Irma Markulin
-b. in 1982 in Banja Luka. She attended the Secondary School of Applied Arts and Design (ŠPUD) in Zagreb and graduated in 2006 from the Academy of Fine Arts (HDLU) in Zagreb, specializing in painting under the mentorship of Prof. Z. Keser. Between 2006 and 2008, she studied photography and painting at the University of the Arts / Universität der Künste (UdK) in Berlin. She completed her postgraduate and graduate studies in visual arts at the Weißensee Academy of Art / Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee (KHB) in Berlin. During 2016–2017, she studied aesthetic research (Ästhetische Forschung) at Alice Salomon Hochschule in Berlin. She has received several international art scholarships. Through numerous solo and group exhibitions, her work has been showcased across Europe. Irma Markulin lives and works in Berlin.
My works are based on research conducted in archives. However, I do not incorporate archival material into my work in its original form but rather in a modified state. I crumple, fold, arrange, or tear copies of found photographs, then re-photograph them and use them as a painting or graphic template. The transformation of photographic material is a long and essential process in the creation of new work. This conscious transformation of photographic material is a key part of the research-visual process of both creating and erasing images—whether stereotypical or artistic.
The choice of techniques and my approach to archival material (de-collage) serve as a statement on the female portrait, which I explore on multiple levels throughout my work—questioning the authorial portrait, the portrait of the working woman, the heroine of socialism, and the group portrait. The multi-layered photocopies, composed of numerous individual fragments, simultaneously explore the ephemerality of paper, the deformation of the female figure, and the societal demystification of women. This work focuses on the loss of identity and belonging, subordination, and economic dependence.
My deep interest in women’s issues and the portrayal of the female portrait has been evident in my work since 2006, during my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, when my graduate project consisted of nine self-portraits. Since then, I have continued exploring both the representation and the concept of women, as well as analyzing propaganda motifs, in which I question different perceptions of the female figure and role across various political systems and social circumstances.1
One of my most important series is “Heldinnenkult” (Cult of Heroines), in which I depict 91 heroines from the period 1949–1953.23 Other series focus on female workers in factory halls, critically reflecting on the late socialist era (1980s)4 in Eastern Bloc factories.5
The “Filmstills” series explores the role of women on the film screen (1960s–1980s)67, while the “KuK Microstories”8 series examines religious stereotypes, addressing clothing as a status symbol for women during World War I.910 The “School Classes” series, created in 2005, investigates individuality within the masses, analyzing female group portraits from 1929 to 2002.
These series communicate and complement one another—for example, in “Filmstills”, the popularity of female characters (actresses) is contrasted with the anonymous figure of the female national hero (heroine). Yet, all these women—whether through their complex, socially accepted roles or personal biographies—serve as sources of inspiration.11
Through my work, I not only depict women and their suppressed societal roles but also present a unique documentary perspective through painting, photography, and graphics, based on long-term research. The image of the woman—whether as a forgotten national heroine or just an anonymous Bosnian girl from a postcard in the Austro-Hungarian era—serves as a reminder that the role of women in society must never be forgotten and that their position must always be fought for anew.12
In my latest works, I have turned to the self-portrait as my primary focus. In the series “The One I Am Not”, I use photography to question my own identity, mirroring various states and emotions.13 These photographs document emotional curves—confronting fear, pain, helplessness, but also a readiness to engage in self-confrontation. This work functions as both a reckoning with myself and a demystification of me as an artist, offering the viewer a more immediate insight into my personality. 14 The technical treatment of materials is integral to the concept of the work. On one hand, cutting the image emphasizes the tactile fragility of paper, while on the other, removing parts of the photograph gives the work an intimate imprint, using manual labor as a matrix for emotion.15
Like a daily selfie, mirror photographs depict two things simultaneously. The author sees herself (actively) while also being seen (passively). The gaze in the photograph is directed both at the one taking the image and at the one observing it. The mirror acts as a buffer between personal and collective chaos. To look at oneself and to be looked at offers a different “perspective”—both for oneself and for the viewer-participant observing the recorded frame. By creating work about myself, I pose questions to myself: Who am I? As the central figure in my own work, I am left alone with myself in the mirror, confronted with all my life roles.
Sometimes, I depict myself blurred, sometimes in sharp focus, or even out of focus entirely.I am trying to bring myself closer to myself and to the various socially determined roles of “woman” – as a mother, teacher, wife, housewife, worker, and artist.16
The text was written in collaboration with Adna Muslija (2024.)
