A dressed-up portocabin which, in its form as well as its location (Anton de Komplein), refers to the very first “emergency library” in the Bijlmer. Inside an exhibition based on the private archive of one of the first inhabitants.
The ‘Bijlmer Diary’, is a ‘recreation’ of the Bijlmer’s first public library in the 1970s and a tribute to the first inhabitants, the idealistic pioneers that settled there before there even was any infrastructure. It throws light on a part of the Bijlmer’s early years. ‘History is what gives us identity’ is the clear thought of the female artist behind poetic work. Just as the first ‘emergency library’ clearly met a need for permanence in the new area in the uncertain early years, Sanja Medic hopes her ‘Bijlmer Diary’ will fulfill a similar function in an area that appears more stable but is still constantly changing, making many people uncertain. The original ‘emergency library’ was part of a series of makeshift structures that served as temporary locations for a supermarket, acommunity centre and such. These buildings stood on what Medic calls the Bijlmer’s ‘emergency square’. That the emergency library was erected even before the supermarket must say something about the spirit of those days. During her preliminary research, the artist came across some fascinating facts about the early history of the Bijlmer, including a bus service to Amsterdam Central Station set up by the residents themselves. Visitors can take home a free newspaper on which she will give her own account of the history of the Bijlmer.
Sanja Medic
1974, Bihac, RS. Lives and works in Amsterdam, NL
In her work Medic plays with time and space. She creates vacuums: frozen moments, poetical, confusing, on the border of the two- and threedimensional, old and new, inside and out. Old photo’s are often her starting-point for complex collages, drawings and spatial installations. Historical event, like the tear down of a library by an earthquacke, inspire her. In 2007 she caught the eye with her work ‘Free Fall’, a video-projection on the wall of the Dutch House of Representatives near the centre of documentation, in which endless piles of documents are thrown up and swirl down in slow-motion. The term ‘motion’ comes – just like emotion – from moving or being moved.
