THE RED SOLITAIRE - PRIJEDOR

Video: HD, colour, stereo, 12’, 2021

Text: Darko Cvijetić
Concept / Directing / Camera: Adnan Softić
Video editing / Sound: Nina Softić
Sound mix: Daniel Dominguez Teurel 

Comissioned by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)

The "Red Solitaire" was built in 1975 in the small town of Prijedor in north-western Bosnia - still in the golden days of Yugoslavia. Before it became the solitaire of death, people celebrated the achievements and successes of the working class together and practised solidarity. Because teachers and doctors lived there next to miners, Bosniaks next to Serbs, Croats next to Roma, Jews ... - a phantasmatically condensed image of Yugoslavia and multicultural Bosnia. Together with the chimneys of the surrounding abandoned factories, the building today forms the backdrop of the Bosnian town of Prijedor - reminding us like tombs of how a unique world was defeated by nationalist terror.

Adnan Softić met the writer Darko Cvijetić, who is still living in the solitaire, witnessing these brutal changes. The work THE RED SOLITAIRE was created in close collaboration between them.