Living on a Border: Migration of Subversion International Conference (Ljubljana, SRC SASA, 22 Nov 2008) and Working Meeting (Ljubljana, 21-23 Nov 2008)
Participants: Lev Kreft (SI), Lana Zdravković/Nenad Jelesijević – Kitch (SI), Damir Nikšić (BA/SE), Suzana Milevska (MK), Vladan Jeremić/Rena Raedle (RS), Erden Kosova (TR), Flaka Haliti (Kosovo/DE), Zhivka Valiavicharska (BG), Hristina Ivanoska (MK) and Antea Arizanović (RS/SI).
Realised in cooperation with the Peace Institute - Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, Ljubljana. Expert advisory by Suzana Milevska, PhD, theorist and curator of visual art and culture, Skopje, and Lev Kreft, PhD, professor of aesthetics and director of the Peace Institute, Ljubljana.
Supported by Open Society Institute East East: Partnership Beyond Borders Program
Special thanks to Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Living on a Border on web is hosted by Domenca
LIVING ON A BORDER: MIGRATION OF SUBVERSION
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Ljubljana, 22 November 2008, SRC SASA, Novi trg 4, 2nd floor
10.00-10.40
Lev Kreft (SI): Another Version of Subversion
10.40-11.20
Lana Zdravković/Nenad Jelesijević/KITCH (SI): Mutations of Borders in the Time of Permanent Waiting
11.20-12.00
Damir Nikšić (BA/SE): Fourth World Identity and the European "Nation of Islam"
12.00-12.30 break
12.30-13.10
Suzana Milevska (MK): "Not Quite Bare Life"
13.10-13.50
Vladan Jeremić/Rena Raedle (RS): "We don't have anything against the Roma"
13.50-14.30
Erden Kosova (TR): Double Trouble
14.30-15.10
Flaka Haliti (Kosovo/DE): Our Death, Others' Dinner
15.10-17.00 break
17.00-17.40
Zhivka Valiavicharska (BG/US): Socialist Subjects, Post-socialist Cultural Conditions
and Neoliberal Development in Bulgaria
17.40-18.20
Hristina Ivanoska (MK): In a Time of Danger: Personal Notes on Survival
18.20-19.00
Antea Arizanović (RS/SI): Looking for a New Identity
19.00
Stone Soup, performance-dinner by Hristina Ivanoska
MIGRATION OF SUBVERSION
An Introduction to the Living on a Border / Migration of Subversion International Conference
Without a doubt, art and politics have an enduring relationship that includes specific transfers in both directions, from art to politics and vice versa, whether in the name of subversion or not. These transfers, of course, have only been possible because of the separate positions of the two fields in the dominant discourse of social sciences. But their stitch in its very political effect could be as much destructive as emancipatory (from nazi-art to rather rare examples of critical art). Hereby, we take into account that only critical art has the emancipatory capacity of subversiveness, therefore its migration toward politics is an expected process.
The migration of subversion - as a metaphor - is, however, a paradigm of emancipatory art practices. Much different than the historical avant-gardes that, in fact, continued to address the very art/social system as a monolithic structure - while still being a part of it - contemporary subversive art practices are mobile and chameleonic in their roots. This new quality of mobility of artists and their artworks - a position quite similar to the free-market's unlimited circulation of goods - has opened some new opportunities for subversive art practices to migrate into the System (whether intending to change it or parasite on it), or, more importantly, to act outside of the System, having it as a reference and no longer as a fixation, as was the case of past experiments toward revolution.
The highly specialized fields of art and politics still maintain their own mainstreamed fortifications enhanced in modernity and onwards, even when treated in a joint discourse of aesthetics; beyond a doubt, a single-layered treatment of an issue, that is, separated within the fields of art and politics, supported by the academic discourse of power, is not a way to think the discourse of subversion. For that reason, this conference puts together politics and art - in co-relation with philosophy - to mutually rethink the condition of ‘living on a border' as a paradigmatic situation of subversive art to date.
Endeavouring emancipation, art should ultimately be hybridized with politics, even if the price of this bond is, putting it radically, the vanishing of art. However, our intention is not to hybridize these fields, as they are too ‘autonomous' to be mixed together, but to manage a hybridized event on the topic. Should this event perform an emancipatory potential, of course, depends upon its protagonists. We believe that it is on a good course towards doing so.
