1942/1945 - Changed Streetnames in Amsterdam, in 1942 street names which were named after Social-Democrats, Jews and the (living) family members of the royal family were changed.
A work in progress, started in january 2010

This new project is based on the street names which were changed by the city council of Amsterdam on the 13th of february and the 14th of august in 1942. When Amsterdam was occupied by the Germans.
Street names which were named after Social-Democrats, Jews and the (living) family members of the Royal Family were changed.
After the war on the 18th of may the original street names were restored and changed back.
I'm researching who made these decisions and which names had to be changed and which new names appeared.
The project will lead to reconstructing a small part of history which, untill now, never had attention.
My next step is visiting the NIOD, the Dutch Institute on War Documentation, for old footage and more information and I'll be trying to find eye witnesses
who perhaps saw and experienced this physical change.

In november 2009 the project is given a grant byAmsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.

"Spoken Silence - Reminiscening Tito"
Masha Matijevic (1981)

In this exhibtion|intstalation I show in different sets of works how bannishing of the past takes place and what the consequences are.
As a little girl I became a Pioneer to become Tito’s Partizan later on. Tito fascinated me, I felt his impportance to the adults in my surrounding even though he had died in 1981. A couple of years after becoming a pioneer Tito dissapeared from public life, nobody talked about him anymore and all the images and statues were removed from the public domain.
This formed the base for my research, that conscists out of capturing the disapereance of Tito from the Croatian society and the following conscequences in image. The research leeds us to the past of Croatia, a country which was part of united Yugoslavia under Tito just a couple of decades ago.
The past 15 years, after the civil war in Yugoslavia, there is a social amnesia taking place in Croatia, a denial and removal of the past. ‘Reminiscing Tito’ contributes to the discussion that still has to take place in Croatia. Zooming in on the theme denial of history and the following mythology which is taking place in Croatia, I show that openness about the past is a essential building stone for the present.

Ruševine : a growing database of photographed ruins, videos and sound fragments from the former by war devestated areas of Croatia.
a work in progress I started in 2008

I'm constructing an archive collection of the modern ruines in the Croatian country side. The photos show the remains of houses which were abondoned during the last war by their owners. Traveling through the country along the Bosnian border and deeper into Croatian mainland I search for ruines and former villages. In order to make the photos I sometimes have to keep a safe distance due to the mines that are still scattered there. 
As the project grows I'm trying to make my archive bigger and more complete, with every trip I make the archive grows. As new monuments, the modern ruines, stand in the landscape waiting to deteriorate or to be renovated which is one of the EU demands for Croatia. 
The archive will be presented on a website so it will be vissible for everyone, even the old owners, who in some cases return to their homes after 19 years. The idea is based on the elimination of parts from our history, under preasure or naturally, which is happening all the time and is universal. This part of recent history, people are willing to forget. Documenting these houses and objects, will have a historical value and also the status of evidence of the things that have happened.
In december 2008 the Project is given a grant by Fonds BKVB.

The October War Panorama Museum, Cairo February 2009

The Museum describes a part of the recent history of Egypt. The October War was fought from October 6 to October 26 in 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel. The Egyptians and the Syrians advanced during the first 24 to 48 hours, after which momentum began to swing in Israel's favor. By the second week of the war the Israelis struck at the seam between two invading Egyptian armies, crossed the Suez Canal, and cut off the Egyptian Third Army just as a United Nations cease-fire came into effect.

The Egyptians believe in their victory of winning the October War, even though the Israëli army stood stronger at the moment of the cease-fire. The October War Museum describes the events before the outbrake of the war and the succesfull first 24 to 48 hours, the rest of the story isn’t mentioned. The Museum is surrounded by a garden filled with memorabilia from the war. In the building there is a large, round-shaped room, with a panoramic painting describing the war through the Egyptian eyes. The visitor sits on a moving platform in the middel of the room, and sees the whole painting in a 13 minute show with a voice-over and war sounds accompany the painting. Adults and children sit together while the image slowly passes by. Parents, brothers, sisters and teachers explain the younger children what they are looking at.

I tried to document the past presented in the October Panorama War Museum, and its meaning to Egyptians in general. The result is a work in progress, perhaps a short film in which the people who visit this museum are the actors in a spectacle; the nationalsitic propaganda of forging history. In my film and my pictures we see how this Egyptian ‘truth’ about the October War is presented to the younger Egyptian generation.

New generations are growing up with a distorted image of their past and older generations seem to be brain-washed. When a Egyptian gives answer to the question: ‘Who won the October War?’ he or she will answer with: ‘Egypt won ofcourse!’. Distorting and changing history also means changing an identity.

www.mashamatijeviccairo.blogspot.com

Images From Cairo, March 2009

I made this trip to Cairo, Egypt in march 2009. These images, I would like to call observations, reflect the atmosphere, the people and the city.

It was a very special experience being and working there.

www.mashamatijeviccairo.blogspot.com

1993 - Streets of Split, February 2009

In 1993 the citizens of Split received a list of recently changed streetnames from the city council. Old, socialist-themed street names were traded in for new Croatian centered (nationalist) ones. I photographed 90 streets scattered across the city. These pictures illustrate how new leaders attempt to change a nation's history.

Horse Along Highway, 2004

When I was a little girl my parents made long trips by car to Croatia.
During these endless hours of driving I would stare out of the car window and imagine a jockey and his horse riding along next to our car.
I made this daydream reality by manipulating the landscape pictures I made on a trip to Croatia and found images of jockeys on the internet.