1The reason for this lies in the strong family characters. The fascinating family history of women is what makes my work layered and autobiographical. I am still in awe of their unbreakable will amid political upheavals in Bosnia, which leads me to explore the emancipatory role of women in political and social contexts across different time periods. The principle by which I integrate my biography into a historical context, using installation and painting, is based on photographic material that serves as a documentary starting point.
2 I applied the same working principle in a series of paintings depicting female national heroes and factory workers. While the series on female heroes focuses on forgotten women partisans, the other series is dedicated to factory workers from the Eastern Bloc. Both series center on the theme of the female portrait. The faces of the female heroes are represented as crumpled and discarded paper. This served as the initial sketch, which I then painted on canvas in a way that the contrast and shadows of the crumpled paper resemble socialist monuments. The series consists of 91 large-format portraits of women who were declared national heroes between 1949 and 1952. By painting them this way—not just as photorealistic images but as crumpled portraits—I aim to remind the public of their determination, which has been forgotten. Irma Markulin, from the Cult of Heroins series, 2013-14.
3Irma Markulin, from the Cult of Heroins series, 2013-14.
4The Supersize series portrays women who worked in various factories across the Eastern Bloc, with most portrait motifs originating from factories in the former Yugoslavia. I layered photographic material to depict the production line—both manual and machine labor—as a sequence of images captured through different photo filters. Here, the focus is not only on the role of women in socialism but also on factory production itself. Many of these factories no longer exist in Banja Luka or other cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially not in their original form (Tobacco Factory, Bosanka, Vitaminka).
Irma Markulin, from the Supersize series, 2016.
5Irma Markulin, from the Supersize series, 2016.
6Their character on canvas is depicted through the figure of a woman trapped between morality and duty. Beyond this inner struggle, they clearly reflect the state they are in. Torn between societal conventions and external expectations, they represent both strong and tragic female figures. Film roles depict women—bodies forcibly placed into a corset—who resist imposed duty and refuse to conform. By drawing, painting, cutting, and engraving portraits of various actresses in similar cinematic contexts, I aimed to demystify the portrayal of female characters and, in a documentary-archival manner, highlight how the film industry has deliberately shaped the stereotypical image of the female ideal. This series stands in contrast to the series on female heroes. The popularity of the actress (as a figure) is juxtaposed with the anonymity of the female national hero. Irma Markulin, from the Filmstill series.
7Irma Markulin, from the Filmstill series.
8Irma Markulin, from the KuK series.
9Irma Markulin, from the KuK series.
10Irma Markulin, from the KuK series.
11Irma Markulin, from the Filmstill series.
12The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir is undoubtedly a major inspiration for my work and an essential piece of literature that defines, analyzes, and determines concepts of how and why.
13Irma Markulin, From the One Who is not me
14Irma Markulin, From the One Who is not me
15Irma Markulin, From the One Who is not me
16 It is impossible to simultaneously sharpen the foreground and background, to see oneself from both the front and the back, to perceive the present and the past at the same time. Analog photography and negative film allow me a poetic approach to exploring the passage of time. Photography situates me within time, while the very act of cutting self-portraits becomes a performative gesture—engaging with myself, the past, aging, and time itself. For me, this represents a more "conscious" way of recording time, where photographic enlargements become grainy or, like memory, blurred.
-r. 1982 godine u Banja Luci. U Zagrebu pohađa Srednju školu primijenjenih umjetnosti i dizajna (ŠPUD) u Zagrebu, a 2006. godine diplomira na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti (HDLU) u Zagrebu na slikarskom odjelu u klasi prof. Z. Kesera. Između 2006. i 2008. godine studira fotografiju i slikarstvo na Univerzitetu za Umjetnost / Universität der Künste (UdK) u Berlinu. Postdiplomski i diplomski studij iz vizualnih umjetnosti završila je na Višoj umjetničkoj školi / Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee (KHB) u Berlinu. U periodu 2016. – 2017. studira estetsko istraživanje (Ästhetische Forschung) na Alice Salomon Hochschule u Berlinu. Dobitnica je više međunarodnih umjetničkih stipendija. Kroz desetine samostalnih i grupnih izložbi, njen rad izlagan je širom Evrope. Irma Markulin živi i radi u Berlinu.
Moji radovi zasnivani su na istrazivačkom radu u arhvima. Arhivski materijal ne prenosim u radove u izvornoj, već u modificiranoj formi. Kopije nađenih fotografija gužvam, prelamam, slažem ili kidam, potom ponovo fotografski snimam, te koristim kao slikarski ili grafički predložak. Transformacija fotografskog materijala dugotrajni je i neizostavan proces u nastanku novog rada. Svjesna transformacija fotografskog materijala dio je istraživačko-vizualnog procesa nastajanja i nestajanja slike. Stereotipske i one umjetničke.
