Saša Tatić
-b. 1991. in Banja Luka is a visual artist whose work explores themes of home, belonging, migration, and the role of women in the diaspora. She employs poetry, video, and installation to challenge stereotypes and examine the balance between collective expectations and genuine care.She holds an MA in Public Art and New Artistic Strategies from Bauhaus Universität Weimar and a BA from the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka. She has furthered her education through programs such as the Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt (2025) and Stacion’s Master Class in Prishtina (2024), as well as the Duke University course ART of the MOOC: Merging Public Art and Experimental Education (2015). Tatić is a co-founder of Fully Funded Residencies e.V. and a member of CRVENA in Sarajevo. She lives and works in Berlin, and visits Bosnia whenever she can.
Everything I attribute to the distance I live in,
I will never be able to separate
from the formative years that have passed.
They have accumulated—almost a full decade,
and many more will come.
Do we still know each other,
or do we just recognise one another?
Do we ever ask ourselves?
How does the migration experience affect the maintenance of relationships with a community with which we do not share a physical space of belonging, either temporarily or permanently? Which factors shape mutual (mis)understanding? Can the challenges be surpassed, allowing the connection process to continue?
In an effort to find adequately argued answers to these questions, my works emerge as forms of solutions, alternatives, or mirrors of social awareness with opening space for critical reflection and reinterpretation of existing norms, values, and societal beliefs. With the aim of achieving collective recognition and affinity in relationships with home and belonging communities, I rely on the transparency of the roles I carry – as a daughter, sister, heiress, member of the Balkan diaspora (mentioning just a few) – creating a foundation for open dialogue, starting from personal experience but transcending the autobiographical.
Text in my works, as a mediator, often carries content that offers various possibilities for identification, whether narrated through poetry or integrated into visual forms such as images, video, or spatial installations. Personal everyday life, experiential encounters, and accompanying emotional states thus become the subject of narratives that point to the complexity of cultural differences arising from changes in the living environment and lay the foundation for establishing a balance between idealization and the (non)fulfillment of collective expectations.
Home has become the central theme of my field of interest since the early beginnings of my artistic practice. Highlighting socio-political conditions and changes in the context of a local perspective, my personal example served to depict generational differences in the formation of one’s own habitat 12, as well as to examine the value of the house as an imperfect architectural object in the function of the family home.34
By relocating to a new cultural environment and tracking personal changes in my relationships with family and people I associate with home, the sense of responsibility towards family heritage deepened 5, and nostalgia evoked the need to revive a sense of closeness through seasonal family activities 67.
At the same time, the awareness of subtle nuances in identifying with the diaspora spontaneously surfaced through the adoption of recognizable behavioral patterns 8910. By uniting stereotypical linguistic expressions directed at the relocated part of the local society and the desire to confront and recontextualize them 1112, the foundation for further problematizing the formation of a new identity was laid, manifested through taking a clear stance on circumstances and position within the new social environment 131415.
I am here,
and you are there
therefore
no matter how many times
I come
I leave
I come
I leave
I come
I leave
I come, I leave
just as many times
I leave
I come
I leave
I come
I leave
I come
I leave, I come
The text was written in consultancy with Adna Muslija (2024).
1Saša Tatić, The Bedrock, photography, 2017.
2Saša Tatić, The Bedrock II, photography, 2017.
3Saša Tatić, Unfinished House: the Monument, mutimedia installation, 2018.
4Saša Tatić, Unfinished house, short documentary, video still, 2023.
5Saša Tatić, House not for sale, photography, 2022.
6Saša Tatić, Warmth-Wärme, ambiental installation, 2021.
7Saša Tatić, Warmth-Wärme, ambiental installation, 2021.
8Saša Tatić, Repetition BHS, acryl on paper, 2023.
9Saša Tatić, Repetition BHS, acryl on paper, 2023.
10Saša Tatić, The Visit, wall painting, 2023.
11Saša Tatić, Lost in translation / why why but why, acryl on canvas, 2023.
12Saša Tatić, Lost in translation / answer with the equestion, acryl on canvas, 2023.
13Saša Tatić, The urge, wall painting, 2023.
14Saša Tatić, Its OK, photo backdrop, 2022.
15Saša Tatić, Hintergrung, wall painting, 2024.
-r. 1991. u Banja Luci. Tatić je vizualna umjetnica čiji rad istražuje teme doma, pripadnosti, migracija i uloge žena u dijaspori. Kroz poeziju, video i instalacije propituje stereotipe i balans između kolektivnih očekivanja i iskrene brige. Diplomirala je na Akademiji umjetnosti u Banjoj Luci, a magistrirala na Bauhaus Univerzitetu u Vajmaru, na programu Javne umjetnosti i novih umjetničkih strategija. Dalje se usavršavala kroz programe poput Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt (2025) i master klase Staciona u Prištini (2024), kao i kurs ART of the MOOC: Merging Public Art and Experimental Education na Univerzitetu Duke (2015). Tatić je suosnivačica Fully Funded Residencies e.V. i članica CRVENE u Sarajevu. Živi i radi u Berlinu, a u Bosnu dolazi kad god može.
