Milica Tomić
– explores different genres and methods of artistic practice that centers on investigating, unearthing and bringing to public debate issues related to political violence, economic underpinnings and social amnesia. Tomić is a founding member of a New Yugoslav art/theory group Grupa Spomenik [2002]; she conceived and initiated the Four Faces of Omarska project and the Working Group FFO [2010].
The video installation One day, instead of one night, a burst of machine-gun fire will flash, if light cannot come otherwise is named after a fragment of a poem by Oskar Davičo – Yugoslav partisan and writer, member of the surrealist movement in Belgrade in the 1930s.
The work consists of the video and newspaper documentation of the walking actions12 I carried out between September and October 2009, in which I (re)visitied forgotten sites in Belgrade where anti-Fascist actions took place during WW2. The work addresses social amnesia and the erasure of the memory of the anti-Fascism and People’s Liberation Struggle (NOB) in Yugoslavia; and the relevance of such struggles to the present moment in which the invisible forms of fascism are embedded in the administration of social life.
I am walking along the Belgrade streets and carrying a grocery bag in one hand and a machine gun in the other. The camera follows the action from a distance, capturing the indifference of the scenery; people do not react. I walk mostly unnoticed, immersed in the “normality of everyday”. The sound in the background is composed from a series of interviews I conducted with protagonists from the anti-Fascist movement in Belgrade, partisans and communists who took part in the historical actions that I evoke. The atmosphere of apathy on the street is juxtaposed with the passionate statements and deep convictions of the real life protagonists in the anti-Fascist movement. The action also bears a dedication to the young members of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative who, around the time I carried out these walking actions, were accused of an act of international terrorism for protesting in front of the Greek Embassy in Belgrade in solidarity with demonstrations in Greece.
The photographs and video footage made during these walks show not just the re-enactments of the once successful actions that members of the People’s Liberation Movement carried out in Belgrade. They rather document an artistic intervention that builds a non-material monument to the political imagination3456. By commenting on the legislative limitations put on the rights of the use of public space and engagement in civil disobedience, the work indirectly questions the use of counter-violence against terror sanctioned by the nation-state that justifies the suspension of constitutional procedures and legal protections of its citizens.
The work opens the question of anti-fascism today and the erasure of its history and memory from the public discourse, of its actuality with regard to the new circumstances and new forms of fascism. Today it is easy to recognise fascism in its excess forms, but what about the fascism that is around us that cannot be easily recognised at first sight, but is safely built into the laws and administration?
Today, no matter whether we are in a situation of direct war or not, we find ourselves in a state of permanent mobilisation. However, is it not possible to use armed force without establishing a strict division between the terrorising and the terrorised? Even if it was possible, it would have to be kept completely separate from the dominant discourses, the political promises of identity groups, parties, movements or organisations, and would have to be distanced from the politics of terror and anti-terror. This description of a singular and universalistic position of the use of armed force is very much reminiscent of Partisan warfare, and of the politics that Yugoslav partisans practiced in the course of their antifascist revolutionary struggle. “In a war against war – for peace!” (Šime Kronja, 2003.)
Milica Tomić, 2010
Text is written in collaboration with Jelena Vesić (2022).
1Milica Tomić, One day, instead of one night, a burst of machine-gun fire will flash, if light cannot come otherwise, video installation, Action/intervention in the public space, Belgrade, 2009, courtesy of the artists. Photography: Srdjan Veljović Sound: Interviews with partisans, participants of the People’s Liberation Struggle in Yugoslavia in WW2 [On Love Afterwards, 2003], Interviewee: Šime Kronja, Jelena Kadenić, Radošin Rajević, Dimitrije Bajalica Camera/sound: Staša Tomić Editing: Miloš Stojanović Sound Design: Vladimir Janković Slonče2Milica Tomić, One day, instead of one night, a burst of machine-gun fire will flash, if light cannot come otherwise, video installation, Action/intervention in the public space, Belgrade, 2009, courtesy of the artists. Photography: Srdjan Veljović Sound: Interviews with partisans, participants of the People’s Liberation Struggle in Yugoslavia in WW2 [On Love Afterwards, 2003], Interviewee: Šime Kronja, Jelena Kadenić, Radošin Rajević, Dimitrije Bajalica Camera/sound: Staša Tomić Editing: Miloš Stojanović Sound Design: Vladimir Janković Slonče.
