Ivana Momčilović
– a Yugoslav playwright, poet, and researcher who lives in Belgium but also wherever her work takes her. Her practice focuses on displacing philosophy and art into various spheres of everyday life, such as education, migrant movements, gardening, and permaculture, as well as redefining concepts of the nonexistent, the impossible, and temporary free territories, applying them in the fields of contemporary aesthetics and politics. She explores the relationship between fiction and ideology, as well as between aesthetics, politics, and the “amateur” approach to knowledge and forms of collective intelligence. She is the initiator and active member of several collectives: Collective EI-Migrative Art; Edicija Jugoslavija (a self-publishing initiative), PhD In One Night – a platform for aesthetic experimentation for all, and the Laboratory of Radical Peace. Since 2005, within PhD In One Night, she has developed various methods of knowledge sharing as collective artistic creation, aimed at self-organized groups, children, students, and researchers of all ages.
My indisciplinary1 artistic practice of collective displacement from the existing state of the world through the creation of so-called temporary free territories has been shaped by life itself—that is, by life circumstances in the local-global political context in which I developed, as well as by my dramaturgy studies at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade during the 1980s in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Growing up in a social system where artists were socially useful workers, and confronting the issues of the (im)possibility of artistic practice during the wartime conditions that struck Yugoslavia in the 1990s, made me step away from the politics of rigid identity, hyper-specialization in one domain of knowledge, one medium, the expected institution, and the politics of (one’s own) name. In such migratory circumstances, I turned to universalist, (mostly) guerrilla dramaturgies, emerging through the merging of various genres and currents, articulating forms of the unnamable, nonexistent, unfinished, and impossible, which are central to all my pursuits, mostly anonymous and represented under numerous pseudonyms. These dramaturgies seek experimental forms and situations, micro-scenes, and “visions” of a new, more egalitarian world that best represent them.
Life between two floors of post-socialist and post-Yugoslav ruins, between two times and two languages, paused on a narrow mezzanine rarely used by others (most people were in “social elevators” at the time), paused between “I remember” and “we must forget everything,” between staying and leaving, between war and exile, between (not) engaging in art and dealing with precarious life, made me start developing small reconstructions of obscure reality in the direction of temporary free territories, akin to those Yugoslav partisans and members of the Resistance cleared during the years of antifascist war, marching toward “beloved paths” without a clear vision of the future.
Thus, during the breakup of Yugoslavia, I began the practice of symbolic (territorial) interventions that continue in various forms to this day: from small anti-war scenes in 19912 to impossible meetings of artists from Yugoslavia against the war (Migrative Art, later EI-Migrative Art)3; from the realization of the film-letter What Happened to My Friends, who, like me, lived in exile4 at the time, to the migrant occupation of the abandoned Somali embassy in Brussels engulfed by civil war, within the project Universal Embassy, or the symbolic conquest of various spaces of oblivion in the cycle Inhabiting the Uninhabitable567; from the performance Holes or When We Were Unclassified, featuring the “invisible” and “excluded” from post-Yugoslav society8, to the creation of small dramatic formats in collaboration with metal industry workers in Belgium accused of state terrorism for defending jobs9; from working on “impossible” publishing and translation ventures through the self-published Edicija Jugoslavija10, to building the platform for aesthetic experimentation PhD In One Night11; from researching and presenting the works of amateurs in numerous educational and cultural institutions across Europe12 to the reconfiguration of a Belgian English garden from 1828 into the Laboratory of Radical Peace13, solidarity, and permaculture14; from organizing experimental courses on the border between artistic creation and teaching1516 to launching the Guerrilla University with representatives of Kurdish self-educational universities in northern Syria17; from the collaborative performance of the Anti-Wall archive of Migrative Art at the Museum of Yugoslavia18 in Belgrade to participating in the exhibition Barbarogenius of Surrealism in Zagreb19; and finally, from “wild” poster campaigns with political-poetic content20 across Belgrade and other Serbian cities to withdrawing works from the exhibition Activity: 100 Years of Surrealism at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade.