Sve što pripisujem daljini koju živim
nikad neću moći da razdvojim
od razvojnih godina koje su prošle.
Evo, nakupilo ih se mahom,
skoro punih deset,
a biće ih još sijaset.
Znamo li se više
ili se samo prepoznajemo?
Pitamo li se ikad
Kako migracijsko iskustvo utiče na održavanje odnosa sa zajednicom s kojom, privremeno ili trajno, ne dijelimo fizički prostor pripadanja? Koji faktori oblikuju međusobno (ne)razumijevanje? Mogu li se prevazići prepreke i nastaviti procesi povezivanja?
Nastojeći da pronađem adekvatno argumentovane odgovore na ova pitanja, nastaju radovi koji kao oblici rješenja, alternativa ili ogledala društvene spoznaje otvaraju polja za kritička promišljanja i reinterpretacije postojećih normi, vrijednosti i društvenih uvjerenja. S ciljem postizanja kolektivne prepoznatljivosti i srodnosti u odnosima sa domom i pripadajućim zajednicama, oslanjam se na transparentnost uloga koje nosim – kao ćerka, sestra, nasljednica, članica balkanske dijaspore (navodeći samo neke) stvarajući osnovu za otvoren dijalog, koji polazi od ličnog iskustva, ali nadilazi autobiografsko.
Tekst u mojim radovima, kao medijator, često nosi sadržaj koji pruža različite mogućnosti poistovjećivanja, bilo da je izražen kroz narativnu poeziju ili integrisan u vizuelne forme poput slike, videa ili prostorne instalacije. Lična svakodnevica, iskustveni doživljaji i popratna emotivna stanja tako postaju predmet narativa koji ukazuje na kompleksnost kulturoloških razlika nastalih uslijed promjene životnog okruženja i postavlja temelje za uspostavljanje ravnoteže između idealizacije i (ne)ispunjenja kolektivnih očekivanja.
Dom se profilisao kao centralna tema mog interesnog polja, još pri samim počecima moje umjetničke prakse. Ukazujući na socio-politička stanja i promjene u kontekstu lokalne perspektive, lični primjer poslužio je za prikaz generacijskih razlika u formiranju vlastitog habitata 12, kao i za sagledavanje vrijednosti kuće kao nesavršenog arhitektonskog objekta u funkciji porodičnog doma 34.
Izmještanjem u novo kulturološko okruženje i praćenjem ličnih promjena u odnosima sa porodicom i ljudima koje asociram sa domom, produbio se osjećaj odgovornosti prema porodičnom naslijeđu 5, a nostalgija je evocirala potrebu za povratkom osjećaja zbližavanja kroz sezonske porodične aktivnosti 67.
Istovremeno je spoznaja o suptilnim nijansama poistovećivanja sa dijasporom spontano isplivala na površinu usvajanjem prepoznatljivih obrazaca ponašanja 8910. Objedinjavanjem stereotipnih jezičkih izraza upućenih preseljenom delu lokalnog društva i željom da ih suočim i rekontekstualizujem 1112, postavila se osnova za dalju problematizaciju formiranja novog identiteta, ispoljenog kroz zauzimanje jasnog stava o okolnostima i položaju unutar novog društvenog okruženja 131415.
Ja sam ovde,
a ti tamo
prema tome
koliko god puta
dolazim
odlazim
dolazim
odlazim
dolazim
odlazim
dolazim odlazim
isto toliko puta
odlazim
dolazim
odlazim
dolazim
odlazim
dolazim
odlazim dolazim
Tekst je napisan u konsultaciji s Adnom Muslija (2024).
1Saša Tatić, The Bedrock, fotografija, 2017.
2Saša Tatić, The Bedrock II, fotografija, 2017.
3Saša Tatić, Unfinished House: the Monument, mutimedijalna instalacija, 2018.
4Saša Tatić, Unfinished house, kratki dokumentarni film, video still, 2023.
5Saša Tatić, House not for sale, fotografija, 2022.
6Saša Tatić, Warmth-Wärme, ambijentalna instalacija, 2021.
7Saša Tatić, Warmth-Wärme, ambijentalna instalacija, 2021.
8Saša Tatić, Repetition BHS, akril na papiru, 2023.
9Saša Tatić, Repetition BHS, akril na papiru, 2023.
10Saša Tatić, The Visit, zidna slika , 2023.
11Saša Tatić, Lost in translation / why why but why, akril na platnu, 2023.
12Saša Tatić, Lost in translation / answer with the equestion, akril na platnu, 2023.
13Saša Tatić, The urge, zidna slika, 2023.
14Saša Tatić, Its OK, foto backdrop, 2022.
15Saša Tatić, Hintergrung, zidna slika, 2024.
