Since 2014, Bojan Fajfrić has been photographing and documenting three architectural sites within Belgrade's ever-changing urban landscape. These sites – the Army Headquarters, the Belgrade Waterfront, and the Montevideo film set site – reflect how conflict, economic speculation, and historical revisionism have disrupted and damaged not only the physical environment and infrastructure of the city but also its social and cultural networks. The artist’s extensive personal archive of over 4000 photos tracks the evolution of these sites to depict a political and physical landscape hibernating between a state of devastation and reconstruction. Accentuating absurdity, negligence, and hopelessness, the images are meticulous compositions that capture paradoxes of old and modern, gravity and humor. Eagles, Army Headquarters, and Football Films aims to illuminate a “trauma in-making” by providing a visual record of the steps and actions, the repercussions of which will be experienced in the future. 

Bojan Fajfrić was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and has resided in the Netherlands since 1995. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague and was a resident of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. His work presents a specific perspective on history, combining personal memories, collective historical consciousness, and the inevitable course of events. He primarily works with moving images and photography.

He has recently exhibited projects at venues such as Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), the San Telmo Museum (San Sebastian), De Appel (Amsterdam), the Belgrade October Salon, and NGBK in Berlin, among others. His films have been screened internationally at film festivals, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, the Viennale, DOK Leipzig, the Tempo Documentary Festival (Stockholm), Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, and the Impakt Festival in Utrecht, to name a few.

Artiste: Bojan Fajfrić
Interview by: Marie Saadeh
Design: Stéfanie Auger-Roy
Under the direction of: France Choinière
2023
ISBN: 978-2-9221-35-65-7 (EPUB)