This is A®merica, a hand instead of a weapon – Mirjana Mavrak
Language is an incredible source of notions that can be spelled and pronounced the same, but have unusually different meanings. For example, the word “arm” in English can mean “hand” and be tied to six other phrases where the word is used in a similar sense, but at the same time, it can also mean “weapon” with at least four phrases that turn the same word into a tool of destruction (The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1985: 127). If we say in English that someone approaches us “with open arms,” it would mean they are accepting us with an open heart and hands, ready to embrace us. At the same time, if we say someone is “armed,” it means they are equipped with weapons, ready for war.
Of course, the reflections with which I begin this review of the work of academic painter and independent artist Muhamed Kafedžić, titled This is A®merica, are by no means semantically scientific—they are associations that are awakened in the mind of an active recipient who encounters the paintings of this author, inspired by the rise of violence in a global context.
His idea of transferring fragments of news and media onto a large canvas, which are specifically related to the affirmation of violence, as well as the possession and use of weapons, and to deconstruct several separate wholes to create novice ones with new, multiple meanings, to furthermore connect these new wholes with music and lyrics of songs, that at the time of their creation were an expression of rebellion and today represent musical classics, can all have multiple applications in peace pedagogy. Here, peace pedagogy is understood not only as a specific educational science but also as an educational movement that unifies the struggles against the violent expressions of human aggressiveness as a natural human characteristic, which has a number of possibilities for its socially acceptable declaration.
In his accompanying reviews of the project This is A®merica, Muhamed Kafedžić brings a personal emotional statement that opposes all forms of violence, articulating not only abhorrence with the fact that violence is becoming the standard of human communication in the modern world, but also particularly focusing on the failure of the consciousness and ethics of adults who, in their role as teachers, are not educated to lead children who are lucky enough to live in peace and relative prosperity on a path of non-violent communication and acceptable conflict resolution.
The first phase of Kafedžić’s work This is A®merica, is marked by inspiration drawn from the violence around us, with a critical review of the culture of weapons that is, unfortunately, constantly nurtured, with an almost brutal artistic assault on the consciousness of the average person, who, in the need for self-protection, retreats from the growing evil in the world. The second phase of this project allows Kafedžić’s work to travel to viewers and become a mobile exhibition with an educational program focused on the development of participants’ emotional intelligence and the skill of peacefully resolving disputes.
The scene of a baby playing with a weapon, a real tank, won in a bloody battle in Bosnia and Herzegovina, placed as a memorial in a park next to a high school, a birthday celebration organized in a war zone to which teenagers are invited, the face of a minor perpetrator of a school mass shooting whose eyes are covered by the hypocrisy of adults, and images of beautiful girls who carry rifles on dates—these are five paintings that are connected to the words of a certain song and its musical performance. Thus, the works in this collection engage multiple senses of the viewer and open up space for conversation and teaching.
Each painting is a combination of polarities, and each allows for several interpretations that are mutually opposed, just like the word “arm,” which can mean both “hand” and “weapon”. The reception of each of these images hides a question: if violence is sometimes necessary for survival (for example, we kill animals to eat, which is a necessity), if I am forced to kill (there is self-defense, for example), must I boast about this violence (look how I captured a tank and killed those who were in the tank)? Must I sublimate it in a children’s war game with incredibly faithful replicas of real weapons (War-Zone as a place for birthday parties)? Must I associate weapons with the ideals of female beauty and attractiveness? The author himself explains some of the images in his paintings: I didn’t search for them; they found me on my journey of searching.
The paintings allow for disagreement in interpretations and offer many oxymorons (acceptable unacceptability, gentle roughness, etc.) that can be expressed in the exchange of observational experience of every painted detail, thereby developing the ability to engage in dialogue, to remain in an I-You relationship despite differences of opinion, and to open up new spaces for insight, self-insight, and “a different perspective”.
I experience this series of paintings as an invitation for adults to ask questions about themselves, and therefore, I do not classify it only in the field of pedagogical activity but see its widest use in the adult education context as well as in clinical approaches in psychotherapeutic work with individuals and groups.
I wish the author much success in his future work, and for visitors and viewers, I wholeheartedly recommend that this art be a tool for their transformative learning.
Mirjana Mavrak, PhD
Professor of Education and Psychology
Sarajevo, September 2, 2025