Ivana Ivković
– born in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1979, and is currently living in Belgrade. She received a master’s degree at the Department of Drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade (2009) and a graduate degree at the Department of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade (2005). She gained international recognition by shifting the infamous classical roles between men and women in her drawings, performances and site-specific works. The notion of identity and gendered experience plays a key role in her work.
My work unfolds through a dialogue with personal emotional experiences, and it is based on a reexamination of not only the domain of lived experience, but also that of wishful and imaginary thinking, thus opening up questions about the complexity of intimacy as a space of uncovering and concealing, sharing and revealing of self and otherness1.
I am foregrounding the problematic framework that relates to questions of identity and gender experiences, as well as of the deconstruction of the imposed stereotypical (gender) roles, through the introduction of the naked or semi-naked male body as a performative instrument – a medium characterised by a specific sensitivity and sensuality234. By inverting the “classic” division of the roles, I treat the male body as a symbol, a litmus paper test in which prejudices, taboos and social beliefs in the Balkans, as well as beyond it, are reflected. Men – equally venerated and demonized in the Serbian culture of the 1990s – and their physical presence and appearance became an obsession in pop-folk songs, films, as well as in real life as the result of social changes, war, trepidation and fear. The vision of man as a soldier, dangerous criminal or disturbed street kid has, paradoxically, placed the male body in a position where it becomes objectivised and vulnerable5. As I grew up in the midst of political turmoil and conflicts, painful social changes represented an integral part of everyday life and existence. My works, although starting out from romantic topics, always take into account the social atmosphere and its complexities, remaining engaged in an effort to present a multilayered relation between the individual and the system in our contemporary moment.
Through performances that comprise certain tableau vivant situations and arrangements with a larger number of participants, I also deal with the question of the experiences of the spectators, of their emotional and psychological perception6789101112. I conceptualise the scene by choosing visual and spatial elements which serve to significationally and symbolically contextualise the place of the exhibition, and through work with performers, characterised by minimalist choreographies, I place the life-likeness of the scene at the center of the artwork’s potential for communication, and thus a more immediate and provocative connection with the audience1314. Most of the performers have no previous stage experience coming as they do from various and disparate backgrounds, something which makes them authentic and which the audience quickly recognises and allows, like a mirroring effect, the transfer of the feeling of being exposed and makes visible the audience’s own prejudices. I am examining and getting to know my position through working with masculine, queer, fluid identities, and understanding for the sensitivity of the other. As a woman I was interested to get to know and to come to terms with male sensitivity, believing that presenting naked men might abolish certain taboos and transform existing attitudes around masculinity1516. The given social role which turns men into pillars of stability and puts them in a position of power determines, but also undermines, their identity as well as the identity of women. My need for personal growth through my works enabled me to present myself to the audience in a more sincere manner, and through my own moot points to open a channel of communication and to eventually understand and surpass certain limitations.
Drawing remains a constitutive element and activity in the articulation of my ideas. I have been dedicated to it from the very beginning as I explore its limits and the possibilities of transposing it into other media (photography, ambiental and site-specific installations, textile and light objects, performances)17181920. My site-specific approach to art is the result of my experiences of frequent travels and an enduring nomadic life2122. The contents of my artworks are permeated by acts of introspection and a quest to establish a personal and artistic identity, intertwining elements from intimate stories and political, cultural and historical circumstances as well as the ambiance of various geographic areas. Over the past couple of years I have been based in Belgrade since it allows me to realise more demanding projects and to practice art in a more continuous manner. I am interested in communication with the audience as there are some questions that are essential and worth posing in my own country. The experiences of traveling, performing and adapting my artworks to other/different milieus as well as the chance to compare different ways of working in the local environment have given me valuable self-confidence. I have collaborated – through which I further develop – with curators, dramaturges, actors, performers, directors of photography, editors, sound designers, based on trust as the key component. I gain fulfillment from team work, from exiting the personal and going into the collective, and from creative polyphony23242526.
