Irena Haiduk: Seductive Exacting Realism

A 13-volume set of Marcel Proust’s collected works was published in Yugoslavia in 1967. This edition, in the Latin alphabet, was highly valued by Yugoslav intelligentsia for its elegant translation from French by the poet Tin Ujević. During the Bosnian civil war, these Proust sets fetched up to the equivalent of a full year’s salary in the Belgrade black markets. They were frequently looted together with other valuables from Bosnian homes.

The set exhibited in Irena Haiduk's Seductive Exacting Realism was seized by local police from Belgrade Kalenić Market in 1995. It was acquired at a public auction in 2014. It is missing volume number 12.

This book is published in conjunction with Irena Haiduk, Seductive Exacting Realism, a two-part project that was presented as parallel exhibitions at the Renaissance Society and the 14th Istanbul Biennial in autumn 2015. It includes contributions by Ivo Andrić, Hannah Feldman, Irena Haiduk, Monika Szewczyk, Marina Vishmidt, and Solveig Øvstebø.

Published by Sternberg Press and the Renaissance Society, 2017, clothbound hardcover, 168 pages, 8.75 x 6.5 inches.