leerlauf
poetry book, 2024
leerlauf is a visual and language collage. “the images of leerlauf are collaged from photographs of abandoned buildings in my hometown. many were taken during a walk with my parents. unlike me, they knew a factory where my grandma worked, a bakery that made soft, moon-shaped breads on sundays, and they knew there was Bosna – a shoe shop: they walked the world with our country on their feet. without the possibility of sharing the past, i see these sites as bricks, walls and faded signs hinting at another time. their insides haunt me: while hearing about a secret pool table in one of the basements, i look through a broken window / a missing wall / and find – not a story – but its scattered parts:
a wrapper from a bounty bar,
a blue peg,
a red heart,
a used condom
a yellow straydog, sleeping in the shade.
what am i to do with them?
as i write, i remember a long-dead pigeon in a window of an old factory. i chose not to photograph the bird for the bird is a body, and a body that can’t escape shall not be captured. to many, this building is “TRIKO”. to me, it is “the-window-in-which-the-bird-had-died”.
this is our difference.”
(from “leerlauf”)
leerlauf is composed of 24 visual collages and 24 poems. It is awaiting bilingual publication—in German and English. A selection of poems and visual collages from leerlauf was published in several magazines, including Paperbag, ETC Magazine, ARTWIFE, Harbour Review, and Gulf Stream Magazine. In 2024, leerlauf was awarded by the Sarajevo Photography Festival and exhibited at the Bosnian Cultural Center. More recently, poems and visual collages from leerlauf were performed and shown at backsteinboot, Berlin, during the 25th Poesiefestival. The making of leerlauf was supported by a year-long grant awarded by the Berlin Senate for Culture and Social Cohesion in 2023.
[be something / that endures], 2022
Digital Collage, 15 x 21 cm
[she finds no thorn], 2022
Digital Collage, 15 x 21 cm
[it follows like a name, with the name, but only when it tastes], 2023
Digital Collage, 15 x 21 cm
[o, i’d kiss the snow], 2023
Digital Collage, 15 x 21 cm