Photo courtesy of Amina Imamović
Alma Gačanin
Visual artist and performer
Drawing on her own labor history — as a flight attendant, client care worker, and research analyst, among other roles — Gačanin examines how shame, discipline, and gendered expectation settle into the body through service and repetition. She treats shame not as a private emotion but as a political condition, one rehearsed daily in the forms femininity is required to take.
Watercolor is the central site of her practice. Her paintings are not preparatory studies but sustained inquiries — where tensions that will surface in performance first take form, or return in another register after. Combining figurative watercolor with performances built around physical exertion, storytelling, and the delivery of text, Gačanin traces the quiet violence of what femininity is required to endure.
Gačanin is a member of the CRVENA Association for Culture and Art and currently works from a studio within its premises, in her hometown Sarajevo.
Contact: alma.gacanin@gmail.com
2025 / 2026 ( currently) Interdisciplinary MA programme in human rights and democracy with a unique regional focus on Southeast Europe (ERMA)
2015 Master’s degree in Fine Arts Education from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, specializing in Art Education
2012 Graduated in Fine Arts Education from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, specializing in Art Education
2024 Artist Changemaker Award by the Global Fund for Women for contributing to gender justice and feminism in her practice
2022 Winner of the ZVONO Art Award for Young Visual Artists in Bosnia and Herzegovina
2022 Award for Contemporary Art Novi Talasi (now known as Anur Hadžiomerspahić Award) Sarajevo (BIH)
2026 ALGORITHM OF CARE, Group exhibition, Galery Novembar, Belgrade, May–June 2026
2026 ALGORITHM OF CARE, Group exhibition, NGVU, Podgorica, March–April 2026
2025 AUTONOMOUS AGENT, Performance, Import-Export, U10, Belgrade, October 2025
2025 BREAKING THE COURSE OF THE EUROPEAN BOOMERANG, Group exhibition, Pragovka Gallery, Prague, October–December 2025
2025 SUBDOKUMENTA, International Biennale of Visual Arts, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, October 2025
2025 HOW WELL DID YOU PERFORM TODAY, Performance, Skopje Pride Weekend, Skopje, June 2025
2025 IT’S AN HONOUR TO SERVE AND MY DUTY TO PLEASE, Solo exhibition; performance GOVERNING BODY, Contemporary Art Gallery Subotica, June–August 2025
2025 LET’S PLAY, Solo exhibition, Goethe-Institut, Sarajevo, February–April 2025
2024–25 HOW WELL DID YOU PERFORM TODAY, Performance-play, premiere and two repeats (Produced by MASKA)
2024 WHITE GLOVES, Performance, Queer Museum, Vienna, April 2024
2024 GASTARBEITER 2.0, Group exhibition, nGbK am Alex, Berlin, April–June 2024
2024–25 MODRA LJUBIČASTA ZELENA ŽUTA, Group exhibition, CRVENA, Sarajevo, December 2024–January 2025
2024 GASTARBEITER 2.0, Group exhibition, Manifesto Gallery, Sarajevo, October 2024
2024 HUSTERA, Group exhibition, Liget Gallery, Budapest, August–October 2024
2024 SMEEL, Performance, Stara Mestna Elektrarna Elektro Ljubljana, Ljubljana, January 2024
2023 MY CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE IS TO SERVE, Solo exhibition, Manifesto Gallery, Sarajevo, October 2023
2023 PERSONAL BEST, Solo exhibition, Apoteka – Space for Contemporary Art, Vodnjan, September 2023
2023 DEAR BOSS, Solo exhibition with Anastasija Pavić, Gallery Novembar, Belgrade, September 2023; curator: Ana Simona Zelenović
2023 RADI GRUBO, IGRAJ NAPORNO (WORK HARD, PLAY HARD), Solo exhibition, Nova BAZA, Zagreb, July 2023; curator: Vesna Vuković
2023 ABECEDERIAN, Performance, Residency Unlimited, New York, May 2023
2023 FAMILIAR FANTOMS, Group exhibition, Residency Unlimited, New York, May 2023
2021 UMETNOST ANTI-RATA, Group exhibition, Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo; curator: Ana Simona Zelenović
Forthcoming, 2026 — Sirois, Christian. Renegotiating Balkanist Imaginaries: Geopolitics, Curation and Contemporary Art as Method. PhD Thesis, Human and Cultural Geography, University of New South Wales.
2026 Clast Magazine: Radical Empathy, collaboration with Anastasija Pavić and Ana Simona Zelenović, UK
2025 Contemporary Art Gallery Subotica: Čast mi je služiti i dužnost zadovoljiti, Serbia
2025 Bosnian Girls, Art, and Nationalism: Contemporary Feminist Art from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uroš Čvoro, Australia
2024 Gastarbeiter 2.0, nGbK, Germany
2023 SELFI 2, Serbia
2018 Rukopisi 41: Poetry and Prose Anthology for Youth from EX-YU Countries, Dom Omladine Pančevo, Serbia
2017 Bona, Magazine for contemporary art and theory; interview about artist Alma Gačanin and her work, Sarajevo
2016 Sanjatorijum ili ko još sahranjuje mrtve ptice, poetry book, Novi Sad, CK 13
2014 Tinted Art Magazine, Croatia
2013 Tracing the Public, MFA Program “Public Art and New Artistic Strategies,” Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, in collaboration with Academy of Fine Arts University of Sarajevo and partner institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia
Alma Gačanin: Život nije kurirani sadržaj na Instagramu
Nada|27/4/2026.| PišeDunja Kučinac
Oslobođenje: Alma Gačanin, umjetnica: Stavljamo život na kocku doslovno ako odlučimo biti neposlušne i rizikujemo da budemo odbačene, 26/12/2025.
Пркосниот апсурд на Дјевина како антитеза на оттуѓениот труд на современата работничка
Кон перформансот “How well did you perform today?” на Алма Гачанин.
Piše: Јана Наскова, 2025
Vogue Adria: Alma Gačanin izložbom u Sarajevu poziva na igru introspekcije
Feministika: Razgovor sa Almom Gačanin
Secondary Archive: Alma Gačanin
Jeza kot produktivno čustvo
Alma Gačanin: Kako dobro si se odrezala danes? Stara mestna elektrarna, datum ogleda 25. 1. 2024.
https://veza.sigledal.org/kritika/jeza-kot-produktivno-custvo-r
Aljazeera: Alma Gačanin: Izazovno je baviti se umjetnošću i biti umjetnica u BiH
Exhibition opening at Nova BAZA 20h, RADI GRUBO, IGRAJ NAPORNO
6.7.-23-7.2023
https://www.blok.hr/en/vijesti/alma-gacanin-radi-naporno-igraj-grubo