'Coffee' and 'Desa' video work

"Situating herself at the centre of the unfolding drama, Kern filmed 'Coffee - Kafa' and 'Desa'. Her films draw the viewer into a microscopic world, a private space of female relationships marked by great intimacy and a familiar ease with the female body." Making Journeys catalogue, Djanogly Gallery, 2006.

'Coffee - Kafa' and 'Desa' video pieces were made possible by the Necessary Journeys travel bursary I was awarded by the Arts Council England and the British Film Institute in 2005. I spent a month recording a working life at my mother's one bedroom flat, where she runs a made to measure tailoring business. The footage recorded reflects a life inside this fashion conscious, and somewhat out of place flat, removed from the daily realities of living in Bosnia. It reflects on the intimate nature of the conversations between women while getting their clothes made, and on the slippage between the private space of home and the public space of work. Here both those spaces converge to create a curious theatre of fashion, gossip, glamour, friendship, politics and coffee.

The whole body of work is titled 'Radionica - Work Shop' and to read more about it please click here and to see Necessary Journeys showcase please visit www.artscouncil.org.uk/nj/showcase.shtml

To read an excerpt from an interview by Rohini Malik Okon please click HERE.

Necessary Journeys Artists' Blog (Dinu Li, Trevor Woolery, Fernando Arias, Oreet Ashery, Ralph Hoyte, Jiva Parthipan & Margareta Kern) www.necessaryjourney.blogspot.com

This body of work has been made as part of an internationaI travel bursary received from the Arts Council England and the British Film Institute. This formed a part of the 'Necessary Journeys' initiative, which culminated in a two day symposia at the Tate Modern, on the 11th and 12th November 2005.

Necessary Journeys is a decibel and the Visual Arts department of Arts Council England programme of arts initiatives that takes its cue from the British Film Institute's Black World project and seeks to explore the diverse ways in which the arts connect with film. The title is borrowed from an article by Caryl Phillips, in The Guardian.