Marianna Feher Nikolić
– b. 1989, Malmö – an artist based in Stockholm. Her work is often mediated through writing, performance, audio, montage and public gatherings. Her practice investigates ways in which socio-political, historical, and interpersonal forms of power interact with and affect bodies. She holds an MA in Art and Curating from Stockholm University (2018). Together with Olivia Berkowicz, she organizes the discursive audio platform “Tentative Transmits: The Radio as G/Host in the ‘former’ East”.
As an artist, researcher and organizer, I allow myself to shift between historical and contemporary discourses, to which I never take my own position for granted. The research trajectories of my practice concern the production of subjectivities, collective memory, and politics of error – in order to better grasp the histories of our own struggles and socio-political implications of daily life. By investigating microhistories and fragmentations, I place emphasis on how narratives can question or expand beyond their fixed materiality, often by weaving together archival material, personal accounts, and fiction. This methodology echoes an archeological process – exploring the notion of site specificity, not restricting site to a designated location, but expanding it through the notion of time. Occasionally, I also like to take matters into my own hands by filling the gaps in stories that I believe are perhaps missing. Working within this threshold, I seek to give image and body to that which time and distance has obscured12345.
Both of my parents are from former Yugoslavia, which culturally has had a crucial impact on me – forming my artistic practice and discursive considerations – particularly the legacy of self-management, socialism, multi-ethnicity and anti-fascist resistance – but also concerns of nationalism, conflict, and war. My youth was surrounded by stories about the anti-fascist legacy in former Yugoslavia. This history felt distant, as the reality of the present looked completely different, overshadowed by ruptures of war and conflict. When I began to uncover the biographies of the women of Antifašistički front žena – AFŽ (The Women’s Antifascist Front) – stories that I did not have access to while growing up – I felt hope and resistance. Confronting these seemingly hidden pasts led me to yet another chance encounter which we now call: dual act67.
It is a collaborative project between myself, Stacey DeVoe and several other female protagonists. Together we are recollecting the narratives reviving two historical anti-fascist women’s organizations: AFŽ and Mujeres Libres that were active during the pre- and post-war period in Yugoslavia and Spain. The project examines their struggle for liberation and subsequently their historical representation and contemporary reputation. Through a visual juxtaposition of contemporary correspondence, historical as well as personal accounts and archival findings, dual act seeks to connect biographical aspects, fragmented chronologies, collective practices, memory, and friendship. Narratives where political, historical, and critical insights are mixed with facts, fiction, and storytelling – while simultaneously constituting itself as a second-hand archive.
Prior to becoming more occupied with archival research and long-term projects, I was mostly invested in a practice that employed performance89101112. Over the years while formulating and maintaining my work, collaboration and friendship have become crucial. Following the thinking of Svetlana Boym, I align towards friendship neither as a “a conventional intimacy, nor a brotherhood or sisterhood, nor a networking opportunity. Rather, it is an elective affinity without finality, a relationship without a plot and a place in our society, an experience for its own sake.” Through these relations we can build the language we want to live in and add vocabulary and voice to those who have been left behind.
Text is written in collaboration with Simona Ognjanović (2022).
1Image: Nostalgia on Steroids, still from video essay, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.2Image: Nostalgia on Steroids, still from video essay 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
3Image: Notes on Combating Operational Desires, excerpt from text, Supramen, 2018.
4Image: Tentative Transmits: The Radio as G/Host in the “former” East, artistic research project at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, 2020-ongoing. Courtesy of the artist. See: tentativetransmits.cargo.site/About.
5Image: Marianna Feher & Stacey DeVoe, dual act, various poster and reference material, 2020-ongoing. Courtesy of the artist.
6Image: Marianna Feher & Stacey DeVoe, dual act, various poster and reference material, 2020-ongoing. Courtesy of the artist.
7Image: Marianna Feher & Stacey DeVoe, dual act, various poster and reference material, 2020-ongoing. Courtesy of the artist.
8Image: OFF-RED, performance, 2019. Installation shot of performance at Kropotkina 11, St. Petersburg. Photo: Pavlo Grazhdanskij. Courtesy of the artist. A performative reading based on re-worked fragments – from lyricism to propaganda – sourced from several channels of communication. Together they unfold narratives associated with issues and desires of self-determination.
9Image: OFF-RED, performance, 2019. Installation shot of performance at Kropotkina 11, St. Petersburg. Photo: Pavlo Grazhdanskij. Courtesy of the artist.
10Image: Description of Schivar-La-Noia and its Double performance, 2017. Part of the exhibition A bath of self-esteem curated by Resina Collective, Ferrara, 2017. Courtesy of the artist.
11Image: Schivar-La-Noia and its Double, performance, 2017. Performed within the exhibition A bath of self-esteem curated by Resina Collective, Ferarra, 2017. Photo: Karolína Mikesková. Courtesy of the artist.
