Mustafa Mlinarevic — Expression As Real As Truthful As It Can Be

Photographer: Jasavić Merjem

Mustafa Mlinarević (2002) is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian artist and graphic designer. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, Department of Graphic Design. In his design practice, he has collaborated with clients such as BH Pošta, the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Sarajevo, and the International Forum Bosnia. His knowledge in the field of graphic design directly influences his artistic practice, which is based on communicating the formal values of existing objects. Whether it's a universal message carried by the objects or their subjective and sentimental value, the author strives to communicate it clearly and appropriately. He primarily works in the media of photography and installations, addressing various socio-political issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.

• What inspired you to explore the relationships between everyday objects and their hidden artistic or emotional value?

It is actually something that I have thought about for several years now. For this series actually it was a moment of realisation where I had a friend compliment a piece of my clothing and I said that it belonged to my late uncle. And then I rewinded back in time and found that I have several objects that people tend to compliment that were all something that used to belong to someone else. These items may not always be my taste per se, but they have a big emotional gravitas in my life and I was surely not the only person who felt like this. This was something that my mentor saw as a very complex emotion but as a definite challenge to present.

• In what ways do you think intervention changes the meaning of an object?

Well, if we talk graphically or visually, if you flip an object, it becomes some sort of an anti-symbol of what it used to be. By reversing its position, we reverse the original meaning. Let alone adding to the object or subtracting can make actually drastically different meanings. What I like about intervention in objects is that it usually does not take a lot of materials to do it, rather it emphasizes the idea and stimulates the viewers perception. In this process creating a specific sequence of repeating elements was a true challenge. Since the elements had to be evoke nostalgia and human absence but also be applicable to a series of photographs that was not repetitive and individual.

• How did you collect the stories and objects featured in Objects of Meaning? Were people eager to share?

At first, I thought about what I would give to the series, and then slowly through casual talks with friends I got a few objects. Then I resorted to posting it on social media as a project. Asking people if I could borrow the objects. It took a little bit of time, but people were eager to share. A lot of the time someone would say "I don't know if it fits your concept. “ I always found that funny since the actual diversity in the objects was a part that I could not control and it led to some unexpected parts of the series.

• Why did you choose a gray background for the photographs? What atmosphere or emotion were you hoping to evoke?

The gray background was actually something that was something that we came up with during first shootings. The first idea was revolving around authentic spaces in which people live to present the idea of nostalgia. But later the idea of a singular, surreal space was born. The gray space kind of is a representation of the space between life and death. Like a pocket dimension. But also, at the same time it is kind of like the imaginary space in our memory. A lot of the time when we try to retrieve memories or dreams in our head, especially if they were long ago, we see it always in like a white space, we never have fully clear setting. Always some pieces of the space are missing.

• What role does the flower play in each photograph, and how did you decide which type of flower to use?

The flowers were the first elements to be brought into the series following the objects. When thinking about death we often use flowers to honour the ones who have passed. But also, interestingly we often talk about heavenly gardens. The idea of heavenly gardens appears in all Abrahamic religions, and I think that we culturally have always put emphasis on our gardens as places of peace and serenity.

• You mentioned that your work is an “honest expression of personal contemplation.” What does honesty in art mean to you?

Well... honesty should be a must in art. Why create something if it does not represent an honest wish to do so. We are all real people and real emotions and ideas as such our expression should be as real as truthful to us as they can be.

• Do you plan to continue exploring themes of memory and human values in your future projects?

I honestly hope to... I mean we as humans tend to often forget important figures and legacies that people have left for us. Remembering and acknowledging the past is a way of living through life in third person. We get the experience and learn more about life without living it ourselves. Especially nowadays when lives have become trivial to those who rule. I also think that it is a type of trauma comping. Sadly, we never learned to cope with trauma and loss the proper way. So, I think that there is still a space where we can work. In other capacities and types of works but still having the same underlying messages.

I would also take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to my mentors professor Dragana Antonić and her assistant Haris Adžem on their unconditional support and trust through this artistic process. There are many more things we couldn’t touch up on during this conversation but maybe another time. I would also thank all of my colleagues and friends who actually lent me very important objects of theirs.

Author: Hana Tiro

OBJECTS OF MEANING

Guided by the idea that we are surrounded daily by objects that hold artistic value, and that it is only necessary to find the right relationships between these objects in order to compose greater stories, I base my practice on discovering those relationships. What we observe every day takes on a completely different meaning the moment we make an intervention. These meanings can be both positive and negative—just like the people who interpret them. I believe that as human beings, we need to “read” our surroundings more deeply, because only in that way can we truly separate ourselves from what others want us to think. In a world where we are bombarded with information, we tend to take everything at face value and become superficial in our critical understanding of the environment. My work aims to provoke deeper reflection on fundamental human values, while remaining an honest expression of personal contemplation.

The photographic series Objects of Meaning is a cycle of fifteen photographs that depict objects inherited by people from their deceased loved ones. The series explores the meaning we attribute to these objects while simultaneously paying tribute to those who are no longer with us by pairing each object with flowers. The series is created to evoke a sense of a bygone era and the absence of people, while its gray background invokes a surreal, heavenly space. The window, which appears as a recurring element, represents a passage between worlds and a glimpse into the “other side.”