On cizmcriti- At the end of Bresson’s Diary of a Country order is preserved. The guarantee of its Priest the main character dies in agony. Pain entirety is the great Other. in the stomach (the kind which, years later, Kurt Cobain would have) has been already In life, the hysteric has all the questions for a long time unbearable, just as unbear- – that’s why in democratic societies pub- able as the people who go out of their way lic opinion is permanently hystericized – it to make priest’s last days hell. has the right to know, therefore it has all the questions. Equally hystericized are peo- And yet, before his last sigh, the priest, ple in temples, with countless questions with great peace and certainty, utters the “oh why” directed at God, who has obvi- famous sentence: “Whatever it is, every- ously abandoned the world, running away thing is God’s grace.” as a special kind of political emigrant from the repressive order he created himself This is the moment when one completely wherein he is submitted to 24 hour inter- renounces critical approach, renounces rogation. question, renounces, answer, when one abandons every familiar model of analysis In death, from the Christian perspective of and every self-made interpretive model, Bresson’s priest, God has all the answers and the question of one’s death and the – it is to him that we will have to answer purpose of one’s life, the entire life story for every thought and look, particularly for with all its possible meanings is delivered all the questions we addressed to him. And into the hands of the great Other. vice versa, every asker will be asked: on the onset of democracy, the defeated will Slavoj Žižek claims that totalitarian is not have to answer for the crimes of ancien “the one who has all the answers, but the régime, the interrogators will be publicly one who has all the questions.” interrogated.

Q&A form, conceived as democratic, is ac- Let us now imagine the situation which tually totalitarian. was pointed out to me by Aleksandar Bečanović: let’s imagine that we have As long as the game of asking questions is convinced ourselves that critical thinking on, as long as we can convince ourselves doesn’t lead to answers, even less to the that out there, somewhere, there is some- change of unbearable social, economic and one who can give an answer, our symbolic existential situation which seems to be

 made of reinforced concrete; let’s imagine and sentences that you filled with great ef- that after the life long struggle with the fort and passion, that you filled with great world and ourselves, tired of everything, hope will silently sink into the printing ink we utter on the death bed: well ok, what- black opaque ocean at which bottom al- ever it is, everything is God’s grace; utter ready await countless lost works of spirit. that like a desperate gambler, who has al- No matter how bravely you shout, the an- ready lost everything, when playing his last swer will be indifferent silence. And when ace. it seems that you have changed something, you will only be fated to watch those who Let’s imagine that we say this, that in the mould the society according to your ideas end we utter those words which are sup- creating a freak – in the end you will be posed to solve everything. We utter. And condemned to watch the thing that was then, ... nothing. Everything remains the supposed to be a monument to your ideas same: so many questions and not a single turning into an unconvincing condemna- answer. tion of those ideas.

Isn’t it absolute horror? The moment when Yes: it is likely that by continuing critical it’s too late for fight, because we have al- struggle we will not gain anything. But by ready given up, but too late for giving up giving up, we may lose everything. too, because giving up doesn’t mean any- thing either, because we have nothing to Being faithful to your own critical posi- give and we have nobody to give it to. tion, notwithstanding all objections which can be given to you from personal to im- The question of faithfulness to critical personal, thus becomes a mighty weapon: thinking, therefore, needs to be posed like there is tremendous force in what happens this: it is not about what we will gain (in despite everything. the sense of intervention in the field of so- cial, in the sense of the change our critical Finally, and despite everything, critical writing will generate), but about what we thinking is a matter of style. You know the may lose. rest: style is taste, taste is character, char- acter is fate. Which leads us to the position of the one who writes: which position, even at So if the role (or choice, as Wilde says: a its most aggressive, is actually defensive. true gentlemen always fights for an already Critical thinking and writing are par excel- lost cause) of critical intellectual is to be lence reactionary activities: ultimately, we defeated, because s/he is a bee which re- do them not to change the world, but not sents other bees while they are pollinat- to be destroyed by the world. Not how ing flowers, because s/he is an ant which to change, but how to survive the world. resents other ants their excessive submis- Brain function eventually doesn’t differ sig- sion and discipline, because s/he is a wolf nificantly from liver function: it is its job which resents other wolves their blood- to process all the poisons that with every thirstiness, even so, one is free to chose look, touch, thought we take in. the style of one’s defeat. To be faithful to one’s own critical think- ing – it is not an easy thing. Because the It is not nothing. It is everything. results will necessarily fail, the world will, anyway, remain deaf to all our analyses, projections and warnings; all those pages Andrej Nikolaidis

 The Return of the Trivial Genre in Women’s Prose: The Establishment Strikes Back

In the long gone year of 1981, in the cult as the true object of seduction. “(1) The character of the plain and naïve typist author’s main interest is always literature Štefica Cvek, Dubravka Ugrešić found the itself, which is why the readers’ expecta- perfect prism through which she reevalu- tions, which are in accordance with the ates stereotypical cultural and literary conventions of the genre, often have to models that are imposed on women as be betrayed. Such showdowns with the necessity and ideal. By parodizing banality unsatisfactory (imaginary) reader, the re- and the clichés and kitsch that often fol- examination of the marginal position of low women, she presents the question of women’s writing and, above all, the deter- female identity and their position in soci- mination to dedicate the work to finding ety in a new way, especially focusing on the original and appropriate forms of expres- position of women in literature. sion are all elements that make the work of Dubravka Ugrešić high literature. Fourteen years later, Jasmina Lukić analyzed Ugrešić’s work in the influential column Thirty years later, you will most likely find titled The Romance Novel as an Archetypal Štefica Cvek in the romance or chick lit sec- Genre, concluding that the subversive us- tions at bookstores, which Štefica would age of the trivial romance genre is a legiti- surely love, but which her author would mate literary process comparable to the most likely look upon with mixed feelings. utilization of science fiction elements in The ignorance in regards to the worth of high literature. Furthermore, Lukić shows this novel and equating it with trivial lit- that “in all these texts literature is treated erature isn’t the real issue, although it is

 irritating. Štefica Cvek has already fought A Symphony of Stupidity: Who’s Cry- for her position in the Croatian literary ing, Sanja Domazet (no pun intend- Pantheon. The blossoming of trivial litera- ed) ture that fills the shelves even quicker than self-help guides, cookbooks and spiritual Published in 2005, Sanja Domazet’s novel guidebooks isn’t the issue either. We all Who’s Crying was praised for being “a femi- sometimes need to escape the bleak re- ninely conceived and written novel … “(2) ality. Some find escape in action movies, (Tihomir Brajović) that was “ as much a others in the promise of a future or the literary work as it was a work of music discovery of a past life, others still in sassy …” (3) (Mihajlo Pantić) “at the same time stories about bold girls who gain new job full of emotions, poetry, music and sensa- victories in their high heels then go out tion …“ (4) (V. Roganović) and was award- for cocktails with their princes. The issue ed the Female Author Award in Serbia is that such elements can today be found (Žensko pero) as well as the regional Meša in the serious works of authors who have Selimović Award. The novel deals with the received awards, as well as the fact that fates of three women: Mozart’s lover from they treat them without the smallest dose the end of the 18th century, a thirty-three of irony and in fact use them as realistic year old woman with psychological prob- works and important literary construc- lems, and a fifteen year old pianist. tions. What is further worrisome is the fact that literary critics view them in the From simply just looking at the list of same manner with a serious blind spot for characters that includes the gods of music, precisely those characteristic banalities, time, love, lust and death; the entire collec- clichés and kitsch that Dubravka Ugrešić tion of lovers, intellectuals, dreamers, psy- made fun of in her novel Štefica Cvek in the chiatrists, and, in the end, Mozart himself, Jaws of Life. it becomes clear to the reader that only Woody Allen could save such a travesty By analyzing a few authors from the region from being miserably pathetic and melo- of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and dramatic. Sanja Domazet, however, has no Croatia, I will attempt to demonstrate the intention of joking about serious questions elements and the manner in which they such as love and death. She writes about are manifested in individual works and an- these terms with the endless self-confi- alyzed in critiques. I by no means wish to dence and determination of an eighteenth suggest that these works are representa- century gothic novel writer, completely tive of women’s writing in the region, but unaware of the two centuries of literature rather to point out a dangerous trend that and intellectual, literary and critical turmoil can have negative effects on the domestic that separate her from that period. The literary production. As can be seen from three characters of different age groups, the work of Dubravka Ugrešić, or the different environments, life situations, and work of almost any great world writer, lit- even historical time periods, all act, speak, erature first and foremost deals with itself and think identically, and in the end, tor- and builds on that which has up until then tured by the disappearance of love and the been written. Thus, what kind of example point of life, kill themselves or are killed is being set for present and future genera- by another. The idea that the three pro- tions of writers when the following titles tagonists obtain their meaning for life from are considered to be a part of our literary their (typically older, talented, even genius) canon? lovers, as well as the fact that they loose all

 function for themselves and their author terns have already been confirmed in the without their relationship with the Other above mentioned manner), but also by the is a fairly old and atypical one in women’s fact that it is clearly written in an amazing writing as described in feminist literature. and innovative style. Bathed in light, spices, Although, the male audience may very pearls and gold from beginning to end, Sanja much be pleased with the book. Domazet’s prose offers us unique and rich solutions such as the following description The fact that “the characters and the plot of the young Mozart: “He watched the are merely described in traces and re- musicians with the shiny eyes of a musical duced to mere hints”(5) (Goran Lazičić) tiger trapped in the birdcage of a child’s doesn’t phase these same critics, because body “. Aside from the fact that musical ti- the author allows herself more space in ger sounds more like a description of some this way to “tell us about that which is the turbo-folk singer with his shirt unbuttoned most difficult to speak about, about the in- half-way down his chest to reveal his gold ternal conditions of the human conscious- chain, the author also places the imposing ness which are intuitive and sensual”(6) task on the reader to try and imagine a (Mihajlo Pantić). And it seems that this is tiger in a birdcage that is at the same time in fact what is considered to be the real the body of a young boy. If that doesn’t domain of women’s writing; no charac- take your imagination to new levels, then I ters, no way, girls, let go of the firm male don’t know what will. perspective and drown yourselves in the beauty of your own feelings and ranting Thesis plus antithesis equals synthe- about eternal and abstract truths! And the sis: The Bride’s Abyss, Nura Bazdulj precision with which the author describes Hubijar and Scurry via Vranduk, Fadila the tact and sensuality of the female soul Nura Haver (yes, there is only one female soul! We are all the same on the inside) the reader can If female characters are “angels with lead witness in nearly every endless paragraph wings” (10) for Sanja Domazet – so, some of this novel. Who among us hasn’t “ca- kind of almost abstract heavenly creatures ressed music notes, caressed handwrit- that strive towards erotic and aesthetic cli- ings…hasn’t wanted to caress the walls… maxes merely to, much like Icarus, fall down hasn’t wanted to caress his eyebrows, his to earth due to their inability to achieve ears…who hasn’t wanted to simply, ca- these wishes – then for Nura Bazdulj Hub- ress …” (7) or, for example, hasn’t walked ijar, a bestselling and numerously awarded down the street and suddenly “asked her- Bosnian writer, female characters are true self whether the sidewalks were in silent Victorian models of house angels (which Vir- lust with her feet, if the snow was as crazy ginia Woolf successfully got rid of for the about her as she was crazy about him… western literary canon in A Room of One’s “(8) Own nearly a century ago, much to the en- thusiasm and gratitude of future genera- If the reader suddenly asks themselves tions). The quiet, chaste, and zealous little whether they are reading the tame parts wife who turns her husband’s home into a of Fifty Shades of Gray, they can be at ease little piece of heaven, is presented as the when they come to realize that this is in ideal of femininity and, in other works by fact a work of high literature, which is con- this author as well, usually opposes other firmed not only by the fact that there isn’t female characters who are punished for a happy ending (although patriarchal pat- being overly sexual and who lack mater-

 nal instincts, etc. This is also the case in ted against others, that separated those The Bride’s Abyss, the main story from the in love, broke up happy families, poisoned collection of short stories of the same ti- dogs, killed birds with a slingshot…”(13) tle. The protagonist describes her mother As the list of her sins goes on for too long in the following manner: “My mother was for the reader to be satisfied with merely slender, tall, and beautiful. She had a quiet her redemption in love, the author re- and gentle voice…She worked a lot, both solves her fate, yet again, in accordance hard and easy labour, and she did both with with the expectations of the genre, but in incredible ease, as if it were no big deal, as if a way that is also reserved for antagonists. the real work just awaited her…I believed She kills herself, thus freeing her lover to that beneath her wide white sleeves there be able to find a worthy partner, while the were the wings of an angel”.(11) The pro- pointlessness of her death justifiably em- tagonist herself, on the other hand, with phasizes the wasting of a life dedicated to the loss of her parent’s authority (which the selfish indulgence of one’s own needs is clearly presented as being exceptionally instead of caring for one’s environment: dangerous for women) slips into a state of “I’m going to sweep the snow off the an- meanness which is first described in her tenna (she must be tall) with a broom, and grotesque physical appearance and sadism then my feet are going to slide off the fro- during childhood, and later, in her uncon- zen fence. trolled and pointless sexual urges when ‘What a terrible accident!’ they’re going to she is older. The fact that her father is a say for the next few days, and then they’ll drunk and, judging by a scene in the book, all forget. “(14) abuses them, and the fact that her mother withholds her love and emotional support Considering this magnificent whirlwind of after she gives birth to a son, the author misogynistic motifs, it is especially surpris- uses to further make the protagonist’s fate ing when Nura Bazdulj Hubijar is presented clearer and sadder, but all that doesn’t pre- as an example of a very necessary female vent her from stating at the end that her voice on the Bosnian literary scene. What parents “were honest people”.(12) The is also surprising is when her works are in- story consistently follows the conventions cluded in school curriculums with the ex- of the romance genre: the plot is based on planation that they represent positive and mistaken identities and it consists of the simple ideas that teach children true val- idea according to which an isolated, sexu- ues. Simple, that they are, but they could ally unfulfilled, incomplete girl becomes an be considered positive in some other cen- extremely intelligent, attractive and talent- tury, more likely in the nineteenth century ed (for music) protagonist when she meets than in the century that has just come to her ideal partner, thus becoming a mature an end. Jasmina Bajramović and Jasna Kovo and sexual woman who achieves her full analyzed this problem in detail based on potential as the partner of a smart, brave, the author’s other novels in 2010, in an ar- and charismatic man. The main difference ticle in sic! magazine, concluding that: “Not here in comparison to other similar sto- raising the awareness of her own female ries is that the protagonist is at the same subject in a topos of the general imposition time the antagonist as well, a negative force of patriarchal ideas and agreeing to a union behind the majority of bad events that oc- of mutual profit doesn’t undermine but af- cur in the story: “I haven’t helped anyone, firms that which is nonetheless dominant in a I’ve made things worse for as many people flat and chauvinistic culture. “(15) as I could…I hated that same I that plot-

 Instead of repeating the additional conclu- a subordinate member of a marriage dur- sions of the two above-mentioned critics, ing the mid 20th century), decides to take it may perhaps be more interesting to sub- a different path. She rids herself of her position the work of Nura Bazdulj Hubijar own dependence on her clearly manipula- with the novel of another Bosnian author of tive and unworthy lover and shocks him by a younger generation, who is slowly catch- openly expressing her freedom of thought ing up to the former in terms of popularity and sexual instincts. Because of this, Scurry but who is also considered to be a serious seems to be a feminist, subversive, and self- writer. Her name is Fadila Nura Haver and aware work of female prose that, in the her first novel is called Scurry via Vranduk. words of one critic ”sheds light on the life Although similar in its dramatic title, Scurry of a woman in a strictly patriarchal society offers precisely the opposite perspective and, most importantly, reminds us, with its of The Bride’s Abyss. It deconstructs the realistic plot, that women are not only dif- manner in which a patriarchal society cre- ferent in any given segment of society, and ates standards that women find impossible not only worthy of attention as much as to respect, and then it punishes them un- men are, but that they are also just as real der the pretense of transgressions. as men are. “(16) (Edin Pobrić)

In this family saga, the fates of two women This comment may seem to be unclear at are emphasized: that of a girl named Ni- a glance; not even the most hardcore mi- hada, who later grows up to be a woman, sogynists negate the physical existence of and her great aunt Behka. In the eyes of women in reality. However, it clarifies the society, Behka is a fallen woman, slightly le- way in which mainstream critics in the re- gitimized through her marriage to a repu- gion interpret women’s writing – as books table member of society. However, she is that talk about women and confirm their nonetheless the constant target of spiteful value while revealing their personal and neighbours, fellow citizens, and even her intimate view of the past, or, possibly, the own family. By gradually revealing the real present. The author of the same text con- truth about her shameful seven marriages, tinues by writing that “the values of this along with an almost unbelievable array of novel lie in its resistance to blatantly imi- unjustices done to her, from her sale to the tate great feminist narratives of western most suitable suitor, to her being forced to European literature. Here, the feminist live with a clearly twisted and inadequate discourse is wrapped up in the cultural husband, to her rape by her own brother context of the Bosnian and Herzegovin- after she runs away, to half a dozen other ian reality that makes up the story with its marriages arranged for practical, material characteristics. “(17) or, in best case scenario, ethical reasons, the author portrays the difficult fate of a The formula for writing a so-called com- woman in a traditional marriage in a pa- plex novel begins to become clearer and triarchal society. On the other hand, in clearer. For starters, all you need to do is Behka’s resistance towards these assigned rewrite that which for decades has been situations and imposed norms, we can see considered an appropriate theme for pro- a model for future (present) generations: gressive dames (do you notice anything Nihada and Behka’s granddaughter Almasa. strange about this sentence?), “such as the Thus, Nihada, instructed by Behka’s ex- status of an urban female intellectual in a ample as well as that of her mother (her patriarchal and small-town environment, mother deals with her own frustrations as her relationship towards her own body,

 the relationship between mother-daugh- lems. This is why the novel ends in a sappy ter and family as an institution in general, tone with a denouement that implies that playing around with female stereotypes, female troubles are merely a thing of the and the like”. (18) Sound familiar? Actu- past and that by telling the story of their ally, it sounds like a recipe according to unique tales magically corrects the harm which this book was written. The prob- already caused. It seems that we are still lem, of course, doesn’t lie in the themes within the domain of the romance novel. themselves, but in the fact that they have been present for long enough already that The second element of a successful liter- they have lost any form of effect or sharp- ary work, to go back to the words of the ness in cases when written about without abovementioned critic, is a joyful ode to any kind of irony, further consideration or one’s own cultural and historical milieu, no a dialogue with other works that they rely matter how difficult it may be to relate it on. That is when they become stale and to the subversive portion that reassesses uninteresting, thus causing boredom in the set social values. Written in the vernacu- reader as well as a feeling that the overall lar, the novel nostalgically reminisces about themes and issues of women’s writing have social and family rituals, glorifies the his- been exhausted. Jasmina Lukić talks about torical and geographical characteristics of “the potential of pop culture to be the sta- the region, and even includes a historio- bilizer of a given social situation…that will graphical section on Vranduk, while its final recognize subversive potentials and sub- goal is the legitimization of the Bosnian na- versive themes that occur in society, mark- tional idea instead of the development of ing them and using them”.(19) Thus, the the plot and characters. It is precisely here, ready-made form of a novel such as Scurry in the language and style, that it is clear is utilized with the aim of appeasing and just how similar Nura Bazdulj and Nura satisfying critics, but by doing so it loses Haver are, although at first they seem to its function as a social engagement, which, be ideologically opposite. They both use in their eyes, gives primacy over second- the vernacular (perhaps we could even say ary works. Not to mention the fact that the language of a past time) although they something that was imagined as a celebra- do not manage to achieve that playfulness tion of the Other and of individualism has that such language can achieve in better been turned into a mere pamphlet which, novels, from Andrić’s to Irwine Welsh’s. it seems, the general female experience Aside from the language, the authors both fits into. Perhaps this is where the flatness share a frequently melodramatic and sub- of female characters comes from, whose lime style that easily borders on the pa- goodness, conscientiousness and good in- thetic, for example when the protagonist tentions we are not allowed to doubt for of The Bride’s Abyss describes her mental a second, but whose fates always rely on state: “Restless, I stand by the window. The marriage and the man they love. This is pill I took didn’t drive him away, nor did why they are still, although rebellious and the memory of our painful past, nor did independent, characterized with a certain the vodka, our nation’s drink that I tasted dose of the irrational as opposed to their for the first time with you grew to love. wise fathers and husbands. Their story Nothing can save me from him tonight. So focuses on the analysis of their intimate I stand, my burning restlessness and I, in an life without any attempt at drawing brave embrace…“(20) conclusions about the broader social con- text and the implicit cause of their prob- The inclination for preaching banalities,

 or rather, pardon me, small life wisdoms eral foreign languages and although some that will more often be found on fridge of her works have been written for stage magnets than in great literary works, goes performances in a few countries, critics in hand in hand with melodrama. I pose the Croatia rarely mention her. When she is following challenge before the reader to mentioned, however, her name serves as determine which quotation belongs to an example of trivial literature that dis- which author: “But life isn’t art, although it honestly deprives a large section of the is an art form to live.”(21) And on the oth- audience of great works by legitimate au- er hand: “They say that everyone carries thors. Thus, Jagna Pogačnik concludes that the truth in their heart. Thus, can anyone in Rudan’s work, traces of feminism are speak about another’s life without stray- reduced to”simplified stereotypes”, black ing into gossip, pointless assumptions and and white gender characterizations, thus fabrications?”(22) hematized and sharpened, without any proper analysis or sensibility, and brought This kind of language, which is extremely to a trivial level.(23) simple, made up of simple sentences, full of expressions, idioms, exclamations, and The author whose almost every public repetition – rightfully assumes a simple appearance seems to become more and audience as well; an audience that doesn’t more a performance and often serves in wish to be challenged, that doesn’t have a scandalous manner, the audience either the need to learn anything new or to reas- loves or hates, but no one starts reading sess that which it has learned, an audience her books because of their potential liter- that simply wants to waste its time with ary quality. It is thus taken for granted that postcards from its (literary and linguistic) her books deal with a special kind of prose past. Hence, the same audience as that of that doesn’t pretend to be anything more Carrie Bradshaw’s Diaries and the Da Vinci than a human rights manifesto that raises Code. its small fist for female justice.