In my projects, I also tackle the question of the deconstruction of the exhibition narrative in the context of engaged, transformative and processual contemporary artistic practice. I combine the languages of the fine arts, theatre, mass-media culture, television, the internet in a post-media or hybrid artistic practice that opens up the oculocentric concept of art to immersive experiences and tactile, auditory and corporal affects27282930. In this way, a site-specific installation becomes a space of unstable sensory experiences, an open hyper-dynamic system that simultaneously comprises the sphere of personal and collective space and activities, and reexamines the position of the individual in the exhibition space313233, of her/his identity as well as her/his connectedness with the social environment34353637383940.
The text is written in collaboration with Mirjana Dragosavljević (2022).
1Bogdanović, Ana. „On ephemeral consequences of Ivana Ivković’s art“, exhibition catalogue „Babylon the Great“, Eugster II Belgrade Gallery, Beograd, 2017.2Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Babylon the Great”, performance, 2017, photo: Boris Burić, courtesy of the artist.
3Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Babylon the Great”, performance, 2017, photo: Boris Burić, courtesy of the artist.
4Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Babylon the Great”, performance, 2017, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
5Reference: Paunić, Natalija. „You Are Not My Brother, Brother: Transitory Masculinity in the Art of Ivana Ivković“, EIKON Magazine No. 107, pp. 24-29
6Reference: Karić, Miroslav. „After You“, text from the exhibition catalogue, Saloon MOCAB, Belgrade, 2021.
7Illustration: Ivana Ivković, „After You“, exhibition with durational performance, site-specific installation, video, sound, 2021, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
8Illustration: Ivana Ivković, „After You“, exhibition with durational performance, site-specific installation, video, sound, 2021, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
9Illustration: „After You“, exhibition with durational performance, site-specific installation, video, sound, 2021, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
10Illustration: „After You“, exhibition with durational performance, site-specific installation, video, sound, 2021, photo: Bojana Janjić, courtesy of the artist.
11Illustration„After You“, exhibition with durational performance, site-specific installation, video, sound, 2021, photo: Bojana Janjić, courtesy of the artist.
12Illustration: „After You“, exhibition with durational performance, site-specific installation, video, sound, 2021, photo: Bojana Janjić, courtesy of the artist.
13Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Lines, Rows, Columns (Dormitory)”, site specific installation with performance, 2016, photo: Boris Burić, courtesy of the artist.
14Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Lines, Rows, Columns (Dormitory)”, site specific installation with performance, 2016, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
15Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “I only want to love me”, performance, 2019, photo: Hue Hale, courtesy of the artist.
16Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “I only want to love me”, performance, 2019, photo: Hue Hale, courtesy of the artist.
17Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “And Joy Everlasting”, collage, photo: Antonije Vulović, courtesy of the artist.
18Illustration: Ivana Ivković, ”Presente”, drawing, 2011, photo: Antonije Vulović, courtesy of the artist.
19Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Since I Met You I Have No Peace”, Machine woven rug made of 100%New Zealand wool, dimensions (164 x 240 cm); in the preexisting Persian motif from the factory’s catalogue of rugs, my drawing and text were integrated by digital intervention and woven together, 2012, photo: Antonije Vulović, courtesy of the artist.
20Illustration: “Since I…” drawing - ink on paper 50x70 cm, courtesy of the artist. Photo credits: Antonije Vulović
21Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Like There Is No Tomorrow”, long term site-specific art project set at different locations and places (2015, 2016, 2019), photo: Beirut Art Residency, courtesy of the artist.
22Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Every Breath”, site-specific installation, photo: Casa del Arte, courtesy of the artist.
23Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Disobedience”, performance, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
24Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Disobedience”, performance, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
25Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Disobedience”, performance, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
26Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Disobedience”, performance, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
27Reference: Kojić Mladenov, Sanja, „Monument: No One Is Lost, EVROVIZION. CROSSING STORIES AND SPACES“, ifa, 2021.
28Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Monument: No One Is Lost“, performance, 2021, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
29Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Monument: No One Is Lost“, performance, 2021, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
30Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “Monument: No One Is Lost“, performance, 2021, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
31Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “In Him We Trust”, performance, 2020, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
32Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “In Him We Trust”, performance, 2020, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
33Illustration: Ivana Ivković, “In Him We Trust”, performance, 2020, photo: Ivan Zupanc, courtesy of the artist.