KITCH
ABSTRACTS and CVs of the participants
Another Version of Subversion
1. Why do metaphors of military origin persistently cross into the field of art? From Baudelaire, who was probably the first to mention this belligerent attitude of art in modernity, through avant-garde and neo-avant-garde movements, up to now, when we discuss the subversive powers of art, we are dealing with a continuity of the war-like understanding of art’s mission. Can we conceptualize subversion as something different from the means of war?
2. What kind of metaphor is ‘subversion’, if we take into account both its linguistic origin and its theoretical position in military arts? More than 50 years ago, ‘revolution’ and ‘subversion’ were both used frequently, but ‘subversion’ was just part of applicative art. Now, when nobody uses ‘revolution’ any more, at least not for his or her own activism, ‘subversion’ comes as a kind of subverted “revolution”, to fill the gap of great expectations lost.
3. If subversion is not just a matter of pure rhetorical gesture (and there is an abundance of pure rhetoric gestures in contemporary art), what is it that turns art and the aesthetic into means of subversion? There were many different answers on that during the last 200 years, from lartpourlartism to historical avant-gardes, from neo-avant-gardes to contemporary art. After the cultural turn and post-modern relativism, can we begin to speak again of the ambiguous subversiveness of art and the aesthetic?
4. From the point of view of subversion, it does matter if you are in the artistic mainstream or on the margin. But, does art have any margins at all, considering that it is so difficult to distinguish it from other aspects of culture? And how is it possible to subvert anything if you have no grip on its edge? Is margin still a stable position, or a kind of permanent migration from one aspect of culture to another? It seems that migration from art and the aesthetics to human sciences and to politics, and back and again, and so on and on, is becoming a kind of subversion.
Lev Kreft (1951), director of the Peace Institute – Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies. Professor of Aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts (University of Ljubljana), member of the Department for Philosophy of Sport at the Faculty of Sport (University of Ljubljana), teaches aesthetics for philosophers, art historians and designers. Ph.D. in philosophy (1988) – “Struggle on the Artistic Left”. Member of the Slovenian Parliament (1990-96), Deputy Speaker of the Slovenian Parliament (1992-96). Publishes books and articles about aesthetics, national cultural studies, the philosophy of culture and the philosophy of sport. Member of the editorial board of the Slovenian journals Borec (The Fighter) and Ars & Humanitas as well as of the journal Sport, Ethics and Philosophy (Routledge), the official journal of the British Philosophy of Sport Association.
Married – wife Vesna, two daughters – Ina and Ivana, and grandson Elian.
Mutations of Borders in the Time of Permanent Waiting
The figure of the migrant has become a great illustration of the paradoxes of the current social crisis. The migration process has become a paradigm of the permanent situation of radical inequality. It opens a multilevel debate on the very notion of citizenship; the key question is, however, what is the foundation of a democratic nation-state – the individual or the citizen? The issue of national citizenship should be reconsidered, as well as the question of the new political subject. The relation between (national) identities and citizen’s rights is a crucial question of political philosophy today.
When Balibar speaks about ‘trans-national citizenship’ he thinks of it as a ‘citizenship of borders’. As there is no predominant centre of power anymore, the borders of socio-political entities have consequently dispersed a little everywhere, that is, wherever the movement of information, people and goods takes place and is controlled. Although some physical borders have vanished, other kinds of borders have actually strengthened. We agree with Balibar’s claim that anyone should be able to be a citizen – it is enough that s/he is an individual. Arguing strongly, with Rancière, that disidentification is an urgent condition for political subjectivisation, our project Living on a Border rethinks the ways to step beyond national exclusivity by opening a new understanding of the concept of equality: toward emancipatory politics. Social and political sciences are not enough – the paradoxes of representation of ‘identity’ and ‘rights’ can be confronted only through performative actions.
In order to cross the border between theory/politics/public space and art, we have produced an object to serve as a mobile space for such an aim. Constructed from a ready-made cargo container, the installation Permanent Waiting Room symbolizes the trend of global capitalism, where the borders are open for capital but closed for people, and the permanent waiting of migrants: for status, at border crossings, for better living conditions. At the same time, while put in a city’s public space, it is a venue for discussion and presentation of multimedia artworks that deal with the migrant issue in documentary, performative and theoretical ways. It is essential that the installation takes place in an autonomous location, apart from the hierarchy of the dominant Art System. Endeavoring to overcome the hegemony of borders – on the level of the event – by showing their very reality in a condensed form, the installation hopes to subvert the global-border-reality-show of today.