The Exorcism of an Angel: May Your Someone who goes into reading a novel Mother Give Birth to You, Vedrana Ru- like May Your Mother Give Birth to You with dan such expectations might be pleasantly sur- prised, unless their personal dislike of the Croatian literature is practically drown- author completely jades their reading ex- ing in works such as these – from erotic perience. The book is, yet again, about re- and romance novels, to the urban stories of assessing the relationship between moth- journalists in high heels, to detailed works er-daughter, but this time from the radical about female intimacy and artistic sensibil- standpoint of a previously abused victim ity published in twenty volumes. It is dif- whose mother represents a monster and a ficult to stand out on such a market, but figure of betrayal as she tolerated her hus- the appearance of Vedrana Rudan is really band’s violence and abuse. Forced to care rather unique. Better known to the public for her in old age, the protagonist presents for her numerous dismissals from various the dilemma between love for her mother television and newspaper houses and the as a natural fact or a social construct; does offsets that preceded them, Vedrana Rudan the love come automatically or is it some- has published five novels until now and thing that every parent needs to earn. Ru- three collections of columns. Although dan doesn’t give a definite answer. The her works have been translated into sev- protagonist doesn’t recognize her emo-

10 tions as being love but she also isn’t able anything but flat. She doesn’t offer any to free herself from them, and in time they cheap solutions, healing relationships and become the strongest element of her real- spiritual metamorphoses, but instead fol- ity. Thus, a challenge is placed for classical lows, with a morbid fascination, the fatal birth roles and a character that refuses to deadlock of two old women rolling to- respect them. At the same time, however, wards death, who are incapable of get- the high personal and psychological price ting over the unforgivable and unsurpass- is also depicted for someone who refuses able obstacles that have determined their to play by the rules. lives. In this merciless interest in human cruelty and limitation, this novel reminds The old lady’s constant nagging about her us more of Margaret Atwood’s or Muriel demands and complaints drives the read- Spark’s prose than anything else than can er crazy as well, making him irritated and be read in our region. Of course, there is loathsome and placing him in the position no comparison in terms of their styles and to sympathize with the protagonist, only the literary values of their works; Rudan to leave them both in shock (the reader more frequently relies on shock value and and the protagonist) when, at the end of generalizations as opposed to the subtle the novel, it turns out that the old lady characterization of characters and elegant really wasn’t making anything up and that structure solutions. the pain she was in was due to her illness which was literally eating her body from However, the author utilizes shock con- the inside out. The mother’s behaviour is sciously and skillfully, while that same further explained (although not justified) debonair of hers towards the laws of logic, by the fact that she herself comes from reality and social norms that often bring a brutal environment and a tragic fam- the readers of her social commentaries to ily situation which shows the manner in the brink of insanity (for example, when which violence is passed down from gen- she tries to prove that homophobes are eration to generation. The protagonist funny because they enjoy soccer, which is also doesn’t correspond to the frequent also a merely concealed homosexual ac- stereotype of a victim and her identity; her tivity) is precisely what makes her novels character is made more complex by the interesting and coherent. What holds the pettiness of her mother when she counts readers’ attention is the author’s obsessive every spent penny (such a human yet dis- desire to deal with a given idea all the way graceful act that any worse writer would through and to find a solution for it. This skip altogether in order to ensure the is why she holds the title of a good writer reader’s sympathy for their character), and as she manages to hold on to her reader the calculating manner in which she deals with her sharp sense of humour, her great with people who come to her store that timing for humour, as well as her concise sells angel figurines and seek some sort and steady style, while her reader remains of compassion or just to vent about their completely unaware of the fact that while own personal traumas. In this story, the reading her work, he is accepting someone wooden angels that are being sold to naïve else’s logic and conclusions, which he may and desperate people as kitsch or as talis- not usually accept. Thus, for example, con- mans without any real value or power are templating the reasons for violence against the only angels in this story. women and the role of other women in it, the author writes: “But, we are frustrated It is clear that Rudan’s characters are because men, the rulers of the world and

11 our lives, sell us stories about how that culture? But perhaps the question itself isn’t normal and how that’s not our fate. is altogether wrong. Perhaps postmod- All I need to do is call the social work- ernism has merely shown the way for the er, the police, or tell mom. Mom? What academic community to that which writ- mom?… Mom is merely a beaten up, raped ers and readers had much earlier instinc- woman. She can’t help us. And why would tively anticipated, and that is the fact that she?”(24) every genre can produce a great work of art whose worth doesn’t lie in the topic But that’s what art is for – to force us to it deals with, but the manner in which it view the world for a second from the eyes deals with the topic. The real question is of someone else, but not to tell us, much then how to differentiate between a work like a teacher, the way in which we should of art and the trivial, if we can’t rely on view it. the old division of value? If “triviality isn’t the problem of the genre, but the problem It is important to separate the media char- of the author, “ what criteria do we use acter of Vedrana Rudan, who, dressed up to evaluate the work of an author? It is as a nun, swears at the pope, the Church difficult to answer this question in theory, and the State, from her image as an author since the majority of theoreticians and who is far less interested in real-life abused critics provide different answers or they women and the opinion of the public than merely refuse to give any. In practice, in her own characters and stories. Perhaps however, it isn’t that difficult to figure out this is why readers of Rudan’s books never which works utilize used-up ideas based leave happy, satisfied, and warmly snuggled on convention instead of innovation and into the beliefs with which they began the which focus on the mass public instead of story. And perhaps it is this alone, if not on the awake and thinking reader. Per- the fact that she provides real-life charac- haps the author of this article is a bit too ters, a carefully intertwined story written harsh, however she is of the opinion that in a reduced and functional manner with- the world needs another story about the out being pathetic and melodramatic, that whimsical female nature and a healthy female sets her kilometers ahead of the works of intuition as much as it needs another novel the other, more respectable, authors men- about mysterious and seductive vampires. tioned in this essay. And the author that is capable of uttering other similar clichés with a straight face, Conclusion the author of this article would really like to send away to a deserted island for a The genre isn’t what it used to be. Comic number of years without anything except books, or rather, graphic novels receive her own writing, until one day she breaks Pulitzers; historical novels have proven to down and starts yelling, “Why? Where did be just as utopian and naïve as SF novels I go wrong?” where thought to be in the past, and it is nearly impossible to speak about serious Jasmina Lukić writes that ”kitsch isn’t dan- modern American or British literature gerous until it starts pretending to be of without those same fantastic elements. great value, giving as an example a book by Critics pose the question of the exist- a female author who uses the interest of ence of serious literature; has postmod- the modern audience for female topics to ernism completely eliminated the differ- plant a book that is, in reality, an anti-wom- ence between high and pop literature and en’s book. “(25) While this is clearly a seri-

12 ous problem worthy of critical attention, sort of judgment about the value of these and applicable in the cases of the first three novels and help shape the discourse that authors mentioned in this essay, it isn’t the will determine the further development of only issue that arises in terms of the men- the literary flow. Unfortunately, they are tioned value system. The characterization currently not available. Please call back of inferior works as the highest achieve- later. ment of female authors shows the fact that their intellectual and creative abilities The motives of the critical establishment are seriously underestimated, while at the are surely various and wrapped up in mys- same time sending the message to the read- tery in terms of its disgraceful promotion ing audience that this is all they can expect of mediocrity at the expense of more in- from women writers in general. Jasmina teresting and better written works. Be Bajramović noticed that the Bosnian and it by taking the side of dominant literary Herzegovinian literary pamphlets remind clans, glorifying nationalistic ideas, their us of the concept of “children’s games that non-critical solidarity towards women’s are divided into girls and boys – it is made writing, or simply their opportunistic and clear which books are made for the female aesthetic numbness, generous critics are reading population, but it is also clear as to giving women’s writing the death sentence the positive and established life decisions in an extremely ironic way. Critics one, that are spoken about in these books.” I women nil. would go one step further and say that, in the region, there is a difference between literature and women’s books. Everyone Ivana Ančić reads Jergović, Dežulović, Perišić, etc, while the books of female authors are reserved for, it seems, depressed housewives and tired working women. Moreover, books such as the ones mentioned earlier in this essay are presented to current and future female authors as a model for their own work, due to the market viability and the critical attention for such works, which demeans the quality of literary production, while the canon drowns in a sea of point- lessness and banality.

The sleeping literary critique is perhaps the leading bad guy in this story, while all the others merely do their jobs. The fe- male authors (as well as male authors) of trivial novels write trivial novels; cultural studies analyze their function in society; the authors of serious novels complain about the dominance of such works on the market and the general collapse of in- telligence and morale. The last link in this chain should be critics who bring some

13 NOTES 16. Pobrić, Edin, What Do You Hear When 1. Lukić, Jasmina (1995), The Romance Novel There Is Nothing Left to See in Oslobođenje, as an Archetypal Genre. The Prose of Dubravka Sarajevo, 02.08.2012, Issue 23.575, pp. 34- Ugrešić, Center for Women’s studies, Bel- 35. http://sr.scribd.com/doc/102050405/ grade, 1995. (p://www.site.zenskestudie.edu. Oslobo%C4%91enje-broj-23575-2-8-2012) rs/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie w&id=162&Itemid=41) 17. Ibid

2. http://www.knjigainfo.com/index. 18. Pogačnik, Jagna, The End of Feminism and php?gde=@http%3A//www.knjigainfo.com/ Women’s Writing. (http://aquilonis.hr/dodaci/ pls/sasa/bip.tekstovi_o_izdanju%3Ftip%3D12 pisci_na_mrezi/pogacnik_zensko-pismo.pdf) %26pblcid%3D112645@, 19. Lukić Jasmina, How to Read Trivial Literature 3. See back of book in How to Read: the Strategies of the Reading Culture, National Library of Serbia, Belgrade, 4.http://www.knjigainfo.com/index. 2005 php?gde=@http%3A//www.knjigainfo.com/ 20. Bazdulj-Hubijar, Nura, The Bride’s Abyss pls/sasa/bip.tekstovi_o_izdanju%3Ftip%3D12 and other Stories, Fraktura, Zaprešić, 2004. p. %26pblcid%3D112645@, 12

5. http://balkanwriters.aforizmi.org/broj7/san- 21. Ibid jadomazet7.htm, 22.Haver, Fadila Nura, Scurry via Vranduk, 6.See back of book Dobra Knjiga, Sarajevo, 2011. p 159

7. Domazet, Sanja. Who’s Crying, Filip Višnjić, 23. Pogačnik, Jagna, The End of Feminism and Belgrade, 2006. pp. 42, 48, 51. Women’s Writing

8.Ibid, p. 134 24. Rudan, Vedrana, May Your Mother Give Birth to You, V.B.Z., Zagreb, 2010. p.139 9.Ibid, p. 42 25. Lukić, Jasmina, How to Read Trivial Lit- 10.Domazet, Sanja, Who’s Crying, Filip Višnjić, erature in How to Read: the Strategies of the Belgrade, 2006. p. 63. The quote says: “All Reading Culture, National Library of Serbia, wings are made of lead, she thought, all wings Belgrade, 2005 are of lead.” 11. Bazdulj-Hubijar, Nura, The Bride’s Abyss and other Stories, Fraktura, Zaprešić, 2004. p.16 12. Ibid, p. 92

13. Ibid, p. 92

14.Bazdulj-Hubijar, Nura, The Bride’s Abyss and other Stories, Fraktura, Zaprešić, 2004. p.97

15.Kovo, Jasna, The Seductive of the Trivial, or Does it Even Matter? In sic! magazine, po-ethi- cal research and activity, Issue 4, Sarajevo, 2010, p.22

14 A Shaved Head and High Heels or Theatre of Resistance Queer Zagreb and Others in the Croatian Cultural Space

At the fifth edition of the Queer Zagreb The body was clearly masculine, muscular, Festival held in 2007, an intriguing and con- flat chested with a shaved head, but at the troversial public debate on the issue of the same time it was feminine – smooth, hair- body took place. On the festival poster an- less, with crossed legs in high heels and the nouncing the latest festival edition was the face covered in make-up. Bulgarian performer Ivo Dimchev virtually naked (his crossed legs hid his genital area). What exactly did we witness? We wit- The poster was considered provocative on nessed the break down of the dominant two levels. The first being the naked male model of the representation of the male body itself, which constituted a breach of body in the public sphere that favours the public morality and honour, something that images of naked torsos of athletes at soc- cannot be said of the naked female body cer games, the images of gym toned men which is there to be exploited. The second on front covers of magazines dedicated level of provocation, not less important, to men’s health and the images of eligi- was the representation of the same body. ble men in women’s glossy magazines. Ivo

15 Dimchev’s androgynous body forces view- Fischer Lichte writes, Böhme locates these ers to change their perspective of looking spheres neither in the objects which seem at him is a paradigmatic example of basic to emanate them nor in the subjects who postulates of both queer theory and its experience them physically, but rather in practice. Postulates which include the un- the space between and inside them con- dermining of gender and sex foundations temporaneously. Lichte adds that Böhme and their necessary separation, the raising developed his own atmospheric aesthet- of issues of gender identity, the intensifica- ics as an antithesis of semiotic aesthetics tion of struggle for personal and individual which has its origin in the assumption that freedoms, and the liberation of society art needs to be understood first as a lan- from inflexible attitudes on the biologically guage, that is, semiotic aesthetics focuses determined destiny of human beings. on the processes of creating meanings while atmospheric aesthetics is focused on The poster was also telling on other lev- the physical experience. els. Its main functions of advertising and communicating designate it for the public The physical experience can serve as tool sphere, the same sphere which, besides the in drawing closer to the Other and in the couple of months in the spring when Queer weakening of the erosion of memory, es- Zagreb and Pride take place, is not open for pecially when, consciously or unconscious- conversations on diverse gender identities, ly, there is a connection with the space gender expressions, and different, non-het- and circumstances in which the coming erosexual orientations. On the one hand, together took place. In her essay collec- the poster seemed to confirm the stereo- tion The Dictionary of the Body, Andrea type of queerness of gays, lesbians, and men Zlatar writes of “bodies that inhabit the wearing makeup, and in so doing facilitated space and bodies remembering the spaces attacks on Queer Zagreb and the queer they inhabited, and this is the way in which community as such. On the other hand, its experiential memory achieves it spatial in your face poetics and the re-appropria- extension.” The issue of physical experi- tion of the visual vocabulary to which the ence raises the question whether what’s the moral majorityappeals when it aims to at stake are the viewers’ perceptions of discredit events such as Pride, were a sym- their own physical reactions or the reac- bol of (Q)queer strength. tions of the body of the Other and the Other’s corporeality. And what does this What needs to be explicitly addressed is have to do with art and activism? A lot, if the problem of the theatrical context and a successful performer in the role of the the boundary that separates art from ac- Other or the Double Other, who arrives tivism. The political context of the theatre after the Žižekian “neighbour”, that is, eve- based on the physical co-presence of the rybody that is not I, through processes of performer and the audience has a great identification and rejection, curiosity and transformative power but is often of a lim- disgust, shame and comprehension, with ited expiration date. In view of their transi- a perceptive and emphatetic viewer man- tory and fleeting nature, thethere and then ages to build a relationship of mutual rec- often remain trapped in their own spatial ognition of humanity, a relationship which and temporal signifiers and the only way eventually leads to an opening of space for to transcend them is through the mem- a potential dialogue. This is the territory ory of what Gernot Böhme calls atmos- where boundaries between art and activ- pheres, i.e. “spheres of presence”. As Erika ism gradually get blurred and even erased.

16 The Bulgarian performer Ivo Dimchev for the prestigious Bessie Award. created the character of Lili Handel, Activist and political elements in the Festi- whose body tells the story through age- val’s program are not limited to Ivo Dim- ing, smudged make-up, and the expiration chev’s performance. Corpo Illicito: The Post- of the body’s existence. The performer Human Society 6.9 is the third performance tries to prolong his life duration by selling from the Mapa/Corpo series by the col- his own image which he does by shout- laborative team La Pocha Nostra. Latin ing “Take a picture! Take a picture!” to the American performance artists Guillermo photo reporter who is present in the au- Gómez Peña and Michèlle Ceballos staged dience. The artist subjects his own body a radical story about the Other, a story to strenuous enervation and with an al- about colonialism, about the disciplining of most lyrical voice in a frenetic alliance of the brown body, both Latin and Arab, but physical discomfort and vocal expressiv- also a story about redemption. When the ity painstakingly draws his own blood on acupuncturist inserts needles with Ameri- stage and raises the blood-filled vial in the can flags into the female body laid out on air offering it up for bid and is determined the table, she brings to life the eco-femi- not to give up the sale until he gains profit nist analogy between the incursions on from his own blood and sweat. He finally the female body and the colonial territo- succeeds in doing this, which represents a rial occupation. The fact that the volunteer continuation of the theatre tradition that lying on the table was Biljana Kosmogina, had its origins in Richard Schechner’s Com- a Belgrade journalist, writer, and an activ- mune from 1970 when it was left up to the ist for women, minority, and LGBT rights, viewers whether the show would contin- gives additional weight to the perform- ue or not. The director randomly selected ance. The link is clear: America would exist 15 members of the audience and invited even if Columbus had not discovered it, but them in a circle on the stage explaining it would be outside of the western white to them that they had been assigned the man discourse. Amidst other powerful im- role of a Vietnamese villager. The viewers ages, which make this performance piece had four different options to choose from. an activist tableaux vivant, one image stands They could either enter the circle, find out. This is the image that is connected to somebody from the audience to take their the illusory nature of the threat that the place, go home - which would not stop Others represent. In one instant, Peña is the show – or stay in their seats and be seen kneeling on the edge of a raised plat- responsible for the performance ending. form, empty handed, with his shirt unbut- Therefore, non-participation was not al- toned and one leg of the trousers rolled lowed. Almost four decades later, when Ivo up to the thigh. He is wearing a phantom Dimchev refers to our own participation hoodie used by terrorists to conceal their in this neo-liberal game which goes by the identity. The performance artist is without name of commodification, in which -peo identity - vulnerable and different with a ple, things, and ideas have their price and military boot on one foot and a high heel expiration date, and consequently by hold- shoe on the other. A man from the audi- ing the performance in the Zagreb Pup- ence who is given a replica of a machine pet Theatre, which is by definition a space gun aims the gun at Peña’s head. The image where culture is commodified, the art- of power relations becomes crystal clear ist sends an unambiguous and somewhat at that moment, but fortunately it is not painful message. Dimchev’s importance is the last image the audience is left with. The also confirmed by his recent nomination last image was the image of decolonializa-

17 tion. Everybody who wanted to could have ist invited the members of the audience come onstage and pulled out one of the onstage and after he was surrounded by acupuncture needles from Biljana Kosmo- the viewers, amongst whom some were gina and by this act decolonize her and standing while others were sitting in chairs put an end to the farce. Media reporting or on the floor, Hennessy started to cre- on the show was far less rewarding than ate very carefully a web both literally and was the end of the performance. The art- figuratively and he did this first by insert- ists re-interpreted the Christian iconologi- ing a needle with a red thread through his cal theme of Pietà in a scene in which a skin and afterwards by inserting the same woman with naked breasts dressed in a thread through the clothes of the mem- Latin American national costume with a bers of the audience and so symbolically masque of a chimpanzee on her head and united his own blood with the blood of the word odio written over her breasts the others. The pain experienced by the held in her arms another entirely naked audience was an indirect pain, an illusion woman and Peña shouted “That’s the final of pain, in the same way as theatre visits image! Photographers, go for it!” and by are experiences of life. At the same time, this act almost prophetically predicted the the performer’s body felt real pain and headlines of articles and photo galleries in by this, the make-believe element of the the Croatian media. Nudity in Jedinstvo for theatre was eliminated and the blood was a Society Without Borders and Naked Women transformed into reality, which was further in Passionate Physical Games were just some underscored by a sentence that accompa- of the headlines. nied the viewers on their way out: “All the references to Joseph Beuys cannot cure The American performance artist Keith pain, confusion, regret, cruelty, or trauma.” Hennessy in his piece Crotch performed in Unfortunately the often-utopian strength the Zagreb Dance Centre at the same fes- of performance lies in the fact that the tival edition also established close contact performance artist, by subjecting his or with the audience. The performer who is her body to certain bodily practices, takes always the Other does not share the space over the role of the vessel of sadness, pain, with the audience, given that his space is and misfortune and so turns the perform- the stage and the audience’s space is the ance space into a space of empathy. A par- auditorium. Hennessy dedicated his entire allel can be drawn to Marina Ambramović’s performance to Joseph Beuys and his idea performance in which the artist gets saved of social plastic, the expanded concept of by viewers who react to her physical suf- art in which every person has the creative fering in accordance with their own ethical potential indispensable for the transforma- judgments. tion of society. The audience participated multiple times in Hennessy’s performance. Diana Pornoterrorista, in her performance They ate chocolate, browsed through the piece shown at the Autonomous cultural scenography and the props, photo docu- centre Medika during the ninth edition of mented the show at its very beginning, Queer Zagreb in 2011, tackled the topics during the raising and the lowering of the of post(porn), queer, and trans(feminism) canvas on which Hennessy wrote the his- as well as diverse political issues. Some tory of art and philosophy in the set time considered her performance unneces- framework of 7 minutes, and at the very sary, some despicable, others entertain- end of the piece the audience participated ing, some thought provoking. On the one in an intimate symbolic bonding. The art- hand, the basic premise of the performance

18 was to talk openly about oneself through Raimund Hoghe’s minimalist choreography one’s body and sexual practices, and on to the music of Debussy and Ravel, his vi- the other hand, to condemn the array of sion of Swan Lake in which every dancer repressive methods that queer persons can either be the White or the Black Swan, throughout the world are subjected to. and his repeated presence onstage which By exploiting the dominant discourse of makes the audience acquainted with his conservative political options, a discourse physical appearance, short and with a hump which hyper-sexualizes queer persons by on his back, was a provocation in itself to placing the equal sign between people those viewers accustomed to the propor- and their sexual practices, and by re-ap- tionate bodies of dancers. There were also propriating their vocabulary and practices artists in drag who used cross-dressing as - a method historically used by many mi- a tool and a weapon, as was the case with nority groups in their fight for their rights, the African-American drag king DRED from African-Americans, to feminists and of DRED in her piece Gender-Illuminating finally to the queer population – the artist Woman. There were also artists who used openly put forward what she is supposed gender as another layer of meaning that to be ashamed of. That is, she presented is possible to literally strip down, as Mark the audience with an imperfect female Tompkins did in his Song and Dance, or art- BDSM body with the eyebrows perfo- ists who thought of gender as a given fact rated with medical needles, a body open which needed no additional explanations to accept a fist in the vagina just because as was the case with Antonia Baehr’s Rire. it wants to, a body which does not allow Jeremy Wade in I Offer Myself to Thee tack- to be disciplined because of an inappropri- led the physically and socially inappropriate ate desire, gender, or sexual orientation. grotesque elements of everyday life, that is, Her approach resembles the in your face physical reactions that are out of human theatre poetics based on Artaud’s concept control. By renouncing the glorification of of the theatre of cruelty which does not order and rationality over the different and let the audience watch the performance the unpredictable, he opened up a space of disinterestedly but forces them to engage freedom in which, in the guise of a sha- emotionally, to react, to create an opinion, man who uses light, sound, and movement, and to be constantly aware of the follow- he completely unwound and relaxed the ing image or scene, because they might get viewers and reconciled them to a theatri- the urge to join in or get up and leave. Di- cal and comforting it’s OK. ana Pornoterrorista’s performance once again confirmed the importance of space It needs to be said that the selection of the and the right to space, since besides the theatre performances at Queer Zagreb is right to body autonomy and sexuality we not an activist act in itself, nor are the ma- have the right to space. The squatted aban- jority of performances openly queer, since doned factory is one such space that cur- similar or even same shows could have been rently functions as an autonomous cultural presented at the Eurokaz Theatre Festival or centre. at the Contemporary Dance Week Festival as had been the case with Jérôme Bel’s dance La Pocha Nostra, Diana Pornoterrorista, work. The same can be said of the pieces Ivo Dimchev, and Keith Hennessy are en- shown at the Contemporary Dance Week gaged artists, but there are many others Festival which could have easily been pre- who contributed to the creation of the sented at Queer Zagreb – for example, the Festival’s identity with their performances. monodrama Look, Mummy, I’m Dancing,

