Renata Papišta
– b. 1981 in Sarajevo, where she completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Printmaking. Her artistic expression spans various media, including printmaking, photography, drawing, site-specific forms, and the artist’s book. She has received multiple awards for printmaking and drawing and has participated in over 130 group and 27 solo exhibitions. She has exhibited at numerous biennials, festivals, and symposia both nationally and internationally. She has led workshops on classical and experimental printmaking at art centers and academies in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Poland. In 2018, she was nominated for the prestigious Queen Sonja Printmaking Award. Since 2010, she has been working at the Department of Printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Sarajevo, where she teaches courses on relief, intaglio, experimental, and digital printmaking, as well as paper and the relationship between printmaking and other media.
I engage in visual art using various media and artistic disciplines to express my attitude, opinion, and message.
Although the foundation of my work originates from classical disciplines, I explore experimental techniques and expressions, whether in printmaking, photography, or drawing. In fact, I extend these three media into expanded formats and spaces, often combining them1.
Abstraction and reduction of motifs define the visual content of my works23. Through framing, the motif changes and transforms beyond recognition—it is reduced to a sign, pointing to transience and inevitable changes that, only through the stripping of content and transformation of form, become complete and essentially true. Only when almost nothing remains does everything that has passed become visible45. The past takes shape and becomes permanent.
As I work with site-specific installations, I often exhibit my prints and drawings by subjecting them to the duration of the exhibition itself. Likewise, I treat their starting points—their matrices (in printmaking)—in a way that changes, destroys, and reanimates them over time, bringing them to the point of an absurd position where their remnants are declared as complete works6.
It is a recycled path from archetype to artifact and vice versa. For me, art is a living tissue78.
In the past two years, I have been exploring themes that quietly speak of climate change.9 In a subtle manner, almost in an achromatic palette, I document the traces left behind when water recedes, when glaciers melt, when the flash of light reflects off the water or the riverbed where a great river once flowed1011.
The text was written in collaboration with Adna Muslija (2024).
1La Loire artificielle – Intervention (drawing land action), Drawing on paper, 300x30 cm; Document-Photography, 18x15 cm. Residence at graphic atelier OuOuOu Atelier de Fabrique Artistique, Ingrades, France, August 2022.
2Zajdi, zajdi! – Mixed technique (gravure on plastic foil, etching, letter print, object, vacuum), 100x70x5 cm, 2018.
3Zajdi, zajdi! – Mixed technique (gravure on plastic foil, etching, letter print, object, vacuum), 100x70x5 cm, 2018.
4Reflexion – Drawing-gravure on plastic foil, light, object, Variable format, 2019–2024.
5Reflexion – Drawing-gravure on plastic foil, light, object, Variable format, installation view, 2019–2024.
6Stories from the bottom – Sea – Mixed technique (relief, etching, digital print, matrix), Variable format (approx. 150x70 cm), 2022.
7Stories from the bottom – River – Mixed technique (drawing, monotype, photography), Polyptych (12 pieces), Variable format (30x21 cm / approx. 90x84 cm, 360x21 cm), 2022.
8Drawing of the night sea – Drawing on paper, Variable format (approx. 300x35 cm), 2015.
9Melting iceberg – Polyptych (12 pieces), 30x21 cm (approx. 140x100 cm); Photography, drawing on paper, 2024.
10Melting iceberg – Polyptych (12 pieces), 30x21 cm (approx. 140x100 cm); Photography, drawing on paper, 2024.
11Melting iceberg – Polyptych (12 pieces), 30x21 cm (approx. 140x100 cm); Photography, drawing on paper, 2024.
– r. 1981. u Sarajevu gdje je završila diplomske i postdiplomske studije na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti, Odsjek grafika. Za svoj likovni izričaj koristi različite medije: grafiku, fotografiju, crtež, site-specific formu, kao i umjetničku knjigu. Dobitnica je više nagrada za grafiku i crtež, a uzela je učešće na preko 130 grupnih i 27 samostalnih izložbi. Izlagala je na brojnim bijenalima, festivalima i simpozijima u zemlji i inozemstvu. Vodila je radionice klasične i eksperimentalne grafike pri likovnim centrima i akademijama u Hrvatskoj, Sloveniji, Bosni i Hercegovini, Sjevernoj Makedoniji i Poljskoj. 2018.godine nominirana je za prestižnu nagradu Queen Sonja Printmaking Award.
