Blank Maps, work created in 2014, continues the practice of using historical cartography of Bosnia and Herzegovina territory as a didactic basis for the active involvement of visitors. This time around she uses the transparent foil to print the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the Roman Empire to the Dayton Agreement, taken from a textbook. Entitle Blank Maps, referring thus to the maps traditionally used as a part of geography curriculum in schools, empty maps with outlined country borders which students then fill in with their newly acquired knowledge about the geography of these countries. Using yet another didactic tool, overhead projector, Lana lights up those Blank Maps and allows interaction, allows the visitors to pair and fold foils at their own discretion, as the method of individual historical interpretation of the given area. By insisting on school instruments and didactic methodology, Lana Čmajčanin points to an important dimension of historical, but also contemporary cartography of Bosnia and Herzegovina – it exclusively belongs to the male domain. The position of a woman is not reflected in defining borders and creation of knowledge, but in its mediation and transmission through education.

Vana Gović