Koštana Banović (Sarajevo, former Yugoslavia) works in various disciplines and media such as drawing, performance, video and film. Her work considers the construction of identity, formed in relation to the other, especially in social dynamics revolving ritual, religious practices and ’other’ forms of communication. Her works provokes questions about the way of being-in-the-world, occupying time, and claiming autonomy and agency. Ritual has become a recurring element in her work; their choreographies, embedded histories and activating use of specific materials. Spending time in different communities, researching and traveling, have become intrinsic to her artistic practice. She positions herself critically to traditional ethnographic research methods and attempts to define a different position to meeting another.

During her residence at IBB – Instituto Buena Bista, Kostana researched Afro-Caribbean religions on the island. As a part of the research she made use of her film “May I Enter”, previously made with a Candomblé-community in Brazil. The film was publicly screened at NAAM – National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management in WIllemstad, and at Ateliers ’89, artist residency in Aruba (2010).

www.kostanabanovic.com