Hana Miletić: Pieces

Hana Miletić is an artist living in Brussels and Zagreb with a background in documentary and street photography. Since 2015, she has been using photography as base for her woven works. 

These delicate woven pieces tell tales about expansion and decay, about injury and healing, about connections across time and space. They form alternative models to the striving for efficiency and the breathlessness that characterize our society.

This is partly on account of the process that her works go through, but it also has to do with the technique she has chosen. It all begins with the artist’s making contact. While strolling through the urban space, she not only develops a feeling for it but also searches for indications of situations where there is upheaval, for processes involving transformations. Hana Miletić captures these initial impressions and places in photographs. However, she is not content to focus solely on the monumental nature or distinctiveness of urban architecture and street furniture. Instead, she concentrates on details, the unfinished or incomplete. Having first taken stock of a place and collected material, she follows this up by defining the topic and selecting the trivialities that are subsequently translated into woven forms. After all, it is precisely such trifles that form the main subjects for Hana Miletić in her perception of the spaces that humans live in and shape, and which then culminate in the actual works of art.

Weaving forms the central element of this process of abstraction—a technique that demands both know-how and dexterity but also something that seems strangely out of place today, namely patience. Opting for such a technique automatically requires a strong passion for material, theme, and the work involved because it is an inefficient method when judged by our current purpose-driven understanding of the world; the results arise gradually and require a certain amount of time, calm, and skill. The artist is driven by a passion but also a deep conviction that these signs of change in urban space, ruptures in communities or personal encounters are worth being perceived and analyzed. Although weaving is primarily an artisanal and artistic practice it also holds a social dimension. Conceptionally, it enables Hana Miletić to reflect the implications of tying something together, of repairing something in a physical as well as a psychological way. Historically, weaving is both a female and male profession. Yet, it is mostly associated with women’s work. Miletić‘s adoption of this process in her artworks thus also emphasizes a feminist aspect.

The presentation Pieces in Kunsthalle Mainz is Hana Miletić’s first solo show in Germany. Pieces is a cooperation with the MMSU—Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka.

On the occasion of the exhibition a book will be published by Archive Books with texts by among others Stefanie Böttcher, Branka Benčić and Clara Wörsdörfer.

Parallel to the Hana Miletić exhibition we are showing five artistic positions of FLUX4ART in the tower levels of Kunsthalle Mainz. The works of Jáchym Fleig, Dorthe Goeden, Ivana Matić, Judith Röder and Katja von Puttkamer approach abstraction, moments and processes of change in different ways.

For more information on our programme please refer to our website.

The exhibition is kindly supported by KIOSK Vlaanderen and Kultursommer Rheinland-Pfalz.

Events
Guided tour with Hana Miletić: January 27, 6–7pm, in Serbo-Croatian
Felt workshop with Hana Miletić: January 28, 4–6pm, with women from “C’est la vie” at Caritaszentrum Delbrêl and the Neustadt group “frauen aktiv”
Felt workshop with Hana Miletić: December 10, 4–6pm, with women from “C’est la vie” at Caritaszentrum Delbrêl and the Neustadt group “frauen aktiv”

Press inquiries
Anna Marquis, marquis [​at​] kunsthalle-mainz.de