Šejla Kamerić (b. 1976 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is a versatile visual artist known for her multi-disciplinary approach, including film, photography, objects, drawings, and installations. She has received widespread acclaim for the poignant intimacy and social commentary that have become the main elements of her work. Taking up subjects that arise from non-linear historical narratives, as well as personal histories, Kamerić focuses on the politics of memory, modes of resistance in human life, and the consequential idiosyncrasies of women’s struggle. By insisting on empathy as the founding communicative mechanism between herself, her subjects, and spectators, Kamerić both warns of and creates places of power and political arenas.
Her work is part of numerous international art collections, such as TATE Modern in London, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Vehbi Koç Foundation Contemporary Art Collection in Istanbul, MACBA Barcelona, MMCA-Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea, Contemporary Art Museum in Zagreb, Kontakt Collection in Austria, and ArtTelekom in Germany.
Kamerić has individually displayed her work at the MACBA in Barcelona; MUMOK in Vienna; Centre Pompidou in Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade; Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb; Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana; Museum of of Contemporary Art Montenegro; National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina; National Gallery in North Macedonia; Kunsthaus Graz in Graz; Portikus in Frankfurt am Main; CAC Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius; Röda Sten Centre for Contemporary Art and Culture in Gothenburg; Wip: Konsthall in Stockholm; Galerie im Taxispalais in Innsbruck; Kunsthaus Dresden; and GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst in Bremen. She has also exhibited at the Sharjah Art Foundation in Sharjah, Manchester International Festival MFI, and various other art platforms worldwide.
In 2011, Kamerić received The ECF Routes Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity and in 2007, a DAAD-Berlin Artist Residency Fellowship. In 2004 ONFURI Award at National Art Gallery in Tirana and Sloboda/Freedom Award, International Peace Center in Sarajevo.
Her films were screened in more than 40 international film festivals including the Venice International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam and Sarajevo Film Festival.
A selection of recent Kamerić’s group exhibitions includes: Tate Modern, London, 5th Kyiv Biennial; Survival Kit 14, Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, Riga; 14th Kaunas Biennial; Darker, Lighter, Puffy, Flat, Kunsthalle Wien; (2023); Biennial Manifesta 14, Prishtina; Empowerment, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Urban Text, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris; Faking the Real, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Sad Songs of War, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Politics in Art, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art In Krakow, (2022); 6. Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Yekaterinburg; Diversity United / Contemporary art from Europe, Berlin New Tertyakov Gallery, Moscow (2021); Conflicts (We are here: Future Ecologies), with British Council for Western Balkans, Belgrade (2021); The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement, The Phillips Collection in partnership with the New museum, Washington, D.C (2019), 2nd Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art, Coventry (2019); 4th Berliner Herbstsalon, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin (2019); The Restless Earth, Nicola Trussardi Foundation and La Triennale di Milano (2017); Hannah Ryggen Triennale, National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Trondheim (2016); Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (2013); Gwangju Biennale (2012); Gender Check: Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe, MOMOK in Vienna and Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warszaw (2010).
She lives on a relation between Sarajevo, Istria and Berlin.
Šejla Kamerić (b. 1976 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is a versatile visual artist known for her multi-disciplinary approach, including film, photography, objects, drawings, and installations. She has received widespread acclaim for the poignant intimacy and social commentary that have become the main elements of her work. Taking up subjects that arise from non-linear historical narratives, as well as personal histories, Kamerić focuses on the politics of memory, modes of resistance in human life, and the consequential idiosyncrasies of women’s struggle. By insisting on empathy as the founding communicative mechanism between herself, her subjects, and spectators, Kamerić both warns of and creates places of power and political arenas.
Her work is part of numerous international art collections, such as TATE Modern in London, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Vehbi Koç Foundation Contemporary Art Collection in Istanbul, MACBA Barcelona, MMCA-Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea, Contemporary Art Museum in Zagreb, Kontakt Collection in Austria, and ArtTelekom in Germany.
