Engaged art and resistance to war
Women in Black have been working together with artists and art collectives artistic groups on shaping resistance. As opposed to the indifference of the majority of artists, who followed the official position that 'Serbia isn't at war' and who did not react to the reality of war, and who now do not react to the reality of denial of crimes; as opposed to the majority of artists who escaped and now take refuge in escapism, in so-called fine arts, in neutral, depoliticised, and in fact immoral and ethically inadmissible art, the artists and art collectives we work with (Škart, Dah Theater, Proba Choir, Art Clinic, Spomenik Group, Omarska's Four Faces, Bureau, etc.) share with us the same ethical values. Working together with them, bilaterally and in the long-term, learning from each other, we produce acts of resistance. The street, courtyard, square, agora, plenum are our 'official space' (Škart's notion), away from the hierarchised, depoliticised gallery, museum or shopping mall space.
The "Always disobedient - We leave a trace" exhibition points to the reaction through artistic-political-activist means to the context in which politics of evil have been dominant within a homogenised uniform public sphere in the last twenty years. Topics that the dominant political/social public sphere does not want to know about are erased from this space. Such topics are, for instance: the countless atrocities committed in our name or the problems of misery and/or predatory privatisation, that are erased in the name of the nation, neoliberal market model and/or integration processes. This space excludes individuals and collectives working outside the dominant national/state/aesthetical model in the name of 'fine art' - which is not neutral and supports the dominant repressive model of reproduction of reality.
The exhibition wishes to contribute to the active creation of a different context, the inclusion of those who are 'written off,' those on the margins, outside and under consensus, eternal dissidents, outsiders by choice of by force, offenders of all patriarchal norms. This is a question of remembering in spite of the organised forgetting of voices, feelings, thoughts, actions; a question of praxis against the politics of evil (of war, nationalism, militarism); a question of insisting on the same 'old-fashioned' (ethical/political values, principles), as provocation and subversion in spite of fashionable-project market tendencies ('If you follow fashion, you always fall behind' - Škart). The exhibition insists on the removal of binary patriarchal oppositions: private/public, mind/body (i.e. 'feeling with one's mind, thinking with one's body'), theory/praxis, academism/activism. It promotes non-dilapidation and parsimony as political and ethical act. The exhibition is composed for the most part of artefacts and resources from our kitchens, wardrobes, activist communities, from streets and squares.
Programme
Saturday, 08.09.2011
CZKD (Centre For Cultural Decontamination), big room
CZKD, courtyard
19:00 Opening of the "Always disobedient - We leave a trace" exhibition
(The exhibition is opened by Ana Vilenica and Silvija Dražić)
19:15 Women in Black's choir sings "Not in our name"
19:20 Marija Vidić, performance "Reconstruction of being a woman"
19:30 Jovana Dimitrijević, performance 'The body is my homeland'
CZKD, big room
19:45 Libera, Milano, screening and choir's reading "Walls of the mind - a travel through the world, with a woman's look"
20:00 We remember - In memoriam of our friends
20:15 - 21:00 Snack with pacifists hymns and revolutionary songs
21:00 Social evening with the spectacle "We are women activists, poets, artists, dancers, singers, juggler, cooks...The revolutionary power of laughing, singing, dancing..." (the programme is led by Zoe Gudović and Jasmina Tešanović)
21:00 Dah Theater "Crossing the line" and video document of the eponymous performance hold in Zagreb in 2008.
21:10 Ervina, Herceg Novi, Zelena, poetry reciting
21:15 Comrade Gile, cultural worker from Kragujevac reads his anti-nationalist and anti-church poetry.
21:20 Ljubica "My growing-up at Women in Black"
21:25 Anti-fascist punk band Hoću-neću (I will-I won't) from Kraljevo and Ankica, Zagreb– juggler-torchbearer-of-free-thinking
21:55 Proba Choir
22:05 We are the witches/ Mi smo veštice – Rebecca Johnson, Women in Black's choir and all who are present.
