Overlapping 35 historical maps representing B&H as a part of different state formations throughout the past 551 years results in information noise, too much stratified data, the epicentre of which can be found precisely in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Changed borders of B&H, sedimented through history, can be recognized in video work as blackened zones that make each future intervention futile, whereas they make the reflection on territorial integrity of the country almost impossible.

Video work - Geometry of Time, which lays map over map documenting the man-made and highly politicized boundaries that have redefined Eastern Europe since Roman times. The layered borders in Čmajčanin’s entrancing video propel us into a black hole, a mass of squiggles drawn by ruler after ruler, far removed from, yet integral to, the lives of the people who have lived and still do live there. For them, these histories cannot be escaped with the eraser and pencil of a cartographer.

Charlie Tatum 

Credits
Animation by Armin Karadža
Special thanks to Vladimir Lepušina