Project monograph by the Serbian artist revolving around a precious edition of Marcel Proust's collected works translated by Croatian poet Tin Ujević.
A 13-volume set of Marcel Proust's collected works was published in Yugoslavia in 1967. This edition, in the Latin alphabet, was highly valued by Yugoslav intelligentsia for its elegant translation from French by the poet Tin Ujević. During the Bosnian civil war, these Proust sets fetched up to the equivalent of a full year's salary in the Belgrade black markets. They were frequently looted together with other valuables from Bosnian homes. The set exhibited in Irena Haiduk's Seductive Exacting Realism was seized by local police from Belgrade Kalenić Market in 1995. It was acquired at a public auction in 2014. It is missing volume number 12.
Published following the two-part eponymous exhibition at the Renaissance Society, Chicago, and at the 14th Istanbul Biennial, from September 10 to October 8, 2015.
Irena Haiduk's multi-faceted works reach beyond their anchors in Balkan history to mingle with other corrosive forces and slice away at the well-fed bodies of power. She has exhibited at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at University of Chicago; AKUD, Berlin; the 4th Athens Biennale; and other locations. A monograph of her writing, Spells, is forthcoming by Sternberg Press. Irena Haiduk teaches at Northwestern University and operates between Chicago, USA, and Belgrade, Serbia.