22:11 Collage of pacifist songs - Rebecca and Saša
22:20 Đuka, Zagreb "Puff of Zagorje - a blueprint for relationships between men and women"
22:25 Štefica, One shower, and there's 150 of us! poetry rendition
22:30 Ad hoc WiB guerrilla choir, "The young partisan was a lesbian"
22:32 Igo, Prishtina and Lepa's performance
22:37 Svenka, Novi Sad, Dancing and singing
...the party continues...
Guide to the exhibition
Women in Black's video activism
In order to improve the visibility of various models of transitional justice's effects -especially of that from the feminist perspective promoted by Women in Black - we created a group of video activists in 2010. This group trained in recording, editing, digitisation and putting online video and audio material gathered during Women in Black's regular activities so that this material would be available, in the form of short films, to the wider public. We present you a small selection from this comprehensive material:
Film: Slogans
Duration: 20 minutes
Genre: documentary
Production: Škart, 2006
Synopsis: Audio-visual work of the artistic group Škart on the principles of Women in Black's pacifist policy.
Film: Lest we forget the crime in Kozarac-Omarska...
Duration: 5 minutes
Genre: documentary
Production: Women in Black, 2011
Synopsis: The film is a document about the inauguration of a monument dedicated to the 1200 (and more) people killed during the aggression by the Yugoslav People's Army and the Army of Republika Srpska against Bosniak civilians in 1992.
Film: Štrpci: we remember
Duration: 5:35 minutes
Genre: documentary
Production: Women in Black, 2008.
Synopsis: The film is about the commemoration (27.2.2008) of the 15th year since the crime in Štrpci, when 19 Bosniaks were kidnapped and killed, on 27 February 1993.
Film: Vukovar
Author: Rastko Novaković
Duration: 6 minutes
Genre: documentary
Production: Group for video-activism, Women in Black, 2010
Synopsis: The film is about the policy of visiting the places of crimes committed in our name: 18 November 2009, a group of some twenty Women in Black activists visited Vukovar in Croatia for the anniversary of the town's fall.
Film: Antifascism is my choice
Duration: 6:44 minutes
Genre: documentary
Production: Rastko Novaković and Women in Black, 2010
Synopsis: This documentary film, in Serbian and subtitled in English, is about the antifascist march organised by Women in Black and Labris on 9 November 2009 for the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism
Film: March, 8th - In Solidarity for Our Rights
Duration: 4:12 minutes
Genre: documentary
Production: Rastko Novaković i Group for video-activism, Women in Black, 2011.
Synopsis: On the occasion of the 100th year of celebrating March, 8th, Women in Black from Belgrade organised a protest march through Belgrade centre as well as a public lecture. The action was dedicated to women’s labour rights.
Film: We return you the tank!
Duration: 10 minutes
Genre: documentary
Production: Group for video-activism, Women in Black, 2010
Synopsis: This film follows the street action organised by Women in Black, Art Klinika and Škart "We return you the tank!" in October 2010 and which represents an homage to deserters and insurgents against the war.
Film: Srebrenica Genocide - 15 years later
Duration: 14:24 minutes
Genre: documentary
Production: Group for video-activism, Women in Black, 2011
Synopsis: The film is about the artistic-activist action "One pair of shoes - one life" hold in Belgrade to mark the 15th year since the genocide in Srebrenica.
Film: A roof above one's head is a human right
Duration: 10 minutes
Genre: documentary
Production: Amnesty International, 2011
Synopsis: The film is about the forced eviction of Roma families from Belgrade centre during 2010.
Exhibition of posters, banners and artefacts from Women in Black's actions
During Women in Black's twenty years of work, around 1500 anti-war, feministo-anti-militarist, -anti-fascist, -anti-clerical street actions‚ for which banners and artefacts were created to send a message to the public. Some of them are on display in CZKD's courtyard.
