How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body
Artist talk by Marta Popivoda
4 November 2020, 6 pm - 8 pm via Zoom.
Marta Popivoda will introduce and discuss concepts and ideas from theoretical - artistic research project Performance and the Public (Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers) that she did in collaboration with theorists Ana Vujanović and Bojana Cvejić. She will specifically focus on the artistic aspects of the research and her film Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body, that will be presented before the artist talk.
It’s a research-based essay film that deals with the question of how ideology performed itself in public space through mass performances. The author collected and analyzed film and video footage from the period of Yugoslavia (1945 – 2000), focusing on state performances (youth work actions, May Day parades, celebrations of the Youth Day, etc.) as well as counter-demonstrations (’68, student and civic demonstrations in the ’90s, 5th October revolution, etc.). Traversing this archival footage, the film traces how communist ideology was gradually exhausted through the changing relations between the people, ideology, and the state.
Trailer here
Marta Popivoda (Belgrade) is a Berlin-based filmmaker, video-artist, and researcher. Her work explores tensions between memory and history, collective and individual bodies, as well as ideology and everyday life, with a focus on antifascist and feminist potentialities of the Yugoslav socialist project. She cherishes collective practice in art-making and research, and for several years has been part of TkH (Walking Theory) collective.
Popivoda’s first feature documentary, Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body, premiered at the 63rd Berlinale and was later screened at many international film festivals. The film is part of the permanent collection of MoMA New York, and it’s featured in What Is Contemporary Art?, MoMA’s online course about contemporary art from 1980 to the present. Her work has also featured in major art galleries, such as Tate Modern London, MoMA New York, M HKA Antwerp, Museum of Modern Art + MSUM Ljubljana, etc. Popivoda received the prestigious Berlin Art Prize for the visual arts by Akademie der Künste Berlin and Edith-Russ-Haus Award for Emerging Media Artist. She is currently finishing her second feature-length documentary Landscapes of Resistance.
Event will be held in English via Zoom platform. It is part of the cycle entitled What a Body Can Do? initiated by Juraj Mydla in cooperation with tranzit.sk.
ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit. Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.
