'Embraces' by Safet Zec in Venice: Exhibition Opened by Mayor Abdulah Skaka

(Patria) - The exhibition of the major art cycle “Embraces” by maestro Safet Zec was opened today in Venice, at the very beginning of the Venice Biennale, in the premises of the church Santa Maria della Pieta. A delegation from the City of Sarajevo, led by the Mayor of Sarajevo, Abdulah Skaka, attended this significant cultural event, which for the first time on the world art scene presented a work inspired by and dedicated to the tragic death of Admira Ismić and Boško Brkić, the Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo.

Mayor Skaka, at the opening of the exhibition today, said that Sarajevo has a special relationship with Safet Zec, who constantly speaks about us. His love, placed above death, ranks him among the greats who describe our city and its people. Mayor Skaka thanked the Italian Administration of the City of Venice, which was present at the opening, with the wish that the Embrace finds its final refuge in Sarajevo, as a witness to the times and to the artist who lives deeply within himself daily, nurturing a feeling that places our city among great cities, where diversity intertwines and life examples are founded, especially important in today's world for everyone.

“At least three builders of positivity participate in this pictorial expression. One builder is the young couple who died so that their death could be incorporated into an eternal symbol of love. The second builder is the painter Safet Zec, who immortalizes this sacrifice that grew into a symbol with his masterful work. The third builder is the City of Sarajevo, in which the sacrifice also grew into a symbol, the City to which Safet Zec also belongs, the City that defended the greatest values of the world before a planetary audience, a world that was not very attached to those values. The embrace is the best tool Eros has at his disposal in the fight against Thanatos's destruction,” stated Dr. Esad Duraković, among other things, in his introduction to Safet Zec's work.

Safet Zec greeted all the guests, thanked his friends from Sarajevo in particular, and then left us to our thoughts and the paintings.

- Now, the opus “Embraces”, which I started working on in the nineties, is completed with the embrace of Boško and Admira, but those embraced bodies lying in besieged Sarajevo could be anyone's. We still have a problem with the truth that we have to explain, to talk about it through various forms and through art. Almost 30 years later, the world does not understand that madness, who Boško is, who Admira is, and why they are mixed. In an artistic sense, this is very significant for Sarajevo and for BiH, because it is happening at the beginning of the Venice Biennale – said maestro Zec on this occasion.

Sarajevo soprano Aida Čorbadžić masterfully performed two sevdalinka songs at the end of this significant cultural event.