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A new edition to Šejla Kamerić’s publications is the new book titled “Mother is a bitch”, published with Berlin-based publisher DISTANZ, on October 9th. The friendly collaboration between KRIK – Festival for Critical Culture, Festival for Feminist Culture and Action – FIRSTBORN GIRL and the artist Šejla Kamerić continued with the presentation of the art book “Mother is a bitch” by Šejla Kamerić and friends at MoCa Skopje – for Kamerić, the most important thing is the weaving of friendship networks and narratives that create an atmosphere of protection and mutual support. The artist presented the book with the editor Živa Kleindenst, along with Iskra Gehoshka, Jasmine Tumbas and Jana Kocevska.

On Selfhood, Memory, and … Laughter

Over the past 25 years, Šejla Kamerić (b. Sarajevo 1976; lives and works in Sarajevo, Berlin, and Istria) has produced a remarkable number of art works based on the self-presentational gestures. They reveal Kamerić’s enduring allegiance to the subject of self-portraiture and her unconventional comprehension of this self-referential practice.

Mother is a bitch brings together texts and images that reflect on Kamerić’s multifaceted practice following two main lines within her body of work: self-portraits and textile works. These artworks are based on Kamerić’s own experiences, memories and dreams and take us to global spaces of displacement and discrimination. They are viewed through the lenses of gender, labor, migration, class, and care, imbued with interweaving temporalities—past and present.

Inspired by Hélène Cixous’ écriture feminine or “women’s writing”—a theory of feminist philosophy that combines elements of psychoanalysis, literary theory, and deconstructivism, the authors of the publication consider acts of writing as a subversion of patriarchal orders. The commissioned texts are juxtaposed with one another and with reproductions of Kamerić’s works, negotiating themes such as witchcraft, feminism, self-reflection, self-exploration, and self-exploitation. With contributions by Hana  Ćurak, Iskra Geshoska, Jana Kocevska, Edi Muka, Natalija Paunić, Linda Peitz, Bojana Pejić, Nicola Petek, Magdalena Radomska, Milica Radulović, Mathilde Sandlarz, Milica Trakilović, Adriana Tranca and Jasmina Tumbas, edited by Živa Kleindienst.