Neda Kovinić
– (1975, Belgrade), her performances, films and installations stem from creative processes take place in temporary collaborative artists’ communities. The main element of her work are participatory performances of the artists of different practices and experiences. She cherishes the principles of fair practices, including the practices of care, empathy and closeness. She works with the people and immediate surroundings where the group exercises and rehearses – be it a forest, be it an old modernist architecture or a new high-rise urban landscape. Kovinic’s exhibitions document the process of collective research in the form of an artistic installation. She often uses drawings that she makes during the process, words and sentences as a part of her poetic-theoretical narration, or the videos based on the language of structuralist film and post-production as an artistic form. Fellow at The Akademie Schloss Solitude 2022-2023.
The climate crisis, political disorientation, distrust in media language, geopolitical crisis and the permanent war are mapping the circumstances in which I create and towards which I relate to in my performances, video art and installations.
In contrast to the “dark sides of modernity” I suggest creating performative communities, a collective research process and procedural approach. I reevaluate the possibility of mutuality, empathy, care, closeness, fair and non-competitive relationships among the artists I work with, as well as all other participants in the structure of production and presentation of artistic work1. I try to act in the medium of the “art of loving” which is characterized by a slow tempo, multiple perspectives and which can embrace diversity, irrationality, wackiness and wit2.
My artistic practice began in the mid-90s, during the war in former Yugoslavia and was formed around my affinity toward the conceptual practices of the Student Cultural Center in Belgrade, developed during the 70s. In the first ambient installations that I developed in the gallery of the Student Cultural Center, I developed spatial-symbolic values of the gallery space, its history and memory, the gallery world in contrast to the world of reality. During the NATO bombing in 1999, I was focused on the phenomenon of hidden fears within a corrupt political reality, through installations and video work.
I introduced performance and dance in my artistic practice out of a need to work with others. For me, it was an action in which a group of people establishes a mutual relationship, be it among the performers or with the audience. An important motivation for this type of practice was the chance to include young artists, dancers and actors in the work process, who are in need of space for work and expression in our environment.
I create art because experience has shown me that it is a field through which we manage to influence ourselves, our environment and collaborators, as well as the world we live in, although this is not easily noticeable and the apathy toward the relevance of art in the modern world is understandable.
An artist is a researcher who does not necessarily strive for an end result of her obsession and process, but for raising questions, establishing an environment and relationships which have transformative potential3.
When I performed “Behind Enthusiasm”45, I invited previously unknown dance artists through networks of dance centers. I emphasized that the most important thing for me is not the final outcome of the process, but that the work itself is essentially based on socializing, sharing a presence and teaching each other, and the outcome is open to surprise and unpredictability. There were ten local and foreign performers in the first workshop where the participants gathered, and it was already a work of art in itself. The research then extended to many more meetings, a closeness developed between the performers, even some long-term collaborations.
I live alone in a 35m2 apartment where I also work. We are not in a position to obtain art studios through the Association of Artists in Serbia. I earn my living from commissioned artwork. I wrote about artistic work being bribed or unpaid in my doctoral thesis as a reflection and contextualization of the mentioned performance “Behind Enthusiasm”6789.
My next work, “Firefly Academy”10111213 was conceived as an exploration of movement and space, in the dynamic space of the exterior of the socialist-modernist architecture of the Student City in New Belgrade, without the obligation of having a final public performance. Over the course of a series of dance workshops, lectures and reflections on the topic of what the “Pasolini’s Fireflies” would be today, six female performers from a large diverse group agreed on a public performance as the final phase of the research14.
During the pandemic I performed “Together Apart” in a public space in the city, in front of the gallery of the Student Cultural Center in Belgrade. This performance was about the issues of care, the possibility of performing and collaborative, procedural work in the condition of the pandemic crisis1516171819.
I find it important that artists today critically revise important artworks of the past through feminist postulates, and notice hidden masculine and patriarchal modes that have unconsciously educated us and shaped us, and to at least raise awareness and emphasize that. In the audio material created for exhibiting this archive at the Manifesta 14, I touched on the question of whether there is a difference between being a woman and an artist.
Text is written in collaboration with Jelena Vesić (2022).
1Feminist porn-scapes, On feminist dramaturgical thinking in the practice of dance and performance, Ana Dubljević, Service station for contemporary dance, Belgrade 2021.2Landscape dramaturgy: Space after perspective, Ana Vujanović, Academia. Thinking Alongside, ed. Ingri Midgard Fiksdal. Oslo: The Oslo National Academy of the Arts, 2018. https://www.academia.edu/37812064/Landscape_dramaturgy_Space_after_perspective.
3Pornodialectics: From Coming to Becoming, Tuck Bradley, One+One Filmmakers Journal, Issue 10, James Marcus Tucker, Bradley Tuck, Diarmuid Hester, Daniel Fawcett, Clara Pais eds. 25th February 2013. https://www.academia.edu/3723924/Pornodialectics_From_Coming_to_Becoming.
4Link: Neda Kovinić, Behind Enthusiasm, performance and installation of documents in the Great Hall of the Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, 2018, Ph.D. art project at the Faculty of Applied Arts, courtesy of the artist. Link: on the website Behind Enthusiasm: https://nedakovinic.wixsite.com/neda-kovinic/behind-enthusiasm.
