Sarajevo Part 2: What can DC learn from Sarajevo?

As a DC based artist, in the past 10 years I have sometimes found myself complaining about the lack of galleries that show contemporary art, while other times I found myself defending the DC art scene saying that it’s gotten much better in recent years and exciting things are starting to happen. I can certainly see both sides, and I do remain optimistic about the future of art in DC.  But how does it get better? 

My answer leads into my cursory understanding of the contemporary art world in Sarajevo, Bosnia.  I’ve been here for over three weeks now, working on video projects, some mapping projects, and interviewing people who were in the city during the three and a half year siege of the Bosnian War form ’92 to ‘96.  I’ve quickly become accustom to the Balkan/Bohemian lifestyle of spending my days sipping strong coffee in sidewalk cafes and sitting on the front steps of a local gallery with local artists and an endless stream of international artists and art lovers who are passing through town, talking about art and travel and politics.  

In a capital city of over half a million people, equipped with a University of the Arts, it would seem that there would be a thriving art scene, ripe with possibility for young artists.  However, opportunities are few, there is virtually nobody buying art in Sarajevo, and the Bosnian government simply doesn’t have the money to help.  There is a 40% unemployment rate, and the Socialist-turn-Capitalist economy here is in dire straights.   So what’s a young artist to do?  Move.  Move to a city with a thriving art scene.  Move to a city with patrons who spend money on art, and a government that has money to put into the arts.  Move to a city where an artist can afford a place to live and work in.  And that is what many young artists here do.  But someone is trying to stop that from happening.  It’s not the government trying to keep them here (what you learned from your middle schoolteacher about oppressive Eastern European countries is riddled with exaggerated inaccuracies), it’s Pierre Courtin.   

Pierre is a Frenchman who spent some time in Sarajevo as an exchange student in 2001 and again in 2004, and he couldn’t help but notice there wasn’t a gallery showing contemporary art.  Instead of complaining, or retreating back to France, he did something about it.  He went to the French Embassy, he asked for money, and he opened a gallery called 10meters Square.  The gallery was an unused storefront, and the 10 meters might even be overestimating, (the space could make DC's Transformer Gallery look down right cavernous) and since 2005 he has been showing exciting new and emerging artists.  But that wasn’t enough for him.  In 2009, he took over more unused space in a neighboring storefront and opened up the much larger Duplex Gallery.   The Duplex Gallery has been showing more established artists that Pierre has confidence in but it hasn’t been easy. 

Every project shown in each of his galleries need money to happen, so Pierre goes out and finds the money.  Each year he gets a quarter of his operating budget from the French Embassy, and since his gallery is non-profit, for the rest of the money he has to play an endless game of searching.  About half of the artists he shows are local Bosnian artists and for them, nobody is donating money, but when he shows an international artist, he goes to their embassy and he asks if they will donate, he writes for cultural grants, and he takes on jobs as an independent curator.  So I asked Pierre why is he doing all this, and his answers were as sincere as they were altruistic: He’s doing it because in the five years since he opened 10meteres Square, over 80% of the contemporary artists he knew in Sarajevo have left.  He’s doing it to preserve the artist brain trust of this damaged yet thriving city. He’s doing it because it needs to be done.  And he’s doing it at break-neck speed.  He has over 20 openings each year for each gallery, and he is often found taking a cigarette/cola break (he seems to be as addicted to both) on the front steps, covered in paint and plaster, getting his spaces ready for the next show.  He doesn’t have interns, and he doesn’t have regular paid employees.  He has himself, and a handful of local artists who share his vision and his tireless efforts.

So what does this have to do with the DC art scene?  Maybe nothing.  But it seems to me that I have seen artists lose their motivation to work and/or move away to greener pastures.  Thankfully it’s not New York so much anymore (that horse was beaten to death with it’s own cliché) but it is Philadelphia, and Baltimore.  It’s cities where an artist can afford to live and work, and cities ripe with contemporary art spaces.  Who can blame them really?  It’s not easy being an artist, and we all have to pay the rent.  DC does have an exciting emerging art scene, and there are opportunities for non-profit galleries, and the DC Art Commission does provide ample funding to those of us within the district (sorry VA and MD).  But anytime you feel like maybe it’s not enough, maybe that’s the time to do something about it.