In 1990 – at a time when civil war was raging in Yugoslavia – Kristina, known as Kiki, Jovanovic was born in Essen. As her Serbian parents did not have German citizenship, they moved to Gelsenkirchen, the only possibility to stay in Germany at that time.
She grew up between languages and traditions, between Germany and a homeland that no longer existed – the question of belonging and origin a shimmering subconscious: a question that neither wanted to be heard nor answered.
Since fall 2018, she has been studying literary writing at the German Literature Institute Leipzig and her art deals with the topics of origin, belonging and the search for new narratives that combat systemic forgetting.
She is currently working specifically on short stories.
The author is asking herself the question of self-empowerment that can arise through writing down and receiving the texts. Which paths lead us to empowerment through our own narrative?
As part of the Tour of the Text, she wrote the play “Nema Problema” together with Pola Fendel.
The two friends Miki and Lola spontaneously flee their everyday lives in Vienna for Sarajevo. A week that was supposed to promise a relaxed atmosphere and parties turns into a journey in which origins, the question of identity and life-defining decisions are negotiated – all against the backdrop of a broken country undergoing painful reconstruction.
Photo credits: Joanna Legid