-called “emtpyness”, this ephemeral intervention in public space by Karim’s close (pre)war comrades Almir and Andrej can serve as an object of unlimited desire. In February 2008, Almir launched a petition for a memorial to Karim Zaimović, while two years earlier, Andrej, in the auditorium of then war-thorn City Hall (Vijećnica), set up a solo exhibition “I dream…”, so this intervention in public space is a logical continuation of a personal and generational memorial.
The empty comics bubble symbolizing the wishes/dreams of the short, but we can freely say, unstoppable life of Karim Zaimović and of an entire generation in general, is open to limitless interpretation in which the ability to perceive becomes a prerequisite for participating in the piece itself. The passerby is invited to interact with the work itself by confronting the imaginary content of the bubble that visually stands above him or another passerby with his own imaginary reading of it. With its whiteness and purity, the cloud signifies the (un)realized wishes/dreams of an entire generation whose lives are divided into three parts: before, during and after the war. On the other hand, with its discreet intervention, the work also expresses the impossibility of overcoming the constant conflict between dreams and reality. Rather than directly attacking with a text that would be a representation of a dream, the work prefers to retreat into a hidden image, and directs the gaze to an introverted and abstract journey through our own lives.
The place of this ephemeral memorial was intentionally placed at the intersection of Titova and Dalmatinska streets, which are deeply woven into the urban upbringing and embodiment of the above-mentioned generation and which is also immortalized in the iconic portrait photograph of Karim himself (author Nermin Muhic) from the first days of the siege in the same place.
Today, after a sufficient period of time of critical observation of the public/personal reading of our lives under the siege, this empty comic cloud is a kind of affective suma summarum of the (pre)lived lives of this generation which, following its own humble growing up, looking back at the emancipatory results of its own life's (un)realised desires and attitudes, and through today's decade-long respect by its own community respect for their creative work, came finally to its spiritual purification.