Lana Zdravković is a publicist, researcher, political activist and artist; a PhD student in political philosophy at the University of Nova Gorica / SRC SASA, Ljubljana. Fields of theoretical interest: national identity, citizenship, migrations, radical equality, political engagement, emancipatory praxes. She works as an assistant researcher at the Peace Institute – Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, Ljubljana; a performer of the tandem KITCH; co-founder of the Institute of Art Production and Research KITCH, Ljubljana. Fields of artistic interest: economization of art, political performance, pornography /art, kitsch/trash art.
Nenad Jelesijević is a critic of contemporary art and culture and a multimedia artist branded as KITCH; co-founder of the Institute KITCH. MA in new media (2004) with the thesis “Art is a Merchandise Article”, published in 2005. A PhD candidate in philosophy and theory of visual culture at the Faculty of Humanities Koper, with the main field of research interest: the relation between the critical artwork and symbolic capital; also deals with topics of public space and the Art System. He has published more than 90 articles on contemporary art, architecture, urbanism, design, film and multimedia in journals for culture/theory and Slovene daily newspapers.
Fourth World Identity and the European “Nation of Islam”
In my presentation I will use three of my video works to illustrate various issues related to this topic. “The Immigrant Song” (10’28”) deals with the im/possibility of free will, free choice, and freedom of movement or mobility rights of both an individual and a group of people. “Anatomy of Exodus” (00’21”) is a short looped video about 200 years of exodus of Muslims in the Western Balkans, while “Let My People Be” (02’27”) is about the fundamental human right of self-defense.
The Bosniak nation has two different identities and there are two different causes for this division. One is related to the very name of this ‘young’ nation which used to dominate the territory and history of the region for centuries before the creation of the so-called, ‘Slavic South’. In the 1960s, the Bosniak people were not self-determined but rather defined by the Communist party and the federal government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. They became “Muslims by nationality”. This came in handy for Yugoslav relations with Arab countries in the context of the Non-Aligned movement being the only European state member. During the first and, by now, the only Bosniak Congress held in besieged Sarajevo in 1993, it was decided to use the historical and more secular name Bosniak, rather than Muslim, to denominate nationality. This act divided the nation into the still existing ‘Muslims by nationality’ in Serbia and Montenegro, and Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sanjak. Another division came during the war. The nation was divided by force into two different groups. One group with an identity based on war, on fighting, on resistance, on patriotism, on self-defense (“Let My People Be”), on the idea of the Unitarian state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other group – comprised of refugees who lived or are still living in the foreign states abroad, among other nations, surrounded by other cultures – romanticizes the homeland and the old country but has become more aware of its cultural identity, of those elements carried abroad, such as language, religion, customs, tradition. This is an identity developed by immigrants, by the diaspora all around the world; it is the refugee identity, the identity of exodus, of genocide, of suffering civilians. (“Anatomy of Exodus”)
Again, there is a division within this group as well. Some of them consider themselves Muslims, just like other Muslim immigrants from other Muslim countries, some of them have become pan-Islamic nationalists, ummetists, while others are just proud Bosnian patriots or Bosniak nationalists. The relation between the diaspora and people at home is also very complex. Although they find pride in being in the war, most of the veterans would like to leave Bosnia for economic reasons, while those refugees from the diaspora who want to return, to invest in Bosnia, are, in most cases, no longer welcome by the locals.
Damir Nikšić was born in 1970 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Studied at Brera, Milan, Academy of Fine Arts, Bologna and Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo. In 2003, exhibited at the 50th Venice Biennial, International section Interludes curated by Francesco Bonami. In 2004, graduated Art History and Fine Art (New Genre) at the University of Arizona, Tucson. In the Academic year 2005-06 worked as visiting professor at the Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. Currently lives and works in Stockholm. His selected exhibitions are: 2008: “Obscurum per obscurius”, Tallin; 2007: “System Error: War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning”, Palazzo Papesse Centre for Contemporary Art, Siena; 2006: “Eastern Neighbors”, Babel Center, Utrecht; 2005: “Mediterraneo”, Fortezza della Brunella; 2004: “Robinson. Geografie Naturali e dell'Umano”, Trevi Flash Art Museum; “Mediterraneans”, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rome; “Blood and Honey”, Vienna.