3Milica Tomić, One day, instead of one night, a burst of machine-gun fire will flash, if light cannot come otherwise, video installation, Action/intervention in the public space, Belgrade, 2009, courtesy of the artists. Photography: Srdjan Veljović Sound: Interviews with partisans, participants of the People’s Liberation Struggle in Yugoslavia in WW2 [On Love Afterwards, 2003], Interviewee: Šime Kronja, Jelena Kadenić, Radošin Rajević, Dimitrije Bajalica Camera/sound: Staša Tomić Editing: Miloš Stojanović Sound Design: Vladimir Janković Slonče.
4Milica Tomić, One day, instead of one night, a burst of machine-gun fire will flash, if light cannot come otherwise, video installation, Action/intervention in the public space, Belgrade, 2009, courtesy of the artists. Photography: Srdjan Veljović Sound: Interviews with partisans, participants of the People’s Liberation Struggle in Yugoslavia in WW2 [On Love Afterwards, 2003], Interviewee: Šime Kronja, Jelena Kadenić, Radošin Rajević, Dimitrije Bajalica Camera/sound: Staša Tomić Editing: Miloš Stojanović Sound Design: Vladimir Janković Slonče.
5Milica Tomić, One day, instead of one night, a burst of machine-gun fire will flash, if light cannot come otherwise, video installation, Action/intervention in the public space, Belgrade, 2009, courtesy of the artists. Photography: Srdjan Veljović Sound: Interviews with partisans, participants of the People’s Liberation Struggle in Yugoslavia in WW2 [On Love Afterwards, 2003], Interviewee: Šime Kronja, Jelena Kadenić, Radošin Rajević, Dimitrije Bajalica Camera/sound: Staša Tomić Editing: Miloš Stojanović Sound Design: Vladimir Janković Slonče.
6Milica Tomić, One day, instead of one night, a burst of machine-gun fire will flash, if light cannot come otherwise, video installation, Action/intervention in the public space, Belgrade, 2009, courtesy of the artists. Photography: Srdjan Veljović Sound: Interviews with partisans, participants of the People’s Liberation Struggle in Yugoslavia in WW2 [On Love Afterwards, 2003], Interviewee: Šime Kronja, Jelena Kadenić, Radošin Rajević, Dimitrije Bajalica Camera/sound: Staša Tomić Editing: Miloš Stojanović Sound Design: Vladimir Janković Slonče.
– istražuje različite žanrove i metode umetničkog delovanja, fokusirajući se na ispitivanje i obelodanjivanje problema političkog nasilja, njegove ekonomske potpore i društvene amnezije, uz poziv na javnu debatu. Tomić je jedna od osnivačica grupe nove jugoslovenske umetnosti/teorije – Grupa spomenik (2002.); osmislila je i inicirala projekat Četri lica Omarske kao i Radnu grupu ČLO (2010.).
Naziv video instalacije Jednog dana umesto noći, bljesnuće rafal iz mitraljeza kad drukče svetlost ne može doći potiče od fragmenta pesme Oskara Daviča – jugoslovenskog partizana i pisca, člana nadrealističkog pokreta u Beogradu tokom ’30-ih godina XX veka.
Rad se sastoji od video i novinske dokumentacije akcija šetanja 12 koju sam sprovela u delo između septembra i oktobra 2009. godine, tokom kojih sam (ponovo) posetila zaboravljena mesta u Beogradu, na kojima su se dogodile antifašističke akcije tokom Drugog svetskog rata. Rad skreće pažnju na društvenu amneziju i brisanje sećanja na antifašizam i Narodnooslobodilačku borbu (NOB) u Jugoslaviji; kao i na važnost takvih borbi u sadašnjem trenutku, u kojem su nevidljivi oblici fašizma utkani u administraciju društvenog života.