Odabir tehnika i sam pristup arhivskom materijalu (de-collage) čini svojevrsni statement naspram ženskom portretu, kojim se, na više nivoa, bavim u svom radu, propitujući autorski portret, portret radnice i junakinje u socijalizmu, grupni portret itd. Višeslojne fotokopije, u mnoštvu pojedinačnih dijelova, ujedno tematiziraju efemernost papira, deformaciju ženskog lika i društevnu demistifikaciju žene. Fokus se tako postavlja na gubitak identiteta i pripadnosti, podređenost i ekonomsku ovisnost.
Kontinuitet dubokog interesovanja za žensko pitanje i prikaz ženskog portreta jasno je vidljiv u mom radu još od 2006. godine i vremena studija na likovnoj Akademji, kada sam, kao diplomski rad, izložila 9 autoportreta. Od tada do danas, bavim se prikazom, ali i pojmom žene, te tumačenjem propaganih motiva u kojima preispitujem različite percepcije ženskog lika i uloge u raznim političkim sistemima ili društvenim okolnostima.1
Jedna od ključnih serija radova je Heldinenkult / Kult junakinja u kojoj slikarski prikazujem 91 junakinju iz perioda 1949-53.23 Druge slikarske serije radova tematiziraju radnice u fabričkim halama, ocrtavajući i kritički refelektirajući razdoblje kasnog socijalizma (80tih)4 u tvornicama istočnog bloka.5
Serija radova Filmstills bavi se ulogom žene na filmskom platnu (60tih/80tih)67, dok serija KuK Microstories8 ispituje vjerske stereotipe, problematizirajući odjeću kao statusni simbol žene za vrijeme Prvog svjetskog rata.910 Serija grupnih ženskih portreta School Classes nastala je 2005. godine, a ispituje individualnost pojedinca unutar mase, te ženski grupni portret od 1929. do 2002. godine.
Ove serije radova komuniciraju i nadopunjuju se međusobno – u seriji Filmstills popularnost ženskog lika (glumice) stoji nasuprot nepoznatom liku žene narodnog heroja (junakinje). Ipak, sve one, svojom kompleksnom društveno prihvaćenom ulogom ili samom biografijom, inspirišu.11
Svojim radom predstavljam ne samo ženu i njezinu potisnutu ulogu u društvu, već slikarski, fotografski i grafički prikazujem osebujnu dokumentaciju zasnovanu na dugogodišnjem istraživačkom radu. Prikaz žene, čija je uloga narodnog heroja zaboravljena ili je postala samo nepoznata bosanska djevojka sa razglednice iz doba KuK, najbolji je podsjetnik kako se uloga žene u društvu ne smije zaboraviti i kako se za poziciju unutar društvene zajednice uvijek i iznova mora iz-boriti.12
U svojim posljednjim radovim nastalim u periodu 2022-24. godine bavim se temom autoportreta. U seriji radova „Ona koja nisam“ koristim fotografiju da bi propitala vlastiti identitet, zrcaleći različita stanja i raspoloženja.13 Fotografije dokumentiraju krivulje osjećanja — suočavanje sa strahom, bolom, nemoći, ali i spremnosti konfrontacije sa samom sobom. Rad ujedno funkcionira kao obračun sa vlastitim ja, ali i demistifikacija mene kao umjetnice, nudeći promatraču „neposredniji“ uvid u osobnost.14 Sama tehnička obrada materijala je i radni koncept. Sa jedne strane, rezanjem motiva tehnički se naglašava haptičnost i krhkost papira, dok s druge strane izrezivanjem dijelova fotografije rad dobija intimni pečat, služeći se ručnim radom kao matricom osjećaja.15
Poput dnevnog selfija, fotografije mene u ogledalu prikazuju dvije stvari istovremeno. Autor gleda sam sebe (aktivno) i biva gledan (pasivno). Na fotografijama je pogled ujedno fokusiran na tog koji fotografira i na tog koji gleda. Ogledalo ovdje služi kao amortizer osobnog i općeg kaosa. Gledati se i biti gledan daje drugačiju „perspektivu“ sebi, a i onome koji kao učesnik tj. promatrač gleda snimljeni kadar.
Realizacijom rada o sebi ja si postavljam pitanja…a tko sam ja? Kao glavni lik u svom radu sam ja, u zrcalu ostavljena sama sa sobom i konfrontirana sa svim svojim životnim ulogama. Nekad se prikazujem zamagljenom, nekad u prvom planu ili bez fokusa. I ja sebe pokušavam približiti sebi te različitim društveno determiniranim ulogama „žene“ – kao majke, nastavnice, supruge, domaćice, radnice, umjetnice.16
Tekst je napisan u suradnji s Adnom Muslija (2024).