“Not Quite Bare Life”
The controversial story of “Šutka Book of Records” – a semi-documentary on the Roma Municipality in Skopje
In my presentation I want to tackle the ambiguity of the politics of visual representation which, when handled imprecisely, can cause unexpected severe disruptions in contemporary democratic policies, justice and (public) right. This is especially the case within the sensitive multicultural environment of the Balkans where the intersection of different interests and heritages adds to the confusion already entailed in the issue of representation.
My presentation is a case study intended to offer a multifaceted critical interpretation of the way in which Roma peoples’ lives have been depicted in the semi-documentary film “Šutka Book of Records” (2006) by Aleksandar Manić. I will focus shortly on the documentary and I will mostly reflect on the audience’s reaction after the film launch in Skopje. I want to extrapolate this unexpected event of outburst of discontent from various perspectives by giving both the arguments of the film director and the protestors.
Prompted by the unique ‘performance’ demonstrating the revolt of the Roma people from the Skopje Municipality of Šutka against the way in which their community was represented in the film, I embark on a discussion referring to Giorgio Agamben’s arguments about the conditions that allow a ‘state of exception’ and ‘camp’. Using the context of the extreme situation in Šutka, I will extrapolate such problematic structures that go beyond the basic living standards of our contemporary societies, I will also consider the relation between sovereignty, ‘bio-power’ and the prolongation of the state of exemption from the rule after the single moment of proclamation of ‘state of exception’ which turns the cities or parts of the cities into ‘zones of indistinction’. The emphasis will be put on the blurred and distorted distinction between life, ‘bare life’ and death in such contexts: the confusion between zoe and bios by which a person is seen to be just an animal.
Finally, in the last section of the presentation I want to instigate a discussion on the ethical responsibility of the artists when their works have been misunderstood as a result of the ambiguity of the visual representation.
Suzana Milevska (1961) is a theorist and curator of visual art and culture based in Skopje. She currently teaches Art History and Analysis of Styles at the Accademia Italiana in Skopje. From 2006 to 2008, she was the Director of the Center for Visual and Cultural Research at the Euro-Balkan Institute in Humanities and Social Sciences in Skopje where she taught the M.A. course in Gender Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths College in London where she taught from 2003 to 2005. In 2004, she was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar hosted by the Library of Congress. Her research and curatorial interests include the postcolonial critique of hegemonic power, gender theory, feminist art, politically and socially engaged art. In 2005, she curated The Workers’ Club, an exhibition and conference at the International Contemporary Art Biennial at the National Gallery in Prague. Her recent publications include: “Resistance That Cannot Be Recognised as Such – Interview with Gayatri C. Spivak,” Conversations with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (London: Seagull Books, 2007); “Is Balkan Art History Global?” in Is Art History Global?, ed. James Elkins (New York: Routledge, 2006); “Macedonian Art Stories,” in East Art Map, ed. Irwin (London: Afterall, 2006).
“We don’t have anything against the Roma”
These days, residents of Ovča, a settlement at the periphery of Belgrade, are trying to block the beginning of the construction of a Roma settlement in their part of the city. “We don’t have anything against Roma. We would act the same way if any other national minority would settle down in Ovča. The problem lies in the fact that the resettlement of 130 Roma families would significantly change the national composition of the population. This will have catastrophic effects on our tradition and way of life,” explains a member of the resident’s opposition committee of Ovča, himself belonging to the Romanian national minority.
The Roma families that are to be resettled are the families living in cardboard huts under the Bridge Gazela, in the center of Belgrade, many of them refugees from Kosovo. We met the people living under the bridge for the first time during the gathering of artists and activists “Under the Bridge Beograd,” which we organized in December 2004. Several artists have since worked under the bridge, doing reports or artistic interventions. Still, the main reason for the resettlement/expulsion is not the miserable living conditions in the settlement or its notoriety, but the urgent reconstruction of the bridge. Since then, we’ve been tracing the destiny of Roma in Serbia. Doing workshops with children from guest workers and refugees and with young ‘returnees’ deported from Western Europe, we have gotten to know lots of different life stories.
The Roma have a long history of being migrants and as such have been exposed to repression for centuries. The European states have issued laws against traveling people since the mid 15th century. Migrants were and are perceived as something disturbing, even threatening; they are considered as an attack on the security of the settled, old-established population. Without registered identity, many Roma are completely excluded from the society of citizens whose territory they live on. Being constantly removed and resettled they are migrants even within the borders of one country.