Hodam ulicama Beograda noseći ceger u jednoj i mitraljez u drugoj ruci. Kamera prati radnju iz daljine, hvatajući nezainteresovanost sredine – ljudi ne reaguju. Hodam uglavnom neprimećena, utopljena u „normalnost svakodnevice“. Zvuk u pozadini se sastoji od niza razgovora koje sam vodila sa protagonistima antifašističkog pokreta u Beogradu, partizanima i komunistima, učesnicima istorijskih akcija, koja evociram. Apatična atmosfera na ulici protivstavljena je strastvenim izjavama i dubokim uverenjima koje pronose glasovi protagonista antifašističkog pokreta. Akcija je takođe posvećena i mladim članovima anarho-sindikalističke inicijative koji su, u vreme kad sam izvodila ove šetnje, bili optuženi za akt međunarodnog terorizma zbog protesta ispred grčke ambasade u Beogradu u znak solidarnosti sa demonstrancijama u Grčkoj.
Fotografije i video snimci načinjeni tokom ovih šetnji ne oživljavaju samo nekadašnje uspešne akcije koje su članovi Narodnooslobodilačkog pokreta izveli u Beogradu. Oni radije, dokumentuju umetničku intervenciju stvaranja nematerijalnog spomenika političkoj imaginaciji3456. Komentarišući zakonodavna ograničenja na pravo korišćenja javnog prostora i učešća u građanskoj neposlušnosti, rad posredno preispituje upotrebu kontra-nasilja protiv terora sankcionisanog od strane nacionalne države, koja opravdava suspendovanje ustavnih procedura i pravne zaštite svojih građana.
Rad postavlja pitanje antifašizma danas i brisanja njegove istorije i sećanja iz javnog diskursa, kao i pitanje njegove aktuelnosti u vezi sa novim okolnostima i novim oblicima fašizma. Danas je lako prepoznati fašizam u njegovim prenaglašenim vidovima, ali šta je sa fašizmom koji je svuda oko nas i koji nije lako uočiti na prvi pogled, ali je čvrsto ugrađen u zakone i administraciju?
Danas, bez obzira da li se nalazimo u neposrednoj ratnoj opasnosti ili ne, zatičemo sebe u neprestanom stanju mobilizacije. Međutim, izgleda nemoguće koristiti oružanu silu bez utvrđivanja stroge podele na agresora i žrtvu. Čak i kad bi to bilo moguće, moralo bi se u potpunosti odvojiti od preovlađujućih diskursa, političkih obećanja identitetskih grupa, stranaka, pokreta ili organizacija, i moralo bi se distancirati od politike terora i anti-terora. Ovaj opis jedinstvene i univerzalističke pozicije upotrebe vojnih snaga veoma podseća na partizansko ratovanje i na politiku koju su jugoslovenski partizani primenjivali tokom svoje antifašističke revolucionarne borbe. „U ratu protiv rata – za mir!“ (Šime Kronja, 2003.)
Milica Tomić, 2010. godina
Tekst je napisan u saradnji sa Jelenom Vesić (2022).
1Milica Tomić, Jednog dana umesto noći, bljesnuće rafal iz mitraljeza kad drukče svetlost ne može doći, akcija/intervencija na javnom mestu, Beograd, 2009. godina, ljubaznošću umetnice. Fotografija: Srđan Veljović Zvuk: Razgovori sa partizanima, učesnicima Narodnooslobodilačke borbe u Jugoslaviji u Drugom svetskom ratu (On Love Afterwards , 2003. Godina) Intervjuisani: Šime Kronja, Jelena Kadenić, Radošin Rajević, Dimitrije Bajalica Kamera/zvuk: Staša Tomić Montaža: Miloš Stojanović Dizajn zvuka: Vladimir Janković Slonče.
