Rener throws spotlight on Ghana - Yugoslavia relations to reveal narratives which are largely

forgotten. Stories of students and professionals who came to Ljubljana in the early 60s as part of the

non-aligned programme of bilateral collaborations based on mutual respect and growth rather than

exploitation. Renner focused on Metoda’s story; one of the few women from Yugoslavia and only

Slovenian woman to stay and make a home in Ghana with her Ghanaian husband. This work charts

two women of different generations who try to make a home in Ghana with visual elements which

resonate from Ghana to their home in Slovenia including objects and memorabilia alluding to the

1980s and former years. An audio plays in the backdrop of this homely setting which tells of

Metoda’s unfortunate story of becoming alien in her own home Ghana, due to a misguided advice to

omit her Slovenian middle names from her passport of Yugoslavia, to make things smoother for a

people in a culture only used to Anglo-Saxon names. Like a ghost which comes back to hunt her, the

bank ceased to recognize her as the bearer of the name on her documents and thereof withholding

her pension. Renner’s work with Metoda resonates with our own journey of trying to find a niche we

call home in this torrid world; and bringing to bare how ghost of ties between nations, friends,

animosities, shared traits, failed and hopeful dreams like the non-aligned movement; and how the

super and the substructure, mottle us in a “Trouble In Paradise” to borrow one of Slavoj Zizek’s book

titles. Tjaša retreated that it’s necessary we do not forget these stories of the past because ‘one time

they were hope to find a common ground’. Echoes from this distant past seem far away till they hit

“a place we call home.”