19 in which the Belgian transsexual actress, in front of us is responsible and ethical screenwriter, and radio-hostess Vanessa journalism, words that sometimes need to van Durme talks about her sex change be looked up in the dictionary of foreign operation and the life of a transsexual words. Both in domestic and world media woman, or Errance by the Haitian chore- we need to look into the politics of editing, ographer and dancer Ketty Noël, in which journalistic (in)competence, and even the she portrays the suffering of the Other as underestimating of the readers. The case of an almost organic and tangible experience. reporting on the La Pocha Nostra perform- Each theatre performance is a political act. ance on a rather widely read mainstream What kind and how much of a political act web site was a slap in the face to the peo- it will be depends on the context in which ple who actually attended the perform- it is presented, and this context depends ance. The half-page long text reported on on the festival selectors and their ideologi- “naked female bodies in an uncontrolled cal position and economic goals. Given the sexual frenzy” and it neither informed the fact that Queer Zagreb has both a narrower reader of the political aspects of the per- and a wider definition, performance as the formance, of the dissection of racial, ethnic only performing art form at the Festival and gender stereotypes, nor did it enter can change its positions and accentuations, into a polemic about the sense or non- thus corresponding with the wider defini- sense of a potentially controversial image- tion, while the remaining events of the Fes- ry or about likely parallels with our own tival program are often more narrowly, that society. The situation, fortunately, is not is, topically defined. The Festival has, over desperate, as Queer Zagreb with its activi- the years, included non-performing or only ties managed to initiate a public discourse marginally performing arts. The program on all that cannot be reduced to a reper- also comprised feature, documentary, and toire that includes rosaries and Homeland, even pornographic films, exhibitions such or the Healthy Croat in a Healthy Hetero- as Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933- sexual Body poetics. From this perspective, 1945, presentations of published works its position as an artistic festival sets Queer amongst which Queer Fables and Queer Zagreb off centre stage in comparison with Stories stand out, conferences Heteronor- the more unambiguous activist efforts of mativity of Childhood and Cheers Queers, or Zagreb Pride Association, but the latter even public actions/performances such as lacks the discursive width of Queer Festival, the lesbian wedding of the ex-porn star, whereas only in unity do they transmit an sexual educator, and performance artist unmistakable message which addresses far Annie Sprinkle and her partner Elisabeth more issues than just gender and sex. Stevens, as well as the unveiling of the plaque in memory of Vladimir Nazor and In a society where children suffer abuse Ivan Goran Kovačić. because of a wrong hairstyle, wrong ac- cent, or wrong sexual orientation, a so- Who writes and what they write, how and ciety in which the Church and the State where one writes about performances are deeply involved in the personal lives that, regardless of their form, deal with of individuals and in which a motley crew serious social issues, is a matter of vital on the Split Promenade can cause public importance. After the curtains are drawn (out)rage and be accompanied by fascist and the collective memory fades what re- salutes, a society in which the football sup- mains are word-of-mouth communication porters of Dinamo and Hajduk can cause and the critical text. Ideally, what we have a traffic deadlock in the city centre, in such

20 a society the young people of today should invest their energy in their personal edu- cation and the creation of a better world. In such a society it is of vital essence to encounter the Other both inside oneself as well as in others who surround us, as repression and denial of what is innocu- ous can only bring about the death of the individual. If we want a society in which hu- man rights are respected, we need to edu- cate the public on all levels. This education includes seeing, speaking out, and writing about all that we do not understand or, what’s worse, do not want to understand. The famous words of Martin Niemöller, the German Lutheran Pastor and oppo- nent of Nazi ideology: “First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade un- ionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me,” might be the easiest way to express why this festival is an aesthetic weapon in the hands of the activists as much as an indicator of the ac- tive spark of every artistic creation.

Ivana Anić

21 The Concept of Political in the Plays Cowardice and Zoran Đinđić by Oliver Frljić

Twenty years after the breakup of Yugo- es of long term dictatorship. In his text slavia and ten years after the fall of the New Views of the Political in Theatre: the Case Milošević regime, the theatre in Serbia has of the Ex-Yu issued in the Teatron magazine, turned to plays that in a brave and pro- theatrologist doctor Ivan Medenica stress- vocative way deal with our past, most of- es the link between current circumstances ten leaning on documentary material. Of and those from the end of the twentieth course, the reasons for the investigation century. He also stresses that the criti- of consequences of political repression cally engaged theatre does not need to and wars can be found exactly in the shift change its focus but that that focus needs of these two decades – the time that has to be broader and needs to become much passed since the breakup of Yugoslavia gives sharper, more penetrative, comprehensive us a corresponding shift to the question and more multi perspective. that is not only political but also personal, stressing the importance of dealing with The motive for dealing with Yugoslavian the past and taking personal responsibil- myths and the dark nineties is not only ity. The importance of the development of the marking of the twentieth anniversary this kind of theatre in Serbia is so much of the breakup of the country. Nationalism greater taking into consideration that, up of the Milošević period is getting stronger until perhaps two seasons ago, our theatre today through different right-wing organi- has avoided a critical relationship towards zation, while structures responsible for the political past, as well as confrontation the crime in the civil war at the beginning with collective blame, while the public in of the new millennia assassinated prime- Serbia still distances itself from facing the minister, most probably with the support weight of war crimes and the consequenc- of authorities. Return to power of certain

22 representatives of the previous regime can precise theatrical means he investigates only make confronting past crimes made the responsibility of the audience through in the wars of nineties more complicated. the actors’ responsibility for, as Medenica Only the perception of the relationship states in his text, “participating in the ex- between therein and recent problems is perience that will happen to them in the reason enough to view these two peri- theatre, and which can be very disturbing, ods together and treat them critically as not necessarily only on a moral or spiritual a whole. plan, but also in a pure perceptive, senti- mental way”(1). Therefore, the important When talking about a documentary tem- characteristic of Frljić’s theatre is that he plate as the starting point of most of the uses the document not only as a means of politically engaged shows of the region, critical questioning of our recent history, we are faced with two different directions but also because in terms of researching in the approach and in the process of the as to how this template will, through a cer- mentioned document – one is that which tain theatrical language, be accepted by the was made through the collaboration be- viewers. This can best be seen in the last tween the director, actors and a group of scenes of Kukavičluk (Cowardice) and Đinđić, dramaturges that shape the confessions which we will say more about in the pages of the actors and their personal memo- that follow. ries into material that makes a significant For the interpretation of Frljić’s poetics on part of the show (Hipermnezija (Hypermne- the engaged theatre and the clear critical sia) by Selma Spahić, Rođeni u Yu (Born in interpretation of both recent and ex-Yu the Yu) and Patriotic Hypermarket by Dino conditions, Hans-Thies Lehmann’s theory Mustafić). On the other hand, we have di- about post-drama political theatre is es- rector Oliver Frljić’s work for whom the pecially important. In his book Post-drama document is only a starting point that he Theatre, the German theorist, among other develops in the personal poetry of mixing things, questions the possibilities of point- fiction and reality, constantly challenging ing out the political aspect in contemporary the reactions of the audience, and the non theatre, how much it deals with public eve- stop questioning of the theatre’s role, the ryday life and in what ways it can be done. possibilities of the existence of the truth “The theatre as a means of class-specific inside of him in contrast to reality. In this propaganda or political auto-affirmation sense, the focus of this essay will be on which is a sociological and political anach- two of the shows that Frljić has directed ronism, and the theatre as a media of the in Serbia, and that are based on a docu- revelation of social pathologies can hardly mentary template, radically and directly be compared to the media, news, maga- treating the independence of Kosovo, the zines, and newspapers that are respond- relations between Serbs and Hungarians ing more and more quickly.” (2). Lehmann’s (Kukavičluk (Cowardice) NP Subotica, a thesis is primarily that the theatre has to drama in the Serbian language), as well as avoid daily political, almost reporter-like the assassination of Zoran Đinđić (Zoran dramaturgy, and find other means of criti- Đinđić, Atelje 212). cally reacting while also leaving the com- menting of current political questions to The importance of Frljić’s opus is found the media and to the public, because “the in the bravery of the director pointing theatre is no longer a place in which social out delicate subjects of our past as well conflicts of value are happening and are as in his approach to the subject. With being thematized.”(3) However, this kind

23 of testimony on the position and function out the problem with which today’s soci- of the contemporary theatre, as well as of ety is struggling, but also to find adequate the connection of political and post-drama scene solutions, to question all the possi- theatre can hardly be completely affirmed bilities of the theatre and find the right way when talking about theatre in the region. to implement the documentary template. All that Lehmann is argumentatively saying in his book would be acceptable if the Ser- Frljić and Lehmann also represent two dif- bian public, its media and its politicians felt ferent views of the power and the possibil- any kind of responsibility in the civil war, in ity of the theatre to influence an individual. its consequences and in the huge spread of According to Lehmann, the theatre cannot nationalism. All the problems of the nine- quintessentially contribute to a greater ties, from isolation and the assassinations and a more serious change. Frljić is a little of reporters, to religion and national in- closer to Breht in terms of these views and tolerance are being transferred onto the holds the idea that the theatre can push the next decades. For the domestic public, as viewer towards revolution and wishing for well as for the theatre in a way, the for- changes. In Frljić’s plays the belief that the bidden subjects remain the ones that deal theatre can be a starter and an anticipator with the responsibility for war crimes, of of revolution and changes can be clearly which the best example is the persistent seen, thus the aspiration of the theatre to negation of the genocide in Srebrenica. change social relations is not a new thing. In his dialog with Lehmann, published in “The question of political theatre in the Teatron, Frljić highlights, “Lehmann’s rejec- conditions of informational society is be- tion of the idea about the theatre as an ing radically transformed. Displaying the anticipator or an accelerator or, why not, a persons on stage that are being politically starter of the revolution inside social cir- discriminated is not making the theatre cumstances, should be discarded. Instead, political. (…) It can hardly be said that the conditions should be found to bring back theatre can be more political by directly the hypothesis about the theatre as a gen- thematizing areas of politics.”(4) Accord- erator of overall social changes.” (6) Also, ing to Frljić, this is not the case anymore: looking at Frljić’s work, we cannot easily “Since the theatre has lost its monopoly accept Lehmann’s belief that the political in representing the whole of the political theatre is always pointed towards follow- society, it has turned to the implicitly po- ers, with which Lehmann, among other litical.” (5). As has been said earlier, the things, argues the statement of the impos- public in Serbia is the first that is not ready sibility of a more serious change. Frljić’s to talk about the important social and po- ideal viewer is not one that represents his litical weight that has been following us for opinion or by nodding his head accepts the last twenty years. This is why the the- the critique of celebrating war criminals as atrical scene is completely and legitimately Serbian heroes. Quite the contrary. Frljić’s becoming a place in which issues such as ideal viewer is one that doesn’t share the these can be freely and bravely spoken same opinion as the director himself, one about, for example Kosovo and the issues who expresses his disagreement by pos- of war, as well as about the power that the sibly walking out of the room or by clear- institution of the church has in this coun- ly objecting to the scenes that are being try. Of course, it is important to mention played in front of him. To demonstrate this that both Frljić and Lehmann themselves best perhaps is the example of a scene in agree that it is not enough to only point the play Kukavičluk, which was performed

24 in Subotica, in which one of the actors consideration that the audience is almost walks out into the audience, pushing be- being forced to listen. The audience might tween the rows, randomly asking provoca- want to look away, it might even want to tive questions about the trial of a folk sing- leave the room, but what is certain is that, er, about stands towards homosexuals, the at that given moment, the crime becomes Generals in the Hague, making the viewer clear and visible. You cannot run away from answer shortly, with only a yes or no. This the consequences. The last scene does not kind of procedure, which does not allow only point out the existence of the geno- cornered viewers to think or even explain cide, but also of our insufficient courage their stand, making him unprotected and to deal with it. However, it is not only the naked in front of everybody, is an act of the mentioning of the Srebrenica victims that emphasis of the problem, a kind of scanning makes the last scene of the show mean- of the audience that Frljić does before he ingful. It is also the means by which it is confronts it with the final scene of the play being conducted - in an exquisite staticity, – accepting of the existence of genocide the silence in the room, the flat tone that during the war in Bosnia. is being used to pronounce the names, without any physical activity, or any kind In the last scene of Kukavičluk, the actors of other elements following on the scene. that are sitting on the edge of the stage re- In this way, the accent is completely on cite all the five hundred names of Bosnians the senses, the experience is less theatri- killed in Srebrenica. The importance of cal and perhaps closer to radio form. The this scene is primarily in the courage and actors pronounce all the names in a cold readiness of the director to directly speak manner, however, the distance is not com- about something that the highest govern- pletely there, and the effect that is being ment officials do not want to face, thus, it made by this procedure is highly emotional is acceptable, even desirable, to thematize and disturbing for the audience. In this way, the constant denying of the responsibility Frljić moves the boundaries of scene en- of Serbia for the crime. At that moment, actment with a clear critical stand towards the genocide is not being looked upon as the cowardly relation of society towards an abstract crime over some group of peo- a specific crime. The responsibility of the ple. Listening to the names and surnames viewer is not separated from the respon- of every human that was killed makes the sibility of the actors of the play – “the indi- genocide rather real. Of course, we can- vidual responsibility of the actors on both not say that Lehmann and Frljić completely sides of the ramp is one of the deepest lay- differentiate in their theories of political ers of the political in the theatre in terms theatre. Frljić accepts and uses Lehmann’s of the spirit of Lehmann.”(8) thesis about the aesthetics of responsibil- ity, because through this final scene the au- Frljić extends the responsibility of the ac- dience becomes aware of their personal tors towards the past and the present onto and social responsibility. “The aesthetics of questions of responsibility that the actors responsibility is based on a special way of take towards the characters they play. At observing the social reality and putting the the very beginning of the show, one of the viewer of the theatrical show into situa- actresses steps out and tells the audience tions to which he has to actively relate and that the actors of the show are acting in it in this way confront his personal presence under extortion, that they are being made, which makes him responsible for his deci- under threat of being fired, to express po- sions.” (7), which Frljić does if we take into litical stands that they themselves do not

25 agree on. It is important to say that this uncontrolled, almost animal like capture statement is far from the truth, that it is and arrest, with resistance, screaming, and only a part of Frljić’s constant play with re- a chase from the stage into the audience ality and fiction in theatre, the questioning and them being dragged into the court- of the documentary template against the room. It is not only that compulsion and aspect of the personal, intimate interpre- coercion are something very recognizable tation of our past, touching the history of to our society, but Frljić shows with this the Subotica theatre exactly at the time how much a person is ready to desper- of the formation of the KPGT. Actors with ately defy and run from fear of self knowl- panels around their necks for a moment edge, although it is all in vain. take the roles of the people that made the heart and soul of this theatre – Ljubiša By exploring the actor’s responsibility and Ristić, Dušan Jovanović, Inga Appelt, and the readiness of a person to face his per- Miodrag Krivokapić, suggesting that once sonal choices and actions, to discover cer- upon a time this was a place of brave and tain fears and dilemmas, Frljić continues to radical political and social engagement, deepen the representation of truth in the of innovative and fresh theatrical poet- theatre and questions again the bounda- ics. However, Frljić doesn’t allow the ac- ries of reality and fiction in the scene that tors to hold on to these parts, but in the through the confessions of the participants scene of the trial of the actors, every one problematizes the relationship towards of them gets sentenced to play – himself. the minorities in Vojvodina. It is no accident The actor no longer hides behind the fic- that the director sets the show precisely tive characters of the writers, “stoned in in Subotica, a city in the north part of Vo- his eternal existence”(9), nor is he trying jvodina, where Serbs and Hungarians live to be somebody else. He is made to be together. In this way, aside from critically what he is, and with that alone, he is re- analyzing Milošević’s Kosovo myth and the sponsible for what he is playing, going deep consequences of his politics and bombings, into his personal decisions and choices, he also highlights the question of the con- not running away from responsibility. The flict of the Serbs and the Hungarians. Lined responsibility is on the one hand personal one next to the other, the actors talk in and directed towards the political aspect, sequence about their experiences which, and on the other, it is purely artistic - act- in a way, relate to the relationship with ing for what it represents on the stage. In the Hungarian citizens. Then, from right to the same manner, giving us some sort of left, again in sequence, each of them talks reminiscence of the strength of the social about practically the same intolerance in critical theatre that the KPGT once had, Hungarian, only this time from the Hun- Frljić questions what kind of theatre we garian point of view. In this way, he talks need today and whether it can be devel- about the attack of the Serbians, among oped, he provides room to explore new whom there is, supposedly, one actor as possibilities of the influence of the thea- well, on a Hungarian. In another instance, tre in society, mentions Brecht’s ideas of it becomes a story about Hungarians that revolution, and actively includes the actors, attack a young Serb. This kind of inversion and with that the audience as well. The Ap- of statements does not have the function prehension and Trial of the actors by taking of searching for whether the statement of off the panels with names of former mem- the actors or actresses is true or made up, bers of the KPGT and the sentence to play nor which of the versions is correct, nor themselves is done through a very violent, is it trying to find the perpetrator. Playing

26 with the fictional and the real, Frljić shows appears to distance itself from the politi- that aggression and national intolerance cal plan and the journalist-like treatment is deeply rooted in our society, thus the of the documentary template, focusing on conflict on one side becomes the conflict the question of artistic freedom and the on the other. They are connected but also existence of censorship through working manipulated. on a play such as Zoran Đinđić. Two actors appear on the stage and interrupt the show Like the Kukavičluk (Cowardice) performed with the announcement that the work on in Subotica, in the show Zoran Đinđić,Oliver Đinđić had been stopped the very moment Frljić continues to investigate the ways in they found out they were being spied on. which the audience in the theatre will col- They then read to the audience a record lectively face the past and accept its per- that provides information about the begin- sonal responsibility, pointing out the im- nings of work on the play, disagreements portance of the possibility to talk about and conflicts between management, and what the public does not want to talk the director himself with the ensemble, about (one of the scenes in the play is only to call out all those that have left the also the trial of Vojislav Koštunica, which play (Anita Mančić, Jakov Jevtović, Dubrav- did not actually take place in reality). In the ka Mijatović, Marinko Madzgalj, etc.). First show of Atelje 212, Frljić touches on the of all, this kind of insight into the situation subject that has burdened Serbia for near- “behind the scenes” is not only a need to ly the last ten years. It doesn’t only deal “talk behind one’s back” about the con- with the assassination of the prime min- flicts among members of the team, but it is ister and the consequences that his mur- also very much a political context. No mat- der had on the development of the demo- ter what is true or made up in the state- cratic society, but also with the connection ment (the idea is not to tire the viewer between the government, the church and while trying to figure out the truth in the the military, thus trying to highlight the records), the fact that is being highlighted fact that the murder is a political act and is that today, theatre is not completely in- still an unresolved case. He also shows dependent and spared of censorship and with this play that the problems that cur- threats, hence the responsibility of the ac- rently press Serbia drag roots from the tors towards the role that has been given past, which is all thrown in the audience’s to them here gains a bigger dimension. The face in the first scene of the play – the actors come out from the show because glorification of war crimes, nationalists, a they do not have the courage to accept corrupt justice system, church pedophilia, their responsibility towards the charac- uncontrolled violence, the political repres- ters, while the fact that they are not ready sion and assassinations of journalists, the to take responsibility for their characters setting of embassies on fire and, of course, is a sign of the unreadiness of our society the assassination of Đinđić, thus insisting to take responsibility for the assassination. that it finally face the causes of our social Even Lehmann’s statement that the thea- and political downfall. Although in the play tre must not be a political commentary Frljić constantly refers to concrete events of reality, like newspapers or television, is from the recent past, to the relationship being denied here because it shows that between the state and paramilitary forma- even if the theatre’s critical commentary tions, and in this way investigates those is being initiated, it is not ruled out that it responsible for the assassination of the can be obstructed in this kind of system. prime minister, one of the last scenes only In this way, not even the theatre with its

27 participants is a completely free place for a NOTES provocative and brave confrontation, but it still has a certain effect and echo as is. 1. Medenica, 2011, p.11 2. Lehmann, 2002, p.122. The scene resources that Frljić uses are 3. Lehmann, 2002, p.123 a contrast to the final scene of Kukavičluk 4. Lehmann, 2002, p.124. (Cowardice). Although here we have mo- 5. Frljić, 2001, p.54 tionless actors, a physical staticity and the 6. Frljić, 2011, p.55 accent on the auditive, silence and modera- tion are being substituted by a microphone 7. Attila Antal,2011, p.20 and shouting, everything is magnified, high- lighted and aggressive, almost rebel like, 8. Medenica, 2011, p.16 and it all becomes more resemblant of a protest speech at a political forum. 9. Lehmann, 2011, p.51

As we have seen, the political engage- ment in Frljić’s case is large based on Le- hmann’s theory of post drama theatre. Through scenes of the trials of the actors in Kukavičluk (Cowardice) and the public re- vealing of the retreat of the actors in Zoran Đinđić, the importance of the actors’ tak- BIBLIOGRAPHY ing personal responsibility is being pointed 1.Hans-Thies Lehmann (2002). Post Dra- out, and with that, that of the viewer as matic Theatre - Epilogue (Part One). Tkh well, with the goal of critically viewing per- – Center for the theory and practice of the sonal acts connected to today’s political performing arts, no.3 April, pp. 122 – 125. circumstances. The importance of Frljić’s 2.Attila Antal (2011). The Political in Post theatre expression is found in the readi- Dramatic Theatre: The Recent Opus of An- ness to bravely and directly speak about dras Urban. Subotica, Fokus. the problems of our recent past, while at 3.Bertolt Brecht (1966). Dialectics in Theatre. the same time provoking the viewer to ac- Belgrade, Nolit. tively interpret scene acts, waiting on his 4.Ivan Medenica (2011). New Views of the reaction, while constantly playing with the Political in Theatre: The Case of the ex-Yu. theatrical and our own reality, moving thus Teatron, no.155/154 Spring/Summer, pp. 9 - 20. the boundaries of contemporary theatre 5.Oliver Frljić (2011). The Political and the in the region. Post Dramatic. Teatron, no.155/154 Spring/ Summer, p.54. 6.Nataša Govedić (2011). Will the Truth Set Us Free? Teatron no. 154/155 Spring/Summer, Tamara Baračkov pp. 26 – 33.

