The Approach

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‘The Approach’ addresses the politics of ‘remembering’ and ‘forgetting’ (Beech 2002) on former concentration and extermination camp at Jasenovac in Croatia where a monument - the ‘Stone Flower’ created by architect Bogdan Bogdanović – deliberately used ambiguous symbolism as part of an attempt to move beyond the conflicted history of the site towards the ideals of brotherhood and unity, socialist revolution, and sacrifice of the new Yugoslav state (Pavlakovic and Perak 2017). The artwork uses sections of screengrabs from handheld footage that deliberately prevents a clear view of the monument, thus reflecting its aforementioned ambiguity and the difficulties involved in mentally and physically navigating the site. These difficulties are symptoms of the competing narratives of the site, the absence of material remains and the imposing presence of the stone flower. Much like Neme’s film ‘Son of Saul’, omission or absence is often the only way to deal with that which cannot be dealt with (Bradshaw 2016). The work also acknowledges the changing borders of the region by presenting the encounter with the monument from different angles and multiple viewpoints. This mimics the various agencies wishing to forget or rehabilitate either the victims or perpetrators of the site and its history (Byford 2014).