The photograph is showing the intentional burning of the field which is supposed to be mine one day, as a family inheritance. It is common in the Balkan region to burn crops and weeds on the fields after the autumn harvest, an annual (illegal) process to clear and fertilize the land for the next year, or at least many believe it to be so. With this work, I am asking what my responsibility is towards my heritage and inheritance in the situation of displacement. Our relationship to the landscape often speaks of a longing for the land we are familiar with, which was, or is ours, and has defined our sense of ourselves. On the other side, whilst being a controlled event, the series of photographs recall the tens of thousands of wildfires scorching the earth every year, a number expected to grow exponentially in decades to come.

Mila Panić (Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina) uses a range of media to redefine the existing narratives of diaspora and the perception of a better life. She holds a BFA from the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka, and an MFA from Bauhaus - Universität Weimar, department of Art in Public Space and New Artistic Strategies. Her work was exhibited at Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Kunsthaus Dresden, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, among others. She is an initiator of Fully Funded Residencies, an online resource for art residences, mobility funds, and grants. Currently, she lives and works in Berlin.