28 On the Borders of Visibility From observer to participant

“Does modern art have any visible social isting hegemony.(2) Despite this, defining effect or political importance?” asks art- the concept of public art or art in a public ist Artur Zmijewski. While speaking about space remains controversial in the sense shame as a barrier for rebellion, he disap- of modern theory and critique, and eve- pointedly states that “art can be politically ry discussion about it inevitably brings to oriented, as long as it remains at a distance question the theory of the public sphere from politics; it can work politically inside and democracy, which complicates things a gallery, but not in public discussions.”(1) even more. However, the fact that art holds the para- What is of interest to us here is the role doxical position of the involved observer the public sphere plays in art and in the cannot be denied, as it has developed public space and, more importantly, the role strategies of social critique. In this sense, that this kind of art could play in the public we are talking about an art that tackles sphere. The lack of artistic discourse that the construction of public space and social formulates this problem in an appropriate relationships, or perhaps it even produces manner is precisely the reason why politi- them itself. According to Chantal Mouffe, cal theory is essentially resorted to when this is an art that “encourages disagree- discussing public art today. In her essay Ag- ment and reveals that which dominating oraphobia, Rosalyn Deutsche suggests that consensuses try to exterminate,” and it public art should be that which partakes consists of a series of practices whose in the political space or that which creates goal is to give a voice to those who have it. Similarly, “the artistic public, in contrast been shushed in the framework of the ex- to the artistic audience, is not made into

29 an entity ahead of time, but instead occurs yet to be invented. and is created by its own participation in political activity.” Hence, art in a public Seeing the Other space includes its audience in the discus- sion or it partakes in political battle, thus I will begin with a few related examples contributing to the production of the pub- from an international context. Santiago lic sphere. Sierra, a Spanish artist, often uses contro- Nonetheless, my intention isn’t to give my versial methods in order to point to the opinion in regards to this discussion, but problematic position of immigrants and to present concrete examples of works the exploitation of workers (especially that deal with the relationships of power those that are not registered) in the capi- in society, with the question of ethnic- talist system. Sierra attracted attention ity, and the (de)construction of the other, because he blurred the lines between ar- thus depraving the dominant representa- tistic collaboration and exploitation when tion models, while primarily focusing on he paid workers minimum wage for do- projects by artist Andreja Kulunčić. She ing pointless manual labour, such as push- deals with participatory art and projects ing large cement blocks around the gal- that address social themes that are spe- lery space. This leads to the impairment cific for a certain area, while at the same of their humanity to objects in a situation time trying to include the greatest number in which visibility is achieved only through of participants and experts as possible in complete pointlessness, as Heidi Kellett order to find new ways of communication. describes.(3) For example, the work of art This kind of practice can be called rela- titled Workers Who Can’t be Paid, Remuner- tional art (Nicolas Bourriaud), and it deals ated to Remain Inside Cardboard Boxes (Ber- with a “series of artistic methods whose lin, 2000), consisted of six boxes inside theoretical and practical starting point lies which Chechnyan workers were closed in the overall human relationship and so- for four hours a day. These workers, being cial context, and not in some independent refugees, had to be paid in secrecy. Kel- and private space.” The abandonment of lett states that Sierra is in the position of the museum exhibition model is also an “jeopardizing the mental, physical, social, important aspect, since art takes on a po- and emotional health of his subjects, be- litical dimension when it enters the public cause they do not exist within the legal sphere. However, Kulunčić does not com- parameters of the country in which the pletely throw away the white cube. Indeed, work of art is being exhibited.” the majority of her work, after the initial presentation in a public space, returns to Krzysztof Wodiczko, a Polish artist, uses the museum or the gallery. The artist her- the term xenology (“the science of foreign- self explains this by stating that she doesn’t ers”) to describe his own personal activity, consider the white cube a neutral space, an while reexamining the sustainability and emptiness in which there are no appointed success of democracy. This is a multime- attitudes, stereotypes or discourses ahead dia research production project in which of time. Apart from being extremely prob- Wodiczko constructs various instruments lematic, this claim points to the fact that that allow immigrants to speak in a public despite the fact that the traditional mu- space. One of these examples is the Alien seum model isn’t adequate anymore for Staff (Immigrant Instruments, 1992), a staff the (re)presentation of artwork in a public that has a small monitor and speaker on space, new and appropriate models have it, which can be used by immigrants to ad-

30 dress the public and to communicate with metaphor and the idea are stressed (even it. The second work of art that is interest- in his series of artwork titled Immigrant ing in this context is Guests (2009), which Instruments, which are intended for use in was exhibited at the Polish Pavilion at the the public space). His video titled Guests 53rd Venetian Biennial. This project also is traditional, that is, he doesn’t radically deals with the visibility of immigrants, that disrupt the museum exhibition model and is, it points to the inability of their equal he isn’t inclined towards direct action, but presence and participation in the public instead towards creating an ambient. An- sphere. The work of art consists of a pro- dreja Kulunčić’s approach is most similar jection of windows that are incorporated to that of Hansel Sato. The news, newspa- into the architecture of the pavilion. The pers, advertisements, and billboards are all projection shows immigrants washing the a part of our everyday lives and they are windows of the pavilion, conversing about thus a means of consuming stereotypes their problems such as the legalization of and prejudices. An intervention into such their stay, unemployment, etc. However, contents is an indirect and subversive way since the glass is blurry, the picture that of speaking up, and it can be compared to we perceive isn’t entirely clear. In this way, Sierra’s work in terms of the shock-effect, Wodiczko points to the ambivalent posi- although it operates on a level of aware- tion of immigrants: we are aware that they ness raising, encouragement to think criti- are around us, but we don’t really notice cally and to reshape the consciousness. them.

Hansel Sato, and artist from Peru and Vi- Us and Them enna, also deals with the post-migrant subject. His work of art Osterreichische In each of the above-mentioned examples, Nachrichten (2010) was presented in the we are faced with the concept of migrants form of a daily newspaper. By exploiting not only as individuals who are on the edge the typical visual language of the yellow of social invisibility, but also as apartheids, pages, he parodies the Austrian right-wing or as that which Giorgio Agamben defines newspaper, thus placing himself within the as homo sacer. By referencing Roman law, tradition of guerilla marketing. However, Agamben talks about a person who is ex- by altering the context of the news by cluded from society and with whom the inserting messages that speak against dis- sovereign power deals beyond the borders crimination, xenophobia, and racism, Sato of the law. This often means that migrants criticizes depictions of immigrants and for- are placed in the position of slaves, that is, eigners in media pamphlets, and points to emphasizing the fact that he is excluded the role of media in the reproduction of from society – not entirely however, be- racism. cause society needs his workforce. In terms of this, the residence of the worker All three of the above-mentioned artists is always considered as being exclusively deal with the same theme, but use differ- temporary, and because of this, the worker ent methods in doing so. In order to point can never become a proper citizen. The out the border-line legal status of immi- State, thus, labels immigrants, but it doesn’t grants, Sierra himself chooses a border-line want to completely ban them from its bor- legal and morally questionable approach, ders, and in this way executes its bio-po- and his works of art are brutal, direct, litical surveillance over guest workers and and actionist. In Wodiczko’s artwork the illegal workers.

31 Here, we are talking about the relationship lar disciplines, to the point where it be- towards migrants who are called, accord- comes more and more difficult to differ- ing to certain ethnic theories, the differen- entiate between them. Thus, works of art tial exclusion. This is a situation “in which take on a social responsibility, as they deal migrants are included in certain social are- with themes that are of social and politi- as (above all, in the labour market), but on cal importance and they, in general, play an the other hand, they are unable to enter active role in formulating problems – art other areas of life and the operation of the becomes “a state of encounters.” Accord- local society, and they are thus forced to ing to Suzana Milevska, this also includes live on the margins, in the suburbs of a so- the question of the other in society. She ciety that, at any price, wants to preserve sees art as a reaction to social demands myths about their cultures being static.”(4) for marginalized groups that are unable to In modern society, nationalism and the idea participate in the social environment or of citizenship form the dominant model of in public cultural life, to be seen.(7) The belonging. In this framework, the migrant projects that I am going to talk about in takes on the role of the foreigner,(5) which the text that follows, I’ve singled out be- is a figure that represents a threat, an ele- cause all three were exhibited in a public ment of backlash in the homogeneity of space and they deal with the question of national identity. He is neither a friend nor the nation, that is, the belonging of immi- an enemy, but instead represents the pen- grants, as well as with their representation etrability of the internal and the fallibility in the media but also in the social con- of the movement. Foreigners are the oth- sciousness. ers, those who already belong somewhere, but have stepped outside of their own Be quiet and do your work! borders. The work of art titled Bosnians Out! (Work- In many of Andreja Kulunčić’s works the ers Without Boundaries) was created for the foreigner plays the leading role. To avoid exhibition titled Museum on the Streets at being pathetic or stressing the exoticism the Modern Gallery in Ljubljana (October/ of the other, she doesn’t deal with the sto- November 2008). It was presented in col- ries and fates of the individual, but instead laboration with Osman Pezić, Said Mujić, presents her examples as symptoms of and Ibrahim Ćurić, construction workers broader problems and conditions of so- from Bosnia who renovated the Gallery. ciety. As Silva Kalčić explains, the artist The artist’s intention was to, in her own takes her methodology from sociology words, “open up new channels of commu- and marketing and interferes with the reg- nication for workers to enable them to ac- ular media flow, thus inviting the audience tively communicate with the public in re- to actively participate, and in this way es- gards to their situation in Ljubljana.” The tablishes “interdisciplinary networks that topics at hand were related to urban mar- recognize artwork as a process of col- gins: migrants, strategies of survival, hostels laboration (co-creation) and self-organiza- for workers, forms of self-organization, etc. tion.”(6) Since “changes in the function of Kulunčić used the fact that it was precisely artwork and the manner of its represen- these types of people who worked on the tation represent the growing urbanization renovation of the Gallery, and thus de- of the artistic experience,” as Bourriaud cided to include them in the artistic proc- points out, art thus becomes intertwined ess. In an interview, she explained that the with sociology, ethnology, and other simi- theme of multidisciplinary collaboration

32 and the destabilization of the institution of the fact that progressive institutions such authorship don’t destabilize her, but on the as galleries and museums, even when deal- contrary, that they make her stronger. “Al- ing with the theme of migration and social lowing or releasing doesn’t mean destabi- integration, require the labour of these lization and renouncement of authorship, same migrants. Here, Kulunčić brings the but it changes the form of authorship. For workers “from the shadows” and they me, authorship is collaboration.” (8) thus become participants in the creation of a work of art, by choosing their own The idea of realization with combined ef- way of representation. “I stand up for a forts consisted of five versions of post- certain group of people, I work with them ers that were exhibited in the form of and I try to give them the tools that will city lights in the center of Ljubljana, which help them to strengthen their positions were taken down by local authorities with- (…) I’m not trying to be the mediator, but out any explanation during the duration of instead, I try to enable those involved to the exhibition (they were put back after directly participate,” explains the artist. In reactions in the media). The posters con- this manner, the disempowered subjects tained quotes in Slovenian and English (e.g. shift, if only temporarily, from an inferior Enough for you!, Tiho bodi pa delaj! (Be quiet to a superior position. (10) However, it and do your work!), Za kogar je, dobro je! (This is necessary to stress this temporality, but is good enough for them!)), and were divided also to raise awareness regarding the dou- into two parts: on one part, there was a ble altruism and the privileged position of photograph of a luxury Slovenian home, the intellectual artist who puts herself in and on the other, there was a worker, a the position of the mediator, and in the Bosnian migrant, on a construction site, in end, she is the only one who gets any sort a hostel for workers, looking at the photo- of recognition (the workers are only rec- graph of the family/luxury home, etc. This ognized because their names are listed in almost caricature-like stereotypical image the description of the work of art). This of the worker, in his construction outfit is why her cooperative-participative ap- with a helmet on his head eating his lunch, proach nonetheless maintains elements of is in direct opposition to the idyllic image the self-affirmative figure of the author. of the life of a Slovene. Despite the fact that they represent the source of a (cheap) A Career as a Janitor or Cleaning labour force and in this way contribute to Lady economic development, migrants pose a challenge for the nation’s identity, which The work of art titled Austrians Only was stresses the dominant culture’s unwilling- created in 2005 in the framework of the ness to accept foreigners. In other words, regional Festival that, with each new edi- “we are witnesses to the gap between the tion, deals with a certain area of Upper conditions of economic development and Austria and its specifics as well as -prob participation, and social and political de- lems. Kulunčić presented her artwork in velopment (…) in which low-skilled and the form of newspaper ads, posters, and non-qualified workers become victims of direct mail. Her focus were prejudices political alienation and the bearers of new and the more or less concealed discrimi- demands for citizenship.”(9) nation of foreign workers in Austria who The work of art Bosnians Out! doesn’t deal are “victims of economic, political, and with only the position of Bosnian workers social segregation, trapped in a system in Ljubljana, but also stresses the irony of of production without access to benefits,

33 and marginalized from complete participa- but instead tries to include her messages tion in society.” (11) The ads are simple, almost unnoticeably, which is enabled by bright-coloured, with motivating headlines, surreptitiously relocating or destabiliz- emphasized sections of “WANTED” and ing the observer. For the most part, the “OFFERRED,” along with a phone number media is responsible for the strengthening that people who are interested can call. of stereotypes and for suppressing differ- The artist explains that idea of the project ences, thus the decision to begin precisely was to come up with employment ads that with them to deconstruct myths regarding were exclusively aimed at Austrians, but national identity seems logical. these ads described working conditions to which they themselves would never agree, Anyone but a Roma! but which they consider appropriate for the others (non-Austrians). These are peo- Just like the communication instruments ple whose existence is ignored and sup- by Krzysztof Wodiczko give a voice to pressed, but who, at the same time, work immigrants in the public space, the inter- the most tedious jobs. At a glance, these ventions by Kulunčić in mainstream me- ads seem to be designed in an amateur dia content allow minorities in Croatia to manner, and they offered Austrian citizens make themselves seen in the public sphere. with high school diplomas or university The project titled About the State of the Na- degrees job positions such as janitors or tion (Miroslav Kraljević Gallery, 2008) was prostitutes, with all the benefits that go produced in collaboration with journalists along with them: low wages, strenuous and minority groups, and it can be com- labour with no breaks, no protection at pared to Sato’s Osterreichische Nachrichten. work or health care, no traveling expenses, All of these project function not only as no paid overtime, no legal status or access a critique of social segregation based on to social networks, with the possibility of ethnic or national belonging, but also try to violence, exploitation, and racial or nation- come up with “models of creating tolera- alistic discrimination. tion and the possibility of deconstructing the other.”(13) The problem of the others Curators Ivana Bago and Antonija Majača isn’t present only marginally – it involves call Andreja Kulunčić’s approach a tactic of the inability of full and equal participation mimicry, which is a skillful and subversive in cultural and political life, and with that, exploitation of conventional forms. At in the control of stereotypes and their re- a glance, these ads aren’t much different production via the media. Media discourse than typical mass media commercials and doesn’t only reflect social entities and re- ads. However, by utilizing this form but lationships, but it also forms and shapes by altering its content, the artist attempts them. Racist, sexist, homophobic, xeno- to “awaken” and almost shock the “ob- phobic, and other similar media discours- server,” thus “ejecting” him from a dazed es have concrete consequences in the real “state of spam,” saturation of consumer world. Since relationships of power are incentives, and the prevalent political pas- formed depending on who has access to siveness.”(12) This is manifested here with the media, on whose voice is heard and the reversal of roles – the undermining of whose is repressed, it is clear that the the sense of belonging and being privileged dominant group of people will have control in Austrians by facing them with ethnical over representation pamphlets. News on and class segregation. Kulunčić does not television, the Internet, and in the newspa- consider her work to be blatant activism, per contribute to the creation of an image

34 of a homogenous nation, while foreigners of skills and ideas, and collaboration with are automatically placed in specific (nega- various institutions are just some of the tively tainted) categories and are gener- ways in which the position of art within ally under-represented. The artist explains the social division of work becomes vis- that “opinions aren’t formed on the basis ible as a form of social work, as critic John of personal attitudes towards the other. Roberts explains. (16) The abandonment The aspect of the other is constructed in of the idea of the autonomy of author- us, mainly due to newspaper headlines and ship has opened up space for its definition subtitles.”(14) as multi-layered and scattered, while the figure of the individual artist has been re- Kulunčić and her associates published vi- placed with the idea of a collective. How- rus-news that remind the typical Croat ever, in the end, someone has to sign the about the existence of homosexuals, the work of art and take responsibility for Chinese, and the Roma people – groups it. Kulunčić isn’t just the coordinator or that are demonized and whose visibility organizer, but also the holder of the idea. is filtered in the public space. The tac- Although she always stresses the collabo- tics of mimicry once again proved to be ration with those who are excluded, and a good way of facing people of dominant always mentions her collaborators, she is cultures with their own prejudices as well ultimately the one who is responsible for as of changing the negative into the posi- the projects, and she travels in order to tive.The goal of inserting these virus-news exhibit them and obtains the resources, (which presented these minority groups and so on. This is why we can talk about in the same way that the general public is the scattering of the institution of the au- presented) was to open up a dialogue that thor only conditionally. would include the collaboration of both of these groups in an affirmative and educa- Ideally, art can occupy the public space and tional way. The artist explains that there disrupt the refined image of corporative isn’t a great similarity between the repre- capitalism. “Under capitalist conditions, sentation of homosexuals, Roma people, art, paradoxically, needs to be defended and the Chinese in the media.(15) The as being art, as the other in comparison intention of this complex and long-term to non-aesthetic reasoning, so that it can project wasn’t only to stimulate thinking resist complete instrumentalization,” about inclusion and exclusion mechanisms says critic John Roberts. Kulunčić her- and tolerance, but also to develop activ- self stresses that her goal was to provide ity models that help us overcome ethnical, tools for capitalism resistance, outside of national, and class discrimination, as well the classic political organization struc- as to form relationships with others based ture. However, in reality, art doesn’t have on “pleasurable antagonism” and dialogue, the power to bring down capitalism and and not on dominance, silencing, and vio- to create revolutionary changes, since it is lence. merely a part of capitalism. This doesn’t mean, however, that art is completely im- Where does activism end and art be- potent or that it becomes void with the gin? actual staging of rebellion. Its political po- tential and activity take place on a micro- Collaboration as a form of production level, where it creates points of resistance stresses precisely the socially conditioned with small and localized steps. In her work, character of art. Teamwork, the exchange Kulunčić poses the question about how art

35 can participate in the public sphere, how NOTES it can affect the creation of the discourse regarding the other and change the prevail- 1. Artur Zmijewski, “Primijenjena socijalna umjet- ing stereotypes, as well as what it means nost,” Život umjetnosti, number 83 (2008). to place certain groups of people on the 2. “Umjetnički aktivizam i agonistički prostori,“ Operacija: grad. Priručnik za život u neoliberal- borders of visibility and the law. However, noj stvarnosti (2008), Zagreb: Savez za centar za in the end, she remains in the elite cas- nezavisnu kulturu i mlade, Multimedijalni institut, Platforma 9,81 – Institut za istraživanja u arhitek- tle of art and distances herself from direct turi, BLOK – Lokalna baza za osvježavanje kulture, political action (“I don’t see my artwork SU Klubtura / Clubture. as open activism”), and when asked about 3.Heidi Kellet, “Santiago Sierra: Homo Sacer and the concrete results of her project and in- the Politics of the Other.” terventions, she stresses only that her goal 4. Ružica Čičak Chand, “Oblici etničnosti u Europi is to stimulate people to reexamine their i osnovne značajke odnosa zemalja imigracije prema novim etničkim manjinama“, Etničnost, personal attitudes and to listen to one an- nacija, identitet (1998), Zagreb: Institut za migrac- other. In other words, art remains a part ije i narodnosti, Naklada Jesenski i Turk, Hrvatsko sociološko društvo. of the system in this case, and not its sub- version. 5. See: Étienne Balibar, “Strangers as Enemies. Fur- ther Reflections on the Aporias of Transnational It is sometimes difficult to ask oneself how Citizenship“; i Zygmunt Bauman, “Modernity and to evaluate such projects or what the dif- Ambivalence,“ Theory, Culture & Society, no. 7 (1990). ference is between art and, for example, activism or sociological research. Or, “if 6. “Umjetnost bez iluzije“, ORIS: Časopis za arhitekturu i kulturu, no. 40 (2006). collaboration in art is part of the collective fight against the capitalist value form, then 7. Ibid. how can this activism be called art and 8.Petra Novak and Tamara Sertić, „Stvaranje mostova, From Consideration to Committment: not, for example, politics?”(17) Roberts Art in Critical Confrontation to Society: Belgrade, claims that it is impossible for art to com- Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb 1990-2010. pletely melt into social practice, because 9. Liette Gilbert i Mustafa Dikeç, “Right to the art always returns to the world of art in City: politics of citizenship,” Space, Difference, Everyday Life: Reading Henri Lefebvre (2008), NY order to confirm its status. Otherwise, we and London: Routledge. wouldn’t be able to differentiate it from 10. Ivana Bago and Antonija Majača, “Andreja other practices anymore. (18) I have to Kulunčić,“ katalog “Andreja Kulunčić“ (2009), admit that I don’t have an answer to the Novigrad: Galerija Rigo. question posed in the title excerpt. The 11.Note 13. above-mentioned works of art fall into the category of practices that are located on 12. Note 14. the unstable and undefined borders of dis- 13. Note 15. ciplines, and they represent a challenge for 14. Dea Vidović: “Razgovor s Andrejom Kulunčić“, traditional definitions and functions of art. katalog O stanju nacije (2008), Zagreb: GMK. Perhaps today, at a time of distinct inter- 15. For example, the Chinese see themselves as disciplinarity, there is no need to search oppressed, and they represent the smallest threat to the Croatian national identity. The Roma peo- for borders. Perhaps it is unnecessary to ple are the discriminated against the most: their broaden the range of activity, to give it new ethnicity is often stressed (e.g. A Roma killed…, but never A Croat killed…), or they are only al- forms and tactics, to legitimize differences lowed to speak about exclusively “Roma-related” and allow for participation, but instead, for topics. starters, to formulate a new understanding 16. “Collaboration as a Problem of Art’s Cultural about what art can do and what it repre- Form,“ Third Text, number 18:6 (2004). sents today. 17. Jasna Jakšić, “Zajednički rad,“Život umjetnosti, number 86 (2010). Tihana Bertek 18. Note 8.