5Link for the video on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user109257451.
6Image: Neda Kovinić, Behind Enthusiasm, performance photos, Great Hall of the Student Cultural Center, 2018, courtesy of the artist.
7Image: Neda Kovinić, Behind Enthusiasm, performance photos, Great Hall of the Student Cultural Center, 2018, courtesy of the artist.
8Image: Neda Kovinić, Behind Enthusiasm, performance photos, Great Hall of the Student Cultural Center, 2018, courtesy of the artist.
9Image: Neda Kovinić, Behind Enthusiasm, performance photos, Great Hall of the Student Cultural Center, 2018, courtesy of the artist.
10Neda Kovinić, Firefly Academy, project of the dance exploration and performance at the Cultural Center of the Student City, New Belgrade, 2019.
11More info on the Firefly Academy: https://nedakovinic.wixsite.com/neda-kovinic/the-academy-of-fireflies.
12Image: Neda Kovinić, Firefly Academy, performance photo, Cultural Center of the Student City, New Belgrade, 2019, courtesy of the artist.
13Image: Neda Kovinić, Firefly Academy, performance photo, Cultural Center of the Student City, New Belgrade, 2019, courtesy of the artist.
14Disappearance of the fireflies, Pier Paolo Pasolini, originally published as ‘Il vuoto del potere in Italia’ (The Power Void in Italy) in ‘Corriere della sera’, 1 February 1975. Translated by Christopher Mott.
15Link: Neda Kovinić, Together Apart performance in a public space, gallery Podroom, Belgrade Cultural Center, 2020. https://nedakovinic.wixsite.com/neda-kovinic/together-apart.
16Image: Neda Kovinić, Together Apart performance in a public space, gallery Podroom, Belgrade Cultural Center, 2020, courtesy of the artist.
17Image: Neda Kovinić, Together Apart performance in a public space, gallery Podroom, Belgrade Cultural Center, 2020, courtesy of the artist.
18Image: Neda Kovinić, Together Apart performance in a public space, gallery Podroom, Belgrade Cultural Center, 2020, courtesy of the artist.
19Link: Neda Kovinić, Together Apart, video 11’15’’, Whitechapel gallery, London, Hammer, Los Angeles, Moscow museum of Modern Art, 2021, video link: https://vimeo.com/493725237.
– rođena je u Beogradu 1975. godine. Njeni performansi, filmovi i instalacije proističu iz kreativnih procesa koji se odvijaju u privremenim saradničkim zajednicama umetnika. Glavni element njenog rada su participativni nastupi umetnika različitih praksi i iskustava. Ona neguje principe fer prakse, uključujući praksu brige, empatije i bliskosti. Radi sa ljudima i neposrednom okolinom u kojoj grupa vežba i uvevežbava – bilo da je u pitanju šuma, bilo da se radi o staroj modernističkoj arhitekturi ili novom visokom urbanom pejzažu. Njene izložbe dokumentuju proces kolektivnog istraživanja u formi umetničke instalacije. Često koristi crteže koje pravi tokom procesa, reči i rečenice kao deo njene poetsko-teorijske naracije, ili video zapise zasnovane na jeziku strukturalističkog filma i postprodukcije kao umetničke forme.
Klimatska kriza, politička dezorjentisanost, nepoverenje u jezik medija, geopolitička kriza i permanentni rat mapiraju okolnosti u kojima stvaram i prema kojima se odnosim u svojim performansima, video radovima ili instalacijama.
Nasuprot “tamnim stranama savremenosti” predlažem stvaranje performativnih zajednica, kolektivni istraživački proces i procesualni pristup. Preispitujem mogućnost zajedničkog, empatije, brige, bliskosti, pravednih i nekompetitivnih odnosa među umetnicima sa kojima sarađujem, kao i svim drugim učesnicima u strukturi produkcije i prezantacije umetničkog rada1. Pokušavam da delujem u mediju “umetnosti voljenja” koju odlikuje sporost, višestrukost perspektiva i koja može da prigrli različitost, iracionalnost, luckastost i duhovitost2.
Moja umetnička praksa počinje sredinom devedesetih, u vreme rata u bivšoj Jugoslaviji i formirana je na naklonosti ka konceptualnim praksama Studentskog kulturnog centra (SKC) u Beogradu razvijanim tokom sedamdesetih godina. U prvim ambijentalnim instalacijama koje sam razvijala u galeriji SKC-a istraživala sam prostorno-simboličke vrednosti galerijskog prostora, njegovu istoriju i sećanje, svet galerije nasuprot sveta stvarnosti. U vreme NATO bombardovanja 1999. bavila sam se fenomenima skrivenih strahova unutar korumpirane političke stvarnosti, kroz instalacije i video radove.
Performans i ples uvodim u praksu iz potrebe da radim zajedno sa drugima. Za mene je to bila akcija u kojoj grupa ljudi uspostavlja međusobni odnos, bilo da su u pitanju odnosi među izvođačma ili sa publikom. Važna motivacija za ovu vrstu prakse je i šansa da uključim u zajednički radni proces mlade umetnike, plesače i glumce koji imaju malo prostora za rad i izražavanje u našoj sredini.
