Tanja Ostojic - Lecture Perfomance
Tanja Ostojic - Confrontation, Overidentification and Alternative Artistic Strategies
Openness towards diverse media in art is one of the crucial tactics that allows the artist to be more precise in research, reflection, communication and criticism within contemporary society. Merging different disciplines and different layers of reality helps to cross the boundaries of strict professionalism.
The lecture performance will present some of my projects and my current work on the redefinition of the field of artistic activity. Examples reach from “Illegal Border Crossing”, (2000), “Strategies of Success/Curator Series” (2001-03) to “Looking for a Husband with EU Passport”, (2000-05) and more.Within “Strategies of Success/ Curator Series” I used technics of overidentification in order to make the hidden mechanisms of power and sexualized struggles within the art system almost tangible. I investigated and re-enacted roles of gendered and sexualized Eastern European female artists getting close to the position of power.
Coming from an education as a visual artist and having been involved in performance art, theatre and politics alike, I intentionally want to preserve a certain “amateurism” in my performances, combining them with discussion, joint dinners, video and photo projections, and intimate talks. At times, this can develop into a sort of political cabaret in which the visitors are invited to enact themselves.
Tanja Ostojic (* 1972, Yugoslavia) is a performance and interdisciplinary artist and cultural activist, based in Berlin since 2003. She works predominantly from the migrant woman’s perspective, and examines social configurations and relations of power. Political positioning, humor and integration of the recipient define approaches in her work. She has taken part in a large number of exhibitions and venues around the world and has given talks, lectures and workshops. Her last solo exhibition, a retrospective, was in Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia, (2012). Currently she holds an interdisciplinary fellowship at the Graduate School of UDK, Berlin University of Arts.
http://misplacedwomen.wordpress.com
The Flyer refers to Tanja Ostojic’s Performance "Integration Impossible", Cornerhouse Manchester 2005, Photo by Jon Jordan
