At the end of the night, the candle dies out. 
In the light of dawn, the reflection of a face vanishes away. 
Patience, persistence and strength begin to grow over deep scars of the horrors of war.
The film is vertically composed with a chiaroscuro effect reminiscent of painting techniques for oil on canvas. The film is eighteen long and shot in a single take. The composition shows a woman sitting before a window. The only other object in the scene is a candle. This long shot captures the gentle change from night into day, the birth of a new dawn. In the video we can see the composition reflected in the window. As dawn approaches, the reflection of the woman’s face in the window slowly fades, replaced by the natural landscape outside.

A gallery visitor is invited to become a co-witness of an intimate struggle to come to terms with trauma and horrors of the war. On the level of composition and motif the video is built in a strong reference to baroque “women with candle” motifs from the European art history (Hendrick ter Brugghen, Matthias Stom, Dou Gerrit, George la Tour and others). In the light of the dawn, with sounds of a muezzin calling for the early prayer and barking dogs, the reflection of a mourning women’s face vanishes away. At the end of the night the candle dies out. Patience, persistence and strength begin to grow over deep scars from the horrors of war.

- Katja Kobolt

Credits

Camera: Lana Čmajčanin and Adela Jušić
Video Editing: Dalibor Barić
Sound recording: Lana Čmajčanin
Sound editing: Lana Čmajčanin 

Special thanks to Igor Grubić for collaborative work in the development of this video.

Thank you Sloven Anzulović and Ervin Prašljivić for the technical support. 

This work is a part of the permanent collection Biennial of Contemporary Art, D-0 ARK, Konjic (BA)