In all these small, temporary free territories, the banned and suppressed words of our era gain a space for free flow: well-ventilated words such as collective, communism, sensorial, universalism, affirmation, equality, emancipation, impossible, nonexistent, and surreal. These are battles for small territories of words, syllables, and phonemes that appear like phosphenes before the eyes, brief flashes created when you tightly close your eyelids with a fist—a phenomenon of blood cells in the capillaries of the retina, a sign of good health! They declare: there is something to see in the darkness surrounding us. Despite everything. Dreaming is not futile21.
1"The poetics of knowledge is the practice of 'indisciplinary' thinking. It rejects the specialization of fields, objects, and methods, as well as the assumption of separating two types of intelligence. It begins with the assumption of equality…" — Jacques Rancière, The Method of Equality: Politics and Poetics, Edicija Jugoslavija (self-published), 2015.
2Image: Ivana Momčilović, Photograph from the series Where Am I When My Country Calls Me to War?, No. 0 territory of Migrative Art, Belgrade, 1991. Dramaturgical concept: Ivana Momčilović. Photo: Aleksandar Milosavljević.
3Image: Ivana Momčilović, Gentle Letters of Migrative Art — inscriptions, embroidery on silk paper, 1991–1996.
Link: Conference Temporary Free Territories: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, held at the Museum of Yugoslavia in 2019, as part of the exhibition The Nineties: A Migration Glossary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81BqQ-gLFLw&t=3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcoVt2mVwfA&t=4s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDfIqK4S3Y8&t=5s
Link: Ivana Momčilović, Temporary Free Territories (In Search of Buried Artworks), short film, 11’, 2019:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsB7mtx3z5E.
4Image: Filip de Pierpont (director), Ivana Momčilović (text + friends' letters), Que sont mes amis devenus? [What Happened to My Friends?], still from the film, 1995. The film was shot using a Super8 camera.
5Image: Interruption, performance from the cycle Inhabiting the Uninhabitable (action of cleaning anti-fascist monuments on Vis Island, Croatia, 2014). Photo: Kosta Jakić.
6Image: Poetry reading at the site of a historical temporary free territory on Petrova Gora, Croatia, 2015. Photo: Ljubomir Jakić.
7Image: Thinking Yugoslavia 20 Years Later, aesthetic education as part of the project Inhabiting the Uninhabitable, Vjenceslav Richter Pavilion, Brussels, Belgium, 2013. Photo: Courtesy of the artist.
8Link: Holes or When We Were Unaligned, a play co-produced by the National Theater in Belgrade and two Belgian national theaters: KVS (Royal Flemish Theater) and the National Theater of the Walloon-Brussels Community, Brussels. The premiere was held on October 29, 2004, at the main stage of the National Theater in Belgrade, and on February 17, 2005, at the main stage of the National Theater of the Walloon Community in Brussels.
Text based on the words of the invisible: Ivana Momčilović. Director: Laurent Vançon. On-stage translator: Ljubomir Jakić.
Clips from the play:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqiUDFVyv4o&t=24s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Zm7foyk4g&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DeSqxtD0VM&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6pxHjcrogs&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqiUDFVyv4o&t=24s
Interview about the play:
https://muzej-jugoslavije.org/en/intervju-sa-ivanom-momcilovic-dramaturskinjom-predstave-rupe/.
9Image: Ivana Momčilović, Teatrino of Democracy, small dramatic polyphonic form — performance, Café Union, Brussels, 2011. Photo: Ivana Momčilović.
10Link: Edicija Jugoslavija Website
Latest publication: The Unpredictable Past of the Future: On the Political Potential of Utopia, edited by Ivana Momčilović, 2024.
https://velikeprice.com/kultura/kako-je-mala-zora-pre-100-godina-zamisljala-danasnju-skolu/
https://magazin.politika.rs/sr/clanak/572200/ta-ti-zoro-sanjas-samo
https://www.portalnovosti.com/ivana-momcilovic-u-komunistickoj-skoli-deca-se-ne-smestaju-u-sablone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsbfM2dLBkQ&list=PLoYQojDUdig0SBN4RHq3A2a6XO5mR6Fsr.
