Young artist from Sarajevo, Damir Prljača will participate on the exhibition opening of Otis Street Arts Project gallery in Washington, DC on September 9, on the topic Body Language. His photographs shows Merima Dervović, a student of the Italian language at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo, a girl that is  chained to a wheelchair because of the disease diagnosed in her childhood.

- My dear Damir and I decided to make a series of photographs to show the power of a woman's body that is not in the list of beautiful ones at all, so it raises the question of how to feel beautiful in the body that is outside of framework of the imposed ideal of beauty? – Merima told Start BiH. She said that she could easily become only a figure in statistics or a story that is almost always described as sad.

"In spite of that, I want this to be a different story," Merima says.

We found the Damir in Luxembourg where he is currently preparing a new project. The exhibition in Washington was organized with the aim of intellectual / cultural exchange of artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the United States, who gathered around the Body Language theme. Damir also invited the curator of this year's Belgrade Salon, Ana Simona, to take part in, also, a group exhibition, two days after the one in Washington. The theme of the salon, which will be held in the large gallery of the cultural center Grad, is queer art, where, according to Damir, Merima's photographs are perfectly fits because they examine the body experience and the concept of a beautiful general.

- Exhibitions always have a catalog, and my work in the catalogs for these exhibitions is described as follows: "We are taught to watch the body as a shield made up of social constructs. This concept can  shows people with its differences, and is especially harmful for marginalized groups That's why I deconstruct that shield, and without it, we become vulnerable, creating a tension through which people are celebrated for being different, beautiful, sacred, and sexual. I decontaminate the fear of the unknown, questioning unwritten rules and attitudes towards those who are different. "- Damir told us.

He completed his studies of Visual Arts in Sarajevo. In his work he uses film, photography and all forms of visual communications to discuss marginalized groups, imposed by norms and methods of resistance. So far, he has exhibited at festivals and exhibitions in Sarajevo, Hague, Istanbul, Portugal, Miami and Washington D.C.

One of Merima's photos is on the promotional poster of the exhibition in Washington DC.