Intimacies of space: interior

Creating a poetics of space was one of the biggest ideals of Bosnian and Herzegovinian artists. It is important to mention Enver Štaljo, from Banja Luka, a member of the group "Četvorica" ("The four"), whose visual preoccupation of the sixties is represented by an interiorized view of the forgotten world of the house and household items. This is when his best works are created (Interior with still life). There is also Ibrahim Ljubović, one of the most important representatives of intimism and neo-surrealism in the field of our fine arts.

Although the interiors are deprived of the presence of the human figure, on two examples we can see people gathered around the fireplace, the symbolic core of every home, which always evokes memories of warmth and closeness in our subconsciousness (Vojo Dimitrijevic's Beside the furnace and Omer Mujadžić's The hearth)

Mica Todorović excludes the human figure and turns to things and spaces that surround her, while delighting in her 'ordinariness'. It is the largest and most recognizable cycle of this artist, so the number of her works that have been included within this permanent exhibition is not surprising.

Numankadić's table represents a clip from the living and working space of an artist during the siege of Sarajevo and as such is probably the most intimate, yet most documented, view of the atelier (and space) at the exhibition. Numankadić's table is a memory and a testimony. By entering the exhibition, the space has lost its primary function and has become a metaphor.

Among the presented depictions of the atelier, one work of art stands out – From the studio by Mario Mikulić, which shows only one detail, one object, in the atelier. This depiction is probably a hommage to Cézanne's work (Stove in the studio, 1865), but also to one important element of every atelier - the source of heat.

Self-portrait by Gabrijel Jurkić, known in several versions (a work of art depicted in the background varies), in this context is viewed as a double self-portrait – through the painters own figure and through his own work, which specifically highlights the connection between the artist and his work.