“I Like That You are Naïve” – A Report

Statement/Confession: 

I like that you’re naïve is a video work filmed in Kosovo, in the format of photo/video report with narration of what happened there. 
This work deals with the personal review and critique of the borders, separation, defined roles and agencies of the power matrix production. The problem of universal narrative and available information about life and situation in Kosovo is discussed, as well as the naivety with which I approach this topic.

The work aims to show how leaving a safe position and facing the reality that was talked about from that security, leads to a complete change in perception and understanding of things, as well as to the awareness of my own naivety.

This work is also my first “failure” in dealing closely with the context of the state of exception. The original plan for recording a work in Kosovo included a completely different idea and concept that was conceived in a certain security outside the Kosovo context. 
My idea was to deal with the division among people in this area. However, I misunderstood the division itself. The only thing that was certain for me was the geographical division and the religious one. I didn’t understand that there is a division within one society, in the same territory, a division so intense that it instills fear in the people I planned to be potential actors in my work. The planned action involved the activity of people as subjects, but what happened within the real context is that I myself fell into a defined role and became an object.

My understanding has changed greatly and my secure position has shifted. All of that influenced the reaction and presentation of my own naivety to the public through a non-artistic format – a report. I wanted to show, in a personal way, and through personal experience, without additional interventions, a reality that perhaps few people outside that area know about. Hence the decision for the title of this work: “I like that you’re naïve” – which was the last thing I heard before continuing on my way to Kosovo. In this context, I understand naivety as something positive without which I would not have approached such a serious topic.

Collaborators in this project: Vesna Sekulić, Uroš Ranković, Milica Bilanović, Vladislav Andrejević