Matea Bakula
Matea Bakula (BiH/NL, 1990)
“I was born in Yugoslavia: a land that does not exist anymore. What does that mean?
I am often asked whether my roots and the history of my country influence my artistic work. I don’t have an answer to this question. I was three when my family fled Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Netherlands. I was raised with the influence of two different cultures. I went to a Dutch art academy and was educated to think about art in a Western way / attitude; raised in the Netherlands, surrounded Dutch conventions, suddenly something – the Bosnian? – slips through my body language, my work, my oral language. Is it subconsciously present in my work?
This is what I want to explore during my stay at Kamen Artist Residency: find out my position towards this land, its people and the relation to personal and taught history in relation to my artistic work. What kind of friction, clashes does it create?”
The project and the residency program in 2019 was financed by the Mondriaan Fund and the Gerbrandy Fund, Netherlands.