Od 2010. godine radi na Odsjeku grafika Akademije likovnih umjetnosti Univerziteta u Sarajevu, gdje je angažirana na predmetima koji izučavaju visoku, duboku, eksperimentalnu i digitalnu grafiku, papir, kao i odonos grafike sa drugim medijima.
Bavim se vizuelnom umjetnoscu koristeći različite medije i likovne discipline da bih izrazila svoj stav, mišljenje, poruku.
Iako fundament rada polazi od klasičnih disciplina, bavim se eksperimentalnim tehnikama i izričajima, bilo da se radi o grafici, fotografiji ili crtežu. Zapravo, ova tri medija izvlačim u prošireni format i prostor, često ih kombinirajući1.
Apstrahiranje i redukcija motiva je vizuelni sadržaj mojih radova23. Motiv koji se načinom kadriranja mjenja i transformiše do ne prepoznatljivosti -svodi se na znak, upućuje na prolaznost i promjene koje su neminovne, koje tek ogoljenjem sadržaja i transformacijom forme postaju potpune, suštinski tačne. Tek u fazi kad više ne ostane gotovo ništa, postaje vidljivo sve ono što prošlo je45. Prošlost poprima oblik i ostaje trajna.
Kako se bavim site-specific instalacijom, i svoje grafičke listove, crteže, nerijetko izlažem podvrgavajući ih vremenu trajanja postavke, tako i njihova polazišta – njihove matrice (grafika) tretiram na naćin da ih vremenom mjenjam, uništavam, nanovo reanimiram…dovodim do stanja apsurdne pozicije da njihovie ostatke proglašavam cjelovitim djelima6.
To je reciklirani put od arhetipa do artefakta i obratno. Za mene je umjetnost živo tkivo78.
Posljednje dvije godine se bavim temama koje pripadaju onim likovnim pričama koje tiho govore o klimatskim promjenama9. Nenametljivo, gotovo u ahromatskoj paleti bilježe tragove koji ostaju kada se voda povuče, kada se istope ledenjaci, kada se bljesak svjetla obija o vodu ili korito kojim je nekada velika rijeka tekla1011.
Tekst je napisan u suradnji s kustosicom Adnom Muslija.
1La Loire artificielle – Intervencija (crtež – akcija na zemlji), Crtež na papiru, 300x30 cm; Dokumentarna fotografija, 18x15 cm. Rezidencija u grafičkom ateljeu OuOuOu Atelier de Fabrique Artistique, Ingrades, Francuska, august 2022.
2Zajdi, zajdi! – Kombinovana tehnika (bakropis na plastičnoj foliji, bakropis, slog, objekat, vakuum), 100x70x5 cm, 2018.
3Zajdi, zajdi! – Kombinovana tehnika (bakropis na plastičnoj foliji, bakropis, slog, objekat, vakuum), 100x70x5 cm, 2018.
4Reflexion – Drawing-gravure on plastic foil, light, object, Variable format, 2019–2024.
5Refleksija - Crtež-bakropis na plastičnoj foliji, svjetlo, objekat, Promjenjiv format, 2019–2024.
6Priče s dna – More – Kombinovana tehnika (reljef, bakropis, digitalni print, matrica), Promjenjiv format (cca 150x70 cm), 2022
7Priče s dna – Rijeka – Kombinovana tehnika (crtež, monotipija, fotografija), Poliptih (12 dijelova), Promjenjiv format (30x21 cm / cca 90x84 cm, 360x21 cm), 2022.
8Crtež noćnog mora – Crtež na papiru, Promjenjiv format (cca 300x35 cm), 2015.
9Ledeni brijeg koji se topi – Poliptih (12 dijelova), 30x21 cm (cca 140x100 cm); Fotografija, crtež na papiru, 2024.
10Ledeni brijeg koji se topi – Poliptih (12 dijelova), 30x21 cm (cca 140x100 cm); Fotografija, crtež na papiru, 2024.
11Ledeni brijeg koji se topi – Poliptih (12 dijelova), 30x21 cm (cca 140x100 cm); Fotografija, crtež na papiru, 2024.
