« Every day is the same, there are no special moments. » Nevresa Cikaric, Tuzla State Orphanage

Every war leaves traces, deep scars in the land and the people, visible and invisible.
The photographic portraits of Bosnian youths in refugee camps and orphanages made in their personal rooms point to historical wounds and the process of scarification. But they also point to the future, to that which comes afterwards, which these kids are creating for themselves.
The photographs show young women and men in their current environments and with the few objects that they possess. The emptiness around them and the utter impossibility of their situations are however very present and emotionally charged. Past presents future – the title of this work expresses an aspect of time, which appears in this context to belong exclusively to the process of scarification. No longer and not in its entirety, the issue here is one of threshold such for these young people busy growing up. In this series, motifs of the threshold and borders appear over and over again. In every image there is a door, a window, a curtain or a carpet, which reminds of a different time and a different place and simultaneously obfuscates. Behind the closed door, hidden by a curtain or swept under the carpet – there is always something more. In this way the scar is a symbol for that thing that it hides.
Text by Antonia von Schöning

Photographs taken in Tuzla and its surrounding, Bosnia-Herzegovina 2007.
German graphic designer Nora Kreissl created the book Past presents Future (german only) which can be seen at www.pastpresentsfuture.de

Past presents Future was last shown at the exhibition B<SIDES in the Kunsthalle Erfurt .