“When you eliminate the narrative and syntax, every life is relatable.”
— Velibor Božović, 2025
Elsewhere, on Record looks at the ways in which life stories are told and retold, remembered and distorted, or pieced together from available fragments. Reflecting the artist’s experience of conflict and migration—Božović grew up in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he remained throughout the Siege of Sarajevo—the show considers the narratives that build and shape our experiences of dislocation and loss.
This survey exhibition brings together several bodies of work from throughout Božović’s career, all taking memory or storytelling as their subject. Encore, Odyssey, features 97 books, all dedicated to an unknown reader in a different year of the 20th century. In Seeing, There is No Right or Wrong finds Božović returning to his contact sheets made between 1999 and 2013, printing the dark, overexposed frames that appeared there. These failed photographs come to define the work, shifting our attention to what remains unseen. Omissions also define the narratives in Unfolding Elsewheres, transcriptions of Bosnian migration stories gathered by Božović and his childhood friend, novelist Aleksandar Hemon. A cluster of works—My Prisoner, On Record—are more personal, capturing the experiences of Božović and his family during, before and after the Bosnian War.
This exhibition also includes the third edition of Radio Elsewheres, an art and community radio project organized by Božović, Steve Bates, and Claudia Zini. Radio Elsewheres will be live from the gallery between October 16 and November 5, 2025. For more information on AWE’s and previous presentations of Radio Elsewheres, see https://www.radioelsewheres.net/.