11Link: https://www.phdinonenight.net.
12Link: https://5e.centre.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ivana-momcilovic-introduction-eng.pdf.
13Image: The Garden as a Scene of Unlearning, Laboratory of Radical Peace, Orangerie Bijerbe, Belgium, 2022. Photo: Ivana Momčilović.
Links:
https://www.phdinonenight.net/texts/news_20220423.html
https://www.phdinonenight.net/texts/news_20230110.html.
14Image: The Garden as a Laboratory, a site for self-education and permaculture practices blending aesthetics and agriculture, Orangerie Bijerbe, Belgium, 2023/24. Space Concept: Laura Malone, Hadrian Brichard, and PhD In One Night. Photo: Ivana Momčilović.
15The mentioned teaching methods include, among others, literacy programs (learning a second language) for refugees (Belgium, Serbia) through artistic practices (contemporary dance, collages, sound interventions), as well as courses for students from various universities and art academies, such as On the Unexplainable; Indisciplinary Symphony; Intervention on Equality and Aesthetics of Knowledge; Learning from Unlearning; Guerrilla University; Collective Guerrilla Knowledge Garden; and The Garden as a Space for Self-Education (Orangerie Bijerbe, Belgium).
16Image: Experimental scenes of aesthetic education, abandoned University in Liège, Belgium, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
17Image: Online experimental aesthetic education class of Guerrilla University, conducted with students and professors from the self-organized Kurdish university in Rojava (northern Syria), along with the participation of artists and researchers from Europe and the USA. Inauguration of Guerrilla University on October 20, 2020, attended by Jacques Rancière.
18Image: Anti-Wall by the Migrative Art collective, created as part of the exhibition The Nineties: A Migration Glossary at the Museum of Yugoslavia. Photo: Nemanja Knežević.
19Image: Ivana Momčilović, Letter to Koča Popović, print on transparent paper, 2024. Exhibition installation from Barbarogenie of Surrealism, SKD Prosvjeta Gallery, Zagreb, 2024. Photo: Davorka Perić.
20Image: Ivana Momčilović, Poster with the inscription Goodbye Parties, People Are Thinking, public action, 2007. Photo: Courtesy of the author.
21Even BUCHARIN, at the 1934 Congress of Soviet Writers, said: "Socialist realism cannot adopt ZOLA’s view, whose intention was to describe reality 'as it is' and nothing more. Nor can it accept Zola’s other principle: 'Imagination has no purpose anymore.' Socialist realism can and must dream."
– je jugoslovenska dramaturškinja, pesnikinja i istraživačica, koja živi u Belgiji ali i svuda gde radi. Njena praksa je usmerena na izmeštanje filozofije i umetnosti u različite sfere svakodnevnog života poput obrazovanja, migrantskih pokreta, baštovanstva i perma-Kulture, kao i na redefinisanje pojmova nepostojećeg, nemogućeg i slobodnih privremenih teritorija, te njihove primene u polju savremene estetike i politike. Istražuje odnos između fikcije i ideologije, kao i između estetike, politike i „amaterskog’ pristupa znanju i oblika kolektivne inteligencije. Inicijatorka je i aktivna članica nekoliko kolektiva: Collective EI-Migrative Art; Edicija Jugoslavija (samizdat) , PhD In One Night – platforme za estetsko eksperimentisanje svih, Laboratorija radikalnog mira. U okviru Phd In One Night deluje od 2005, gde je u oblasti estetske edukacije kreirala različite metode deljenja znanja kao kolektivne umetničke kreacije, namenjene kako samoorganizovanim grupama, tako i deci, đacima i studentima i istraživačima svih uzrasta.
