Čov(j)eče, ne ljuti se
is a large-scale installation made of 18,245 playing pawns, each one functioning as a single pixel. Together they reconstruct the scene of the Dayton Peace Agreement being signed, a moment meant to end the Bosnian War and close one of the darkest chapters in the region’s history.
The installation was assembled over two days by members of the Yugoslav diaspora. The slow, repetitive act of placing pawn after pawn turned into a quiet form of reflection: peace as something fragile, unfinished, and carried differently by each person in the room. The gesture became as important as the image itself.
By using game pieces, the work echoes how diplomacy can resemble play...rules, strategy, chance, and the power to move others. But the collective assembly points to another way forward: peace not as a document or a deal, but as patience, labor, care, and shared responsibility.
The result is an image that hovers between digital and handmade, history and memory. A treaty rebuilt through thousands of small decisions, each one asking what kind of play leads not to victory, but to coexistence.
The Waves
17 January – 1 March 2026
Contour Gallery, Rotterdam
Artists: Gamze Öztürk, Anouk Kruithof, Lana Mesić, Mesut Öztürk
Curated by: Nesli Gül
Contour Gallery, Rotterdam, presents The Waves, a group exhibition curated by Nesli Gül, on view from 17 January to 1 March 2026. Featuring works by Gamze Öztürk, Anouk Kruithof, Lana Mesić, and Mesut Öztürk, the exhibition explores the fluid relationship between self and environment through themes of identity, memory, and interconnectedness.
Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves, the exhibition approaches identity not as fixed, but as relational and continuously shaped by memory, heritage, ecology, and social context. Through performance, video, installation, and sculpture, the works reflect on how personal and collective identities emerge through lived experience and material relations.
Set in Rotterdam, a city shaped by water, migration, and ongoing reconstruction, The Waves resonates with the rhythms of flow, impermanence, and renewal that underpin the exhibition’s conceptual framework.
Teratology - Gallery Caroline O'Breen
Teratology is the scientific study of abnormalities. In this exhibition, artists Anne Geene (NL, 1983) and Lana Mesić (Yugoslavia, 1987) come together around their shared interest in things that are irregular, overlooked, or don’t quite fit in.
Lana Mesić takes part in ‘Teratology’ at the invitation of Anne Geene, reflecting Geene’s interest in dialogue and exchange between artists.
Both artists collect, combine, and organize everyday objects or fragments of reality, and by doing so give attention and value to what often goes unnoticed.
Their practices balance between fact and imagination, and between order and playfulness.
‘Teratology’ highlights the beauty of the misfits and the importance of paying attention to what we might otherwise overlook.
The show will be on view at the gallery Caroline O'Breen from 9 October till 8 November. Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday 11 October, 16–18 hrs.
Lego Kalašnjikov - "In Vrijheid?"
For Kapellenbaanweekend my Lego Kalašnjikov will be shown in a Cold War bunker. No lights, just you, a flashlight, and a suspicious amount of concrete.
As a kid in Croatia I used to build Lego guns during air raids. Not because I was preparing for battle, but because kids make toys out of whatever’s at hand. Some built castles, I built… well, this. Now it has followed me into adulthood and crawled into a bunker.
It’s ridiculous, a little unsettling, and maybe that’s the point. Peace is fragile, imagination is weird, and nothing clicks together quite like Lego.
Wild Summer of Art - BRUTUS, Rotterdam
Pawns reimagines the signing of the Dayton Agreement through the lens of Mensch ärgere Dich nicht, a familiar game of chance and elimination. Exactly thirty years after the treaty ended the Bosnian War, its promises feel fragile, peace written on paper, division etched into daily life. Using pawns as stand-ins for both those in power and those at its mercy, the work questions what kind of play leads to true cooperation and what it means when the game never ends. The reported disappearance of the original treaty becomes a haunting symbol, echoing a region where memory is both battleground and balm.
Here, the digital becomes handmade: each pawn a pixel, each gesture a glitch. The image drifts in and out of focus, shaped by pieces that don’t always cooperate. Pawns lives in tension—naive yet deliberate, playful yet political and offers no answers, only a gesture toward imagining peace as something unfinished, imperfect, and still in play.
Looking for participants to help put this art piece together on July 2 & 3 at BRUTUS. Food and travel costs will be reimbursed.
Art Rotterdam 2025
At this year’s Art Rotterdam—held for the first time in the vast halls of Ahoy—I presented Towers with Contour Gallery.
A project about failure and rebuilding. Structures that show themselves, dissolve, and begin again.
A meditation on becoming and unbecoming, shown among many powerful works by fellow artists.
Upcoming Solo Show at Contour Gallery:
"The Incomplete Compendium of the Invisible World as Compiled by Lana Mesic"
Join us on Sunday, November 10th at 15:00 for the opening of my first-ever solo show at Contour Gallery.
It all came together fast—just like the past 12.5 years of making art—but I'm super siked to share this journey with you. The Incomplete Compendium of the Invisible World captures the stories, questions, and unexpected failures that have shaped my practice.
Hope to see your friendly faces there
&
ALL HAIL THE FAIL!
When you point a finger, three are pointing back
I proudly announce that my newest publication just left the press! Save the date for the book launch, come and say hi and pick up a copy! I would love to see you there.
When: 21.01.2023
Where: Walgenbach Art & Books, Gouwstraat 56c Rotterdam
Time: 15:00
pre-order available through Eriskay Connection
'Comrade Tito is Dead/Spectre' at Phoebus Gallery
Honoured to be part of the “Ladekast” exhibition at Phoebus gallery curated by Mirjam Westen.
Gallerist Mirjam de Winter organised this legendary show since the 90’s and this time the theme was ‘(Un)balancing Power Relations’. My piece, “Comrade Tito is Dead/Spectre,” is in great company with 15 other amazing female artists.
Open Studio during GRAW
Studio view during Groot Rotterdams Atelier Weekend, which took place on 24 and 25 September 2022. This event provides art lovers a unique moment to meet artists in their studios and explore the many studio complexes located throughout Rotterdam.
URANIA BERLIN
In this interdisciplinary group show, nine artists from central, eastern, and southeastern Europe explore nation, belonging, autonomy, self-determination, identity, and leave-taking, in works that are both very intimate and highly political.
The war in Ukraine is a turning point. Wars shifts borders of all kinds: personal, political, and moral. What happens to human beings when they become subject to these shifting borders? How is it possible to process such overwhelming experiences? And how can they be expressed in artistic explorations?
The artists invited to exhibit here investigate shifting internal and external boundaries in their works: What does it mean to long for a homeland that no longer exists? Because, for example, you were born in a country that is no longer on the map, or is currently occupied and destroyed? Childhood memories of the 1990s, of the wars in the Balkans and the transformation processes in the post-Socialist countries play a role in grappling with these questions. What is the Material of the Nation and who controls it?
When you point your finger there are three point back
Excited to announce that I am working on a new body of work dealing with the idea of being born in a country that doesn't exist any more. Under the watchful eye of Frank van der Stok the project is gaining momentum.
'Clever Eyes'
There are still copies available of Clever Eyes book!
It came out in 2016 and has been voted one of the best photobooks of that year by Volkskrant. It will cost you 20 euros ex. shipping. Email me and I'll make sure one comes your way
Covid Schmovid
Working on a new durational drawing. The lines of the drawing correspond to the increase of Covid19 infections in The Netherlands. The end of the drawing still to be determined...
Circulations Festival Paris, France 2020
The exhibition that ought to have received 2000 people the opening day shrunk to the handful of artists that showed their work. Strange times but was a beautiful exhibition nevertheless.
