46 J U S t O U t - march 19.2004
ART
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>111 Í T i P Í í T
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Shadows from Bosnia
J a s m in k a M ujcic asks w h a t m ak es a c ity a c ity
III if vin
by
(866) HOT TIKI ¡WDidWOta tiKi COIVI
The Portland Gay Men’s Chorus
Garage
Sale
www pdxgmc org
Don’t miss the PGM C G A R A G E SALE!
It’s a fundraiser for our trip to
Montreal in July.
S aturday, M arch 27, 2004
8 a.m . to 5 p.m .
Trinity U nited M eth o d ist C hurch
SE 39th and S teele
Imagine what you II fi nd when these boys “dean out the r closets'’ !
rriving in Portland as a refugee
from mid-’90s war-tom Bosnia,
16-year-old Jasminka M ujcic
already knew more than she need
ed to know about the human capacity
for hate and violence. She simply want
ed to he an ordinary high school stu
dent leading a safe, ordinary life.
But in the line waiting to register
for Marshall High School she sensed
trouble. “1 saw the crowd move, and 1
knew something was wrong,” she
remembers. “T h en this guy grabs
another guy and throws him through
the glass of the registration office. I
thought: T m at home. Don’t worry
about me. I’ll fit in.’ ”
M ujcic laughs as she tells the
story— laughs big— falling forward over
her long legs and almost falling off the
chair. Sh e’s sitting in Shift, a contem
porary arts gallery, surrounded by her
paintings of Banja Luka, the city where
she lived before the war.
In acrylic and oil, the landscapes
show bridges, streets and marketplaces.
Bosnian immigrant Jasm inka M ujcic premieres her
But something is missing from the paint new painting series at Shift this month
ings— the same something Mujcic
missed when she visited in 2001. People.
cution. In addition to laws that penalized
"It was the first time we’d been
Bosnians and forbade them from owning prop
back. My mother wanted to visit the graves of
erty, prejudice from ordinary people made life
her parents,” she explains. “But it was very dif
difficult for Muslims. O ne of M ujcic’s high
ficult for both o f us. Everything had changed.
school teachers began to harass her— phoning
For me, emotionally, it was not the place where
her at home and calling her a “filthy Turk.”
I grew up.”
In 1994 the family moved to Portland. “T he
W hat makes a city a city? M ujcic asks, in
first street I saw was 82nd Avenue,” M ujcic
words and in her work.
recalls. “I couldn’t believe people lived in such
“It’s probably the people who live there and
a place. W ith all those car dealerships, it
the long relationships you have with people
looked like an industrial zone.”
when...your family has been there. I couldn’t
A t Marshall High the culture shock contin
make that connection because everyone was
ued. T h at first year two people were wounded
gone. They were either dead, left or a refugee.”
by a gunman in the
At the time Mujcic couldn’t completely
sch(X)l cafeteria. “Just
understand her own
my luck,” she says—
reaction. “I thought the
again with that big
trip was disgusting,” she
laugh.
admits. “It was sticky,
And M ujcic just
I couldn’t breathe. I
didn’t fit in. She
didn’t want to face it
couldn’t speak English.
emotionally. But two
She didn’t belong in
years later, I started
any o f the cliques.
painting.”
And she didn’t date.
She calls the collec
T hat is, she didn’t
tion of cityscapes Shad -
date until she met
o u ’S. T h e people she
Sanela, another
remembers may not he
refugee from Banja
Spirits inhabit the seemingly empty landscapes
visible in the paintings,
Luka, who she met
of Shadows
she says, hut their spir
through her cousin.
its inhabit the scenes.
Skipping sch(X)l one day, she and her cousin
“A lot of people
were eating lunch in Lents Park when Sanela
made my life beautiful, and I want to acknowl
stopped by. “She leans over and says: ‘So you
edge them ," she says. “W hen you disappear so
are Jasminka,’ and she gives me the ltxik— you
abruptly 1 think it should he acknowledged
know the kx>k. And that was it for me.”
that your life meant something.”
Fast-forward five years, and they are still a
A graduate of Pacific Northwest G>llege of
couple. T heir shared history is important,
Art, Mujcic began her artistic career hack in her
M ujcic says. “W e’re completely different, hut
homeland when her parents sent her to drawing
we have this common understanding. All the
lessons at 13. Then the war started, and M ujcic’s
demons you have— this way you don’t have to
family, who are Muslim, were in danger.
explain them ." J H
For two years they moved to Croatia, where
the teen-ager studied under a new art teacher.
JASMINKA M u j c i c ’ s Shadows is on lieu1 through
“She was very strict; it was all about tech
March 30 at Shift, 625 N.W. Everett # 101.
nique,” M ujcic says. “But even though I didn’t
always like her lessons, I realized I would con
HELEN S ilvis is a Portland free-lance uniter.
tinue with art.”
However, Croatia was no refuge from perse-
PHOTO BY MARTY DAVIS
A
H elen S ilvis