Moju indisciplinarnu1 umetničku praksu kolektivnog izmeštanja iz postojećeg stanja sveta kroz kreiranje tzv. slobodnih privremenih teritorija, oblikovao je život kao takav, odnosno životne prilike u lokalno-globalnom političkom kontekstu u kome sam se razvijala, kao i studije dramaturgije na Fakultetu dramskih umetnosti u Beogradu osamdesetih godina XX veka u Socijalističkoj Federativnoj Republici Jugoslaviji. Odrastanje u društvenom sistemu u kome su umetnici i umetnice bili društveno-korisni_e radnici_e, kao i suočavanje s pitanjima (ne)mogućnosti umetničke prakse u ratnim uslovima koji su zadesili Jugoslaviju devedesetih, učinile su da izađem iz politike krutog identiteta, hiper-specijalizacije jedne teritorije znanja, jednog medija, očekivane institucije i politike (vlastitog) imena. U takvim, migrantskim, okolnostima okrećem se univerzalističkim, (uglavnom) gerilskim dramaturgijama, koje nastaju kroz spajanje različitih žanrova i strujanja, artikulušući forme neimenljivog, nepostojećeg, nedovršenog, nemogućeg, a koje su u centru svih mojih, uglavnom anonimnih i pod brojnim presudonimima zastupljenih traganja za eksperimentalnim formama i situacijama, mikro-scenama i „snoviđenjima” novog egalitarnijeg sveta, koje će ih najbolje predstaviti.
Život između dva sprata postsocijalističkih i postjugoslovenskih ruševina, između dva vremena i dva jezika, zaustavljen na uskom međuspratu koji je mali broj ljudi koristio (svi su uglavnom tih godina bili u „društvenim liftovima“), zaustavljen između „sećam se” i „moramo-zaboraviti-sve”, između ostajem i idem, između rata i izgnanstva, između (ne)bavljenja umetnošću i bavljenja prekarnim životom, učinio je da počnem sa razvijanjem mini rekonfiguracija opskurne stvarnosti na tragu privremenih slobodnih teritorija koje su jugoslovenski partizani i pripadnici Otpora u godinama antifašističkog rata krčili, maršom ka „voljenim putevima“ i bez jasnog dosezanja budućnosti. Tako, tokom raspada Jugoslavije, započinjem praksu simboličkih (teritorijalnih) intervencija koja, u različitim formama, i danas opstaje: od malih anti-ratnih scena 19912. do nemogućih susreta umetnika i umetnica iz Jugoslavije protiv rata (Migrative art, kasnije EI- Migrative art)3; od realizacije filma-pisma Šta se dogodilo sa mojim prijateljima koji u tom trenutku, kao i ja, žive u egzilu4, do migrantske okupacije napuštene somalijske ambasade u Briselu progutane građanskim ratom u okviru projekta Univerzalna ambasada, ili simboličkog osvajanja različitih prostora zaborava u ciklusu Nastaniti nenastanjivo567; od realizacije predstave Rupe ili kada nismo bili svrstani u izvođenju „nevidljivih” i „isključenih” iz post-jugoslovenskog društva8 do kreiranja malih dramskih formata u saradnji sa umetnicima i radnicima metalne industrije Belgije optuženih za državni terorizam zbog odbrane radnih mesta9; od rada na „nemogućim” izdavačkim i prevodilačkim poduhvatima kroz samizdat izdanja Edicija Jugoslavija10 do izgradnje platforme za estetsko ekperimentisanje svih PhD In One Night11; od istraživanja i predstavljanja stvaralaštva amatera i amaterki u brojnim obrazovnim i kulturnim institucijama u Evropi12 do rekonfiguracije belgijskog engleskog vrta iz 1828. u Laboratoriju radikalnog mira13, solidarnosti i perma-Kulture14; od organizovanja eksperimentalnih kurseva na granici između umetničke kreacije i nastave1516 do pokretanja Gerila Univerziteta sa predstavnicima kurdskih samoorganizovanih univerziteta na severu Sirije17; od kolaborativne izvedbe „Anti-zida” arhiva Migrative arta u Muzeju Jugoslavije18 u Beogradu do učestvovanja na izložbi Barbarogenij nadrealizma u Zagrebu19; i najzad, od „divljeg” oblepljivanja Beograda i drugih gradova u Srbiji plakatima s političko-poetskim sadržajima20 do povlačenja radova s izložbe Aktivitet: 100 godina nadrealizma u Muzeju savremene umetnosti u Beogradu.