36 Books without borders Regional literary manifestations and market ideology

Punctuated (r)evolution ideological tools: state, schools (Student Vukov Sabor marked its 41st anniversary “ I am happy and excited to see so many in 2012), academy and university, salon or book lovers. It is a rare sight, and it is even mainstream art, etc. Since 1964, the cen- more thrilling to be a writer in a nation of tennial of Vuk Karadžić’s death, Vukov Sabor so many readers. “ has grown from a local event to an impor- (Dobrica Ćosić, opening ceremony, Bel- tant state affair, which is the case to this grade Book Fair, 1996 ) (1) day. (2)

Vukov Sabor is a national festival and as Traditionally, cultural festivals in Yugoslavia such, it gathers a wide array of cultural began during the 1930s. The first and the segments and different types of art. How- oldest among them in Serbia and Yugosla- ever, it also specialises in annual confer- via – Vukov Sabor in Tršiće – was launched ences dedicated to individual segments in 1933 as an annual conference of cultural of culture and art. The first event of the workers, artists, academics and their au- festival variety in Yugoslavia (literature and dience. Its objective was to present and publishing) – The International Book Fair popularise national tradition and culture, – was also initiated in conjunction with the including the life and works of Vuk Karadžić state and its ideological apparatus in 1956. in national, cultural institutions. Since it It started in Zagreb, but was moved to Bel- was conceived as a national festival from grade the following year. In 2012, the 57th the start, Vukov Sabor has fulfilled this ideo- Book Fair was sponsored by the city of logical purpose during the last decades, as Belgrade; with minimal conceptual changes well as today, in conjunction with national since 2000 (such as, “honorary guest coun-

37 try” introduced in 2002). (3) into consideration external factors which influence the evolutionary flow. Gould and Meanwhile, many literary events have Elderedge’s theory was applied to humani- been established across Yugoslavia. Some ties in order to account for punctures in of them maintained their local significance, social evolution – in linguistics, sociology, while others became more widely known. political science, etc. (5) Changes in so- Poetry evenings in Struga were first held in cial systems are explained by rapid, radi- 1962, grew from a local event to a national cal changes that are caused externally and festival, and have been an international po- take over the entire system at once; not by etry festival since 1965, marking its 51st slow and gradual evolution of the system anniversary in 2012. The concept of the from within. In this way, the impact of ex- festival has been more or less the same ternal factors acquires more significance, since 1966 (in 2003, UNESCO award for because the system is influenced by condi- best newcomer was introduced). (4) tions and circumstances to a much larger degree in comparison to its gradual evolu- Therefore, during the 1960s, the so-called tion over time. cultural map of Yugoslavia was being drawn, at least when it came to literary festivals. When it comes to evolution of literary fes- In this relatively short time period, within tivals, we can apply the principle of punctu- merely two decades, a significant number ated equilibrium to explain their history, of festivals was launched, in addition to most importantly the external factors. If old events being redefined and reconcep- certain periods and eras were more suit- tualised. During the following four to five able for the establishment of literary festi- decades, however, the cultural map would vals than others, if there are periods when remain static and unchanged. No matter festivals are stagnant and inert, then there how rapidly it had evolved, it also went must be external, macrosociological factors into a long stasis very quickly. In a wider that shape this punctuated (r)evolution on context, the cultural map was drawn in the cultural scene. other areas, not just literature: majority of museums, libraries, galleries, some theatres, A cultural/art festival is any event which even universities were established in the is: a) periodical – usually annual, consigned 1960s. That was the formative decade for to a more or less specific time of the year; most institutions in the SFRY, after which then b) current – presents latest produc- they went into stasis. tion created in the interim; and c) within the public domain – there is interaction In 1972, Eldredge and Gould introduced with the audience: it is not a closed con- the theory of punctuated equilibrium in ference, its primary goal is promotion of the study of biological evolution as an culture to a large audience. There are oth- alternative to phyletic gradualism in the er features, such performance and unique- traditional understanding of evolution. ness (festival interacts with its audience According to phyletic gradualism, entire only at a certain venue and at a specific species evolved gradually, accumulating time); but this is secondary. Festivals are, mutations from generation to generation. therefore, all cultural events which occur Theory of punctuated equilibrium, on the periodically, present current content and other hand, points out the relevance of interact with audiences; including book statis during the evolution of species, as- fairs, conferences, literary evenings etc. suming cladogenesis of species and taking – all of these events are structurally and

38 ideologically similar enough to be subject sociated with. to this analysis. Cross-border In that respect, every festival aspires to become traditional, i.e. to take place suc- “The most important regional festival is cessively. Stases in the evolution of cultural Crocodile in Belgrade. It is now in its third festivals are immanent. With phases of year. It is a truly great event, with 600 to punctuated (r)evolution, however, when all 700 visitors. It lasts for three days, there of these festivals are frequently and quick- are five authors and a band. “ ly established within a short time frame, (Kruno Lokotar, interview for Radio Free they become specific to certain eras, and Europe )(6) their specificity can only stem from ideol- ogy. Therefore, it is not hard to guess why With the benefit of hindsight, especially the cultural scene of Yugoslavia needed to after political turmoil in Yugoslavia and draw its so-called cultural map during the regime change – and the ideological shift 1960s after the Second World War, the – it is easy to talk about that ideology. It Socialist Revolution and the end of the is more difficult to analyse current ideol- Informbiro. The young ruling class had to ogy, the one in which we live in, where we implement its ideology, which included cul- work and create, without the proper dis- ture and art. Literary festivals are part of tance and awareness. that, alongside literary criticism, publishing, literary awards, etc. (more often than not, The fact of the matter is that this essay festivals often unite all of that). Their ac- is produced under similar, if not identical, cess to large audiences is far more direct ideological conditions within the Criticize and systematic when compared to oth- This! project in support of regional art crit- er aspects of literary reception (such as icism by cultural associations from Zagreb, criticism, competitions, etc), which makes Belgrade and Ulcinj. Its position is shaped them all the more suitable for ideological by the dialectics of margin and mainstream and cultural propaganda. on several axes, as an alternative to nation- al cultural scene, but also central as a lib- So, when talking about “book lovers” and eral, regional alternative. It comes from a “the nation of readers”, Ćosić openly and radically left margin within the alternative uncritically caters to the ideological pur- centre, with the intention to criticise its pose and concept of these literary mani- liberalism within the mainstream, meaning festations. From his speech during the it has lost its marginal position, but not it opening of the Belgrade Book Fair in 1996, critical potential. Since this essay is spon- we could gather that literature in Serbia sored by the EU, but does not represent the and Yugoslavia exists because there are so opinion of the European Union and the Eu- many book lovers and the nation is packed ropean Union is not responsible or liable for with readers. In fact, it is the other way any use that might be made of information around – the nation of readers is produced contained herein, this means that the au- by fairs and festivals, just like the “the na- thor can talk using the means of the EU, tion of warriors” (a concept Ćosić is also within the discourse of the regional liter- familiar with) is an ideological construct ary scene, but may not share the views and supported by patriarchal and nationalistic opinions of either the EU or the literary mythology of Kosovo and Saint Sava, i.e., scene. In this kind of discourse, it is pos- the regime to which Ćosić is closely as- sible to speak of a regional literary scene

39 from a radically leftist point of view (in this into Festival of A-list literature. This ideologi- case neomarxist, with elements of decon- cal shift from alternative to quality is para- struction), despite – or precisely thanks to! digmatic in the context of regional festivals – the fact there is a multilayered structure, in general – more on that later. a web of different discourses. Half Way Through started in Užice in 2006. The puncture in the history and progress The festival focuses primarily on high of literary festivals in Yugoslavia which hap- school students and takes place within pened during the 1960s was not the only the premises of the local high school. As occurrence of that kind in their evolution. such, it shares a lot of similarities to Stu- Something very similar took place in the dent Vukov Sabor or the school day at the past decade. Since 1995, there has been a Belgrade Book Fair; but the ideology is dif- book fair in Pula – I dream about books in ferent – which is the reason why it started Istria, now in its 18th year. The 35th Interlib- in the first place. The festival promotes er, part of the Zagreb Fair, also acquired a contemporary post-Yugoslav cultural and regional dimension after 2000. The former literary regionalisation, while the other function of the Belgrade Book Fair in Yu- more traditional literary events promote goslavia, then Serbia and Montenegro, after the national canon and ideas relevant to that just Serbia, had to be taken up by Inter- the ruling regime. In other words, these liber and Pula Festival after the collapse of festivals constitute a battlefield for schools the common state and market. Since 2006, – schools being one of the most important after the separation of Montenegro from ideological instruments. (9) Serbia, these festivals invited the Mon- tenegrin delegation with great ceremo- That same year in Kikinda, there was the ny.(7) After Montenegro separated from first Kikinda Short, now entering its 7th Serbia, a book fair in Podgorica started, year. This festival also includes publishing: now in its seventh year. (8) In other words, short stories read at the festival are col- establishment and survival of book fairs is lected and published. Additionally, the festi- closely related to political circumstances. val promotes regional literature in schools, Apart from fairs, there have been numer- young authors from the region and inter- ous new festivals since 2000, following the regional collaboration. (10) principle of punctuated (r)evolution. They are mostly regional, which is an important The town of Subotica also has a festival aspect of their identity, (or they somehow since 2008, Focus on Writers, by the Danilo allude to it, such as Half Way Through in Kiš Foundation for youth culture and crea- Užice). tion. The goal is to promote modern liter- ature from the region and collaboration. It First of these festivals, however, never is also partly focused on high school popu- managed to become traditional, because it lation. They are celebrating their fifth year was extinguished after four intensive years in 2012. (11) – a travelling literary festival FAK started in Croatia in 2000. It premiered in Osijek; its The Crocodile festival, the supposed acronym last date was in 2003 in several Croatian of Krokodil - Književno regionalno okupljan- cities (Zagreb, Pula, Rijeka, Varaždin), in Ser- je koje otklanja dosadu i letargiju (Regional bia (Novi Sad, Belgrade), and even abroad literary conference to fight boredom and leth- (London). The acronym initially stood for argy) first took place in 2009 at the 25th Festival of alternative literature, and turned May Museum in Belgrade. In 2012, it was

40 held in Zagreb and Belgrade. Apart form the logic of market competition and other the summer edition, Crocodile also had five crossovers within the network – naturally, additional issues over the past three years with the centre – for publicity, circulation, – Fantastic February Crocodile in 2010 (Bel- advertising, money. Liberalisation of the grade), Crocodile on the road – India (2009), market implies competition. This was con- then at Pula Book Fair (2010), in Ljubljana firmed whenCrocodile went to Leipzig and (2010) and Leipzig (2011). (12) Serbia was the focus country – this was the scene that was being recognised, not The same year when Crocodile started in the academic, national literature. Belgrade, a bookstore in Podgorica called Karver organised a regional festival Odakle Similarly, in other post-Yugoslav republics zovem (Where I’m Calling From). In 2012, it – the alternative scene, competing with was in its fourth year. There is a short sto- national literary establishment, has gained ry competition and a prize awarded by the more ground in recent years. For instance, bookstore and publishing house. In part, in Croatia, books edited by Lokotar (Algo- the festival is dedicated to the works of ritam publishing house) are the ones that Raymond Carver. (13) keep winning more and more awards.(16) In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is a pre- The youngest festival in this wave of punc- dominance of war writing and engaged tuations is Polip, established in 2011 in topics, (17) which is also the case with Ko- Pristina. Despite the language barrier, this sovo and their young generation of post- festival is not much different from the pre- traumatised authors. (18) In Montenegro, viously mentioned, regarding participants, after the official secession from Serbian topics and main idea – international liter- nationalism, the mainstream became lib- ary collaboration.(14) This is possibly the eral. (19) In Slovenia, there is controversy most striking example of the spreading of surrounding novels and films with nostalgia the market, which is at the heart of cul- for Yugoslavia. (20) So, on the book market, tural regionalisation since 2000, because it the mainstream includes all of the above: crosses the cultural border for the pur- engaged topics, issues of identity and tran- pose of commercial networking. (15) sition, facing the past, rising above national, regional and cross-border. Sporadically, similar manifestations have taken place in Serbia, Bosnia and Herze- With the decline and destruction of Yu- govina, Croatia and other former republics; goslavia during the 1990s, cultural ties in the region, literary festivals were more between the former republics were sev- numerous than ever in the past decade. It ered. If there was such a thing as Yugoslav is obvious that contemporary literature is literature, then it was deconstructed on gasping for more airing; it has been over- several grounds. On the one hand, borders looked on account of the national academ- of national literature were clearly drawn ic scene. During the 1990s it was dissident in all the Serbo-Croatian speaking repub- and underground, but after 2000 it finally lics (with an extended period of union for won enough media coverage. It turned Serbia and Montenegro), including sever- mainstream, more precisely, an alternative ing any mutual ties. On the other hand, mainstream; following the same principle there was an opposition, an alternative which forms the national centre in relation to national cultural elites with a tendency to the margin, the margins are also struc- for preservation and restoration of the tured as a centralised system, respecting (post)Yugoslav cultural space. Dispersion

41 of the cultural scene happened on several In that sense, Lokotar is no different levels – on territorial or national grounds, from Ćosić in the 1990s. Both of them but also on an ideological basis. are thrilled with the number of visitors, growing circulations, awards and recogni- During the 1990s, however, political cir- tion, the revival of literature – or, in other cumstances catered to the nationalistic words, they are in awe of their own success elites. They were in charge of not only the on the market. The nation of readers has academy and universities, but also of all the turned into a “truly great event, with 600 cultural events, almost the entire media, to 700 visitors”. Only the rhetoric is dif- publishing, criticism, literary competitions, ferent. The same way Ćosić was the main educational system and textbooks – the propagandist of national culture in the 80’s public sphere in which they propagated and the 90’s, so is Lokotar as editor, critic, they ideology. This was a time when the head of festivals or committees in the re- anti-nationalist literary scene was truly al- gion; from FAK, to Pričigin, the Prozak award, ternative and subversive – self-published, Crocodile, Karver to Kikinda Short. The illu- fighting against censorship, media silence sory difference is that the former was a ans state oppression, the example being pseudorightist – in fact, transitional leftist Feral Tribune. The first FAK in Osijek was contaminated with nationalism; while the indeed a festival of alternative literature. latter is some sort of pseudoleftist – actu- Nevertheless, once this literature re- ally a right-wing social-democrat or liberal claimed some of the media, it indicated a democrat, contaminated with post-social- shift in the larger scheme of things, leaning ist legacy. towards political opposition and turning into a festival of A-list literature. Lokotar Panem et circenses is right to glorify and give so much credit to the legacy of FAK for the contemporary „Relaxing the borders and then letting scene (21)- it was a turning point in every all in was more due to business, import- sense. export rather than a comprehensive and targeted cultural policy. Capitalism does Now, when the alternative scene is domi- not tolerate borders or customs, it de- nant, when nationalistic elites are buried in stroys them and expands the markets (...) the past, as well as all their myths and prop- There is not a lot of humanism in all this, aganda – since 2000 there have been slight the renaissance and joining of Serbian and changes in the programmes of national fes- Croatian culture is a credit to capitalism.” tivals, universities, schools and the media (Kruno Lokotar, interview for Vreme) (22) – there is a strong pro-European liberal tendency, without any mention of subver- When discussing inventing traditions, such sion or opposition. This is A-list literature, is the case with propaganda in capitalist top-shelf, it dominates the scene, no more national states, as a reaction to moderni- underground for them, now they have sation from the 19th century onwards, publishing offices, libraries, media coverage Hobsbawm(23) points out the role of and, of course, the market. Since the ideo- mass communication – which also results logical fight is also an economic fight; and from the formation of middle classes and vice versa, what is essentially an economic national states – in constructing and prop- fight for the market is only manifested as agating these pseudotraditions. In other ideological on the political level. words, in order to establish their ideology, the ruling class needs strong propaganda

42 in the public sphere and the people’s con- calling into mind previous experience, that sciousness so that, according to Althuss- there was no such thing as the Yugoslav er(24) , the dominant ideology can sustain cultural scene or Yugoslav cultural space as that class as the ruling one. A cultural festi- an integral phenomenon or entity within val is no more than a propaganda tool – in the SFRY. There were, however, completely the struggle for dominance, social systems, independent scenes in the republics which i.e. ideologies, fight for their share on the kept in touch, to a greater or lesser de- market. This was the case with capitalist gree. In contrast, Čolović continues, fes- production, especially literary production tivals such as Half Way Through create the in Yugoslavia, in the 1960s after the liber- common regional cultural sphere retro- alisation of economy, as well as during the spectively, resulting in a Yugoslav cultural 1990s and the 2000s after the new period scene or Yugoslav literature. (27) of transition. Since ideology and mythology go hand in This is why literary festivals have to occupy hand, here we also have an entire arsenal public space and the media as a means of of symbolics related to the constitution mass communication and propaganda. Not of Yugoslav heritage: literary congress in only that, they became an excellent mar- Užice is also called Literary Republic of keting platform to present and sell books. Užice, Odakle zovem was opened with Tito The market logic at the festival scene is – the final testimony by Lordan Zafranović, mirrored in these capitalist concepts, for Crocodile takes place in the amphitheatre of instance, numbers (visitors, participants, the May 25 Museum, etc. The iconography, days, books, etc.), exclusiveness (Dubravka and invented tradition behind it, belongs Ugrešić at the Half Way Through festival in to an ideological context and the market. 2009, Beqë Cufaj at the 2010 Crocodile, un- In terms of ideology, it interprets the re- able to attend ). (25) The supply adapts it- gional as a so-called point of restoration, self to the market, it has strong marketing as a continuity against the nationalistic dis- to appeal to the audience (literature plus continuity of the 1990s (so-called because a band, live acts and performances, badges, it is a construct of the past). On the other trips, parties, circenses). (26) hand, it adopts anti-nationalistic and anti- fascist legacy of the SFRY, in opposition to Inventing traditions, according to national policies (primarily Serbian, still the Hobsbawm, is the ideological and market most powerful political and commercial procedure on the regional literary scene, competitor, resulting in the largest number as the most obvious example of conflu- of confrontations between the academic ence between ideology and economy. By and the alternative scene). The context of this I mean inventing tradition in a more the market comes out of nostalgia for Yu- narrow sense – the tradition of festivals; goslavia and Tito. and also inventing tradition in a more gen- eral way – tradition that they uphold, which Apart from the construct of tradition, an- is also a construct, albeit a more complex other ideological element of self-interpre- one; it is, naturally, the regional, so-called tation is the construct of quality regarding post-Yugoslav tradition, the restoration of the regional literary scene. While becom- culture and bonds between the countries ing mainstream and institutionalised, this of the region. There is a very indicative ob- scene is building its infrastructure using servation by Ivan Čolović regarding Half the process of punctuated equilibrium, Way Through in Užice in 2012. He notes, from publishing to criticism, competitions

43 and festivals. This is also what keeps it on dio Television Serbia!(30) Even in Serbia, the market, but an ideological justification all the media will cover Crocodile in Bel- is also needed – in this case, it is, in fact, the grade. This, of course, is the opposite of construct of quality declared by the liter- being alternative and marginalised. ary scene. (28) The social engagement of post-Yugoslav Another ideological construct worth literatures as their ultimate goal is cer- mentioning is the construction of subver- tainly damaging from an aesthetic point of siveness and alternative edge. Although view because it as an inert product of ide- the literary pseudoleftists stopped being ology. As such, it does have the capacity alternative the moment they conquered to achieve what the paraliterary stands for, the media and became mainstream, they meaning it is not and cannot be subversive. still perceive themselves as subversive and (31) On the hand, the scope of these en- alternative, emphasizing this autopercep- gagements is not revolutionary. In essence, tion in the metalanguage when referring they do not cross the boundaries of that to themselves. Even though it is impossible same nationalistic epistemology that they to remain independent from the position are allegedly confronting – subverting ster- of mainstream, let alone subversive, each eotypes, (32) confronting the past, over- of these festivals communicates the mes- coming boundaries as paraliterary objec- sage of “we are independent, we are alter- tives of this pseudoleftist engagement, are native, we are subversive.” It is precisely concepts (constructs) which reproduce this constructed awareness of their own and perpetuate the nationalist epistemol- independence that is the strongest point ogy because the are so declarative. When of their ideology. Let us not forget, Ćosić the anti-nationalistic the Other Serbia talks also considered himself to be an independ- about “confessing crimes committed in the ent and alternative thinker in Serbia, as a name of the people”, they are, apart from dissident and an outcast, someone outside condemning nationalism, perpetuating the of his own time, forced to act from the same nationalistic concepts of state and margin and under pressure – “the last dis- identity, basically legitimising the national- sident of the 20th century.” (29) The last istic logic. The Other Serbia will condemn bastion of national cultural mainstream in the consequences of nationalism (crimes, the region is Serbia, since in all the other wars, discrimation, segregation), but not former republics the liberal and the na- nationalism in its essence (the concept of tional scene are one and the same. There- nation and the nation state – whether it is fore, the mainstream media in Serbia are based on ethnic or constitutional nation- the only ones who do not explicitly sup- alism). By agreeing to neoliberalism, they port events such as Crocodile, Kikinda Short also accept its nationalist legacy. or Half Way Through. There are gradual steps towards gaining more press (which This is obvious in the phrase – the concept includes winning the market against the of condemning crimes committed in the name national scene) and this has become more of the nation, which epistemologically does apparent over the years: Half Way Through not touch upon the essence of nationalism, was initially covered by Danas, liberal pa- construction of national identity and state; per of the Other Serbia, with a growing only its negative, destructive impact, i.e. number of Serbian media outlets showing how it affects the market because the neo- interest. This is not only about numbers, liberal the Other Serbia does not possess the festival is regularly reported on by Ra- an epistemological tool powerful enough

44 to critically approach the nationalist para- hindered Serbia from participating in the digm as such – it takes the nation for grant- modern European mainstream as an inde- ed. Or, as the rector of the University of pendent national state. We must not forget Belgrade said during the student strike in that Slobodan Milošević also started his late 2011, “student has a name and a sur- career as a keen supporter of moderni- name, Serbs are not a genocidal nation”, sation via market economy and keeping supposedly criticising the pseudonational- up with the rest of the more developed istic, collective outlook on nation, but not Europe. Rise of the Serbian nation in the the essence of nationalism, because Serbs 1980s, therefore, was merely a means to and nation are still self-explanatory no- overcome the crisis of real-socialism and tions. In the same vein, overcoming bound- come closer to Western Europe. “(33) aries, subverting stereotypes, confronting the past – these ideologisms are thrown In that respect, the cultural and institution- around carelessly, without any consid- al punctures in the 1960s that formed the eration for bringing together antagonistic independent scenes in Yugoslav republics ideas/constructs. They are always a given, according to Ćosić, while carefully main- there is no analysis (boundaries, stereo- taining cultural relations when they were types, the past). What is criticised are only economically or politically necessary, is their negative outcomes, i.e. economic ef- identical to punctures since 2000, when fects. Therefore, when the contemporary the current cultural infrastructure was in- pseudoengaged post-Yugoslav cultural stitutionalised in post-Yugoslav republics, scene overcomes boundaries and subverts championing the idea of crossing borders, stereotypes, it does this by legitimising when that crossing is economically justi- them as well. This epistemologic trap that fied. In other words, market liberalisa- the contemporary liberal cultural engage- tion in the SFRY and real subsumption of ments also falls into, is the result of ac- work in literary and cultural areas, which cepting the market model. Accordingly, at started after the Informbiro period, inter- its core, this neoliberal pseudoengagement rupted during the wars in Yugoslavia, are on the post-Yugoslav cultural and political now restored after the war in the same scene is no different from its competition, manner. Wars in Yugoslavia shook up the ethnic nationalism. This is also the reason market only briefly, but it found a way to why the difference in ideology between regenerate itself. Literature and culture Ćosić and Lokotar, as well as between the are predecessors and successors of that cultural policies they represent, is only an regeneration. True cultural resistance to- illusion. Economically, they both accept the wards neoliberalism, as well as a real left logic of the market and neoliberal terms of wing, remains to be articulated. production. Lokotar rightly observes that the current post-Yugoslav renaissance is a credit to capitalism. As far as national- Gjorgje Bozhoviq ists and Ćosić are concerned, “Essentially, supporters of the market and nationalist intellectuals in Serbia dealt with practically identical concepts, because their interests were the same, materialistically speaking. Communism is often presented as the Eastern plague, an imported ideology that