Besides accusations, disappointment and misunderstanding in the relation between the majority population and Roma, we witness deep contempt for Roma that, in our view, is not only rooted in ethnic and cultural racism or antiziganism. Poverty and nomadism are threatening to those who live in a social system based on the accumulation of wealth and territorial property. Over centuries, Western politics has tried to either include the poor into social welfare programs or to get rid of them: by expulsion or death. Roma represent an ethnic class of extreme poor that pose an obstacle to national or European integration. It seems to be the border between wealth and extreme poverty that defines the relation between Roma and non-Roma in the first place.
The Belgrade-based artists Rena Rädle and Vladan Jeremić have been working together since 2002 and are active in various projects dealing with art and social activism. Rena Rädle graduated with a degree in visual communication and acquired a qualification in conflict transformation. She critically researches intersocial and intercultural relations using video, photography and text. She develops platforms and interfaces for exchange and communication, since 2004 she has been working with Biro za kulturu i komunikaciju Belgrade. Vladan Jeremić is a painter, hacktivist and keen observer of the art system and the relations between culture and politics. He organizes various projects related to art and anarchism, free culture and social activism.
Double Trouble
In the last couple of years what has previously been considered the political and cultural leftfield has experienced a double split which has amounted to irreparable divisions and resentment. First, a considerable portion of the intelligentsia and the (potential) voters of parties that have been formerly defined as social-democrat or the democratic left have shifted to a secular and statist version of nationalism. After the tragic assassination of Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink it looked like that there was a coherently harmonized left-bloc that resisted this nationalist shift. Yet, recently this harmony has collapsed and two sides have emerged which have been pejoratively defined by opposing sides as ‘the leftist liberalism’ and ‘the orthodox socialism’. The contemporary art scene, which has exemplified an observable pursuit of political engagement but has recently been exposed to a process of gentrification by the hands of newly emerged institutions backed by corporate capital and bourgeoisie is now being associated with this left-liberalism. Demonizations through labels as ‘Europeanism’ and ‘Soros-ism’ are directly targeting the field of contemporary art. The critical segments of the scene now have the double task of retaining the political character of production and formulating a criticality in relation to the recent wave of institutionalization.
Erden Kosova is an art critic based in Istanbul. He has contributed to the contemporary art magazine art-ist as an editor and writer. His book on contemporary art from Turkey (co-written with Vasif Kortun), “Abseits aber Tor!” was published by Jahresring/Walther Koenig in 2004. He is currently working on a monographic book on the works of Aydan Murtezaoglu to be published by Yapi Kredi. Kosova teaches at the Department of Communication Design at Kadir Has University, Istanbul.
Our Death, Others’ Dinner
The saying ‘Our death, others’ dinner’ sounds just like a phrase, but it is much more than that. For centuries, when someone dies in an Albanian family, the relatives of the deceased family bring food they have prepared in their homes to help deal with the pain caused by the loss and share the grief of the bereaved. In this work, quite the opposite connotation is used. The title is used for an artistic creation with a totally different concept in order to reach an altogether new dimension. My questions both for the work itself as well as for this presentation are: ‘Should the victim be victimized for the second time if one has become a concept for an artistic creation?’ How fair is that?! What is the reason that makes an artist delve into such matters? Are the intentions to honor the victim and relatives, and by doing so, give them more importance, always positive or do they unconsciously lead towards victimizing the deceased person for the second time and offending the relatives of the victim by commercializing their pain and sorrow?! In this case the saying ‘Our death, others’ dinner’ is used as a metaphor, and it shows the artist as one who makes the dinner to alleviate the misfortune of the other.
As a conclusion, regarding the question ‘Should the victim be victimized for the second time if one has become a concept for an artistic creation?’ a video of the group Jericho and their song ‘When is the Song Going to Stop’ is used. This video is dedicated to Kosovo war victims missing since 1998. I have made another video which initiates a debate among the victims, where you can see their reactions and the attitude they have towards Jericho’s song.
