This morning I visited Bosiljka, whose contact I got from Duga (women’s organisation). Bosiljka and her husband came to Banja Luka in 1995 from Sanski Most as refugees, and lived with their son until they saved enough money to purchase the land and build a house. I thought they received some assistance from the government maybe through an EU or the Worldbank scheme, but they told me that they didn’t receive any assistance from the government. Bosiljka also told me that the first thing she packed as she was leaving Sanski Most was her clothes for death. She was very open and direct about her clothes, showing it to her granddaughters that were also present there. In her death attire she had quite a few hand-embroidered sheets, including the one made by Duga under her instructions. This sheet is called ‘pokrov’ and is usually placed on the top of the casket. She also had the same pillow I keep seeing, purchased in either in Germany or Austria, which seems to be an object often bought by the ‘gastarbeiter’ or the ‘guest-workers’ as they are known in those countries (seeds of another project as I am more and more intrigued by the guest workers aesthetics and value system as it is taken from the German/Austrian/Swiss society, adopted and transformed into the guest workers home environment…I interviewed my grandparents a bit about their experience of working in Germany from the 1970’s until 1990…fascinating stuff and room for more exploration…)