34https://www.ivanaivkovic.com.
35https://evrovizion.ifa.de/en/people/ivana-ivkovic.
36https://www.eugster-belgrade.com/artists/ivana-ivkovic/.
37https://dsart.eu/artists/ivana-ivkovic/.
38https://msub.org.rs/exhibition/after-you-ivana-ivkovic/?lang=en.
39https://art.wiener.co.rs/news/ivana-ivkovic-posle-vas/.
40https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLXUFey2qqo.
– je rođena u Beogradu u Srbiji 1979. godine gde trenutno i živi. Diplomirala je slikarstvo (2005) i magistrirala crtež (2009) na Fakultetu likovnih umetnosti u Beogradu.
Završila je master studije na odseku za crtež Fakulteta likovnih umetnosti u Beogradu (2009), Internacionalno priznanje stekla je obrtanjem ozloglašenih klasičnih uloga muškaraca i žena u njenim crtežima, preformansima i site-specific radovima. Pojmovi identitet i rodno iskustvo igraju ključnu ulogu u njenom radu.
Moj rad se razvija kroz dijalog sa ličnim, emocionalnim iskustvima, zasnovan na preispitivanju ne samo doživljenog, već i onog iz domena željenog i imaginarnog, otvarajući pitanja o složenosti intime kao prostora eksponiranja i skrivanja, deljenja i otkrivanja sopstva i drugosti1.
Problemski okvir koji akcentujem tiče se pitanja identiteta i rodnih iskustava, dekonstrukcije stereotipa nametnutih uloga, uvodeći nago ili poluobnaženo muško telo kao performativni instrument, medijum specifične osetljivosti i senzualnosti234. Zamenjujući „klasičnu“ podelu uloga, muško telo tretiram kao simbol, lakmus papir u kom se ogledaju predrasude, tabui i društvena uverenja na Balkanu i šire. Podjednako obožavani i demonizovani u srpskoj kulturi 90-ih, muškarci, njihovo fizičko prisustvo i izgled, postaju opsesija u pop-folk pesmama, filmovima, ali i u stvarnom životu, kao posledica društvenih promena, rata, strepnje i straha. Posmatranje muškarca kao vojnika, opasnog kriminalaca ili oštećenog klinca sa ulice je, paradoksalno, stavilo muško telo u poziciju objektivizacije i ranjivosti5. Formirana sam u jeku političkih previranja i sukoba, bolne društvene promene bile su neodvojiv deo svakodnevice i postojanja. Iako često polaze od ljubavnih tema moji radovi uvek uzimaju u obzir društveni ambijent i njegove kompleksnosti, angažovani su u pokušaju da se pokaže slojevit odnos pojedinca i sistema u savremenom trenutku.
Kroz performanse koji uključuju svojevrsne tableu vivant situacije i aranžmane sa većim brojem učesnika, bavim se i pitanjem iskustava samih posmatrača, njihove emotivne i psihološke percepcije6789101112. Koncipirajući scenu izborom vizuelno-prostornih elemenata kojima značenjski i simbolički kontekstualizujem mesto izlaganja i kroz rad sa performerima karakterističan po minimalnim koreografijama, postavljam u središte komunikacijskog potencijala dela – životnost prizora, a samim tim neposrednije i provokativnije povezivanje publike sa istim1314. Većina izvođača nema iskustvo scene, dolaze iz najrazličitijih miljea i autentični su, što brzo nalazi put do publike, kojoj se kao odraz u ogledalu, vraća osećaj izloženosti i sopstvene predrasude. Svoju poziciju ispitujem i spoznajem kroz rad sa maskulinim, kvir, fluidnim identitetima i razumevanjem senzitivnosti drugog. Zanimalo me je da se kao žena upoznam, pomirim i razumem mušku senzitivnost, ne razmišljajući samo o tome da ogoljavanjem muškarca, obaram izvesne tabue i menjam postavke1516. Podrazumevana društvena uloga po kojoj muškarac predstavlja stub stabilnosti i u poziciji je moći, određuje ali i uskraćuje njegov identitet, podjednako kao i identitet žene. Potreba da se lično razvijam i u radu, omogućila je da se iskrenije prikažem publici i kroz sopstvene tačke spoticanja otvorim kanal komunikacije i eventualno dam doprinos u razumevanju i prevazilaženju izvesnih ograničenja.
