Politics in Practice – Performance special
As part of the “Is Queer Political” Project
a free program for all
Sa . 27.4.2024, 18:00h, QUEER MUSEUM VIENNA
Otto Wagner Areal, ehem. “Direktion”, Stiege 2, Hochparterre,
Baumgartner Höhe 1, 1140 Wien
After the great performances at the Opening “Is Queer Political?”, we continue the series of performance art with two international guests: Kateřina Olivová and Alma Gačanin.
They invite the audience to witness and share their queer feminist perspectives on topics such as self love, body image and expression, joy and freedom as well as gendered division of labour and precarity of some occupations within the capitalist order.
WHITE GLOVES by Alma Gačanin
The artist puts on and takes off white gloves during the performance. But not just any kind, but long leather gloves with claws, summarizing in them all the polyphony of meanings that they can have. On the one hand, they are associated with their form of long working gloves, which are used in exceptional cases of danger or the physical well-being of workers. Simultaneously, with their color, they recall the activities of service workers’ uniforms. On the other hand, their paradoxical elegance, and sharp long claws, suggest a position of power, which could be (violently) abused at any moment. That’s how the symbolism of everyday working life is repositioned in a discussion about power, which ends with its surrender, to whom else but to the audience. The process of “handover” can be represented through the transition of the function of gloves – those that were threatening and left an intimidating impression, become those that serve the audience. And they serve Meringue, sweet and harmless pleasure. Surrender of power is not absolute, but temporary and fundamentally false, because what the audience gets is a temporary pleasure that erases claws from their memory, dampening the sense of danger. Text: Curator Adna Muslija
Alma Gačanin is a visual artist, poet, and feminist based in Sarajevo. She holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts Education from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, specializing in Art Education. Alma works with different mediums, including drawing, photography, performance, and video. In 2022, she received ZVONO Award as the best artist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Bienalle of Young Artists from Europe and Mediterranean in Milan, 2015. Her work is based on exploring the specificities of labour and the precarity of certain occupations, with a particular focus in the position of women in capitalism and gendered division of labour. She identifies as a feminist in her personal life and in the roles she assumes as an artist-worker. Her recent role as a flight attendant in the Middle East was tackling the nuances of precarious work and questioning the concept of the good life through something we perceive as a dream job. Alma is a member of CRVENA Association for culture and art. Her poems are published in magazines, collections, and web portals in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as in the region.
FULL OF LIFE by Kateřina Olivová
Kateřina Olivová: “Love as the main source of power, energy, motivation and imagination that moves the world. (Naked) dance is my favorite empowering practice through which I share radical self-love, body euphoria, joy, and freedom. Naked dance is my way of (re)connecting the source, of working through the body with my emotions, thoughts, themes, of sharing and evoking them, of moving through them with myself and others. In my performance I would love to create a space for shared emancipation, a space of power, joy, pride, space for owning, loving, rethinking and reimagining our unique beautiful queer bodies. Let’s practice it all together in a wild, fun, crazy, stupid dance!
Performer, artist, curator, feminist, mother. In my artistic practice, I focus mainly on the medium of performance and related media such as video, photography, objects and installations and my starting point is feminism. My main tool of expression is my own naked fat queer feminist body. I’m interested in themes of physicality and sexuality, relationships, emotions, care, joy, dreams and pleasure. I am a lifelong researcher and developer of the concept of radical body positivity, which I have been working on practically and theoretically. At the moment, I am intensly involved in naming the specific mechanisms and practices of this radical empowering concept in my artistic practice. Together with Darina Alster, we are currently working as the heads of the Studio of New Media II at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.”
Free admission
Donations are welcome.
The performance by Kateřina Olivová is supported by Czech Centre Vienna
“Is Queer Political” takes place within the framework of Shift