Sending of parcels to Sarajevo, 1992-1995
"In women's groups, we had many discussions about guilt. Therefore, we decided to write about how, for two years, we lived 'in' sending parcels to women in Sarajevo. This meant thinking about the parcels in the supermarket, or on any trip through town. It meant thinking about the parcels when foreign women came and asked what we needed, or when they brought us a gift, which we left in the closet for the parcels. It meant that every time I went home, I would look in front of the shop to see if they had thrown out cardboard boxes which we could use for the parcels. Then I would drag them in. At home, in my small room, there were always empty cardboard boxes piled on top of each other to the ceiling, just in case. We traded cardboard boxes. Jadranka always knew where to get what in town, what could go in the parcel and what should not...We traded tins and other goods. We waited in lines...In the lines for the parcels, something would always happen. Wet met up with people from Satajevo. We listened to stories of people's loved ones who had remained in Sarajevo, how many months they had been living in a basement or without electricity. We would always run into Lula Mikijelj. She alone surely hauled, drove and packed several hundred parcels. Lula also knew everything about the parcels. For example, she knew the most efficient way to assemble the parcels: after you pack everything carefully, then you take beans and fill up the remaining holes...We sent the last round of parcels in January 1996."
(We remember - Lepa Mlađenović and Jadranka Miličević, 'Feminističke sveske,' 5-6, published by the Autonomous Women's Centre; Women for Peace, 1997 and Women's side of War, published by Women in Black, 2007)
Marija Vidić's performance, Reconstruction of being a woman
Successful, independent, economically independent, self-sufficient women, whose needs the patriarchal relationship does not satisfy anymore. Why do they then still spend life in a relationship that more often makes them sad or angry than satisfies them, if there is no reason for it? Is loneliness the only opposite to patriarchy and does our fear also prevent change?
Libera Mazzoleni, Screening choir reading (pictures, music, poetry) "Walls of the mind - a travel through the world, with a woman's look"
The verses are read in Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Serbian.
One pair shoes - one life
The first phase of the campaign whose aim is to build a lasting monument in Belgrade to commemorate the victims of the Srebrenica genocide. The action took place in Belgrade on 7 July 2010, a many hundred of shoes were gathered during it. The action was inspired by the international initiative in which women of Srebrenica take part. The initiators of the action, beside Women in Black, are: Ana Vilenica, performer, Biljana Rakočević, artistic photographer, Branimir Stojanović, psychoanalyst, the Centre for cultural decontamination, Dah Theater from Belgrade, Art clinic's on duty team from Novi Sad, Milica Tomić, artist, Saša Stojanović, artist, group Škart from Belgrade.
May 9th, Omarska, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Women in Black, along with artists' associations „Spomenik/Monument“ and „Četiri lica Omarske/Four faces of Omarska“from Belgrade, and along with hundreds of survivors of the camp, have visited the Omarska concentration camp, a place of suffering of Bosniaks during the 1992 . In the presence of about a thousand people from different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Joint Declaration against fascism was inaugurated on the occasion of International Day against Fascism (May 9th).
On the same day, at the same time, in Belgrade, at Banjica Nazi concentration camp (camp from the Second World War), activists od the Women in Black read the above mentioned Declaration.
August 6th, Omarska, Bosnia and Herzegovina: At the invitation of the Association of Detainees of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Association of Detainees of Prijedor, Women in Black activists visited the former concentration camp Omarska, (the eponymous active mining complex) together with the associations “Spomenik/Monument” and “Četiri lica Omarske/ Four faces of Omarska” from Belgrade. In the aforementioned concentration camp of the Serbian army and police, approximately 6 000 Bosniak and Croat civilians were detained, while 700-900 people were killed in the camp. On August 6th we marked the closing date of the camp. This visit is a tribute to the victims, and shows solidarity with the survivors, but also shows support the creation of the Memorial Center in the former Omarska camp.
