The political performance as a form of personal or organised artistic resistance in these turbulent times, the consequences of which are still felt today, is the focus of the exhibition Realise! Resist! React! Performance and Politics in the Post-Yugoslav Context of the 1990s. The period of dispersion implied the establishment of state borders and symbols, the demarcation of languages, militarisation, clear distinction from the neighbouring countries, as well as the construction of Capitalism. From anti-war and worker protests, rallies, street actions and performances, from the context of the civil society which found itself in opposition to newly discovered values of emerging democracies, but also from small gestures and personal interactions, a series of emancipatory forms of resistance ensued. Keywords from which the exhibition is derived are siege and border, street and trace in public space, protest and performance, public speech, feminism, the body of radical resistance and the body of the multitudes, the body of the Other and the body of suffering.
The exhibition, made possible in collaboration with the Moderna galerija in Ljubljana, is largely based on the eponymous exhibition set up at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkovain the pandemic year of 2021. The version which we present in Zagreb, with a slightly greater focus on the Croatian scene, revives through its display the legacy of the 1990s, also in the context of war threat, siege and genocide, to which we have borne witness again since February 2022 onwards.
Curated by Jasna Jakšić, in collaboration with Bojana Piškur, Linda Gusia, Vida Knežević, Nita Luci, Asja Mandić, Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski, Ivana Vaseva, Rok Vevar and Jasmina Založnik
Exhibition design: Siniša Ilić
Visual identity: Sanja Kuzmanović
Technical support: Dalibor Cicvara, Mirjana Grab, Višnja Igrc, Aleksandar Milošević Renato Mihaljenović, Ivan Tudek, Filip Zima
