SARAJEVO
Olaf Osten
HOME SWEET HOME
Olaf Osten’s series of monochrome black acrylic paintings on used window curtains, titled HOME SWEET HOME, creates metaphorical connections between Vienna and Sarajevo through its subjects. The transparency and arrangement of the textile foundation of the paintings causes the two cities to blend, complementing one another. Through this, exhibition visitors can be in both places at the same time, without actually having to travel.
The guiding theme of the work is the complexity of having multiple homes, something familiar to anyone who does not live in the same place where they grew up. The English title is an ironic reference to the ambivalence entailed in this kind of cultural balancing act. The motifs are scenes of everyday life, history, and politics taken from personal experiences, conversations, and literature. This leads to, for example, the general question of how permeable and multi-layered a “home” can be.
“I enjoy the moments when my origins or those of my counterpart don’t matter, because you are working on, discussing, or playing something concrete together. I like to test apparently contradictory elements through my work to see whether they can form a whole, if I only imagined that they were incompatible.” (From the artist
statement)
HOME SWEET HOME, an installation in public space, Vilsonovo Šetalište, Sarajevo, 2022
HOME SWEET HOME, an installation in public space, Vilsonovo Šetalište, Sarajevo, 2022
HOME SWEET HOME, an installation in public space, Vilsonovo Šetalište, Sarajevo, 2022
