Online Residency 2022

 

Artist Statement

Helena Klakočar – Vukšić is a multidisciplinary artist:  illustrator, graphic novelist,  and concept designer. Her practice and research interests are representations in contemporary art, silenced histories, social injustice and migration matters. Her aim is to initiate methods through contemporary art practice to create spaces for dialogue.

She was involved in collaborative projects such as creative workshops for migrants (Stichting Werkelijkheid, Amsterdam).

She is writing the text and does drawings for the stories which are published in books, and translated into French, Italian, and Slovenian.

One of her most important books is WALL MEDITERRANEAN. It is a graphic report about the refugee routes in the Mediterranean. She interviewed the crew of the Croatian ’’search and rescue’’ ship Andrija Mohorovičić BŠ-72 which was called in the operation TRITON organized by Frontex. The crew had fresh memories of those 3 tens of months on the sea. Drawing from frank interviews with the medical team, soldiers, and PR office of the Ministry of Defence, she is revealing the background and ”choreography” of such a mission dangerous for both sides: crew and migrants. This book presents an interesting perspective on how politics, climat and economy are changing the lives of people.

Her current work is historical journalistic research:  In the desert of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt was a complex of World War II refugee camps called EL SHATT.  From 1943 until the end of the war, this was the home of some 28.000 people from Dalmatia, a coastal region in modern-day Croatia (ex- Yugoslavia). Many of them were women and children, evacuated in expectation of a German invasion.

Although this is a significant historical event, it is almost forgotten in Central and North Croatia. But in Dalmatia, it has become an inseparable part of history — an almost mythical place where people were born and married, where they lived, loved, entertained, learned, but also suffered and died. Since such a large part of the Dalmatian population was evacuated, El Shatt is part of the heritage of almost all current Dalmatians.

As a graphic novelist who works with journalistic methods as a means for storytelling, she aims to write a graphic novel on this theme. She has considered doing a story on El Shatt for almost ten years, and she recently managed to make the preparations for the story with funding from the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media.

 

Her work has been exhibited in Croatia and in Europe. After many shorter works published in magazines, she received 2 awards for her first book, published in Bruxelles. Those were:  ‘’Best book of an artist stranger’’ and the award of the radio station ‘’France Info’’ at the FIBD (International comic festival) at Angouleme, France.

She studied Beeldende kunst Academie (film animation, painting)  in Tilburg, The Nederlands, and before that at Academy of visual arts (graphic department), Zagreb University, Croatia._

 

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