1Razlog tome leži u snažnim porodičnim karakterima. Zanimljiva obiteljska prošlost žena je ono što moj rad čini slojevitim i autobiografskim. Ja sam i danas zadivljena njihovom nesalomljivom voljom unutar političkih previrnaja u Bosni što me navodi da ispitujem emancipacijsku ulogu žene u političkom i društvenom kontekstu kroz različite vremenske periode. Princip po kojem svoju biografiju uklapam u istorijski kontekst, koristeći instalaciju i slikarstvo, zasnovan je na fotomaterijalu kojeg koristim kao dokumentacijsko polazište.
2 Isti princip rada sam primjenila u seriji slika ženskih narodnih heroja i radnica iz fabrika. Dok se u seriji ženskih heroja bavim zaboravljenim ženskim partizankama, u drugoj seriji se posvećujem radnicama u farbikama istočnog bloka. Obe serije imaju za glavnu temu ženski portret. Lica ženskih heroja su predstavljena kao zgužvani i odbačeni papir. To je bila polazišna skica koju sam slikala na platnu, na način da kontrast i sjena zgužvanog papira podsjeća na socijalističke spomenike. Seriju radova sačinjavaja 91 portret velikih formata žena koje su u periodu od 1949 do 1952 proglašene za narodne heroje. Time što ih na ovaj način slikam, ne samo kao fototapetu već kao zgužvani portet, želim javnost podsjetiti na njihovu odlučnost koja je pala u zaborav. Irma Markulin, iz serije Kult junakinja, 2013-14.
3Irma Markulin, iz serije Kult junakinja, 2013-14.
4Serija Supersize predstavlja žene koje su radile u različitim fabrikama istočnog bloka, a najviše motiva portreta potiče iz fabrika u bivšoj Jugoslaviji. Fotografski materijal sam slagala jedan preko drugog da bih tako predstavila radnu traku...ručni i mašinski rad kao niz fotografija snimljen različitim foto-filterima. Ovdje je tema ne samo uloga žene u socijalizmu, već i sama prozivodnja u fabrikama. Mnoge od njih više ne postoje u Banja Luci ili drugim gradovima BiH, a pogotovo ne u tom obliku ( Tvorinca duhana, Bosanka, Vitaminka)
Irma Markulin, iz serije Supersize, 2016.
5Irma Markulin, iz serije Supersize, 2016.
6Njihov karakter na platnu je prikazan kroz lik žene koja je zarobljena između morala i dužnosti. Pored te unutarnje borbe, one vrlo dobro reflektiraju stanje u kojem se nalaze. Rastrgane između društvenih konvencija i očekivanja sredine, one predstavljaju istovremeno jake, ali i tragične ženske likove. Filmske uloge prikazuju ženu, tijela prisilno stavljenog u korzet, koja se protivi očekivanoj dužnosti, te se ne želi prilagoditi. Crtajući, slikajući, režući i urezujući portete različitih glumica u sličnim filmskim kontekstima, željela sam de-mistificirati prikaz ženskog lika, te na dokumentarističko-arhivski način prikazati kako je filmska industrija svjesno utjecala na steretipski prikaz ženskog ideala. Ova serija stoji u suprotnosti sa serijom ženskih junakinja. Popularnost (lika) glumice stoji nasuprot nepoznatom liku žene narodnog heroja.
7Irma Markulin, iz serije Filmstill.
8Irma Markulin, iz serije KuK.
9Irma Markulin, iz serije KuK.
10Irma Markulin, iz serije KuK.
11Irma Markulin, iz serije Filmstill.
12„Drugi spol“ Simone de Beauvoir je svakako velika inpsiracija mojem radu i bitna literatura koja imenuje, raščlanjuje i determinira pojvmove kako i zašto.
13Irma Markulin, Ona koja nisam
14Irma Markulin, Ona koja nisam
15Irma Markulin, Ona koja nisam
16 Nemoguće je istovremeno izoštriti prednji i zadnji plan, vidjeti sebe naprijed i straga, istovremeno sagledati sadašnjost i prošlost. Analogna fotografija i negativ-film mi omogućavaju poetski pristup istraživanju proteklog vremena. Fotografija me vremenski određuje, a sam čin rezanja autoportreta postaje performativni akt bavljenja sobom, prošlošću, starošću te vremenom samim po sebi. To za mene predstavlja “svjesniji” način bilježenja vremena pri čemu fotografska uvećanja postaju zrnasta, ili po sjećanju, maglovita.