12Image: Schivar-La-Noia and its Double, performance, 2017. Installation shot of performance. Photo: Karolína Mikesková. Courtesy of the artist.
– 1989, Malme – živi i radi u Stokholmu. Njen umetnički rad često uključuje pisanje, performans, zvuk, montažu i forme javnih okupljanja. Kroz svoju praksu istražuje načine na koje društveno-političke, istorijske i interpersonalne forme moći stupaju u interakciju sa telima i utiču na njih. Magistrirala je umetnost i kustoske studije na Univerzitetu u Stokholmu (2018). Zajedno s Olivijom Berkovic organizuje zvučnu diskurzivnu platformu „Probni prenosi: radio kao duh/domaćin na ‘bivšem’ Istoku”.
Kao umetnica, istraživačica i organizatorka dozvoljavam sebi da koristim i istorijske i savremene diskurse spram kojih nikad svoju poziciju ne uzimam ‘zdravo za gotovo’. Istraživački pravci moje prakse usmereni su na proizvodnju subjektivnosti, kolektivnog pamćenja i politika greške, kako bi se bolje razumela istorija naših sopstvenih borbi i društveno-političkih implikacija svakodnevnog života. Istražujući mikroistorije stavljam u fokus načine na koji narativi mogu dovesti u pitanje svoju fiksnu materijalnost ili se proširiti izvan nje, često preplićući arhivski materijal, lične izveštaje i fikciju. Ovakva metodologija odražava arheološki proces – istražuje se pojam prostorne specifičnosti pri čemu se mesto ne svodi na određenu lokaciju, već se proširuje kroz kategoriju vremena. Povremeno volim da uzmem stvari u svoje ruke popunjavajući praznine u pričama za koje verujem da verovatno nedostaju. Radeći unutar ovih okvira, nastojim da dam sliku i materijlanost onome što su vreme i udaljenost zamaglili12345.
Moji roditelji su poreklom iz bivše Jugoslavije što je u kulturološkom smislu imalo odlučujući uticaj na mene u pogledu formiranja moje umetničke prakse i diskurzivnih promišljanja. U tom smislu, naročito je bilo važno nasleđe samoupravljanja, socijalizma, multietničosti i antifašističkog otpora – ali i nacionalizma, konflikta i rata.
U mladosti sam bila okružena pričama o antifašističkom nasleđu u bivšoj Jugoslaviji. Ova istorija se činila dalekom jer je stvarnost sadašnjosti izgledala potpuno drugačije, zasenjena raskolima koje su doneli ratovi i sukobi. Kada sam počela da otkrivam biografije žena iz Antifašističkog fronta žena (AFŽ) – priče kojima nisam imala pristup dok sam odrastala – osetila sam nadu i otpor. Suočavanje s ovom naizgled skrivenom prošlošću dovelo me je do još jednog slučajnog susreta koji sada nazivamo: dual act (dvostruki čin)67.
Reč je o projektu koji je sam realizovala u saradnji sa Stejsi DeVo i nekoliko drugih protagonistkinja. U okviru ovog rada, zajedno se prisećamo narativa koji oživljavaju delovanje dve istorijske antifašističke ženske organizacije u predratnom i poratnom periodu: AFŽ u Jugoslaviji i Mujeres Libres u Španiji. Projekat ispituje njihovu borbu za oslobođenje, a potom njihovu istorijsku reprezentaciju i status u savremenom trenutku. Kroz vizuelnu jukstapoziciju savremene prepiske, istorijskih, kao i ličnih izveštaja i arhivskih nalaza, dual act (dvostruki čin) nastoji da poveže biografske aspekte, fragmentarne hronologije, kolektivne prakse, sećanje i prijateljstvo, kao i narative u kojima su politički, istorijski i kritički uvidi pomešani sa činjenicama, fikcijom i pripovedanjem dok se istovremeno konstituišu kao arhiva iz druge ruke.
Pre nego što sam počela intenzivnije da se bavim arhivskim istraživanjem i dugoročnim projektima, uglavnom sam se bavila praksama koje su uključivale performans89101112. Vremenom, formulišući i razvijajući sopstveni rad, saradnja i prijateljstvo postali su ključni za mene. Naslanjajući se na razmišljanje Svetlane Bojm, ne shvatam prijateljstvo kao „konvencionalnu intimnost, kao bratstvo ili sestrinstvo, niti kao priliku za umrežavanje. Pre je reč o srodstvu koje se može izabrati i koje nema krajnji ishod, o odnosu bez cilja i mesta u našem društvu, iskustvu koje je samo sebi svrha.” Kroz ove odnose možemo izgraditi jezik u kojem želimo da živimo, ali i proširiti rečnik i dati glas onima koji su ostali ostavljeni iz nas.
Tekst je napisan u saradnji sa Simonom Ognjanović (2022).
1Slika: Nostalgija na steroidima, kadar iz video eseja, 2019. Ljubaznošću umetnice.
