Mother Is a Bitch

Over the past 25 years, Sejla Kameric (b. Sarajevo 1976; lives and works in Sarajevo, Berlin, and Istria) has produced a remarkable number of art works based on the self-presentational gestures. They reveal Kameric's enduring allegiance to the subject of self-portraiture and her unconventional comprehension of this self-referential practice.

Mother is a bitch brings together texts and images that reflect on Kameric's multifaceted practice following two main lines within her body of work: self-portraits and textile works. These artworks are based on Kameric's own experiences, memories and dreams and take us to global spaces of displacement and discrimination. They are viewed through the lenses of gender, labor, migration, class, and care, imbued with interweaving temporalities--past and present.

Inspired by Hélène Cixous' écriture feminine or "women's writing"--a theory of feminist philosophy that combines elements of psychoanalysis, literary theory, and deconstructivism, the authors of the publication consider acts of writing as a subversion of patriarchal orders. The commissioned texts are juxtaposed with one another and with reproductions of Kameric's works, negotiating themes such as witchcraft, feminism, self-reflection, self-exploration, and self-exploitation. With contributions by Milica Bezmarevic, Hana Ćurak, Iskra Geshoska, Jana Kocevska, Edi Muka, Natalija Paunic, Linda Peitz, Bojana Pejic, Mathilde Sandlarz, Milica Trakilovic, Adriana Tranca and Jasmina Tumbas, edited by Ziva Kleindienst.