Na svim tim malim, privremenim slobodnim tertitorijama, zabranjene i potisnute reči naše epohe zapravo dobijaju prostor slobodnog protoka: dobro provetrene reči kao što su kolektivno, komunizam, osetilno, univerzalizam, afirmacija, jednakost,emancipacija, nemoguće, nepostojeće, nadstvarnost. U pitanju su bitke za male teritorije reči, silaba, fonema koji se poput fosfena pojavljuju pred očima kao kratki bljesci nastali kada šakom naglo zatvorimo snažno kapke, entoptički fenomeni krvnih ćelija u kapilarima mrežnjače, kao znak dobrog zdravlja! I koji poručuju: ima šta da se vidi u tami koja nas okružuje. Uprkos svemu. Sanjanje nije uzaludno21.
1„Poetika znanja je praksa „indisciplinarnog” mišljenja. Ona odbija specijalizaciju polja, objekata i metoda i pretpostavku razdvajanja dve vrste inteligencije. Polazi od pretpostavke jednakosti…”, Žak Ransijer, Metoda Jednakosti: politika i poetika, Edicija Jugoslavija (samizdat), 2015.
2Slika: Fotografija iz serije Gde sam kad me moja zemlja zove u rat?, n°0 teritorija Migrative arta, Beograd, 1991. Dramaturški koncept: Ivana Momčilović. Foto: Aleksandar Milosavljević.
3Slika: Ivana Momčilović, Nežna pisma Migrative arta − ispisi, vez na svilenom papiru, 1991−1996. Foto: Ivana Momčilović.
Link: Konferencija Slobodne privremene teritorije: juče, danas, sutra realizovana u Muzeju Jugoslavije 2019. u okviru izložbe Devedesete: rečnik migracija:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81BqQ-gLFLw&t=3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcoVt2mVwfA&t=4s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDfIqK4S3Y8&t=5s
Link: Ivana Momčilović, Slobodne privremene teritorije (U potrazi za zakopanim umetničkim radovima), kratki film, ‘11, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsB7mtx3z5E.
4Slika: Filip de Pjerpon (režija), Ivana Momčilović (tekst + pisma prijatelja), Que sont mes amis devenus? [Šta se dogodilo sa mojim prijateljima?], kadar iz filma, 1995. Film je snimljen kamerom super8.
5Slika: Prekid, performans iz ciklusa „Nenastaniti nenastanjivo” (akcija čišćenja antifašističkih spomenika na Visu, Hrvatska, 2014. Foto: Kosta Jakić.
6Slika: Čitanje poezije na mestu istorijske slobodne privremene teritorije na Petrovoj gori. Hrvatska, 2015. Foto: Ljubomir Jakić.
7Slika: Misliti Jugoslaviju 20 godina kasnije, estetsko obrazovanje u okviru projekta Nastaniti nenastanjivo, Paviljon Vjenceslava Rihtera, Brisel, Belgija, 2013. Foto: Kosta Jakić.
8Link: Rupe ili kada nismo bili svrstani, predstava realizovana u koprodukciji Narodnog pozorišta u Beogradu i dva belgijska nacionalna pozorišta: KVS-a (Kraljevskog flamanskog teatra) i Nacionalnog teatra valonsko-briselske zajednice, Brisel. Premijera je održana 29. oktobra 2004. na velikoj sceni Narodnog pozorišta u Beogradu, a 17. februara 2005. na velikoj sceni Nacionalnog teatra valonske zajednice u Briselu. Tekst prema rečima nevidljivih: Ivana Momčilović. Režija: Loran Vanson. Prevodilac na sceni: Ljubomir Jakić. Snimci delova pozorišne predstave:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqiUDFVyv4o&t=24s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Zm7foyk4g&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DeSqxtD0VM&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6pxHjcrogs&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqiUDFVyv4o&t=24s
Link: Intervju s autorkom o predstavi:
https://muzej-jugoslavije.org/intervju-sa-ivanom-momcilovic-dramaturskinjom-predstave-rupe/.
