Hotel Yugoslavia
13/1/24
Nikola Jokanovic
Hotel Yugoslavia forms a detailed portrait of Balkan and post-Yugoslav cultures, lifestyles, and identities, all through the lens of Nikola’s family - their diverse lives and perspectives lending both a window into the past and a uniquely intimate lens through which to view the present.
Hotel Yugoslavia is a photobook and debut solo exhibition by Nikola Jokanovic, an Awabakal-based photographer and filmmaker.
From May to September 2023, Nikola travelled across the former-Yugoslav region, staying with family along the way. The work highlights and explores various fractures – between life in Australia and the lives of his family in East Europe; between the region’s former dream of unity and today’s tense expressions of nationalistic identities; between the sheen of modern-day tourism and a very recently bloody history.
The images in the photobook range from humorous and intimate, through to stark reminders of the region’s historical and ongoing agitations. Hotel Yugoslavia forms a detailed portrait of Balkan and post-Yugoslav cultures, lifestyles and identities, all through the lens of Nikola’s family.