Flaka Haliti was born in 1982 in Pristina, Kosovo. Is currently based in Frankfurt/Main where she attends the class of Judith Hopf at Staedelshcule. Graduated in 2005 from the Academy of Arts Printing Department, Pristina University. Since 2007 has been teaching Aesthetics of Space at Pristina University. In 2005 she contributed with radio reports and photos to the residency project Belgrade Correspondent in organization and production of Rex Cultural Centre/B92. In the same year she participated in the project Academy Remix - Städelschule, Frankfurt meets Missing Identity, EXIT Pristina program/exhibition in Porticus Frankfurt and National Museum in Pristina, and international symposium in Gallery Porticus Frankfurt. She works as a conceptual and critical artist, directly touching very socially relevant issues by using video, audio, performance, installation, etc. During the last few years she intensively participated in exhibition projects organized in various art spaces and galleries such as Porticus, Frankfurt; REX & B92, Belgrade; Sparwasser, Berlin; Exodus Onstage Festival; Station, Pristina; NoD Gallery, Prague, Brussel Biennial 2008-2009. Her most recent personal exhibition “Balls! Balls! Balls!” took place in 2008 in the Station - Center for Contemporary Art in Pristina, curated by Albert Heta.
Socialist Subjects, Post-socialist Cultural Conditions, and Neoliberal Development in Bulgaria
In June 2008, a new documentary film “Space for Art” was screened at the Red House Center for Culture and Debate in Sofia, followed by a heated discussion for which key figures from the city municipality and the Ministry of Culture were invited. The film was produced by a new informal and loosely defined association of independent cultural organizations, Familia, initiated by the Cult.bg Foundation. The association emerged to collectively voice concerns about the pressing need for spaces, infrastrucutre, and the tangible lack of resources supporting the contemporary arts. It meant to informally ‘unionize’ the interests of the various independent organizations, run by separate groups of artists on scarce finances and with very uncertain futures, around a common public concern: to claim more visibility, to make a case for the importance of their existence for the cultural life of the capital, and to demand more serious attitudes and continuous support for their institutional survival. Considering the separatist moods and disconnected activities dominating the contemporary art scene in Sofia for much of the last two decades, this collective endeavor opens a stage where collective artistic efforts can formulate a politically meaningful position within their specific context. This paper will examine the assumptions of the claims in this documentary: assuming that the infrastructure is politically neutral and provides sufficient conditions for the development of ‘contemporary culture,’ what kind of politics does such a position endorse? Further, I will inquire why the addressees of these demands appear to be, self-evidently, municipal and state cultural bodies. Finally, I will attempt to identify a collective subjectivity of artists who, while conditioned by former socialist structures of cultural life, nevertheless participate in the neoliberal turn that cultural development in the country has taken.
Zhivka Valiavicharska studied art history and visual studies at the Academy of Arts in Sofia and the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. She was a Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, in 2003. Currently she is doing her PhD and teaching at the Department of Rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley. Her areas of work include modern political philosophy and social theory, postcolonial studies, the histories of Marxist thought, and theories of the subject. Her current projects focus on cultural policy and neoliberal governance in post-socialist Southeastern Europe, and on notions of socialist subjectivity in early 20th century political thought.
In a Time of Danger: Personal Notes on Survival
In her presentation Hristina Ivanoska will focus on projects that were developed as a reaction to actual political and social circumstances that have occurred in Macedonia or in the bordering region.
The evermore noticeable nomadic imprint of our society has influenced the development of the project “Homelessness as Home”. The project focuses on the contemporary refugee motivated by the need to question civic freedoms and our capacity for survival, the desire to escape in a time of danger vs. the need to confront the reality that surrounds us. In 2001, Ivanoska developed a series of drawings as alternative conceptualizations on the conditions of ‘homed’ and ‘homeless.’ The visual and narrative language is adopted from press and media images and stories, and the adaptability of contemporary fashion and design in the context of ‘sculpting’ a social meaning. These works started to manifest themselves after the experiences with the social and ethnic unrest in the former Yugoslavia, as well as the refugee camps that saw many people placed in impossible situations where the context of home and intimacy, democracy and justice were brutally denied.
The war in Yugoslavia and the Macedonian conflict from 2001 considerably divided the city of Skopje in two parts. Today the majority of the Macedonian Orthodox Christian population lives on the south side of the river Vardar, while the Albanian Turkish Muslim population lives on the north side. Ivanoska’s last video work “Naming the Bridge: Rosa Plaveva and Nakie Bajram” focuses on the first women who protested against the veil in Macedonia: the Macedonian Rosa Plaveva and the Turk Nakie Bajram. This is an ongoing research project concerning Ivanoska’s proposal to the local authorities in Skopje about the naming of the newly built bridge in the centre of the town after the two women who protested there together. Ivanoska’s concept clearly points to the urgent need to re-establish the silenced communication between the two divided parts of the city. The project is a rare example of an individual initiative that looks at the issue of veil with a sensitivity unburdened by the conflicts of the past; an attempt to build a bridge between the different stances towards the veil in conflicting intellectual and cultural camps.