Kamerić has individually displayed her work at the MACBA in Barcelona; MUMOK in Vienna; Centre Pompidou in Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade; Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb; Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana; Museum of of Contemporary Art Montenegro; National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina; National Gallery in North Macedonia; Kunsthaus Graz in Graz; Portikus in Frankfurt am Main; CAC Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius; Röda Sten Centre for Contemporary Art and Culture in Gothenburg; Wip: Konsthall in Stockholm; Galerie im Taxispalais in Innsbruck; Kunsthaus Dresden; and GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst in Bremen. She has also exhibited at the Sharjah Art Foundation in Sharjah, Manchester International Festival MFI, and various other art platforms worldwide.
In 2011, Kamerić received The ECF Routes Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity and in 2007, a DAAD-Berlin Artist Residency Fellowship. In 2004 ONFURI Award at National Art Gallery in Tirana and Sloboda/Freedom Award, International Peace Center in Sarajevo.
Her films were screened in more than 40 international film festivals including the Venice International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam and Sarajevo Film Festival.
A selection of recent Kamerić’s group exhibitions includes: Tate Modern, London, 5th Kyiv Biennial; Survival Kit 14, Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, Riga; 14th Kaunas Biennial; Darker, Lighter, Puffy, Flat, Kunsthalle Wien; (2023); Biennial Manifesta 14, Prishtina; Empowerment, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Urban Text, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris; Faking the Real, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Sad Songs of War, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Politics in Art, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art In Krakow, (2022); 6. Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Yekaterinburg; Diversity United / Contemporary art from Europe, Berlin New Tertyakov Gallery, Moscow (2021); Conflicts (We are here: Future Ecologies), with British Council for Western Balkans, Belgrade (2021); The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement, The Phillips Collection in partnership with the New museum, Washington, D.C (2019), 2nd Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art, Coventry (2019); 4th Berliner Herbstsalon, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin (2019); The Restless Earth, Nicola Trussardi Foundation and La Triennale di Milano (2017); Hannah Ryggen Triennale, National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Trondheim (2016); Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (2013); Gwangju Biennale (2012); Gender Check: Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe, MOMOK in Vienna and Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warszaw (2010).
She lives on a relation between Sarajevo, Istria and Berlin.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC PROJECTS AND INTERVENTIONS
2024 | RE PRESENT, Cukrarna Gallery, Ljuljbana |
2023 | Rose Garden, Contemporary Art Gallery Subotica |
2022 | RETROSPECTING, Galeria Tanja Wagner, Berlin |
2021 | LAMED VAV – Not Enough | Traces of Humanity | Bayeux Calvados – Normandy Award |
2020 | Place to Stay, Avanti! Centre avant-gardes, Savicenta |
2019 | We come with a bow, Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin |
2018 | Keep Away From Fire, GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen |
2017 | Confidence Power Plus, Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin |
2015 | When the heart goes bing bam boom, Arter, Vehbi Koç Foundation, Istanbul |
2014 | Movie night Šejla Kamerić, Sarajevo War Theater, Sarajevo |
2013 | June is June everywhere, Gallery Tanja Wagner, Berlin |
2012 | Exhibition and program, CAC Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania |
2011 | Glück, Eastern Neighbours Film Festival, Utrecht |
2010 | Prospectif cinéma, Centre Pompidou, Paris |
2009 | What Do I Know, FILMHUIS DEN HAAG, Den Haag, Amsterdam |
2008 | Šejla Kamerić, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck |
2007 | Mit tudok / What Do I Know, Trafo – House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest |
2006 | Brand New, The Kosova Art Gallery – Museum Pristina and EXIT Gallery, Pristina |
2005 | Sejla Kameric (Another Expo – Beyond the Nation-States), Gallery SOAP, Kitakyushu |
