Happy New Yea! … or 10 years together

Last one was on the 1st of April and this one has fallen on the 12th of January. It was really short and troubling year. I am glad it is over. First of all, I (and we), lost very dear friend in April. Admir Lješčanin, a founder and a director of the orphanage Duga (Rainbow) and art colony of the same name in Kulen Vakuf left us after a long battle with cancer. His death would mark 2017 for me and my friends, fellow colleagues.

So with this heavy feeling I will try to resume what was positive in 2017.

First of all I did a new mural in Torino di Sangro, Sakura Passage, at “Youth inclusion and participation through green areas” workshop. I shared some good quality time with old friends and I also made some new ones.

During the summer, together with my family, I took almost a month and a half- long summer break, the first one in 6 years. It was so refreshing and it did remind us of our time in Tokyo.

Than I did the Photo Exhibition Nostalgia, together with my wife, and it was done in time when our friend, Professor Komatsu Taro and his colleagues and students from Sophia University were in Sarajevo.

After that, Srđan Tunić´s essey “Ukiyo-e between Pop Art and (Trans)cultural Appropriation: On the Art of Muhamed Kafedžić (Muha)” was published in Transcultural Studies No. 1 (2017), Heidelberg University Publishing.

And in December I finished, finally, the Great Wave of Kameido, Daydream 2009-2017 painting.

So, yeah, a short year, but the thing is on January 12 2018 it was the 10th wedding anniversary for my wife and me. And as with the beginning of autumn and now, winter, I took time to reflect, to look back at those 10 years, and looking back I felt proud. You see- we did a lot in those 10 years. We have experienced many bad things and we struggled a lot. I did my Magister thesis, left the world of corporate slavery to pursue carrier of visual artist in a country that has been raptured and divided by war and post-war bullshit democracy, an excuse for nationalism and corruption and cultural decadence; my wife did PhD and gave birth to two beautiful kids at the same time. She is fighting bigotry and narrow-minded on all levels by enforcing future teachers with sensibility for inter(multi)cultural understanding, non-violence communication and ability to question and face their own history. Did I tell you that my wife is much greater person than me!?

We faced misunderstanding, judgment and bigotry on daily basis, but we didn´t flinch. We pushed forward with our ideas, supporting each other, and in the end it resulted in realization of my greatest dream- living and experiencing Japan together, as a family. And in this geographical seclusion from our wider family, friends and regular daily routine, our basic family nucleus has grown strong. Upon our arrival to our home in Sarajevo, we found out, that we were now able to see more clearly, right from wrong, and pick the right paths for ourselves individually, and at the same time for our family.

Now looking at it all, I can say that I have majority of my big dreams realized, that I have achieved everything that I wanted and that I should be looking forward into beautiful unknown – it is time for new dreams, new struggles…
and new leap of faith.

So I wish you happy 2018, and as the song goes

Hear me say
Better things will surely come our way

Sarajevo,
January 2018


Happy New Yea!


My favorite photo from in Torino di Sangro


Photo Exhibition Nostalgia


Great Wave of Kameido, Daydream 2009-2017