45 NOTES 19.Comp. my review of Montenegrin drama anthology After Hamlet, [http://www.booksa.hr/kolumne/criticize- 1.[http://2009.beogradskisajamknjiga.com/active/sr- this-poslije-hamleta] (September 11, 2012). cyrillic/home/istorijat/o_sajmu_su_rekli.html] (last accessed on September 11, 2012). 20. Comp. V. Arsenić, Uzaludno dizanje prašine, Causing a lot of stir for nothing, [http://www.e-novine.com/kultura/ 2.Vukov sabor, [http://www.loznica.rs/OpstinaLoznica- kultura-knjige/29188-Uzaludno-dizanje-praine.html] Vukov-sabor_114_] (September 11, 2012). (September 11, 2012). 3. Međunarodni beogradski sajam knjiga, International 21. E.g. in an interview for Kulturpunkt, [http:// Book Fair at Belgrade [http://www.beogradskisajamkn- kulturpunkt.hr/content/inovacije-i-renovacije- jiga.com/] (September 11, 2012). knji%C5%BEevne-scene] (September 11, 2012). 4.Struški večeri na poezijata, Poetry evenings at Struga 22. [http://www.vreme.com/cms/view.php?id=770728] [http://www.svp.org.mk/] (September 11, 2012). (September 11, 2012). 5.N. Eldredge & S. J. Gould, Punctuated equilibria: an 23. Introduction: Inventing Traditions (p. 1—14), E. alternative to phyletic gradualism (str. 82—115), T. J. M. Hobsbawm & T. Ranger (ed.), The Invention of Tradition, Schopf (ur.), Models in Paleobiology, Freeman Cooper, Cambridge University Press, 1983. [comp. Serbo- 1972. Croatian translation Izmišljanje tradicije, Biblioteka XX vek, 2011]. 6. [http://www.slobodnaevropa.org/content/most_kul- turna_saradnja_lokotar_vidojkovic/24288915.html] 24. Pour Marx, François Maspero, 1965. [comp. Serbo- (September 11, 2012). Croatian translation Za Marksa, Nolit, 1971]. 7. Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri, I dream about book in Istria 25. For Peščanik, V. Arsenijević, Suština jednog [http://www.sanjamknjige.hr/] (September 11, 2012). pograničnog incidenta, At the bottom of a border incident [http://pescanik.net/2010/06/sustina-jednog-pogranic- 8. Međunarodni podgorički sajam knjiga, International nog-incidenta/] (September 11, 2012). Book Fair in Podgorica [http://pgsajamknjiga.org/] (Sep- tember 11, 2012). 26. Comp. T. Dadić-Dinulović, Savremeni grad kao pros- tor spektakla — pozornica ili scena, The modern city as a 9. Međunarodni podgorički sajam knjiga, International venue – stage or scene, Kultura: 126 (1), p. 84—93, 2010. Book Fair in Podgorica [http://pgsajamknjiga.org/] (Sep- tember 11, 2012). 27. I. Čolović reading at the Half Way Through festival, National Theatre in Užice, April 26, 2012. 10. Kikinda Short, [http://kikindashort.org.rs/] (Septem- ber 11, 2012). 28. “We still want to perform anywhenre where there is an audience interested in us. In any case, we wish to 11. Fondacija „Danilo Kiš“, [http://www.danilokis. have a truly diverse festival, regardless of age, politics rs/sr/projekti/394-knjievni-festival.html] (September 11, on any other basis for exclusion. When it comes to 2012). author selection, there is only one common thread, and that is the quaity of their writing. V. Arsenijević, 12.Krokodil, Crocodile [http://www.krokodil.rs/] (Sep- inteview for Deutsche Welle, [http://www.dw.de/dw/arti- tember 11, 2012). cle/0,,16028445,00.html] (September 11, 2012). 13. Knjižara „Karver“, Carver Bookstore [http://www. 29. “As a dissident, I was not free to discuss, so I karver.org/] (September 11, 2012). became indifferent over time”, Ćosić in an interview for Politika, [http://www.e-novine.com/entertainment/ 14. Polip, [http://polipfestival.wordpress.com/] (Septem- entertainment-licnosti/47943-osi-vie-nee-pisati.html] ber 11, 2012). (September 11, 2012). 15. Comp. N. Bobičić & Gj. Bozhoviq, Albanian literature 30. Comp. press site for Half Way Through, [http://www. in translation in Montenegro, the 31st international napolaputa.net/press/] (September 11, 2012). seminar on the Albanian language, literature and culture, Faculty of Philology in Pristina, August 24, 2012. 31. Comp. M. Sokolović Angažman kao kič, Engagment as kitsch (footnote 16); and N. Bobičić, SubVerzija, Sub- 16. “This year, the books that I edited for Algoritam Version, for Criticize This! (in manuscript). really made an impact and received all major awards. It is the first time the same publisher and the same editor 32. “If we talk about festival such as the Crocodile in were awarded by Jutarnji List and tportal, not to mention Belgrade, the former FAK in Zagreb, or the Carver the Vladimir Nazor award and the City of Zagreb award festival in Podgorica, then we have to say it is all about Sfera”, Lokotar in an interview for tportal, [http://www. subverting stereotypes, not only about others, but also tportal.hr/kultura/knjizevnost/146099/Obrazovana- about ourselves”, Lokotar in an interview for RSE (see publika-bi-nasim-drzavama-sudila-vlast-razvlastila.html] footnote 6). (September 11, 2012). 33. G. Musić in an interview for Samostalni srpski 17. Comp. M. Sokolović, Engagement as kitsch, [http:// tjednik Novosti, [http://www.novossti.com/2012/07/pred- www.sic.ba/rubrike/temat/mirnes-sokolovic-angazman- levicom-je-uzbudljiv-period/] (September 11, 2012). kao-kic/] (September 11, 2012).

18.Comp. anthology of new Kosovar literature J. Neziraj (ed.), From Pristina with love, Algoritam media, 2011.

46 The Chapel Gallery and post- Yugoslavian art (1995 – 2010)

On the map of exhibition spaces dedicated the local context. In the 1990s, the gallery to modern art in Ljubljana, the Chapel Gal- gained an international reputation as one lery holds a special spot in terms of the in- of the leaders in international body art tensity of artistic activity, provocativeness performances (Ron Athey, Orlan, Franko B, and the variety of the program. It was es- etc.), while the influence of the gallery on tablished in 1995 on the initiative of the the European art scene was definitely con- students’ association from the University firmed with its performance at the 2008 of Ljubljana. Since then, and until today, it Ars Electronica Festival in Linz (the center has been run by art director Jurij Krpan in of art, science and technology), when the collaboration with curators and producers Chapel’s program presented the Ljubljana Sandra Sajovič and Petar Milič. The techni- new art media in the Featured Art Scene cal aspect is run by Jura Sajovič. The basis section. 1995 until 2010 is the timeframe of the gallery’s program has been the de- for which we will attempt to (with an signing, organizing and maintenance of that overview of a few significant artists’ per- which Krpan calls “modern research art.” formances at the Chapel Gallery) deter- Krpan and his colleagues avoid traditional mine and evaluate the gallery’s position in visual art and common artistic objects. In- the context of the geographical, political stead, they wish to present experiential and cultural space of the post-Yugoslav ambients and installations, that is, perform- transition, with an emphasis on the area of ances and artistic activity. They strive to performance and body art. avoid common one-way, academic lectures as well, and want to present those artists Performance and body art in the narrow from whom both the team as well as the sense of the terms came around in the audience can learn and profit. Clearly, the mid 1960s in the former Yugoslavia. By the gallery’s program cannot always meet such early 1970s, they became legitimate and strict criteria, however the gallery’s setup very frequent ways of artistic expression. is mostly focused on this framework. It is During this period, the entire alternative among the more progressive in terms of and neo-avant-garde artistic scene (which

47 was assembled around the tightly-knit web a more detailed systematization, which of nationally funded student groups, maga- can be applied today as well, with certain zines, galleries, and theaters) started focus- modifications, of course. Thus, in her text ing on that which today we call New artis- titled Body-based Art: Serbia and Montenegro tic practices. Generally speaking, since the (1998), Bojana Pejić, a Serbian theoretician, former Yugoslavia was very open to out- suggested the following division of Yugo- side influences in terms of cultural views, slavian body art up until the year 2000, in we can draw parallels in the development terms of the function of the artist’s body of Yugoslav modern art and that of west- in performance - the (post) socialist body, ern European countries (with a mandatory the political body, the anarchistic body, the temporal and cultural shift) that were radi- body of change, the non-disciplined body, cally aborted with the fall of the country the erotic body, the body of ritual, and the and the bloody war that followed. body in music. The post socialist, the po- litical and the anarchistic bodies generally The leading term of New artistic practices belong to the same group, that is, to that was introduced by a famous Serbian his- group in which the body of the author torian, Ješa Denegri, in order to stress the during the performance primarily assumes differences and innovations of neo-avant- a group of political paradoxes and contra- garde and post-modern Yugoslavian art of dictions, the symbolical entity in which the the 1970s. By doing this, he encompassed inconsistencies of the ideologies of the conceptual art, film and video, perform- (post) socialist space are broken down in ance (including body art), as well as various relation to the individual or social groups novelties in traditional visual arts, such as that the individual represents. Thus, we land art, assemblage, etc. In her text titled will call this group the political body. Body and the East (1998), Slovenian curator Zdenka Badovinac assumes “very differ- The second group of this systematiza- ent artistic practices that are based on the tion of body art encompasses the body of author’s own body as the main carrier of change and the non-disciplined body. The various social, political, existential and cos- concepts of these two are fairly similar. mological contents” when using the term This set of concepts assumes the author’s body art. Since in this text, as well as in the introspective approach to the phenom- context of the Chapel Gallery’s program, enon of the body, and, with that, his own we conceive body art as a component of personal individual and collective identity performance art, it is important to stress in the multimedia and interdisciplinary the processual and non-material character post-modernist world. The third group in of such practices, as well as the temporal the systematization of (post) Yugoslav body characteristics of every artist/audience art is, logically, made up of the erotic and relationship, especially if the performance the ritual bodies. If the ritual is defined as includes elements that are de facto impos- the set of definite actions that, when per- sible to reproduce (e.g. the artist’s process formed in the determined sequence, ob- of self-mutilation and the experience of tains a symbolical value in regards to the pain). As we can see, New artistic prac- social and cultural context, then it is clear tices assume a very heterogeneous area to that a large number of performances fall which it is impossible to attribute a single into the ritual category. This is especially denominator. However, individual theore- the case with the type of body art that in- ticians, at least as far as performance and cludes transcendental attempts of stepping body art are concerned, have suggested over the boundaries of the author’s body

48 and soul. During such attempts, the au- The idea of the political body coincides thor is often placed in a situation in which with the work of Slovene Peter Mlakar, a he is in physical danger (sometimes even philosopher by profession and orientation. in danger of dying) as he strives to achieve His performances and speeches, however, a metaphysical experience on the border although they don’t fall into the category between the Eros and the Thanatos, which of body art in the narrower sense, reas- is supposed to result in the physical and sess in a very lucid and provocative man- spiritual cleansing of the author and the ner the numerous deeply rooted Balkan viewer, that is, of the society in a state of political myths, in the recognizable man- collective catharsis. ner of the NSK collective, of which he has been a member of for many years. Exam- The significance and characteristics of the ples of the ritual body within the program political body, the ritual body and the body of the Chapel Gallery’s program can be of change will be analyzed in terms of the seen in all of the abovementioned artists Chapel Gallery’s program during the set and performers, since a certain kind of timeframe between 1995 and 2010, that is, ritual is always present in the subtext of in terms of the authors’ performances that the performance. However, if we want to fall into the respective categories. In the emphasize some of the artists whose ap- broader economical, social and psycholog- proach to body art is entirely pervaded by ical surroundings of late neo liberal capi- ritual, then we need to mention the group talism, the body of change (along with the Eclipse, a young female duo who has been ritual and political bodies) of the post-so- working with the Chapel for many years cialist world moves between various ideo- and who call their fourteen-year artistic logical extremes of the globalization of so- practice “rhetorical soft porn kitsch.” By ciety, from the idealization of development utilizing their nude bodies and an array of and science to reactionary radicalizations various props with which they emphasize of politics due to the international eco- the vanity of consumer culture, the art- nomic crisis. Post-Yugoslav authors have ists treat numerous taboo themes of the adapted to the modern developments of Slovene past and present in a humorous performance and body art, thus present- and erotic manner, from collective political ing carefully produced performances of traumas from the period of socialism to complex events (where the author of the gender, racial, class and sexual prejudices performance isn’t necessarily its subject as in the neo liberal world of today. Although well), with which, in the conjunction be- they have caused scandalous and vile re- tween art and natural and humanistic sci- actions with their performances from the ences, they attempt to reveal the mecha- side of the Catholic Church and various nisms of social manipulation and provoke conservative groups, they have become various effects of the foreign monotonous one of the most significant and most pro- everyday life among their audiences. vocative figures on the Slovene art scene since 2000 until 2010. Let’s give supporting evidence of the above stated with concrete examples. The term Artist Ivo Tabar is distinguished among the body of change coincides with the works other artists at the Chapel Gallery due to of Ivo Tabar, a Slovenian artist, and Zoran the fact that he isn’t academically educated Todorovic, a Serbian artist, which we will in the arts or the humanities. Instead, he further explain in terms of a couple of is a medical nurse by profession, and he is their performances and artistic actions. employed at the intensive care unit at the

49 general hospital in Izola on the Slovenian ing with her pain during childbirth. In this coast. From 1997 until 2010 he continu- case, the man also feels physical pain dur- ously performed at the Chapel Gallery, and ing the process of the birth of a new entity, every time his own body was the center of a strong spiritual and exotic union of two his performance. Smaller or more complex beings that are institutionalized through surgical operations were performed on the ritual of marriage. We can assume his body, and in simpler cases Tabar would that, with this performance, Tabar want- perform the operations himself. Although ed to revitalize this ritual and renew and Tabar often expresses political messages cleanse it through pain and suffering, which with his work, in this text we will focus is actually the basic concept of Christian more on those performances that deal metaphysics. Individual suffering is sup- with intimate and introspective themes posed to act in a cleansing way during a that can be described by the term body of process that is extremely important for change. In his performance Acceptio corpus the entire society, with which Tabar con- alieni (performed at the Chapel in 2004), solidates the nature of the body of change Tabar made a three-centimeter long in- and the body of ritual. If for a moment cision on the outer wall of his abdomen we can talk in traditional terms, we could (the part of the body between the chest say that the beauty of performance art lies and the pelvis in which the majority of the precisely in this – it often feeds our im- organs of the digestive and urogenital sys- manent need for partaking in a ritual that tems are located) and inserted a wedding stands out among the standardized rituals band inside it. He stitched up the wound of our everyday lives. using surgical instruments, leaving the ring inside. The ring was later removed and the While Ivo Tabar demystifies medical sci- wound was medically treated. With this ence and practice with his performance, radical procedure, which was that much the goal of Zoran Todorović’s performance more striking due to the fact that he per- is (according to Miško Šuvaković in his text formed it himself, the artist exposed his The Critical Effect and the Intensity of Affect body to a really rather disturbing change – Analyses of Zoran Todorović’s Artistic Produc- since he brought the wedding ritual, one tions (2009)) “to reveal the rationality of of the most important in every known scientific research in ghastly divergences culture, to an extreme in which the matri- and scientific metastases outside of the dis- monial alliance is solidified through strong course of its idealizations.” Certainly, such physical pain. The symbolism of this com- a goal has political connotations based on plex act is also multifaceted, almost arche- the fact that scientific thought has paradox- typal to the term body of change. For start- ically become the unofficial dogma of tech- ers, we could stress the obvious inversion nologized civilization and that it is often of male and female birthing roles in the used to justify controversial political deci- act of marriage. By accepting an inorganic sions. Nonetheless, it is more appropriate object (the ring) into his body, Tabar, from to place Todorović’s work in the category a male perspective, twists the process of of the body of change, not only because of the entire ritual. He receives instead of the literal and rather radical changes on gives, feeling the intense pain that (most his own body and the bodies of others, but likely) isn’t comfortable, but acts in a com- also because of the fact that the constant mitting way. It almost seems as though the changing of the body is a constant theme man offers the woman a humble sacrifice in his performances, or as Šuvaković calls during this kind of wedding, thus identify- them, “events.” Of course, it is not about

50 changes of the human body due to illness national pavilion at the Venetian Biennial, or aging, but instead changes caused by so- Todorović pragmatically began selling the ciety, and not biologically – changes that felt made of human hair for 200 euros per cause our body to become a foreign entity meter squared, stressing that the profit will over which we no longer have any power. be invested in the further development of Todorović’s performances place the prob- the program. However, the process could lem of the alienation of the body into the have ended with the improvement of the focus of artistic discourse, while his in- production of this extravagant item and stallations and other similar works often turning it into a lucrative business, which question the possibilities of our senses, would have cynically brought the nature thus facing the viewers, that is, the artist’s of today’s global art market to an absurd collaborators on the project, with border level. It is precisely the relationship be- perceptive experiences. “Todorović pro- tween art and the market, the market vokes the broad metalanguage of human- and technology, and technology and the ism (science, technology, religion, politics, limitations of natural raw materials that sexuality, culture and art) and creates small makes up the central theme of Warmth, or localized, that is, singular excesses: the thus it is appropriate that the work of construction of the machine that produces art had its premier at one of the largest sound waves of dangerous frequencies, the international markets of modern artistic assortment of food made from human skin trends. The felt that was produced from and flesh, exposing one’s body to insects, dead hair, which is merely a radicalization the usage of a serum that alters certain of the usual way of making felt (when it senses of the body…” (Šuvaković, 2009). is made of sheep’s wool), is a strong illus- We will further analyze Todorović’s work tration of modern industry that produces titled Warmth, a complex project that a huge amount of its products from dead encompasses several fields of his activity organic matter, that is, slaughtered organ- – installation, video, body art, as well as a isms. In this manner, death, which is the carefully directed and produced perform- greatest taboo of today’s western neo lib- ance, or rather, event. eral society, is put on the pedestal as the primary industrial raw material, while the Warmth was first exhibited within the Ser- mass consumption of death makes even bian pavilion at the 53rd Venetian Biennial life seem fairly banal. Todorović confesses in 2009. It was presented at the Chapel that Warmth may remind the viewer of the Gallery by Todorović one year later. This products of the Nazi concentration camp is a multi-medial installation and action in industry of death, especially since this kind which Todorović and his team documented of production is, sadly, brutally close to us, an entire army of people (roughly 240 000 thanks to the genocides that took place people) getting their hair cut during 2009, during the recent Balkan wars. “Thanks” after which they gathered all the hair that in this context is clearly not meant in the had been cut off and used it as raw mate- positive sense, but Warmth is also a para- rial in the production of their installation doxically morbid term, because although – an artistic object that actually has utility we have an inherent hostility towards an- value as well. Over 1200 squared meters ything that is made from the remains of of felt was made from the hair through human bodies (apart from death, cannibal- an industrial procedure. For one square ism is also another untouchable taboo in meter the hair of two hundred people modern society that Todorović examines was used. After the presentation at the in his other works), felt is a warm mate-

51 rial that makes one cozy and warm. Since In his speeches during the 1990s in Serbia in Warmth human hair is the resource for and Bosnia and Herzegovina he attempted production, instead of the usual parts of to free his listeners of any collective guilt an animal’s body, we can say that Todorović they might have felt for the crimes com- brings into question the anthropocentrism mitted in the name of the entire nation. of the modern world as well, which in best He wanted to provide his audience with case scenario can serve to the audience as an opportunity to become aware of the a warning that is difficult to ignore in this need for collective forgiveness through case. In short, it is clear that Warmth is the ritual of political gatherings instead of a very complex work that opens numer- through murderous instincts, thus emanci- ous questions and issues, and although pating them from any political conspiracies Todorović deals with the body indirectly to which they had submitted themselves. here, it definitely falls into the body of This approach later lead Mlakar to prob- change category, since the change in this lematize the theme of religion and sex in case is final and irreversible. conjunction with the effects of modern technology, which subjects transcendental The body of Peter Mlakar is without a experiences of enlightenment and salva- doubt political. Since he became a mem- tion, as well as the liberating experience ber of the Neue Slowenische Kunst collec- of the orgasm, to the production of arti- tive and the founder of the Department of ficial experiences of wellbeing and leisure, Pure and Applied Philosophy in 1987, his thus trivializing both the sacred and the work in the area of philosophy, literature, profane. Hence, in Mlakar’s works we can cultural and musical activism (and tempo- also perceive elements of ritual practices, rary acting roles in experimental films) although in his case the political content has become enriched with both experi- always comes first, thus emphasizing the ence as well as with performance. He has fact that ideology constantly has access to been present on the Slovenian alternative the intimacy of the individual through the and punk scene since the late 1970s as mechanism of social and economical or- an activist, ideologist and concert organ- ganizations. In 2002, Mlakar performed at izer. Since the late 1980s, he has been the the Chapel Gallery, presenting his lecture spokesperson at Laibach concerts, reading and performance titled The Logic of the Triad his provocative political texts in front of of Torture, with which he revealed the posi- audiences in a pompous militaristic man- tion and function of the mythical G spot ner that the NSK continually deliberates in the female body. He designed a scheme throughout its entire activity. With their for transplanting artificial erogenous zones ambivalent relationship towards extreme in the vagina by means of nanotechnology. ideologies, Mlakar and the other members The mass sophisticated industry of wellbe- of the NSK stress the imminent inhu- ing and leisure in the modern neo-liberal manity of totalitarian societies, and warn society has long been one of the corner- about the deeply rooted human need for stones of economic prosperity, and Mlakar’s submitting to authorities, which, with all concept of the perfect machine for achiev- the available media research, they brought ing orgasms is a warning as to the possible to disturbing and multifaceted absurdity. future development of industry. Ideology Mlakar has also accepted the visual identi- and technology can definitely turn one of ty of the NSK, thus symbolically taking the the most elementary human experiences, stance of an unscrupulous Balkan politi- tightly related to reproduction and new cian whose crimes he revealed and judged. life, into subjects of automatic production,

52 into merely another banal, cheap and pre- of modern art, but it will also contribute dictable experience. Emphasizing the nec- to the stronger integration of the humani- essary support of political will in order for ties and natural sciences on projects that anything like this to occur, Mlakar relates can educate and emancipate various social the numerous themes of his thought into groups in a world that is becoming more a multilayered symbol of the decadence of and more inhumane and chaotic in the so- the West. cial and political context. From the per- spective of the Croatian society, the mission With this brief overview of chosen works of the Chapel is also extremely important, by significant post-Yugoslav artists of per- as it points to the reality of cultural prac- formance and body art (frequent per- tice, which hasn’t really been represented formers at the Chapel Gallery), we have until the foundation of Kontejner at least attempted to explain the position of the not in the form of a more serious social Gallery in the broader artistic corpus of project. In the future, the Chapel Gallery the region, where it really does represent will without a doubt continue to influence non-everyday aspects of modern research modern research art in both the Croatian art. The influence of the Chapel has, over and Serbian speaking region, where many time, stimulated the beginning of other harmful social myths from the 1990s need similar initiatives in other former Yugo- to be enlightened, revealed and cleansed. slav countries, such as the Kontejner as- In this task, the art of performance and sociation in Zagreb (founded in 2002), the body art holds an inspirational and effec- bureau of modern artistic practice, which tive weapon. works closely with the Chapel (but unfor- tunately still doesn’t have a steady exhibi- tion space of its own). Considering the experimental and interdisciplinary nature Bojan Krištofić of its activity, along with the existential themes that it presents in a provocative and liberal manner, the Chapel Gallery BIBLIOGRAPHY team provokes expected controversies with its program concept, but it also stim- Briski, Mika (1999) Body and the East ulates a continuous interest of the better – From the 1960s to the Present. Modern knowing audience, which partake in artis- Gallery of Ljubljana, Ljubljana. tic actions in the full sense of the word. Badovinac, Zdenka (1998 – 1999) Body The financial support of both local and in- and the East, from Body and the East ternational funding along with the institu- – From the 1960s to the Present. tionalized networking of the Chapel shows Pejić, Bojana (1998 – 1999) Body-based Art: that traditional culture has recognized the Serbia and Montenegro, from Body and the research and intellectual capital of the gal- East – From the 1960s to the Present. lery. The Chapel Gallery, regardless of the Šuvaković, Miško (2009) The Critical Ef- reach of its team’s activities, can be an ex- fect and the Intensity of Affect – Analyses of emplary factor in the further liberalization Zoran Todorović’s Artistic Productions. Mu- of culture in a small environment such as seum of modern art, Vojvodine, Novi Sad. Slovenia, as well as of the intense collabo- ration of artists, engineers, scientists and www.kapelica.org various cultural workers. This will not only www.kontejner.org broaden the possibilities and boundaries www.zorantodorovic.com

53 On/Of(f) Trauma Or how do texts about war deal with the phenomenon of trauma?

Esad Bajtal, Bite of the Snake of Memory. (from the anthol- ogy of Bosnian and Herzego- vian stories Time Slips Away (2010)),

Damir Nedić, I am going to the toilet alone (from the collec- tion of short stories Outside the Corridor. Vranac – Best Short Story (2011)) (1)

Krešimir Pintarić, The Osijek Masquerade (anthology of Sla- vonian war writing Poetics of Noise (2010)).

