IVANA SMILJANIĆ "DANCE DANCE DANCE"

Women are taking over Mochvara this November! Ivana Smiljanić, a young Serbian artist, is preparing an energetic evening in collaboration with the prettier sex – DANCE DANCE DANCE is a performance defined by the musical play-list chosen by Zagreb women who experienced some form of partnership violence. The ladies spoke their minds and created a personal musical play-list which is the integral part of the performance – all the while the artist dances insistently the performance is taped and reproduced in the gallery space titled with the information of each particular song being played, the name of the author, song and whose choice the song is. The duration of the performance is dependant on the play-list – minumum of 50 minutes and maximum of 190 minutes. DANCE DANCE DANCE is a series of performances where Ivana invites people from various social spheres to chose musical numbers for her perfromances, and with each edition faces different relations and instances forming the system of contemporary culture – from the role of the artists to the marginalization of minority groups – since the first performnance in 2007, Ivana has performed DANCE DANCE DANCE in Belgrade, Vranje, Pančevo, Bergen, Bruxelles, Pula, Ljubljana, New York, Bratislava...

“The invitation to DANCE DANCE DANCE at Mochvara Gallery was a chance to refer to my last year's Zagreb exhibition (“This is the real Ivana Smiljanić”, Galerija Prozori) and, in a sense, to round up my artistic production dealing with the psychological violence in partner relations. Instead of the usual practice where I refer to particular instances and problems of the contemporary art scene, I am dealing with a subject that is essentially human, ever present and necessary: I encourage women to fight and free themselves from their violent partners.
I invited women who have experienced and managed to overcome any form of relationship violence to participate in the performance with their musical suggestions. We are celebrating life, respect and support, equal and responsible partnerships!
The performance, apart from the subject, stands out in ambiance: this is the first time I am dancing among my drawings from the series “Zapamtićeš ti mene” (“You'll remember me”), drawn in UV color on the gallery walls, once more accentuating the force and simultaneous invisibility of the problem at hand. ”

Ivana Smiljanić

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Ivana Smiljanić is a visual artist from Belgrade, born in 1980. She graduated from the Academy of fine arts in Belgrade in 2005, and received her masters degree from the same school in 2009. She was awarded with the “Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos” award in 2009 and the Henkel Art Award for Serbia in 2011. Her works are part of the Telenor Collection. So far she exhibited on 12 solo shows and performances and taken part in over fifty group exhibitions. She lives in Belgrade.

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IMPRINT

Mochvara Gallery, November 2012
www.mochvara.hr/galerija-mochvara, www.kontejner.org
galerija@mochvara.hr, kontejner@kontejner.org

organizers: Culture Development Association “URK” + Mochvara Club & KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis
concept: KONTEJNER
curators: KONTEJNER | Ena Hodžić, Ivana Jelača & Tereza Teklić
techical director: Matija Jelić
design: Ruta
public relations: Ena Hodžić & Danijel Badanjak

supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb - City Office for Education, Culture and Sport

Supported [in part] by a grant from the Open Society Foundation.