Zig Zag

Zigzagging is a term coined by the philosopher and feminist theorist Rossi Braidotti used mainly in relation to nonlinearity which anticipates the possibility of further development of post-humanist critical theory through intensive interdisciplinary and transversal forms and modes in order to cross the boundaries between different discourses. Zigzagging is related to the notion of time as a complex and nonlinear phenomenon where knowledge and activity are subject to conceptual diversity. Following this line, the Zig Zag exhibition is an interdisciplinary exhibition displaying multi-layered relations between feminism and autonomously formed socially relevant discourses from the territories of former Yugoslavia.

The nature of contemporary societies and subjects that form them is significantly determined by different ways of integration and activity. These are the result of collective critical and creative social and technical relations presented at the exhibition by ČIPke, Initiative for Women with a Sense for Technology, Science and Art through their project ČIPkarnica. The project's social and technical potential lies in the formation of different space for the production and distribution of knowledge. It is a result of several individual and group projects that study the position of women in science and technology as well as interdisciplinary arts, promote communication regarding women's conditions of work in these areas and propose practices to overcome gender division.

The art platform Femkanje activated the reflections on the structures of power, the associating within a complex system of knowledge production and distribution as well as its restrictiveness and productivity in a network of 67 interviewed artists within the audio-visual installation Femkanje - Radio Mapping the Independent Scene. The audio-visual map shows relations and contrasts in the understanding of hegemony of the actual political and social context as well as problems related to the reflection of gender, social and cultural equality in Serbia and the surrounding region.

A real-time generated animation Tekstom(l)at by the Croatian-Slovenian duo Lina Rica and Boštjan Čadež transforms linguistic space into a rhizomatic structure in which linear reading is replaced by a multidirectional link between text (on the subject of feminist theory – transfeminism, posthumanism, performing arts) and external, empirical processes of nonlinear reading and thinking.

The audio-visual installation Echo Archive by the Montenegrin artist Natalija Vujošević through audio recordings of personal stories that the artist, her mother and her grandmother experienced at the age of 15 (in three different cultural and historical periods) explores the meaning of personal archive. By breaking the linear temporality and re-establishing the links with the past, she activates the potential of imagination.

Through the original speculative destabilisation of identity and knowledge, the performance Contexter vs Discursor by the Macedonian duo Ephemerki deals with the questions which ironically ritualise the key elements of Foucault's disciplinary measure. In their pseudo-lecture they lucidly and uncompromisingly deconstruct the notion of the norm and dispose of the ontological material related with the constructs and regimes of power to illustrate the disciplinary power of knowledge in the theory and contemporary philosophy in art practice.

The regulation of life in societies where the political and economic transition have yet to be completed is most reflected in the differences between the public and private spheres. In the performance You Made Your Bed, Now Lie in It, the Bosnian artist Sandra Dukić with the help of a popular saying (that she embroiders on a piece of fabric during the performance) puts the audience in the role of engaged listener and with the use of audio recording delivers the experience of a woman who lives in a safe house. By dealing with violence against women, she evokes patriarchal rhetoric and the question of division into the public and private spheres which continue to perpetuate and normalise the roles of victim and perpetrator.

The politically engaged art practice of Haveit group from Kosovo is reflected in their drawing attention to gender and social discrimination and injustice. The project Use Your Mouth includes the homonymous live performance and the selection of photo and video performances that expose the patriarchal matrix of everyday life which is embodied in gender stereotypes and male supremacy of the society. Haveit rebels against the oppression of women prevalent in Albanian society, LGBT discrimination, nationalism and fights to overcome the dominant social paradigms in the youngest European country.

Through various practices, all participating artists, groups, platforms and initiatives from the territories of former Yugoslavia explore the nonlinear development of culture, gender, technological and economic inequality and thereby discover the specifics of a politically grounded reading of the present in relation to the evermore complex social phenomena they are confronted with. It is not the goal of the Zig Zag exhibition to make a map and “exhibit” a consistent discourse, but rather to actuate nonlinear writing of highly critical and creative feminist thought and action. (Lenka Đorojević, currator)

PROGRAMME AT THE ŠKUC GALLERY

Monday, October 5th
8 pm / Opening of the international group Exhibition Zig Zag, curated by Lenka Đorojević
Haveit: project Use Your Mouth (Jepi me gojë)
ČIPke, Initiative for Women with a Sense for Technology, Science and Art: ČIPkarnica
Femkanje: Femkanje – Radio Mapping the Independent Scene
Lina Rica, Boštjan Čadež: Teksom(l)at
Natalija Vujošević: Echo Archive 
8 pm / Haveit / Use Your Mouth (Jepi me gojë), performance
8.15 pm / Sandra Dukić / You Made Your Bed, Now Lie in It, performance
8.30 pm / Ephemerki / Contexter vs. Discoursor, performance 

Tuesday, October 6th
noon / Panel discussion with artists of the international group exhibition Zig Zag
1 pm / Panel discussion of Cultural Gender Practices Network of the South-Eastern Europe

October 7th, 14th & 21st
6 pm / Guided tour of the exhibition with curator

Organised by: City of Women; In collaboration with: Škuc Gallery.
Coproducer of the Cultural Gender Practices Network of the South-Eastern Europe panel discussion: Vox Feminae.

Projects Panel discussion of Cultural Gender Practices Network of the South-Eastern Europe and Femkanje – Radio Mapping the Independent Scene are supported by: Kultura Nova.

Exhibition will be open until October 25th.

Free entrance.