Basics（2003），Photograph，75 × 2250px each，Courtesy of the artist

ŠejlaKamerić grew up experiencing the three-and-a-half year siege and shelling of Sarajevo, where people faced a shortage of basic life necessities such as electricity, food and water. This greatly determined her attitude, understanding and practice of art.

Basics presents a poetic and lyrical visual language of light and heat, bread and fertility, water and life taken together to form the basis of life for every individual. The heavy water-filled plastic containers carried by hand point to images depicting suffering during the war as well as the life-giving conditions for nourishment and agriculture. Likewise, the bread held by hands as image of nourishment also points to fertility, suggesting continuation of life despite horrors of war. The face of the artist with her eyes closed, upturned towards the light demonstrates both total devotion to light and enlightenment as well as the cruel memory of imprisonment. The artwork’s strong and dramatic message of loss and life bears potential for socio-cultural referentiality in a diverse context.