Hristina Ivanoska (1974) is building her artistic practice by finding ways of individual action against the established roles and norms defined by the conventional social and political systems. Recently her solo exhibition “Freedom is always and only freedom for those who think differently” was presented at the Konsthall C, Stockholm (2008). Ivanoska has exhibited at Magazin4 - Bregenzer Kunstverein (2008), Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (2007), Foundation for Women’s Art, London (2006), Spaces Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio (2005), State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessalonica (2004), and other venues. She has been an artist-in-residence at IASPIS, Stockholm (2008), ArtsLink Residency Program, New York (2004), the Corporation of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York (2001), and Stiftung Künstlerhaus Boswil, Switzerland (1998). Since 2000, Ivanoska has been collaborating with the artist Yane Calovski. Their latest collaboration, “Oskar Hansen’s Museum of Modern Art,” was exhibited in Zak/Branicka Gallery, Berlin (2008). Together they are running “press to exit project space” in Skopje.
Looking for a New Identity
People lose their identity in many ways. I lost my national identity in 1991. Since then I have been looking for a new one through my work as an artist. In my art, I am questioning identity and looking for one … or maybe more than one … I have searched for personal, family, sexual, political and historical identities. In each work I ask a new question or look for a new option for identity, a way of working which brings me to many different fields. From the loss of my ‘national’ identity, which seemed so important at one moment of my life, I have found many new ones. Every new project gives me and others options for new choices.
Most recently my work has been about people who were erased from the registry of citizens permanently residing in Slovenia in 1992. They call themselves the Erased. They lost their identity and all human rights. And today, 16 years later, they are still looking for basic rights. My interest wasn’t just in the Erased and their problem. I was interested in the opinion of society and wanted to understand why the problem of 18.305 Erased people still hasn’t been resolved. I conducted an opinion poll on my classmates from secondary school. I asked them very briefly what they thought about the Erased and the erasure.
The second choice that I see is to change identity. In the 1990s and early 2000s the political system in the entire former Eastern bloc changed. In the time of transition, as we moved from one ideology to another, we had to get used to a new identity under the capitalist system. In one project, I made a special drink to help people get used to their new identity as soon as possible.
The position of women has also changed in the last 30 years and has formed so many new identities. In the past, the patriarchal society forced us to have only one defined identity. Now we have so many options. But still the question remains: ‘Is woman today still an object?’ and ‘Is it that her choice?’ Those are questions that I find interesting and try to address in my works: “Bunny”, “Be My Sponsor”, “Beaten Bride”.
Antea Arizanović (Ljubljana, 1978) obtained her Master of Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Serbia in 2006, where she now studies for her PhD. Solo shows: 2008 – “Ideal Collection”, Likovni Salon, Celje, Slovenia; 2007 – “Identification”, Galerie Isabelle Gounod, Paris, France; “Transformation”, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina; 2006 – “Woman?”, Bežigrad Gallery 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Group shows: 2008 – 49th October Salon, Artist-Citizen Contextual Art Practices, Belgrade, Serbia; 2006 – Self-portrait Today, Art Gallery Maribor, Slovenia; 2004 – Biennial of Young Artists, The violence of the image/the image of violence, Bucharest, Romania; 45th October Salon Continental Breakfast Belgrade. Awards: 2006 – First Prize Self-portrait Today; 2004 – Special award at Pop May Salon for perspective young artist, Union of Slovene Fine Artists Associations; 2002 – Award prize at Balkan Youth Festival. Works in Collections: Tobacco Museum Ljubljana, Young artist collection, UGM Maribor, MSURS, video collection.
Stone Soup by Hristina Ivanoska
The idea behind the performance Stone Soup is to gather and to share. During times of war or great economic inflation, the concept of the ‘stone soup’ has helped people to survive and stay together. This is also a clever way that a stranger can be accepted by the others. Or it can also be understood as a basic way of practising democracy when through a process of outsmarting and negotiation one comes to a joint solution which does not harm anybody. Versions of the story can be found among the folk stories in almost every country in Europe and North America.
The performance Stone Soup engages the audience including them in the preparation of the soup by their donation of a vegetable. At the end each participant will get a bowl of hot soup. The richness of the soup depends of the donated ingredients.
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