Ana Brankovic « Belonging is a Strange Feeling »

What does it mean to belong? How do memory, pop culture, and diaspora shape our identity? In Belonging is a Strange Feeling, multimedia artist Ana Brankovic explores these questions through photography, video, sound, and installation. Drawing from her own experience and the ex-Yugoslav diaspora, she reflects on the construction of identity, collective memory, and the aesthetics of pop culture.

Spread across three thematically distinct spaces, the exhibition combines personal and collective narratives, oscillating between nostalgia and futuristic reflection. Brankovic’s immersive, interdisciplinary approach invites audiences to reconsider dominant narratives around belonging, hybridity, and migration. Through autofictional strategies, documentary material, and AI-generated images, she opens up new visual languages between fiction and reality.

Referencing the aesthetics of the 1990s and today’s digital culture, the show speaks to broader audiences beyond the ex-Yugoslav context. It is especially relevant in light of growing debates around post-migrant identities and the renegotiation of cultural narratives.

Belonging is a Strange Feeling is part of Photoforum’s 2025 annual theme Reclaim the Narrative, which explores who shapes our stories and how images influence our understanding of the world.

Ana Brankovic (*1990) is a multimedia artist, cultural producer and creative director based in Basel. Her interdisciplinary practice combines music, video, photography, fashion, performance and installation to explore social and cultural issues. She is the founder of the platform “Wie wär’s mal “mit and has curated an experimental art space in a harbour container in Basel since 2021.