When the Time Ceased to Pass – Nena Sesic-Fiser

Vivid and tangible moment of recollection about a sniper who shot on me in Sarajevo 1992, resulted in the sculpture of a screaming head which I made in the studio of Indian sculptor John Devaraj in Bangalore. It became a part of installation “When the time ceased to pass”, centered around the painting executed on rough surface of a plastered façade, showing a helpless mortal with Destiny behind him, holding a card with an eight-pointed star. The painting is positioned by a clock with its hands ripped off, evoking the time that stopped for all of Sarajevans when the four year long siege of the city begun. The composition included a torn off filmstrip, symbolizing the breakdown of the continuity of life, a gambling die as a token of unpredictable fate, a photo taken from the interior of some house showing the ravaged city on the other side of windows, a child’s doll laying on the ground with wide open eyes …

For many of my friends and acquaintances, that was where the time forever ceased to pass. In a certain way, it did for me as well.

The installation was exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bangalore (India).