Tarantula Author's And Art's Inspiration for May
Dragana Jurisic, an honorary citizen of Atlantis
“Yugoslavia fell apart in 1991. With the disappearance of the country, at least 1,500,000 Yugoslavs vanished, like the citizens of Atlantis, into the realm of imaginary places and people. Today, in the countries that came into being after Yugoslavia’s disintegration, there is a total denial of the Yugoslav identity. My practice looks at the effects of traumatic experiences, exile and displacement on memory and identity, and it's produced from the position of an exile. Now, more than twenty years after the war(s) started, I feel at the safe distance to recall and question my own memories of both the place and the events personally experienced. I am calling myself an exile, and not an expatriate – because I can't, even if I wanted to - return 'home'. During the 1990 census, I was also denied the right to be Yugoslav, the nationality I identified myself with since birth.”
- Dragana Jurišić
Dear paid subscriber,
Inspired by Dragana’s short artistic statement, this month we are sending you a writing prompt:
Would you still consider the place you grew up as being home? If so, talk about all the things that still make it a place to come back to. If not, determine the events that led up to it losing its status.
Make a list of things that you remember from that place. Is there anything you would still like to have?
Share with us where home is.