Umetnost stvaram jer mi iskustvo pokazuje da je to polje kroz koje ipak uspevamo da delujemo na sebe, svoje okruženje i saradnike, kao i svet u kome živimo, premda to nije lako primetno i razumljiva je apatija po pitanju relevantnosti umetnosti u savremenom svetu.
Umetnica je istraživačica koja ne teži nužno krajnjem ishodu svoje opsesije i procesa, već pokretanju pitanja, uspostavljanju okruženja i odnosa koji nose transformativni potencijal3.
Kada sam izvodila performans “Iza entuzijazma”45 pozvala sam do tada nepoznate plesne umetnike putem mreža plesnih centara. Naglasila sam da mi nije najvažniji konačni ishod procesa, već da je sam rad supstancijalno zasnovan na druženju, deljenju prisustva i međusobnom predavanju, a ishod otvoren ka iznenađenju i nepredvidivosti. Prva radionica na kojoj su se učesnici okupili brojala je deset domaćih i inostranih izvođača i već je bila umetnički rad po sebi. Istraživanje se nakon toga produžilo na još mnogo susreta, razvila se bliskost između izvođača, čak i neke dugotrajne saradnje.
Živim sama u stanu od 35m2 gde i radim. U Srbiji nismo u mogućnosti da dođemo do umetničkih ateljea preko Udruženja umetnika. Zarađujem od naručenih primenjeno-umetničkih poslova. O tome da je umetnički rad potplaćen ili neplaćen pisala sam u svom doktorskom radu kao refleksiji i kontekstualizaciji pomenutog performansa “Iza entuzijazma”6789.
Sledeći rad “Akademija svitaca”10111213 bio je zamišljen kao istraživanje pokreta i prostora u razuđenom prostoru eksterijera socijalističko-modernističke arhitekture Studentskog grada na Novom Beogradu, bez obaveze da ima finalno javno izvođenje. U toku niza plesnih radionica, predavanja i reflektovanja na temu šta bi danas bili “Pazolinijevi svici” iz velike heterogene grupe šest izvođačica se usaglasilo oko javne izvedbe kao završne faze istraživanja14.
U toku pandemije izvodila sam performans “Zajedno razdvojeni” u javnom prostoru grada, ispred galerije Kulturnog centra Beograda koji je dotakao pitanja brige, i mogućnosti izvođenja i kolaborativnog, procesualnog rada u uslovima pandemijske krize1516171819.
Nalazim da je važno da umetnice danas kritički revidiraju značajna umetnička dela prošlosti kroz feminističke postulate i da uoče skrivene maskuline i patrijarhalne moduse koji su nas nesvesno vaspitavali i oblikovali, te da se bar to osvesti i naglasi.
U zvučnom zapisu pravljenom za izlaganje ovog arhiva na Manifesti 14 dotakla sam se pitanja da li ima razlike između bivanja ženom i umetnicom.
Tekst je napisan u saradnji sa Jelenom Vesić (2022).
1Feministički porno-pejzaži, O feminističkom dramaturškom mišljenju u praksi plesa i performansa, Ana Dubljević, Stanica servis za savremeni ples, Beograd 2021.2Landscape dramaturgy: Space after perspective, Ana Vujanović, Academia.Thinking Alongside, ed. Ingri Midgard Fiksdal. Oslo: The Oslo National Academy of the Arts, 2018. https://www.academia.edu/37812064/Landscape_dramaturgy_Space_after_perspective.
3Pornodialectics: From Coming to Becoming, Tuck Bradley, One+One Filmmakers Journal, Issue 10, James Marcus Tucker, Bradley Tuck, Diarmuid Hester, Daniel Fawcett, Clara Pais eds. 25th February 2013. https://www.academia.edu/3723924/Pornodialectics_From_Coming_to_Becoming.
4Link: Neda Kovinić, Iza entuzijazma, performans i instalacija dokumenata u Velikoj Sali SKC, Beograd, 2018. doktorski umetnički projekat na FLU, link na sajtu Iza entuzijazma: https://nedakovinic.wixsite.com/neda-kovinic/behind-enthusiasm.
5Link na video film na vimeo platformi: https://vimeo.com/user109257451.
6Slika: Neda Kovinić, Iza entuzijazma, fotografija performansa, Velika sala SKC, 2018. Ljubaznošću umetnice.
11Link za više informacija o Akademiji svitaca: https://nedakovinic.wixsite.com/neda-kovinic/the-academy-of-fireflies.
12Slika: Neda Kovinić, Akademija svitaca, fotografija performansa, DKSG, Novi Beograd, 2019. Ljubaznošću umetnice.
15Link: Neda Kovinić, Zajedno razdvojeni performans u javnom prostoru, galerija Podroom, KCB, 2020. https://nedakovinic.wixsite.com/neda-kovinic/together-apart.
16Slika: Neda Kovinić, Zajedno razdvojeni, fotografija performansa, galerija Podroom, KCB, 2020. Ljubaznošću umetnice.
