Both versions are extremely affecting, and both have their humour: the fear of the populace transmuted into absurd relay races at the crossroads, rubbernecking in the shadow of buildings, the same feelings of solitary, hopeless exposure, the shuffled herding at street corners. The two films become a stereoscopic view of the same thing. Or is it the same thing? – Adrian Searle, The Guardian, 4 July 2011.
The title 1395 Days without Red refers to the 1395 day long siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s, where the city's residents were advised not to wear bright colours that might draw attention from snipers in the hills above. Retracing the route of Sniper Alley today, Šejla Kamerić and Anri Sala's films follow a woman, played by Maribel Verdú, as she makes her way through the city on foot. At each intersection she makes the decision whether to stop or to run, to run on her own or with others. Elsewhere in the city, the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra is rehearsing passages from Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony, the Pathétique. The musicians stop and start, repeating different sections of the symphony, echoing the movements of the residents through the city.
Šejla and Anri's distinct approaches to editing and pacing, both visually and sonically, reflect how past traumatic events are embodied - they can be experienced and relived differently. For instance, Šejla’s soundscape amplifies the panicked footsteps of the protagonist and the Sarajevans as they move through the siege. In contrast, Anri's relation to sound appears more distanced. Tension punctures the air via occasional, sharp rifle reports, which are absent in Šejla's film. Šejla sets the scene with an intense orchestral score while Anri shapes the atmosphere through a more melancholic melody.Through different choreographies of actions, pauses, and rhythms, they ask: at what distance is one allowed to narrate history?
at Bury Museum and Art Gallery
07 April - 16 June 2018
1395 Days without Red was presented in the Moving Image Gallery at Bury Museum and Art Gallery. Since opening, the Moving Image Gallery has shown video work by upcoming and established artists including Rachel Maclean, Mark Leckey, Larry Achiampong and David Blandy.
Image: Šejla Kamerić, 1395 Days without Red, 2011 presented at the Moving Image Gallery, Bury Museum and Art Gallery in 2018. Photograph: Steven Walton
at MAC Birmingham
Birmingham, 22 March 2014
In Spring 2014 multi-arts venue mac birmingham partnered with Flatpack Festival to present Šejla Kamerić's 1395 Days Without Red. The work was shown to accompany MAC Birmingham's 'Walk On' group exhibition, which explored artists’ use of walks and journeys, both literal and metaphorical, since the late 1960s. 'Walk On' also included Guards and The Nightwatch by Francis Alÿs.
Image: Maribel Verdu in a production still taken during filming of 1395 Days Without Red by Šejla Kamerić in collaboration with Ari Benjamin Meyers (2011). Photograph: Milomir Kovačević Strašni
at P21 Gallery
London, 11 September - 31 October 2015
By presenting the human form as the timeless counterargument to violence, we equip ourselves with the best reminder of what we stand to lose when we engage in conflict. Chris Zacharia, Flux Magazine, 7 October 2015.
Šejla Kamerić's 1395 Days without Red was screened as part of the group exhibition 'Autonomy of Self' at P21 Gallery in the autumn of 2015. Responding to Ariella Azoulay's essay Civil Contract of Photography, the exhibition brought together photographic and moving image works from across the former Ottoman territories, to examine how images made in conflict are produced, used and exhibited to create visual representation where political representation is absent.
Image: Maribel Verdu in a production still taken during filming of 1395 Days Without Red by Šejla Kamerić in collaboration with Ari Benjamin Meyers (2011). Photograph: Milomir Kovačević Strašni