Značajan konstitutivan element i čin u artikulaciji ideje ostaje crtež kojem sam od početka posvećena istražujući fleksibilnost njegovih granica i mogućnosti transponovanja u druge medije (fotografija, ambijentalne i site-specific instalacije, tekstilni i svetlosni objekti, performansi)17181920. Site-specific pristup radu proizilazi iz iskustva čestih putovanja i dugogodišnjeg nomadskog načina života2122. Sadržaji u mojim radovima prožimaju čin introspekcije i potrage za ličnim i umetničkim identitetom, preplićući od intimih priča do percepcije društveno-političkih, kulturno-istorijskih prilika i ambijenta različitih geografskih podneblja. Poslednjih nekoliko godina bazirana sam u Beogradu zbog mogućnosti ostvarivanja zahtevnijih projekata, pratim putanju koja omogućava da se bavim umetničkim poslom u kontinuitetu. Zanima me komunikacija sa publikom, a neka pitanja je bilo ključno otvoriti u sopstvenoj zemlji. Iskustvo putovanja, izvođenja i prilagođavanja radova drugim/drugačijim sredinama i mogućnost upoređivanja sa radom u lokalnoj, doneli su dragoceno samopouzdanje. Uspostavila sam tim sa kojim se razvijam, a saradnje sa kustosima, dramaturgom, glumcima, performerima, direktorom fotografije, montažerom, toncima, bazirane su na poverenju kao ključnoj komponenti. Ispunjava me timski rad, izlaženje iz ličnog u kolektivno, višeglasje23242526.
Kroz svoje projekte bavim se i pitanjem dekonstukcije izložbenog narativa, u kontekstu angažovane, promenljive i procesualne savremene prakse. Povezujem jezik likovne umetnosti sa teatrom, mas-medijskom kulturom, televizijom, internetom u postmedijskoj ili hibridnoj prаksi, koja otvara okulocentrički koncept umetnosti imerzivnim sadržajima, taktilnim, zvučnim i telesnim afektima27282930. Na taj način site-specific instalacija postaje prostor nestabilnih čulnih doživljaja, otvoreni hiperdinamični sistem koji obuhvata istovremeno i sfere ličnog i kolektivnog prostora i delovanja i propituje poziciju pojedinca u izložbenom prostoru313233, njegovog identiteta, te njegove povezanosti sa socijalnim okruženjem34353637383940.
Tekst je napisan u saradnji sa Mirjanom Dragosavljević (2022).
1Bogdanović, Ana. „On ephemeral consequences of Ivana Ivković’s art“, katalog izložbe „Babylon the Great“, Eugster II Belgrade Gallery, Beograd, 2017.2Ilustracija: Ivana Ivković, „Veliki Vavilon“, performans, 2017, foto: Boris Burić, ljubaznošću umetnice.
6Referenca: Karić, Miroslav. „Posle vas“, tekst iz kataloga izložbe Posle vas, Salon MSUB, Beograd, 2021.
7Ilustracija: Ivana Ivković, „Posle vas“, izložba sa performansom, site-specific instalacija, video, audio zvuk, 2021, foto: Ivan Zupanc, ljubaznošću umetnice.
28Ilustracija: Ivana Ivković, „Monument: Bez izgubljenih“, performans, 2021, foto: Ivan Zupanc, ljubaznošću umetnice.
35https://evrovizion.ifa.de/en/people/ivana-ivkovic.
36https://www.eugster-belgrade.com/artists/ivana-ivkovic/.
37https://dsart.eu/artists/ivana-ivkovic/.
38https://msub.org.rs/exhibition/after-you-ivana-ivkovic/?lang=en.
39https://art.wiener.co.rs/news/ivana-ivkovic-posle-vas/.
40https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLXUFey2qqo.