9Slika: Ivana Momčilović, Teatrino demokratije, mala dramska polifona forma ─ performans, Kafe Union, Brisel, 2011. Foto: Ivana Momčilović.
10Link: https://edicijajugoslavija.org/
Link: Poslednje izdanje Edicije je knjiga: Ivana Momčilović (ur.), Nepredvidiva prošlost budućnosti: O političkom potencijalu utopije, 2024. Više o knjizi:
https://velikeprice.com/kultura/kako-je-mala-zora-pre-100-godina-zamisljala-danasnju-skolu/
https://magazin.politika.rs/sr/clanak/572200/ta-ti-zoro-sanjas-samo
https://www.portalnovosti.com/ivana-momcilovic-u-komunistickoj-skoli-deca-se-ne-smestaju-u-sablone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsbfM2dLBkQ&list=PLoYQojDUdig0SBN4RHq3A2a6XO5mR6Fsr.
11Link: https://www.phdinonenight.net/.
12Link: https://5e.centre.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ivana-momcilovic-introduction-eng.pdf.
13Slika: Vrt kao scena odučavanja, Laboratorija radikalnog mira, Oranžerija Bijerbe, Belgija, 2022. Foto: Ivana Momčilović.
Link: https://www.phdinonenight.net/texts/news_20220423.html
https://www.phdinonenight.net/texts/news_20230110.html.
14Slika: Bašta-povrtnjak kao laboratorija, mesto samo-obrazovanja i rada perma-Kulture kroz spoj estetike i poljoprivrede, Oranžerija Bijerbe, Belgija, 2023/24. Koncepcija prostora: Laura Malone, Hadrian Brichard i PhD In One Night. Foto: Ivana Momčilović.
15Pomenute metode nastave između ostalog uključuju opismenjavanje (učenje drugog jezika) izbeglica (Belgija, Srbija) kroz umetničku praksu (savremeni ples, kolaži, zvučne intervencije), kao i kurseve za studente različitih univerztiteta i umetničkih akademija među kojima su O neobjašnjivom; Indisciplinarna simfonija; Intervencija o jednakosti i estetika znanja ; Učiti iz odučavanja, Gerila Univerzitet, Kolektivna Bašta Gerilskog Znanja i Bašta kao prostor samoobrazovanja (Oranžerija Bijerbe, Belgija).
16Slika: Eksperimentalne scene estetskog obrazovanja, napušteni Univerzitet u Liježu, Belgija, 2015. Foto: Benijamin Boar.
17Slika: Online eksperimentalna nastava estetskog obrazovanja Gerila Univerziteta, realizovana sa studentima i profesorima samo-organizovanog kurdskog univerziteta u Rožavi (severna Sirija), a uz prisustvo umetnika i istraživača iz Evrope i USA. Inauguracija GU 20.10.2020. uz prisustvo Žaka Ransijera.
18Slika: Anti-zid kolektiva Migrative arta realizovan u okviru izložbe Devedesete: rečnik migracija u Muzeju Jugoslavije. Foto: Nemanja Knežević.
19Slika: Ivana Momčilović, Pismo Koči Popoviću, print na transparentnom papiru, 2024. Postavka izložbe Barbarogenij nadreelizma, Galerija SKD Prosvjeta, Zagreb, 2024. Foto: Davorka Perić.
20Slika: Ivana Momčilović, Plakat s natpisom Zbogom partije, Ljudi misle, akcija u javnom prostoru, 2007. Foto: Ljubaznošću umetnice.
21Čak i Buharin, na Kongresu sovjetskih pisaca 1934. kaže: „Socijalistički realizam neće dakle moći da usvoji Zolino gledište čija je namera bila da opiše stvarnost „onakvu kakva je” i ništa više. Kao što ne može da primi ni drugo Zolino načelo: „Imaginacija više nema svrhe”. Socijalistički realizam može i treba da sanja.”
