The Bring In Take Out – Living Archive (LA)
Interactive Contemporary Art Exhibition
13. – 16. October 2011, Zagreb
In the framework of the conference REDacting TransYugoslav Feminisms: Women’s Heritage Revisited which was organized by the Center for Women’s Studies Zagreb.
During the four day program we are presenting an interactive exhibition of contemporary art: art works, live video/photo/audio documentation, performance, concert, different live working stations, interviews, artists’ talks and discussions with artists, curators, academics, activists, but also an opportunity for ideas and thoughts exchange, as well as active approach to feminist art today. Beside artists at exhibition contributors like Tea Hvala (Ljubljana), Damir Imamović (Sarajevo), Gabrijela Ivanov (Zagreb), Lidija Radojević (Ljubljana), Sandra Prlenda (Zagreb), Ana Vilenica (Belgrade/Pančevo), Dina Rončević (Zagreb), Marina Gržinić (Ljubljana/Vienna) and Aina Šmid (Ljubljana), Nela Hasanbegović (Sarajevo), Dunja Blažević (Sarajevo), Milica Tomić (Belgrade), Vahida Ramujkić (Belgrade/Barcelona), Ana Hoffner (Belgrade/Vienna), Nina Bunjevac (Toronto), Tanja Miletić Oručević (Mostar/Brno), Biljana Kašić (Zagreb/Zadar), Nade Kachakova (Skopje), Ksenija Forca (Belgrade), Rada Borić (Zagreb), Tatjana Marjanović (Split), Azra Husanović (Vienna), Ida Hiršenfelder (Ljubljana), Tanja Ostojić (Belgrade/Berlin), Maša Hilčišin (Sarajevo/Praga), Jelena Jelača (Belgrade), Ajla Demiragić (Sarajevo), Maja Bogojević (Podgorica), Branka (Novi Sad), Lejla Somun-Krupalija (Sarajevo), Merima Jašarević (Mostar), Tina Smrekar (Ljubljana), Vanja Bučan (Ljubljana), Ana Hušman (Zagreb) showed their work either with presentation, concert, video within Perpetuum Mobile, filling up the Questionnaire.
The exhibition – with Nika Autor, Miljana Babić, Ana Baraga, Ana Čigon, Lana Čmajčanin, Andreja Dugandžić, Sandra Dukić, Lina Dokuzović, Flaka Haliti, Adela Jušić, Svetlana Slapšak and Perpetuum Mobile videos – present a kind of a visual springboard of the entire LA project. In regard to the question of feminism and art, three contexts can be extracted that go along with the intention to visualize (with contemporary art works) the event that is formally and content-wise conceived with a feminist agenda. With the LA Zagreb selection of art works, we intended to touch some of the aspects of how feminism materializes in art, with a focus on the post/Yugoslav context. The three contexts relating to the selection are: the institutionalization methodology; new meanings through new readings; and geo-bio-politics of postYugoslavia.
The institutionalization methodology and its re-questioning come to surface mainly through the working/selecting process itself. Out of the non-institutionalized but intense collaboration, open and horizontal research evolved a specific methodology that roughly defines the field of the way in which Red Min(e)d originally approached the question of feminism and art. In this manner, the crucial aspect was how to deal with the question of “inclusion” and “exclusion”, especially as we – the group – have only begun with the research and the collecting of the information in regard to the subject(s) of feminism and art in the post/Yugoslav space.
Therefore, the inclusive dimension at the LA Zagreb selection of art works was mainly materialized via the bringing together of different networks (of collaborators). However, it is precisely strategies of inclusion that we are hoping to be able to build via different research tools developed throughout the entire LA project. Such (even if only symbolic) strategies must exist in order to re-question specific (nationally, professionally, etc., oriented) networks, which imply gate-keeping, since it is only by the process of constant re-questioning that different gates are opening and closing, letting others in and out. This symbolic gesture is realized (or materialized) by imposing a vivid event, with a presence of artists and curators, to form – together with conference participants and visitors – an occasion of solidarity where up-to-date feminist knowledge with new historical perspective is shared and instantly inscribed. In the works by Nika Autor, Lina Dokuzović and Milijana Babić, the methodology itself also forms the context, while the subject of the works is referring to reality in urgent need for anti-centralized power and anti-patriarchal and anti-established educational imperative.
What are subjects of feminism (in art) and what dimensions of art works could a feminist reading open? One can say that some of the works are openly feminist and tackle patriarchal traditions of misogynist societies (Ana Baraga, Svetlana Slapšak, Ana Čigon, Sandra Dukić), while all of them generate additional meaning through feminist perspective (especially Adela Jušić, Flaka Haliti, Andreja Dugandžić). At this point, we don’t yet want to make a conclusion on what are the most recent feminist perspectives, since we want to leave this question open for everyone – and analyze it throughout the duration of the project. The entire LA project and the selection of art works is not about creating or imposing a normative definition such as “this is feminist art” or “this is not feminist art”.
It is generally known that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For the past 16 years, the international intervention in the Balkans called the “Dayton Agreement” has been completing the ethnic apartheid of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Lana Čmajčanin offers an ironical opportunity to make a proper model of BIH according to an individual’s means, desire and needs.
Daily program:
Thursday, October 13
20:00 in front Kino Europa, Varšavska 3
Dear Ladies Thank You, performance by Ana Čigon (SI)
Friday, October 14
10:00–19:00 in Glyptotheque CASA Zagreb, Medvedgradska ulica 2
LA exhibition and laboratory*
Saturday, October 15
10:00–19:00 in Glyptotheque CASA Zagreb, Medvedgradska ulica 2
LA exhibition and laboratory*
22:00 in Kino Grič, Jurišićeva 6
Concert by Damir Imamović (BA) and VJane Adela (BA)
Sunday, October 16
12:00–16:00 in Glyptotheque CASA Zagreb, Medvedgradska ulica 2
LA exhibition and laboratory *
*The programme of the LA exhibition and laboratory with live video/photo/audio documentation like interviews, discussions, artists’ talks was updated daily and published online in the news section and on the spot.
Bring In Take Out 