54 “(...) it is always the story of a wound that She was not shocked to find so many war- cries out. “(2) themed stories, but was surprised by the way this topic is dealt with – often it was The topic of the Homeland War in ex-Yu- mediated storytelling of the war horrors. goslav literature is omnipresent and end- The writers in the anthology emphasize less. In his foreword to Poetics of Noise, realism and authenticity of their stories an anthology of Slavonian war writing, by pointing out the fact that the narrator Goran Rem points out that there is a cer- heard the story from a survivor or they tain sensitivity at the thought of possibly found someone’s confession. Time is slip- forgetting about the war and a responsibil- ping away, but we are standing still, it seems, ity that the survivors share to remember was the initial thought of the author of this the war for themselves, as well as others. text. They are just trying to find a new way It is as if the war trauma feeds the need to go back to the trauma, but most of the to tell stories, whether they are personal time these attempts are unsuccessful and or someone else’s, as if to witness these aesthetically lacking. atrocities and horrors forces a person to share the secret of trauma with others. This is not about the resistance of the In Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narra- younger generation toward (post)war lit- tive and History (1996), Cathy Caruth, a erature, which is often completely justified, theoretician of trauma, whose quote is at even today. This is about trying to explain the beginning of this story of writing about why the writing of some of the authors trauma, concludes that the whole of West- in the anthology is a failure, turning into ern history can be called the history of little (post)war stories that cannot even trauma, because the trauma of a particular shock the reader, which is to be expected subject is closely connected with another’s considering the genre. By following certain trauma, which enables writing about other psychoanalytic theses and contemporary person’s wounds: “the history is precisely theory regarding trauma, we will try to an- the way we are implicated in each other’s swer what trauma is, what its representa- traumas.”(3) Whether we agree with this tion in literature could be, or if it is even or not, we can still say that contemporary possible. What is the mystery of life and literature in our region is obsessed with death entangled in the phenomenon of war and trauma, and even without explor- trauma, which are only hinted at in some ing all the reasons, we can define it as post- of the (post)war stories? Why do some Yugoslav literature of trauma. theoreticians consider art to be hiding the lie of trauma? Following the contemporary regional pro- duction, it has been noted that the trauma The aim of this comparative analysis is to of the (post)war experience is constantly explain the stylistic procedures the writ- repeated, both with acclaimed authors, as ers use to achieve a certain effect and il- well as newcomers. While reading the an- lustrate how this can correspond to the thology of Bosnian and Herzegovian sto- trauma phenomenon. The analysis of three ries Time Slips Away (2010), the author stories, which can, in a way, serve as three was surprised by the preoccupation with examples, will not relate the narrator with the traumatic experience and the topic of the author of the story, although Freud’s war which seems to be prevalent even in a theory of sublimation could easily lead work of literature whose title clearly indi- us down that path .(4) Instead, the focus cates that the wars of the 1990’s are over. will primarily be on the text, its form and

55 content. Therefore, this text can be a form is to say, the Real, (6) and the (Oedipal) loss of constructive criticism of authors who of identification with the Mother, which al- take the task of writing about trauma too lows the primary processes to enter the lightly. After all, trauma implies mystery of narrative world of secondary processes survival that cannot be fathomed or told. that consist of conscious thoughts, i.e., lan- guage. Basically, Lacan claims that a violent Meeting the Real event can have an impact on subject’s life only because the fracture is inherent, that The Greek word trauma refers to physical is to say, the subject builds and illusory im- injury, while Freud refers to it as a specific age of their own integrity and consistency mental wound, that is to say, it is defined during the mirror stage. When a terrible around the idea of penetration, the idea of event manages to undermine subject’s injury. The subject who suffers trauma re- integrity, the inconsistencies of the initial lives the forgotten, violent past in the trau- structure come to light, if we come across matic present (Freud uses the term acting a hole (not a symptom), and a void (not out), and the repetition of what has been an object). Pieces of the Real return to suppressed happens without the subject language on the other side of the signifier, knowing what is being repeated. The su- the trauma represents the regression of pressed is revealead only symptomatically the subject to primary processes, i.e., the and indicates a gap in knowledge and how unconscious. it is manifested physically. In the aforemen- tioned text, while examining soldiers’ war The French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche traumas, Freud describes repetition of shares very similar views on trauma. Ac- a traumatic event which is impossible to cording to him, there is the primary trauma leave behind. This repetition is beyond the which he calls seduction and it represents self and therefore out of the subject’s con- the manner in which the ego is construct- trol. In this type of neuroses, the trauma is ed. Like Lacan, Laplanche points out that revealed retrospectively, and survival equals ego is always open to the possibility of confrontation with death (which had been being traumatised again. He explains this experienced unconsciously), which is a by relating two scenes which construct a sign of the impossibility of moving on with traumatic event and says that trauma can life. The phenomenon of trauma is placed never be placed within a single scene. It is within a complex relation between know- the game of deception that produces the ing and unknowing because the subject effect of fluctuation between two events. who survived the trauma cannot recall the Each event or anything that means some- suppressed event, but has to act it out all thing can be a message, which is related the time. In this way, trauma does not re- to previous messages. In confronting the fer to the original violent event, but to the foreignness and the weirdness of the mes- fact that there is no knowledge of an event sage, the ego has to develop a structure that haunts the subject afterwards.(5) in order to process, i.e., to translate the message. However, when it comes to a Following Freud’s footsteps, Lacan ex- traumatic event, understanding becomes plains trauma by going back to structural impossible and the message cannot be procedures of subject’s existence in the assimilated. The trauma implies a puzzle imaginary. He believes that subject’s intial which makes us wonder why the violence trauma is the loss of partial objects which happened, so that eventually we are able metonymically represent the Mother, that to symbolise it.

56 Finally, in her book Unclaimed Experi- On the verge of representation ence: Trauma, Narrative and History, Cathy Caruth interprets psychoanalytic theses Protecting what is outside the signified, and explains how trauma is a callout by trauma manages the Real, and repression the voice of the Other through the wound. and oblivion always come up in twisted As mentioned before in the introduction, symbolic forms, such as dreams, symptoms one’s trauma is related to another’s trau- and acting out. The unspoken comes back ma, and there is the possibility to call out to language and appears as a symptomatic someone else’s wounds. The story of life puzzle that produces anxiety. In the case and the story of death are interwoven in of trauma, there is always a surplus that trauma because the story of the traumatic cannot be symbolised, and representation event is, in fact, the story of avoiding death of trauma in art becomes extremely prob- and the subsequent survival. The survivor lematic. has to confront death over and over again due to the fact they were not completely Literature of trauma and (post) war writ- aware of death during the terrifying expe- ing contains an aporia of what cannot be rience. In this way, trauma as the effect of told. The most important question is per- destruction as well as the mystery of sur- haps the issue of representation of trauma vival, asks the question: what does it mean in art. How is it even possible to recon- to survive, what does it mean to be aware struct trauma, how can it be renewed? of life, that is to say, death? When analysing For instance, Lacan names the object of Freud’s example where a father dreams the Real that the subject is striving for the that his dead son is burning,(7) Caruth ex- Thing, and emphasizes that the Thing does plains how trauma exposes our ethical re- not have a signifier, an object can only rep- lation to the Real, i.e. the ethical dilemma resent the signifier’s absence.(8) There is at the centre of our consciousness that still the issue of how to reach the core of is essentially linked to death, especially to the trauma, the Real, and how to reconcile the death of the Other. The burning son the gap between a reality which cannot be who appears in front of the father and the represented and representations without Real that wakes the father up can be a re- a specific field of reference (which means sponse of the survivor to someone else they contain nothing). Does this occur in dying, but can also represent responsibility memory or by forming apparitions through of the consciousness in the original rela- metaphors/aporias which give shape to tions with others. Father waking up (meet- the unfathomable point of real giving it ing the Real that can only appear as either meaning? Moreover, several theoreticians dream or fiction) is not only the impera- wonder if it is possible to distinguish the tive of survival, but also a commitment to representation of trauma in art from its tell the story of someone else’s death, a repetition. (9) story that can be passed on once he is awake. Caruth concludes that the function While observing the (im)possibility of wit- of literature, i.e., art could be to initiate nessing trauma, Shoshana Felman notices the process of acting out the trauma. a dislocation in language and a tendency to silence. She answers the question of representation of trauma by relating the suppressed, the unknown, forgotten event, with the decline of language. Since the

57 testimonial is composed of memories course of fifteen years on their quest to regarding situations which cannot be un- find the posthumous remains of their sons derstood, the language of the testimonial who died in the war. The narrator refers to is constantly processed and always elusive the film directly, there is a footnote and he to the speaker, as well as knowledge and tries to describe, explain and interpret the conclusion.(10) The act of witnessing is il- movie, that is to say, the horrendous mo- lusory because language is being violated ment when the shocked mothers stand in (and vice versa). Caruth finds a solution by front of the bones of their lost sons. Their pointing out how the narrative of trauma horror and pain when they have to face talks about entering the Other’s life, and the death of their sons, their helplessness, writing brings us back to Old Wounds re- ignorance and denial is a great represen- gardless of the author’s intent. tation of survivor’s trauma, as in Caruth’s interpretation of Freud’s example when a However, Lacan thinks that art hides the father dreams about his dead son burning. lie for the trauma by concealing the Real This image is a mystery of survival in it- with images of suffering that are supposed self. In the centre of the phenomenon of to contain the Real, which is only another trauma, there is the issue of how to sur- illusion that is supposed to support the vive when one is aware of death, i.e., the belief in consistency and stability of so- Real that surfaces in the moment of facing ciety, its integrity. Art speaks (falsely) of death. By illustrating the responsibility of the inability to speak and becomes merely the consciousness to show someone else’s a symbolic illusion that wants to distract wound and re-testifying the confrontation us from the Real. In times of war, the Real with death and the inability to live, that im- comes out through disintegration of the age is sufficient in itself. Precisely because body, blood and ability to experience life, the moment is so difficult to represent, it while in literature the representations brings us that much closer to the phenom- of trauma circles around the core of the enon of trauma. trauma, around the Real that still remains out of reach and the truth about trauma Also, the story clearly talks about the in- is lost in the density of language. Never- ability to go on with life after the trauma, theless, in art, if pleasure turns into dis- how life after trauma is constantly impreg- pleasure or anxiety, the representation of nated with death. An obvious example the imaginary ego can be shattered. This would be: “But these dry and unmoving is when the Real appears, Lacan states, bones are not the only ones that are dead. but the possibility to reconstruct trauma Before she buries them, they had already is still inscrutable and has to be explored buried her alive. Any purpose of the rest of further. her life, now finally lost, is buried alive with her. From that moment on, it is irreversibly Bite of the snake of memory – consigned to an unreal memory of a time explaining someone else’s pain long gone. “(11) Trauma, therefore, accord- ing to Cathy Caruth, has a deconstructive Let us begin with Esad Bajtal’s Bite of the effect and holds the mystery of survival. Snake of Memory from the collection of short stories Time Slips Away. The text re- However, the narrator in Esad Bajtal’s flects on the documentary by F. Sokolović story is the one who knows about the from 2009 called The Soul-Soothing unspeakable suffering of the mother. The Search, which follows mothers over the story starts off with a universal statement

58 and the narrator becomes the all-knowing Naturally, there is an attempt to erase the subject: “Meaningless violence of ruthless boundaries between different discourses killers makes the death of innocent peo- and intermedia, but these literary proce- ple more than cruel.”(12) This kind of dis- dures miss the idea of the text. course continues throughout, emphasizing artificiality by deliberately using caps for What is more, this is the narrator’s reflec- certain words or putting them in italics, tion of the film, found by a notary in 2048, listing adjectives and adverbs in order to which is explained in the paratext. So, produce as much of an emotional impact not only are we distanced from the Real on the reader as possible. Sometimes the of the trauma, but also the story of the sentences start in a new line so that they trauma creates a chain: mother in front of could stand out more, which makes them the bones of her sons – director – nar- look like poems. For example: “In this tragic rator – notary – (reader). We are moving and shocking confrontation, her real world further away from the narrated reality and tumbles into the dark abyss of Nothing- we miss the Real. This is neither a memory ness. In the eclipse of this Nothingness, her of a trauma (which the title tries to imply), dried out eyes have nothing else to look nor is it acting out of the trauma, this is for. And nothing else to see.”(13) The text an elaboration – an elaboration on moving is obviously extremely poetic and the au- pictures. Meanwhile, we have to wonder thor carefully inserts adjectives like dark whether this sort of elaborate pathos is and dried out, capitalizes words for a more inappropriate, depriving the moment in illustrious effect, and by repeating the form question of its shock value and sublime of the sentences, a regular rhythm is es- eeriness. Are not the big words the author tablished as well. With his illustrious and uses actually obsolete when it comes to pathetic speech, the narrator tries to ex- mother’s suffering and the traumatic event plain how the mother felt and what she which warns us of death and silence? Us- thought in that moment: “But, in reality, she ing mediated narration and big words, the is squeezed between the shocking Painful author achieves the opposite effect, and Truth and Hope that she has finally lost, the text turns into a parody of someone’s she simply refuses to believe that she is pain, instead of a reminder. (16) seeing what she is seeing. “(14) I am going to the toilet alone – wound Further, we can compare the following: on the mind “In the name of what?/ And why? // In the name of Politics!/ In the name of the Na- The story I am going to the toilet alone tion!/ In the name of Faith!// Whose Poli- by Damir Nedić, a young Serbian author, tics?/ Whose Nation? / And whose Faith?// is entirely different text from the previ- And what is Politics, this Nation and Faith, ous one and deals with trauma in a far compared to the painful Unfaithfulness of more direct way. Nedić’s story introduces this lost woman? “(15) Here, apart from the reader to the mind of a traumatised the stylistic procedures already men- person. Author uses an intradiegetic nar- tioned, capitalisation of words, moving rator and everything the reader finds out sentences to a new line, we can feel that equals what the narrator knows. Narrator the narrator is trying to get a reaction out starts telling about events that have com- of the listener at all cost. He speaks almost pletely changed his life, exactly as he had like a politician and seems to be aggres- experienced them when he was a child, as sive about trying to win the reader over. well as the traumatised subject. Seeing the

59 events as consequence of war – his father tomorrow it did hurt, it hurt a lot.”(19) being arrested, his mother’s insanity, being Here, we can see the narrator is confused abused because he is a Serb – the reader about the tenses and uses tomorrow to can understand everything from the nar- refer to a past tense, which puts additional rator’s perspective and more, and man- focus on his level of understanding. ages to remain shocked to the end. It is precisely the relation between the known Naivity and sincerity of the narrator are and unknown, the discrepancy between also revealed in the way in which he ex- the reader’s and the narrator’s perspective plains how he loves to watch his grand- that produces the estrangement. Since the father go to the toilet: “I love to watch last paragraph changes the perspective on my grandpa when he is going to the toilet, the story and surprises the reader, com- although they say that isn’t nice so they promising the cognitive position, Nedić’s boom-boom hit me on the head and tell story successfully manipulates the com- me I’m sick, but I run away and hide behind plex relationship between the known and the house and watch him furtively, “(20) or the unknown. when he remembers how he got a choco- late from some boy on the street: “I don’t This is because the narrator’s perspec- care about chocolate, I ate chocolate last tive and understanding of the world is month, so what (some boy gave me a piece extremely naïve and simplified, which is of chocolate on the street, I don’t know immediately clear in the first sentence: what, but he did, I’m not lying, I didn’t steal “I have a room and there is a carpet in it it, I only stole a headpin from Ivana once with a hole in the middle (where I throw and that’s it).”(21) The simple sentences marbles), a little stove, an old dresser, a and narrator’s naivity still make us think table and two chairs, a pull-out couch, a that a boy is telling this story. plastic washing basin, a punctured ball, mom and dad. “(17) We see what the nar- However, after the narrator’s mother los- rator conceives of the world while he is es her mind and they take her away, the listing his possessions; he mentions the narrator says his head keeps hurting him room, a plastic wash basin and mom and more and more and he begins to forget dad, without making any distinction. Then things. The reader finds out that the nar- he goes on the say how he was beaten up rator is in fact in a mental institution and at school because his name is no longer that he actually has no idea where he is, Our name,(18) which is incomprehensible nor how he got there or how old he is. to him and just keeps relaying it as others Given that the story begins in the present had said it. Any further information goes tense (“I have a room…”), the reader has through the same treatment. He reports the impression that the story is a memory a conversation with his neighbour Mile as of a mental patient, whose mind somehow he remembers it, although he does not got stuck in the past which he cannot un- understand what the neighbour is talking derstand. Only at the very end can we re- about: “Our neighbour Mile says that it is alise that this is a story about a trauma, normal that it did not hurt because it is still which is surprising and shows that this fresh, but when it gets cold, you will feel it, young author is on the right track. Going just like them, just like us, he said looking back to the start, we can see the inchoac- at the ground wistfully. I cannot really say tive sentence which prepares us for the is- I understood where he was coming from, sue of trauma with the introduction of the but he was right about them getting cold, hole in the middle of the carpet, referring

60 to the gaps in the mind of the traumatised. emotional explosions can find this unnerv- As explained in the theoretical part, sub- ing because Pintarić’s text goes the oppo- ject who goes through a trauma never un- site way to produce an extremely shock- derstands the original event that triggered ing effect. the trauma and its repetition only circles around the core of the trauma. When his “First, a man can get used to anything, even neighbour Mile says the wounds will hurt that”(23) the narrator speaks up about more when they go cold, he actually fore- war, almost comparing it to brushing your shadows that specific mental wound which teeth. He even manages to be funny when will only be manifested later to haunt the raising the issue of ideologems: “A chet- subject. As Laplanche explains, the uncan- nik is a chetnik, there is nothing more to niness of the message forces the ego to add to that, except a bullet. “(24) He is not develop structures for processing the mes- the subject who knows what he is talk- sage. Since the narrator could not assimi- ing about, as is the case with Bajtal’s nar- late the message, its mystery forces him to rator, he is only sharing his thoughts with wonder why certain things happened. This an imaginary listener, whom he sometimes produces anxiety, even for the reader. We addresses,(25) and rhetorical questions can only imagine the narrator sitting by often come up as in a real conversation. the window of his hospital room, staring Furthermore, the whole story is written at the sky and replaying the same events as if the narrator is picking his own brain over and over again, but never discovering while talking, which is obvious in the short their meaning. and simple sentences that often start with conjunctions of opposition and colloquial The Osijek Masquerade – the Real stylistic features such as totally, fuck, man comes out and I think. Even though the narrator ap- pears to be calm and cynical when war Krešimir Pintarić’s Osijek Masquerade was is concerned, as the story progresses, so chosen because, unlike the previous two does his confusion: “Anyway, every morn- stories, it talks about war explicitly and ing I sit at the bar and try to gather my directly. The narrator is a civilian during a thoughts. And every morning I wonder if I war(22) who tells us about his experiences, am normal. “(26) while the war is still happening in the nar- rative time of the story. Pintarić’s postwar Narrator’s bewilderment culminates in an writing is neither a recollection nor a con- ending that may be shocking for the reader. frontation with a trauma, but an ordinary The last sentences are important for our experience of everyday life during a war. analysis because while talking about death The text, seemingly devoid of emotions, looming over his life, the narrator intro- puzzles the reader with the narrator’s in- duces the Real of the trauma to the story. difference towards war events, functions So, the Osijek Masquerade ends on a high: as the exact opposite of the previously “Man, ever since this war started, I feel so analysed texts. There are no pathetic at- fucking alive.”(27) I mean, every time I feel tempts to capture the sublime horrors of death breathing down my neck, I feel so war, as in Bajtal’s story. The narrator talks fucking alive. Also, the inchoactive and fini- matter-of-factly about the predictability of tive sentence of this story are connected, war, calling it a soap opera and an open air because in the beginning the reader is told tour, as if it was an everyday conversation. there will be a short, but straightforward The reader who expects seriousness and answer in the end. (28) The finitive sen-

61 tence is addressed to the imaginary lis- We discover a gap, there is a discontinu- tener and asks: “Are you living?”(29) For ity in both form and content which rests the reader, it may be a shock to find out in the mind of the traumatised subject. By that death is actually life, and the war can toying with the complex relation between disrupt the symbolic. In other words, the the known and the unknown, Nedić delves bloodbaths and the constant threat of deep into the problem of trauma, remind- death are pieces of the Real that enter ing us of Felman’s thoughts on testimonials language from the other side of the sym- and how illusory they are. Finally, Krešimir bolic. The somewhat appalling bareness of Pintarić’s story does not deal with the is- Pintarić’s text and subverting expectations sue of trauma at first by introducing an in- is so much more suitable for the Real to different and cynical narrator who thinks come out than Bajtal’s pathetic attempts, war is utterly predictable. Still, there is a with accentuated imagery and metaphors. surprise in the end which touches on the problem of trauma in the best possible Since (post)war writing contains the apo- way and brings out the Real. ria of the untold, or, as Lacan would say, it represents a deceiving lie by feeding into (Post) war writing in this region is a symp- our illusion of wholesomeness and con- tom of a collective trauma and points to sistency. Perhaps we can approach these the inability to live after facing death. While kinds of texts by asking which one is the analysing contemporary texts, many theo- least deceiving. There is no compromise reticians have wondered how to keep up between a reality that cannot be told and with death, since death only multiplies if we representations that cannot find the ap- keep writing about it and the Real remains propriate field of reference. If we insist on inaccessible. If we do not choose silence, literature of trauma, it could be concluded when it comes to what cannot be told, that this literature is successful if it causes (30) we have to find a narrative in which anxiety, and leaves the reader in a states of trauma comes out somewhere between shock or awe. content and form, jeopardizing the read- er’s position. For this, the entire potential A brief analysis of three contemporary of language has to be used with impecca- stories has shown that the topic of war ble style that fits the content of the story, can be approached in very different ways. bearing in mind the collapse of structure, While certain texts try to deal with trau- rather than its integrity, which is what Ba- ma, others try to explain it vicariously. jtal and Pintarić do. If we insist on trauma, Esad Bajtal’s Bite of the Snake of Memory there should be new narrative procedures approaches the phenomenon of trauma to reach it and this is something we expect most indirectly. The plot starts fifty years from our authors to learn. after the war and it is the best illustration of what Goran Rem observes in the fore- word, as well as our trauma crossing paths, which is discussed by Cathy Caruth. How- Kristina Špiranec ever, by using pathetic and high-and-mighty rhetoric to explain a single scene, the au- thor does not achieve the desired effect and only pushes us away from the Real and the trauma. Nedić’s I am going to the toilet alone faces trauma in an interesting way.

