Andela Tucakovic

Project title: Balkanization of the soul
Location: A small garage in Kiseljak, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Date(s): March 23rd 2024

Artist Statement

I accept wholeheartedly that a particular internal struggle has arisen from Balkan dissonance, shame, and uncertainty, and I will not cease from gazing upon it.

Andela Tucakovic

Marina Abramovic’s term Balkan Baroque is the core of my practice and affects my perception of the surrounding world and I accept wholeheartedly that a particular internal struggle has arisen from Balkan dissonance, shame, and uncertainty, and I will not cease from gazing upon it.

Those emotions gradually crystallize into entities disguised as symbolic narratives within autobiographical residue whose purpose is to reach the possibility of potential moments for collective resolution and reconstruction through elements of trauma and pain. In my artistic and academic practice, stepping along the inglorious Balkan path is the inevitable step in addressing issues of identity and cultural belonging.

Contextual Statement

The project Balkanization of the soul is technically composed of three freestanding fragmented paintings arranged for sculptural encounter in a small garage accompanied by objects, an olfactory and auditory element. The pop-up exhibition that took place in March 2024 aims to find out what affective and emotional resonances about the alienation and paradoxes of Balkan identity and the position of women in the Balkan patriarchal society are revealed. The scale and ambience of the garage adhere to the context of the project, as it is a space that is avoided, seen as insignificant, undesirable and secondary, that juxtaposes the raw cold concrete against warm wooden elements.

Methodological concerns of the installation follow what Marina Abramovic calls the Balkan Baroque and how the observer interacts with the concept. The construction acts as the mediator between the Balkan trauma and negative cultural memory of the audience and the possibility of potential moments for healing by engaging directly with traumatic causes and pain.

Following that, objects and symbols that directly evoke emotions of disgust, uncomfort, pain and anger are used so that the interactive experience of the artwork operates on the punctum level. Punctum, as discussed by Barthes, refers to the observer’s emotional response to artwork’s features without invoking any known symbolic system (Barthes 2013). The depiction of the three women conceptually envisions the three discovered stages of my ongoing theoretical research concerned with how symbolic narrative is affected by Balkan Baroque and the cultural politics of emotion alike, and is graded from aggressive viscera, to surreal denial and finally solemn alienated reconciliation.

The representation of the female body in ritualistic poses resembling renaissance altarpieces challenges the woman’s current place within the Balkan society and the churches and religious institutions’ role in influencing such a cultural and sociopolitical taken-for-granted misogynist narrative of inferiority within each woman operates everyday. It penetrates into a deep intimate fragile personal understanding of self. Issues alike are raised by female artists ranging from Kahlo and O’Keefe to Marina Abramovic, Kiki Smith and the Guerilla Girls and feminist theorists such as Audre Lorde.

Documentation

For more information

https://andelatucakovic.com/

Instagram: @andelaart