2004 | Others and Dreams, solo exhibition, Portikus Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
2003 | Bosnian Girl, public project (posters, postcards, billboards, advertisements in magazines and newspapers) |
2002 | Closing the Border (Welcome to the ancient land of freedom), public intervention; border crossing between San Marino and Italy |
2001 | homeSICK, public intervention (work in progress, started in 2001 |
1999 | Before Beginning, video projection; Obala Meeting Point, Sarajevo |
1998 | Plug, installation; Obala Meeting Point, Sarajevo |
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND FESTIVALS
2024 | Lichtparcours, Braunschweig [UPCOMING] Birds, ERES Foundation, Munich [UPCOMING] Group Therapy, Art Collection Telekom and Prague City Gallery 26, Prague Sounds Like a Whisper, Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia Darker, Lighter, Puffy, Flat, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna Her barbaric luxury, Trotoar Gallery, Zagreb |
2023 | Darker, Lighter, Puffy, Flat, Kunsthalle, Vienna |
2022 | Manifesta 14, the European Nomadic Biennial, Prishtina |
2021 | Falkenrot Award The time has come to talk of many things…,Works from Art Collection Telekom, National Gallery – The Palace, Sofia |
2020 | HOW TO HUMAN, Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin |
2019 | 4th BERLINER HERBSTSALON, Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin |
2018 | Österreich 1918 – 2018, Haus der Geschichte Österreich-House of Austrian History, Vienna |
2017 | The Restless Earth, Nicola Trussardi Foundation and La Triennale di Milano |
2016 | The World Rearranges Itself Around You, Galerie Zimmermann-Kratochwill, Graz |
2015 | Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime, Wellcome Collection, London |
2014 | EGO EDITION, Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin |
2012 | 9th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju |
2011 | Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassy Sarajevo |
2010 | Prospectif cinéma, Centre Pompidou, Paris |
2009 | Gender Check
– Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe, Museum of Modern Art (MUMOK), Vienna |
2008 | Cutting Realities Gender Strategies in Art, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York |
2007 | (64th) Venezia Corto Cortissimo, competition of the 64th Mostra Internazionale, D‘Arte Cinematografica, Venice |
2006 | Zones of Contact, 15th Biennale of Sydney 2006, Sydney |
2005 | “CONFLICT: Perspectives, Positions, Realities in Central European Art”, Slought Foundation, Philadelphia |
2004 | Cosmopolis1: Microcosmos X Macrocosmos, State Museum of Contemporary Art and Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki |
2003 | IDENTIKIT, Galeria e Arteve te Kosoves, Pristina |
2002 | No Border, S. Maria delle Croci, Museo d’Arte della Citta, Ravenna |
2001 | One Hundred Years of Contemporary Art of Bosnia and Herzegovina, National Gallery of BH, Sarajevo |
2000 | Tandem Project, DCAC, Signal 66; Washington DC |
1999 | SCCA Third Annual Exhibition – Under Construction, Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Art, Sarajevo |
1998 | SCCA Second Annual Exhibition – Beyond the Mirror, Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Art, Sarajevo |
1997 | SCCA First Annual Exhibition – Meeting Point, Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Art, Sarajevo |
THEATRE PROJECTS
2003 | Art Director: The Suicides, documentary-feature play, directed by Gojko Bijelac; Sarajevo |
2002 | Art Director: Romeo and Juliet; directed by Haris Pašović; Sarajevo |
PUBLICATIONS
2023 | Šejla Kamerić. Mother Is a Bitch, Živa Kleindienst (ed.), texts by Bojana Pejić, Iskra Geshoska, Jasmina Tumbas, Edi Muka, Milica Bezmarević, Milica Trakilović, Natalija Paunić, Adriana Tranca, Hana Ćurak, Linda Peitz, Jana Kocevska and Mathilde Sandlarz, Distanz, Berlin |
2015 | Šejla Kamerić. When the Heart Goes Bing Bam Boom, İlkay Baliç (ed.), interview by Başak Doğa Temür, Arte, Istanbul |
2011 | Šejla Kamerić, Galerie Tanja Wagner, Meral Agish (ed.), text by Edi Muka, Berlin |
2010 | Is It Rain or Is It a Hurricane, Ústí nad Labem [ARTIST BOOK] |
2009 | Two Words / Deux Mots, La Baconnière, Arts, Geneva |
2008 | Šejla Kamerić, Galerija Moria, Stari Grad |
2007 | Šejla Kamerić. WHAT DO I KNOW, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz |
2005 | Šejla Kamerić – Bratislava, Gandy Gallery, text by Michal Kolecek, Bratislava |
2004 | Others and Dreams, Portikus, Frankfurt am Mai [ARTIST BOOK] |