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In capacity of an experienced critic and a correspondent to NY Arts Magazine, the Tribes and Modern Painters, I have followed (through various written articles, interviews and the artistic catalogues that I have personally written and supplied) the development of the most promising contemporary artists who left the country once called ‘Yugoslavia’ and who have been living in exile. The condition of exile is a very complex issue, which has been already explored by many worthwhile authors, philosophers and artists from Ovid to Edward Said. |
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“As soon as she removes herself from her native soil, she often finds herself in the hardest living conditions, facing existential dread.”
Victoria Vesna, Integration with the audience, 2008. Interactive installation, Courtesy of the artist and gallery Les Singuliers.
Ljubica Mrkalj, The Return, 1991. Black and white photograph, 29 x 29cm. Ljubica. Courtesy of the private collector and gallery Les Singuliers
EXIL: 11 Women Artists, the Slavic Nomads
Nina Zivancevic, PhD.
In capacity of an experienced critic and a correspondent to NY Arts Magazine, the Tribes and Modern Painters, I have followed (through various written articles, interviews and the artistic catalogues that I have personally written and supplied) the development of the most promising contemporary artists who left the country once called ‘Yugoslavia’ and who have been living in exile. The condition of exile is a very complex issue, which has been already explored by many worthwhile authors, philosophers and artists from Ovid to Edward Said. The existence of an artist exiled or self-exiled from his native land is ever more complex as the very reasons of their departure or an eventual return to their homeland.
The complexity of the given issue becomes even more multifaceted in the case of numerous women artists who have decided to leave the territory of former Yugoslavia in the second half of the 20th century and thus continuing the act of their creativity elsewhere. This particular complexity I examine within the professional scope of a group exhibition entitled 11 Women Artists, the Slavic Nomads; as well as in my study which will result in a book/catalogue for the exhibition, scheduled April 10, 2011 through May 2011 in Paris (Gallery Les Singuliers and Museum of Montparnasse).
The status of a woman artist is widely marginalized in every given place throughout the globe, but the status of such an artist gets to be evermore fragile and questioned by society once she has left the social, economical and political borders of her native country. As soon as she removes herself from her native soil, she often finds herself in the hardest living conditions, facing existential dread.
Often without social security benefits, without the papers or basic human rights, such woman makes an incredible effort not only to survive but to continue creating brilliant works of art which she simply continues to create as they are important to her survival as much as the air that she breathes. In making such an overwhelming existential and artistic effort the exiled woman artist often creates the works of art, which bypass in their intrinsic power, fragility and beauty those works that were created by artists who never left their homeland.
The political message which contains the fragments such as in spite of and despite hardship is imminent in these works of art even when they do not speak openly of struggle, survival and freedom, these works are political in themselves in the sense that the choice that these women have made – to leave the visible traces of their identity and accept liberty cum anonymity of existence- is an outcry of political freedom and determination. In the given context of the Museum of Montparnasse, 21 Avenue de Maine, 75018 Paris, the work of the following artists (painting, sculpture, video installations) will be exhibited on 2 floors: I would like to highlight the fact that this is the first big group exhibition of women artists from former Yugoslavia living abroad of this sort and its realization would enlarge not only the research of the gender studies on a large scale; but would also clarify their role in the context of the international art scene as well as their contribution to education and culture of the country where they came from.
The work of these artists can be found in all major cultural institutions world wide as much as they were given the according attention in their homeland. Nina Zivancevic, PhD. is the organizer, curator, author, of the exhibit and monograph.
