Lana Čmajčanin also takes the voice of her protagonist in Female President, but their relationship is different. Standing at a podium, the young Bosnian artist reads the testimony of a woman who was raped during the Bosnian war in the 1990s. The painful, sad text of the victim is read in an assertive demagogic style usually used by politicians who try to incite their audience. Reading aloud the victim's testimony, a text that is usually read in discretion or not heard at all for fear of exposure, provides a voice for those who remain unheard. It also exposes the way in which politicians exploit the pain of others for their own gain, as well as the gender division common among victims and victimizers. In speaking in the voice of the victim but in the style of a politician, the artist takes up both roles of ruler and ruled, alluding to the intricacy of political art which employs the Life materials of real people. 

Čmajčanin relates much of her work to war traumas, particularly in regard to the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and often collaborates with Adele Jusic. Several of her works deal with the phenomenon of systematic rape as a war crime, and are based on a re-enactment or re-edit of real testimonies, which she collected from books and archives. After World War II, the highest number of rapes worldwide was registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and this reappeared during the 1990s war.

Extract from Secondary Witness exhibition catalogue

Curated by Maayan Shellef
Exhibition catalog, New York, 2012
English

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