Queer Art in (ex)Yu” and diaspora: constructing an identity

The idea of this panel is to initiate discussions on queer art in Yugoslavia, as well as on defining queer art as such – to call into question existing definitions and to rethink how they work in different contexts, what topics queer art covers, to see if there is political implications of queer art.

Queer Art in (ex)Yu” and diaspora: constructing an identity

As part of the project “Is Queer Political”

A panel talk

Tue. 30.1.2023, 7:00pm, QUEER MUSEUM VIENNA

former “Direktion”, staircase 2, Ground Floor, Baumgartner Höhe 1, 1140 Wien

The talk will be in English

The idea of this panel is to initiate discussions on queer art in Yugoslavia, as well as on defining queer art as such – to call into question existing definitions and to rethink how they work in different contexts, what topics queer art covers, to see if there is political implications of queer art. The aim is to start a dialogue about the term itself and the methodology of research and writings about it, to reconsider ways of exhibiting and presenting queer art, as well as the mechanism of historicizing it. 

Does queer Yugoslav art exist, what does it mean in the context of ex-Yugoslavia, the Balkans today, and the Yugoslav diaspora? If it doesn’t exist as a phenomenon we want to understand why we are constructing it, why we need it, who it serves, and what its political and social potential is. And finally, what is the future of queer art in this context? 

Participants from different backgrounds and diverse methodologies will share their views on these questions, and visitors are encouraged to engage in conversation.

Image: from upper left to lower right Marina Gržinić, Jovita Pritovšek, Mišo Kapetanović, Damir Očko, Slavčo Dimitrov, Ana Simona Zelenović

Speakers:

Marina Gržinić is a doctor of philosophy and works as research advisor at the Institute of Philosophy at the ZRC SAZU (Scientific and Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Art) in Ljubljana. She is Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Austria. She also works as a freelance media theorist, art critic and curator.  Her areas of specialization include contemporary philosophy, contemporary art, the study of coloniality and decoloniality, transfeminism, the analysis of racism, antisemitism, nationalism, and research of memory and history in connection with resistance.

Jovita Pristovšek is a postdoctoral researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2021–24), and an assistant professor at the Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2019–21). She holds a PhD in philosophy (Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana), and an MA in Fine Arts (The Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana). Her research interests focus on the theme of race and racialization within contemporary regimes of aesthetic, public, and political.

Mišo Kapetanović, PhD in Balkan Studies from the University of Ljubljana, studied Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Banja Luka and received a Joint Master degree in Global History and Global Studies from the University of Vienna and the University of Leipzig. He is currently researching Historical Queerness in the Slavic-Speaking Dinaric Mountains, exploring gender and sexual diversity in the Western Balkans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Damir Očko, is a prominent Croatian visual artist. His work has been exhibited in major venues, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and he represented Croatia at the Venice Biennale in 2015. Očko rose to fame as a filmmaker, dealing intensely with how image, language and sound interweave. He is part of the queer community, performs as a drag queen and deals with queer topics and content in very abstract ways.

Slavčo Dimitrov, a PhD candidate in Gender Studies and Philosophy and working on his PhD thesis. He’s been teaching several courses at the non-formal School on Gender and Politics at the Euro-Balkan Institute. At the moment he is a teaching assistant for the courses ‘Contemporary Cultural Theories’, ‘Culture and Gender’, ‘Masculinities and the Balkans’ and ‘Queer Theory’ at the postgraduate Gender Studies and Cultural studies departments at the Institute Euro-Balkan in Skoplje.

Ana Simona Zelenović, a PhD candidate at Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, working on a thesis on history of performance art in Serbia and SFRY. Holds an MA in art history and gender studies. She is an art critic and freelance curator, currently curating Montenegrin Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale. Co-founder of annual feminist art journal SELFI, Belgrade, and contributor to Numero, Berlin.

Admission is free.

“Is Queer Political” takes place within the framework of Shift