Neda's corner
Neda as continuity of antifascist struggle and of the struggle of women for equality. My connection to the past and my signpost for the future. This fragment of the mosaic of my life, a difficult enigma that was resolved in the nineties, during the war years. Wisdom painstakingly and persistently gathered. In my opinion, WiB was a modern and transformed representative of the Antifascist Women's front (WWII Yugoslav organisation) from the nineties to today.
Jovana Dimitrijević, performance The body is my homeland
A dress is without doubts a civil/pacifist garment opposed to military clothes. A dress composed of other dresses is resistance to neoliberal market, industrial uniformity. A dress is the result of the work of million of textile workers.
Srđan Veljović, photographs
The actors in the photos perform and define their own space of freedom through situations that can be described as borders situations (Gender borders, Economics of power - heterosexual relations, Guns onto priests, Women in Black's street actions).
Deconstruction of the kitchen space
The way Women in Black have been deconstructing not only the kitchen but every other space contaminated by the patriarchy (especially military space) expresses itself through the changing of the existing thought. The new embroideries acknowledge domestic violence, our embroideries know human rights, our human rights know about other women's voices, about friendships among women. This part of the space is an homage to our friend Gaga from Zaječar, who created a different art, an art of the written off, together with our friends from Škart.
Antimilitarist installation
These photographs are to remember courageous act of Vladimir Živković, forcefully mobilised reservist from Valjevo. In the autumn 1991, he took anarmoured personnel carrierand drove it in front of SFR Yugoslavia Parliament as a sign of protest against the war. In the autumn 2010, Women in Black, together with Art clinic from Novi Sad and Škart/Proba from Belgrade, carried out in front of the Serbian parliament the action: 'We return you the tank - homage to the insurgents against violence and war' dedicated to Vladimir Živković and all other deserters.
Borka Vasić, A roof above one's head is a human right
One of the most excluded groups in our society is Roma people. Their constant and coerced eviction, the social stigma, as well as the hypocrisy of international donors, banks and government in Serbia is indeed a problem we want to talk about. We want to talk about the link between war and privatisation on the one hand and the position of the Roma population, we want to say loudly that our position a social problem.
Uma Manojlović, Transparently
Women in Black’s engagement is transparent, and so we demand transparency of all government’s decisions. We demand transparency of money transfers within the budget, we demand transparency of the amount of money given to the churches, and of that given for the school system. We demand transparency about the amount of money given for armament, and that given for food. We also demand a transparent and clear decision that the money is given for life and not for death.
Saša Stojanović, Documents of time
Documentation of the performance “stained hands are quickly cleaned” – December 1998.
Poster “Conscientious objection” – 2001.
The joy because of the meeting with Jelena Šantić.
The works are offered to the trust, to the critical relationship and insurgency against the retrograde politics of dehumanised capitalistic reality.
Vesna Pavlović, Women who leave a trace
The black and white photographs are in harmony with Women in Black’s vigils. They stand, dressed in black, which is a sign of mourning in Western cultures. Black clothes are a renunciation through which it is shown that something “isn’t ok,” and at the same time, it is resistance to the culture of death. The black and white photograph discards the disguised reality, and a call to protest against it. The black and white photograph calls for thinking because colours lack, and how these colours should actually be.
Vera Vujošević, A chronicle of resistance
The photographs are a testimony of the anti-war resistance in Belgrade and throughout ex-Yugoslavia. They are at the same time a chronicle, solidarity with and support to anti-war activists and victims of crimes committed in our name.
International photo-testimony
The photographs from the conferences of Women in Black International Network that testify to the international solidarity based on feminist-antimilitarist values (Haya Shalom, Cythia Cockburn, Sofia de Sevilla)
Lina Vušković, Badges
Badges, private collection in honour of the insurgents against the war.
Impression:
Women in Black
October 2011, Beograd
The priniting of this guide was supported by Mama Cash and Global Fund for Women, in solidarity.
