A while back I was going through some family photos and documents that were dusting away in old dry skinned suit cases from a hundred years ago. I saw a warm family photo and cute boys. Digging more into their histories one was rather tragic, yet mundane and a symbol of keeping up no matter what. It was about Remzija Đumišić, a man who became blind later in life and learned sculpturing, a passion he continued with until the end of his life. Even though the market, the success and even the room he had to spare for the passion was small, almost non-existent, he continued with it and that’s the bit I found interesting.
Old Bosnian family photos, taken in a 1920’s Sarajevo photo studio of the Đumišić family, Remzija is the smallest one in the photos.
I wondered where his work might be today, who has it and has it survived at all. So I was gladly surprised when I found out they were in the Typhlological museum in Zagreb Croatia. His surviving works are stored in the archives and some artworks have their own place in the exhibition. They were very kind and responded to my questions and even sent me a DVD with a short film on Remzija’s work. Oddly, when I searched for for his name on Twitter I found a photo of his exhibition, taken from a Finnish academic, Suzie Thomas who happened to be there some days before my Twitter search.
Mini Documentary
Directed, recorded, edited by: Miran Krčadinac
Produced by: Typhlological Museum of Zagreb
Executive producer: Davor Šiftar
Narrated by: Mislav Togonal
Published: 2007
What do you think?