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A film still from "Aphasia" an experimental movie by Jelena Juresa
Jelena Jureša is a visual artist and filmmaker. Through her films and video installations, she explores themes of identity, collective violence, complicity, and historical denial. Her work pushes the boundaries of conventional cinematic language, critically engaging with hegemonic narratives. Recently, her research has focused on practices of oppression—how they operate and implicate us in systems of violence—resulting in multidisciplinary projects that are both political and deeply personal.

Don’t Take It Personally, film (2025) trailer

DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY

DON’T TAKE IT PERSONALLY (2025) is a film concert that intertwines themes of historical denial, collective violence, exile, and resistance. It offers a biting indictment of human and societal behaviour during unstable times shaped by capitalism and imperial greed.

Produced by kunstencentrum nona (Belgium) & Kinematograf (Croatia), Co-commisioned by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht
With the support of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), KASK&Conservatorium, KAAP, Kunsthal Ghent, laGeste, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, Kamov Residency

 

Aphasia, film (2019) trailer

APHASIA Film (installation)

APHASIA (2019) is an unsettling inquiry into the representation of violence and the violence of representation. This documentary gesture explores how collective crimes keep being repeated and reflects on social and political constellations, unfolding constructions behind nation-states and national identities. Weaving an intricate web of connections across time and space from Belgian colonialism in the first act, Austrian race experiments, and Heimat films in the second, the third act brings to life the well-known photograph, taken at the beginning of the war in Bosnia.

Produced by Argos, centre for audiovisual arts, Brussels
Co-produced by Contour – kunstcentrum nona in the context of Contour Biennial 9, Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK), Zagreb Youth Theatre (ZKM).
With the support of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF).

Aphasia, concert-performance (2022), trailer

Aphasia, concert-performance (2022), excerpt

 

APHASIA Concert-Performance

The performance is developed at the intersection of music, film, storytelling, and dance, in collaboration with Nenad Sinkauz, Alen Sinkauz and Ivana Jozić. Immersed in the atmosphere of a (post-war-zone)nightclub, the audience physically participates in an intimate investigation of violence, the world of perpetrators, bystanders, and individual responsibility. One can imagine the audience’s attention gradually shifting from an archival film, to a DJ set, to a dance solo, to an integrated concert, intersected by the interventions of the female narrator who ponders about the “monsters and us”. Whispers, rumours on perpetration and standing by, complicity and violence; every revolution, every genocide, leaves a soundtrack.

APHASIA premiered at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in 2022 and continues to tour.

Produced by KAAP in collaboration with ROBIN.
Co-produced by Kunstenfestivaldesarts, De Singel, Workspacebrussels, Hannah Arendt Institute
Developed in Co-laBo/laGeste
Supported by Vlaamse Overheid, KASK&Conservatorium