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Vera Stanković

  • Projects
  • Artist Statement
  • About
  • Current
Sofija, Vera Stanković's grandmother

Sofija, Vera Stanković's grandmother

Sofija is a reconstruction of the year 1934, the pregnancy and first months of motherhood of the artist's grandmother, Sofija Ćalić.

A lost story

A lost story

This story is “lost”, the artist possesses no exact information about it. Therefore, she has set off on a journey of subjective reconstruction.

Perceiving past through a women's magazine

Perceiving past through a women's magazine

She has used archival material - images and quotes from the magazine Wife and Home, year 1934.

A 1934 monthly calendar

A 1934 monthly calendar

Quotes are combined with author's memories and the lost story is rewritten in the form of 12 monthly collages.

Past and present

Past and present

The chosen quotes from the "women's" magazine reflect gender, upcoming war, environment, children, education, work, art and capitalism.

Motherhood and war

Motherhood and war

Sofija - a story about repeating wars and migrations.

  Sofija , collage, 2016, exhibition view photos: Peter Škrlep

Sofija, collage, 2016, exhibition view photos: Peter Škrlep

Sofija is a reconstruction of the year 1934, the pregnancy and first months of motherhood of Vera Stanković's grandmother, Sofija Ćalić (born Potrebić). Her Serbian grandmother lived in Medak, Lika, today's Croatia. This story is “lost”, the author possesses no exact information about it. Therefore, she has set off on a journey of subjective reconstruction. To describe the environment she has used archival material - quotes – photographs and texts from the magazine Žena in dom (Wife and Home), year 1934, published in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia – in the state where Sofija lived (although she probably never read the Slovenian magazine). The quotes are combined with author's memories and the lost story is revived in the form of 12 monthly collages. The chosen quotes from the "women's" magazine reflecting gender, war, environment, children, education, work, art and capitalism build an unexpected bridge to the present. The two stories (one personal and one about society) unfold simultaneously leaving us with the feeling that the past and the present are not apart but non-stop clashing.

Copyright © 2019 Vera Stanković. All Rights Reserved.