62 NOTES 12. Bajtal (2010: 23) 1. Izvan koridora. Vranac – Najbolja kratka priča, 13. Bajtal (2010: 30) Outside the Corridor. Vranac – Best Short Story – a 14. Bajtal (2010: 26) short story collection, Carver award 2011 for 15. Bajtal (2010: 28) best short story in former Yugoslavia, Podgorica. The committee: Enver Kazaz, Božo Koprivica and 16. Under the title, author’s quote by F. Alfirević: Teofil Pančić. They selected twenty-two out of “Death is in the oblivion,/not in the fact./A man is five hundred stories, and awarded three in total. dead/only when no one remembers him anymore, Damir Nedić’s story won 2nd place. “ emphasizing the intent of the story, based on the responsibility to document someone else’s wound 2. Caruth (1996: 4 ) and not forget death.

3. Caruth (1996: 24) 17.Nedić (2011: 107) 18.Nedić (2011: 107) 4. Freud’s analyses of Leonardo da Vinci’s and Dos- 19.Nedić (2011: 107) toevsky’s works in Leonardo da Vinci: A memory of 20. Nedić (2011: 108) His Childhood (1910) and Dostoevsky and parricide 21. Nedić (2011: 108) (1927), respectively. 22. Pintarić (2010: 314) 23. Pintarić (2010: 315) 5. This is why the aim of psychoanalysis is to fill in 24. Pintarić (2010: 315) the gaps in patient’s memory and overcome the resistance to recall. 25. comp. There is me and there is you. In: Pintarić (2010: 315) 6. Lacan’s the Real, one of three psychological registers. The Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real 26. Pintarić (2010: 315) were introduced in 1936, Beyond the Reality Princi- 27. Pintarić (2010: 315) ple, and the Real is a central notion in his seminar 28. Pintarić (2010: 315) Ethics of Psychoanalysis. 29. Pintarić (2010: 316)

7. A dream from Freud’s Interpretation of 30. comp. Moranjak-Bomburać (2004) Dreams. A father leaves his dead child to a stranger who takes care of it in the next room and goes to sleep. The son appears in his dream and tells him: “Father, can’t you see that I am burn- ing? “In reality, a candle fell and burned his corpse in the next room. Lacan wonders which reality wakes him up. Could it be that another, failed reality appears in the dream, a reality that cannot be, but can be repeated endlessly, because he can never truly wake up? See Lacan (1986: 65)

8. comp. Matijašević (2006: 168)

9. comp. Peter Ramadanovic In the Future...: On Trauma and Literature in: Belau, Ramadanovic (2002)

10. Felman argues that poetry about trauma is ex- pected to be disintegrated and discontinuous, with broken lines, lack of poetic imagery. Focus would be on naming, spatiality, obsessive and compulsive repetition, apostrophes and dizzying explosive sentences.

11.Bajtal (2010: 31)

63 Bibliography

Bajtal, E. (2010) Ujed zmije sjećanja, Bite of the Snake of Memory in: Vrijeme izmiče. Savremeno bosanskohercegovačko pripovijedanje. Time Slips Away. Contemporary Bosnian and Herzegovian stories. Ulcinj: Plima. P. 19-33.

Belau, L., Ramadanovic, P. ed. (2002) Topologies of trauma: On the Limit of Knowledge and Memory. New York: Other Press

Caruth, C. (1996) Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative and History. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press

Felman, Sh. (1992) After the Apocalypse: Paul de Man and the Fall to Silence in: Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis and History, ed. Felman, Sh; Laub, D. New York: Routledge. Str. 120-164.

Felman, Sh. (1995) Education and Crisis, or the Vicissi- tudes of Teaching in: Trauma, Explorations in Memory. ed. Caruth, C. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press

Freud, S. (1920/1986) Beyond the Pleasure Princi- ple in: Budućnost jedne iluzije. Future of an Illusion. Zagreb: Naprijed

Lacan, J. (1986) Seminar XI. Four basic notions of psychoanalysis. Zagreb: Naprijed

Matijašević, Ž. (2006) Strukturiranje nesvjesnog: Freud i Lacan. Structuring the unconscious. Zagreb: AGM

Moranjak-Bamburač, N. (2004) Ima li rata u ratnom pismu. Is there any war in war writing? In: Sarajevske sveske, Sarajevo volumes, n. 5.

Nedić, D. (2011) Ja sam idem do toaleta, I am going to the toilet alone. In: Izvan koridora. Vranac – Na- jbolja kratka priča 2011. Outside the corridor. Vranac – Best short story, 2011. Podgorica: Sibila. Str. 107- 111.

Pintarić, K. (2010) Osječka maskerata, The Osijek Masquerade. In: Poetika buke. Antologija slavonskog ratnog pisma. Poetics of Noise. Anthology of Slavonian War Writing. Ed. Rem, G. Vinkovci: Slavonska nak- lada i Riječ, p. 314-316.

Rem, G. (2010) Poetika buke. Antologija slavonskog ratnog pisma. Poetics of Noise. Anthology of Slavonian War Writing. Ed. Rem, G. Vinkovci: Slavonska nak- lada i Riječ, p. 455-473.

64 Art as the re- sult of society’s transformation An overview of contemporary visual arts in the Republic of Srpska

When we talk about contemporary art tures such as, the Academy of Visual arts in the Republic of Srpska, its origins and and museums, whose activities are largely progress, we roughly take into considera- supported by foreign donations. Founda- tion the past ten years. In terms of territo- tion of the Soroš Centre for contempo- ry, this separation of entities within Bosnia rary art was of particular importance in and Herzegovina is necessary and under- 1996, which was later named Sarajevo standable for various reasons. Mutual divi- Contemporary Art Centre. Since 2006, sion and isolation in the aftermath of civil they have been awarding the Zvono award, war of the early 1990s, after which there the only prize for contemporary visual art was a slow and painful process of recovery in BH for young artists of both entities in and normalisation of conditions of cultural order to promote them abroad. production, as well as the activities from the domain of visual arts in the Republic of During the 1990’s, the art scene in the Re- Srpska and the BH Federation which hap- public of Srpska functions in isolation in pen independently of each other. relation to other parts and is limited to modest achievements of the local com- Soon after the war ended, the precondi- munity, with a certain number of mostly tions were met for emergence of a new art older active artists. New artistic tenden- scene in the BH Federation with the centre cies appear much later with the establish- in Sarajevo, mitigated by the existing struc- ment of a cultural and political centre in

65 Banja Luka, mainly the Academy of Arts in BH goes hand in hand with the complex 1998 and the transformation and renam- socio-political reality of the past twenty ing of the Art Gallery into the Museum years. Transformation of the Bosnian and of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Herzegovian society, marked by a series of Srpska in 2004. We should also mention political processes, from the decline of the the Academy of Fine Arts in Trebinje es- SFRY, many years of war and to the Day- tablished in 1995, with several success- ton Peace Treaty and re-establishment of ful artist of the younger generation. Ad- a new, complex state structure to enable ditionally, there is namaTRE.ba, an online co-existence between the warring peoples platform for contemporary art, set up in is the context which undoubtedly deter- 2006. Its main focus are video, film and mines and relates to all internal develop- performance. Nevertheless, a real genera- mental processes. Since its inception, con- tion of artists, interested in new media, temporary BH art is manifested as a direct but also aware that they have to position consequence of all this, inseparable from themselves in relation to current parame- contemplation of war and conditions in its tres of the place and times in which they aftermath. There is a country divided ac- appeared with the first graduates of the cording to ethnic entities during transition Academy in Banja Luka. The cornerstone is into a democratic and neoliberal state. In collaboration with similar institutions and order to reveal the principles which gov- presentation of recent artistic tendencies ern the representation of the socio-politi- in the region. As the main institution and cal map and its reading in visual art, here is the strongest link in the process of creat- a selection of several works, considered to ing contemporary art in the RS, it became be the most representative of contempo- a venue and a platform for this group of rary art in the Republic of Srpska. In this young artists. They stepped into the spot- way, there is a tendency to discover issues light in 2007 during the Interspace exhi- and unresolved conflicting fields which are bition in regional centres: Sarajevo, Novi results of an artificial and essentially dys- Sad, Skoplje and Belgrade. The activities of functional model of co-existence within a Protok, Centre for Visual Communication, single state, while maintaining ethnic divi- a non-profit organisation formed in 2005 sions. Artists insist on finding ways to con- by several of Banja Luka’s artists, stood out front and overcome these issues. as another important factor in the proc- ess of revival of the local art scene. Their Most authors favour repetition of motives most important projects include the Inter- that refer to Bosnia and Herzegovina as national exhibition Spaport, first of its kind the dominant thematic corpus, regarding in BH, which has been held three times so the relation to the recent war past, as well far. as the present which is oversaturated by intranational ethnic rivalry, especially when If we take into account the different time it comes to issues of language, writing and frames, local features and circumstances, state emblems, often resulting in absurd- we can detect two separate scenes in ity and contradiction. All of these elements Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole. How- are frequently seen as impositions, foreign ever, their functioning and mutual rela- and debilitating factors. Artists form the RS tion is not well defined and established, approach them from a more or less critical given that opposing political, ideological and subversive standpoint. and propagandist factors inevitably come into play. Generally speaking, visual art in Video artwork “BHS” (2010) by Igor

66 Bošnjak (from Trebinje) deals with lan- National emblems in the works of artists guage as a means to establish and point from the RS detect and observe different out mutual diversity and equality of the models of political manipulation, since it three constitutional nations in BH. The is precisely these elements that are used former Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian, to dispute or cause misunderstanding of alongside the processes of formation and political factors, while ignoring real prob- affirmation of national identities – Bosniak, lems in BH, most importantly poor eco- Croatian and Serbian – was transformed nomic and living conditions. Further, the into three separate languages, based on flag, coat of arms or the anthem were not minimal and far-fetched differences which adopted through mutual agreement, they became mandatory in the public domain were imposed by the High Representa- to stress political correctness, often with tive for BH. Very bad design by Igor Bošnjak absurd results. One example would be sign (2010) is composed of six oils on canvas language, more specifically, something that with actual design suggestions for the BH happened a few years ago, when a televi- flag in 1998. These are attempts to find the sion station addressed the need to have proper forms and colours according to di- three sign language interpreters. The video versity and equality among the constitu- repeats this situations with three simulta- ent peoples. By presenting these examples neous sign language interpretations which of bad design, the author reveals limited logically do not differ from each other in possibilities of finding a neutral, acceptable any way, underlining how grotesque this and applicable solution, since the flag was a sort of manipulation is. Apart from lan- burning issue for many years between the guage, there is also writing, i.e. two alpha- political elites. Finally, the only reference to bets, the Latin and the Cyrillic, obligatory BH on the flag is the yellow triangle, as in all aspects of institutional activities as a geographical reference, while other ele- a public manifestation of equality. On the ments place it in a broader European con- other hand, using or choosing one of the text. Nevertheless, the RS has had a sepa- alphabets, depending on ethnicity is often a rate ethnic flag since 1992, constitutionally parametre of correctness or (in)eligibility. confirmed in 2006, while the state flag -re In her video Write yourself...Erase yourself fers to the Federation of BH, because the (2010) Borjana Mrđa (from Banja Luka) actual federal flag was revoked in 2007 be- writes and erases her name and surname cause it did not represent the three con- on a piece of paper, alternating between stituent nations. In that regard, the relation Latin and Cyrillic. This mechanical action to state emblems varies from adoption to gradually becomes more intense and ag- ignoration, depending on the ethnic group, gressive and the paper is eventually torn as a symptom of opposing sides which in- up. The alphabet is one of the key aspects frequently tend to exclude each other. Bo- of artist’s personal identity because she is jana Tamindžija (from Trebinje) attempts to used to using both alphabets. But, in the confront the opposing factors within this new political context which insists on sep- problematic construct in her performance aration based on alphabet, it becomes a I am not naked, I am not alone (2009) at sign of national ethnicity. The duality caus- the Banski dvor Cultural Centre in Banja es confusion, so writing and erasing your Luka. It consisted of reciting the national name quickly and demonstratively unrav- anthem in three varieties, respectful of the els as a physical manifestation of artist’s three languages, but in reality without any introspection. differences, while the author was naked and draped in the BH flag. Intentionally

67 pointing out controversial state emblems reduced and the former barracks in Banja in an institution which is marked exclu- Luka became the Academy of Fine Arts. sively with RS emblems, is additionally sup- This is what caused his drastic transforma- ported by statements such as “I love my tion from soldier to artist and determined anthem, I love my flag, my body is the body the type of art he would be engaged with. of my state.” This kind of provocative and In his work, there is an awareness of the direct intervention within one’s ethnicity stereotypical views of the ethnic group he indicates manipulation methods which are belongs to, the imposed identity of the oc- present everywhere and applied by all po- cupator, which he tries to deconstruct by litical structures in BH, that treat the indi- overstressing this component when show- vidual as only a body, unable to resist or ing his work on the international scene. make any change. The role and power of the media in con- The immediacy of the war experience as structing the truth and perspective regard- a permanent source of trauma, both indi- ing specific events, in this case the war in vidually and collectively for all BH citizens, BH, is examined by Radenko Milak (Banja provides constant artistic production at Luka) in his work And what else did you see the RS art scene. Dealing with this ex- – I could not see everything (2010). In a se- tremely difficult and painful topic primarily ries of more than twenty oils on canvas, confronts personal traumas to find a way the author uses a motive from a photo- to overcome them using different artistic graph taken in Bijeljina in 1992 by Ron strategies. We have to bear in mind that Haviv, an American photographer. The mo- years after the civil war, that same war tive is repeated in same formats and same has been systematically exploited through colour schemes, with minimal difference. one-sided interpretations of the past, de- It is a violent scene depicting a member termining the levels of responsibility, as of the Tigers paramilitary unit terrorising well as identifying the roles of criminals non-Serbian civilians. The image circled the and victims. Also, the external experience world as one of the most brutal scenes of the BH conflict implies the accepted ever documented during the war. and well-rooted image of the Serbian peo- ple as the only culprit, supported by the Its revival through the painting medium media. Occupation (2007-2008) by Mladen many years later is part of a personal Miljanović (from Banja Luka) are on-site process which deals with the past and interventions on specific locations, such questions collective responsibility. In the as exhibition spaces in New York, Graz, present context, where BH nations live Philadelphia and Hegenheim. The author together, the war trauma functions as an occupies the sites by wallpapering the in- active point of conflict in the process of teriors and exteriors with a matrix of mul- assigning, escaping or absolving blame. On tiplied soldier figures in black and white, in the other hand, there is the issue of the regular, endless rows. This piece functions manipulative potential of the media image as an invasion on the world of art centres, – how this photograph can allow insight mirroring subtle, clever and complex proc- into the truth about war crimes in BH esses of transformation from military to – because no matter how valid it is as a artistic as the core concept. The artist, document of a moment in time, it is an Miljanović, attended military school and excerpt in a wider chain of events which instead of furthering his military career, remains invisible and can be selectively the school was shut down, the army was overlooked.

68 Artists in the RS feel the need to deter- dots, 80 centimetres in diameter, in the pa- mine their own position and perspective vilions. In relation to the exponents, the as creators with regard to art outside the dots corresponded in form and content, BH domain. They are aware of the isola- so the intervention curve went from one tion, marginalisation and the impossibility work to the next to symbolically draw in of stepping out of the complex and self- a BH pavilion. The action was presented at limiting internal field of politics, which the University Campus in Banja Luka with has resulted, among other things, in two a sign at the entrance to the exhibition art scenes and an undefined art policy for saying “Bosnia and Herzegovina”, just like production and presentation of art on na- at the Venice Biennale. This led to the uni- tional level. Under these circumstances, versity issuing an order to take down the promotion of contemporary BH art on sign because it is potentially controversial the cultural map of the world is left to in- and uncalled for from an ideological stand- dividual efforts and aspiration of NGOs. point. It is precisely this kind of reaction Veso Sovilj’s Art of Bosnia and Herzegovina that is one of the symptoms of the com- is within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovi- prehensive political context which hinders na (2006) talks about precisely this issue. the presentation of BH art abroad, due to As a professor at the Academy of Arts in inability, incompetence or lack of interest Banja Luka, he has influenced many art- shown by relevant authorities. Given that ists of the younger generation. The piece in the two years leading up to the next consists of a print of the BH borders on Biennale, the issue had not been resolved a white surface and a short text: “Art of despite open discussions and public ap- Bosnia and Herzegovina is within the bor- pearances, Tač.ka group organised another ders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, limitlessly, action in 2009 called Can you imagine a BH enormously I multiply the limited borders pavilion at the Venice Biennale? They asked (...) production is without support, post- forty random people and staff members production is without support, without at the Biennale to show them where the support the artist stays within the terri- BH pavilion was. All of them were eager torial borders...” These statements refer to help them, convinced that such a pa- to author’s personal fate. He was part of vilion existed, since every country in the the neo-avangarde movement during the the world is allowed to participate. This 1980s, and one of its most talented rep- underlines the absurdity of the situation resentatives in Yugoslavia. His rising career in which internal organisational barriers was cut short by the war and years of iso- prevent the presentation of art at an im- lation. Also, this is a realistic presentation portant event. of the BH situation when referring to the art system, or lack thereof. BH Imaginary Ljubija kills (2010) by Sandra Dukić and Pavilion is a project/action by Tač.ka (from Boris Glamočanin (from Banja Luka) deals Prijedor) from 2007-2009. It is based on with postwar reality during transition in the fact that BH does not have a pavilion on Bosnia and Herzegovina, including conse- world art events, such as during the Venice quences of political and economic proc- Biennale. The first action was performed in esses over the past twenty years which 2007 as a protest and an attempt to sym- directly terrorised ordinary people, push- bolically construct the BH pavilion. Mem- ing them to the side, who are now dis- bers of the group visited the 52nd Venice enfranchised and left to survive under ex- Biennale and documented their interven- treme conditions. A typical example can be tions – putting or inserting black cardboard found in Ljubija near Prijedor, a small min-

69 ing town in former Yugoslavia. The mines horrors of war critically without ignoring stopped working when the war broke out the burden of responsibility of the Serbian and went back to business after twelve nation, which is openly demonstrated in years when a foreign company Arcelor some cases. This phenomenon could be ex- Mittal, bought a major share. This, however, plained in the context of external percep- did not solve unemployment among large tion of the civil war in BH, or the constant numbers of refugees and returnees, ig- ideological climate that benefited the art- nored by the state and ethnic constituency ists of the Federation. The dominant theme as social waste. Since Ljubija foundry made with a significant number of Sarajevo au- sewage manholes for the entire region, thors relating to the war from the position artists used the motive of the manhole as of the occupied victim, is correspondent the symbol of Ljubija, its past and present. and immanent to the international view Ljubija kills consists of a table for four in of Bosnian Serbs as aggressors and crimi- the form a manhole and from which we nals. Therefore, the way artists from the can hear confessions of people from Lju- RS deal with this topic, stepping into the bija. Then there is Man-hole, where artists international scene almost ten years after left imprints of manholes in various pub- federal artists, is consequently steeped in lic places, as well as coordinated action trauma and frustration caused by inter- with women’s association Rudarka from nal processes and awareness of how they Ljubija, called I don’t see and I don’t hear. are perceived as a nation. In this way, their Women from Ljubija made little eye and ambition to be recognised outside BH, as ear patches with the logo of the mine, on well as to require foreign funding to revi- sale during every exhibition to help them talize the local art scene, inevitably implies out financially. Presenting a clearly critical an awareness of the reduced possibility to attitude to a problem that has been over- speak out about the war, a need to adjust looked by society, Ljubija kills is a reminder, and take an acceptable ideological stand. a warning and a call for change to which it contributes to a certain degree.

Since its beginning, contemporary art in Žana Vukičević the Republic of Srpska is an active field for detecting anomalies in Bosnian and Herze- govian society and their critical analysis. It is a young , developing scene, and the authors selected have shown they are will- ing to provoke and reveal frustrating, con- flicted focal points that shape their reality. There is a subversive tendency towards any kind of internal political manipulation. The topics they are dealing with are typi- cal indicators of bigger issues, always in the context of BH as a whole. When consid- ering war traumas, however, artists in the RS have not dealt with loss and terrors of their own ethnic group, although they have all experienced the war directly. There is a tendency to universally approach the

70 Criticize This! was a project imple- mented by cultural organizations from Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia and dedicated to the affirmation of art criticism and critical reflection of literature, performing and visual arts. The project educated young art critics from the Balkan region who After years of deliberate nation build- wrote and published art reviews ing narratives in Balkan countries in and essays for a year both online in which state supported art was par- Booksa.hr, Kulturpunkt.hr, Seecult. ticularly instrumental, some national org, Elektrobeton.net and Plima.org myths have impregnated the society as well as offline in dailies Danas and at large. Mainstream contemporary Pobjeda and in the weekly Novosti. art in these countries still very often The selection of best essays written reflects this sentiment, openly pro- during that time is collected in this moting prejudiced stereotypes and publication. justifying national ideologies or po- litical agendas. Simultaneously, these Young art critics who participated in countries have witnessed a signifi- the project are: Ivana Ančić, Marija cant decrease in critical reflection Andrijašević, Ivana Anić, Zvjezdana on contemporary art. Balić, Tamara Baračkov, Tihana Bertek, Vladimir Bjeličić, Nađa Bobičić, Having this in mind, Criticize This! Ana Bogdanović, Gjorgje Bozhoviq, was conceived as widening the pub- Nikola Đoković, Slađana Golijanin, lic space for critical discussion on Lejla Kalamujić, Anita Kojundžić, contemporary art. It used criticism Nino Kovačić, Luka Kurjački, Bojan of contemporary art to reveal the Krištofić, Srđan Laterza, Morena way in which contemporary art Livaković, Milena Milojević, Lamija (de)constructs nationalistic myths, Neimarlija, Vanja Nikolić, Milena national identities and images of the Pejović, Dalibor Plečić, Marko Raguž, other as well as the ways contem- Sandro Siljan, Nikola Skočajić, Leda porary art deals with neuralgic and Sutlović, Kristina Špiranec, Ivan Tel- traumatic points of these societies. ebar, Žana Vukičević.

www.criticizethis.org

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