:work in progress, live act; artist talk; artist book;
:time 2008-to date
:location Krbava field, Lika region, Croatia;
walkers: Elke Krasny (AT) curator, Vlasta Delimar (HR) artist, Ana Hušman (HR) artist, Peter Dykhuis (CAN) curator and artist; Mariela Zinic (HR) architect; Ivan Roca (HR) videographer; Sandro Dukic (HR) artist, Katerina Valdivia Bruch (Peru/DE) choreographer,…
:exhibited at „Fragments of Feminity at BAC Festival ’09 in Barcelona (E) exhibition; Immigrant Movement International ’11, participation/collaboration (USA), CalArts Cluster – artist talk, Identity_48th Zagreb Salon 2013, currated by Tea Hatadi as an invited artist;
For years I couldn’t face the complex topic of „war“ without digging out scary ghosts. I couldn’t make it easier or more comprehensive, even today.
I was in it, all my family was in it and many generations before experience it, but there is nothing special about my story everyone around me can tell the same story.
The scary part of it is that I knew how to live through the war without anyone telling me in advance or giving me any instructions. It was already inside of me. I was born with that collective memory, with that „wisdom“. It was inherited from my Mothers who never spoke about it.
By choosing the subject of war, I was thinking that topic will frame me into local and pathetic frame of a war victim and „my art“ will be labeled by that fact, not reaching the point that war is something universal, trans-generational and present in our world of yesterday and in this particular moment while I’m writing this or you are reading this.
In that sense She:story is a long lasting (art) work. It is attempt of making an antidote, releasing history (he:story) locks, and attempt of decoding collective memories. Or maybe it is just the way of becoming immune on aggression artisticly faceing PTSD, or even choosing ignorance and parallel life, parallel reality instead of something which is impossible to comprehend.
To get involved with sensitive and complex questions I.m starting with spatial narratives of one regular geographic field which is covered with historic narratives. What will happen if I change narrative? How identities crashing upon their own attachments? How I’m going to crash? And what will happend when new narrative will take over the field?
SHE:story chapters
She:story is divided into Chapters:
Introduction
to be able = to be a frame (Biti kadar) serial of photographs made on the field together with my brother Branko Cvjeticanin;
1st Chapter War fields dealing with personal trans-generation story, following a woman line in three generation, covering about 100 years, several wars, different nation countries, and visualizing only one geographical location, Krbavsko field located in region of Lika, Croatia.
2nd Chapter Fitnessing the field is about geography narratives and performative practice. Guest walkers are invited for a walk, one by one, and for 14 stations of transmitions. Each walker is choosing their own line of transmitions, and each time the strong weather of that region in the mountains playing important role in dramaturgy. Walkers are becoming geographers. Each walker is invited to reflect. In a process I’m documenting actions, combining real and fabricated facts and problematize subject of geography narratives and limited power of art. Through time old narratives are changing with new guest’s field experiences.
GUEST_Elke Krasny (Austria) following photos documenting the walk with Elke Krasny on Feb, 23rd 2011
GUEST_Katerina Valdivia Bruch (Peru/Germany) following photos documenting the walk on Dec, 3rd 2011. This is the link to the Katerina’s blog about her experience “Finding the golden tree”
GUEST_Sandro Dukic (Croatia) following photos documenting the walk on Mar, 12th 2011
3rd ChapterBlood is not thicker than Water, collage and artist e-book, an attempt to piece together the complex and surprising connections between migrant worlds. Based on a true story of ancestors who moved to the USA in 1905. This Chapter is contribution and support to the Immigrant Movement International, a five-year project initiated by artist Tania Bruguera. Its mission is to help define the immigrant as a unique, new global citizen in a post-national world and to test the concept of arte útil or “useful art”, in which artists actively implement the merger of art into society’s urgent social, political and scientific issues.
Link: http://immigrant-movement.us/december18/
4th ChapterMuseum of dresses and other online and offline actions, critical reading excercises, pages for participation and suggestions, and building up a residency for poets;