Cultural and media space is a terrain of proliferation as well as dispute and struggle regarding these topics: heroes and superheroes are everywhere, but whose heroes are they and for whom? From mythology, to antifascist and anti-colonial struggles and all the way to pop culture and media celebrities, the notions of hero and heroine carry many references and possible readings. But who gets to be seen as a “villain”, who as a “hero” and why? …
On Villains, Aliens and Superheroes. On Other Stories is an experimental artistic online project that gathers fifteen international artists from around the globe, who are invited to respond to the topic.
As part of their shared research process and inputs, three renowned artists who have dealt with the topic in their practice are invited to present their work in public. They will be interviewed by the editors of the project and the online talks will be open to public.
THREE PUBLIC TALKS in September:
September 15, 2020, 7 p.m.
Bojan Djordjev, a theater-maker from Belgrade, will moderate the talk with Rabih Mroué, a theatre-maker and visual artist from Beirut, author of performances, videos, installations and performative “non-academic lectures”, some of them dealing with issues related to the Lebanese civil war and other conflicts in the Middle East.
September 17, 2020, 7 p.m.
Set up as an everyday chat, the talk between the writer Barbi Marković and the artist and curator Nataša Mackuljak will be a stroll through Barbi’s novel Superheldinnen [Superheroines] and an analysis of their super powers as migrants in the city of Vienna. Mackuljak and Marković are both currently living in Vienna and come from former Yugoslavia.
September 19, 2020, 6 p.m.
Ivana Marjanović, a curator from Belgrade, currently director of Kunstraum Innsbruck, will interview Želimir Žilnik, a filmmaker from Novi Sad. Žilnik has been active since the 1960s, from the Yugoslav Black Wave cinema movement on. Three of his films, featuring retiring female textile industry workers (Vera and Eržika), a Roma man deported from the EU to Serbia (Kenedi Trilogy), and a hundred-years-old World War II resistance veteran (One Woman – One Century) will form the point of departure for a talk about heroism.
Join us in our process of searching for and creating other stories On Villains, Aliens and Superheroes!
Please register for the online artistic talks at https://workingencounters.qpress.tech/#LIVE .
Working Encounters – WHO IS IN?
The first edition of Working Encounters was conceptualized and organized by a group of editors: Bojan Djordjev, Siniša Ilić (visual artist / Belgrade), Nataša Mackuljak and Ivana Marjanović, together with Dragana Jovović (producer / Belgrade). Participating Artists, from different parts of the world and with multidisciplinary backgrounds in performance, visual arts and writing:
Tamara Antonijević, Rodrigo Batista, Tamar Botchorishvili, Cristina Gagiu, Nicola Gunn, James Jordan Johnson, Jovana Kocić, Lea Kukovičič, Marija Marjanović, Rita Natálio, Ariadna Rubio Lleo, Zuzana Sceránková, Tanja Šljivar, Vanda Velagić, Mohamed Yusuf Boss, Jaukje van Wonderen and researcher Dan Podjed.
SAVE THE DATE
We warmly invite you to follow the final online presentations by the participating artists: October 1–3, 2020.
We will publish all information on how to access the artistic presentations at http://ctc-cti.eu/ .
Working Encounters is supported by the Creative Europe program of the European Union and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.
More information about the project topic and concept may be found HERE: http://ctc-cti.eu/.
Concept: On Villains, Aliens and Superheroes. On Other Stories.
Cultural and media space is a terrain of proliferation as well as dispute and struggle regarding these topics: heroes and superheroes are everywhere, but whose heroes are they and for whom? From mythology, to antifascist and anti-colonial struggles and all the way to pop culture and media celebrities, the notions of hero and heroine carry many references and possible readings. The current heated debate on the future of life on our damaged planet, especially in light of the ongoing pandemic crisis, also creates its own heroic figures (in plural) looking beyond the “one and only” human. If, as Boris Buden says, society is no longer a medium for realising the utopia,* are superheroes the harbingers of society’s imminent apocalypse, or a piece of ideologically charged neoliberal propaganda claiming that society does not exist? Do we “need” superheroes so as not to expect anything from society, but instead pin our hopes on supernatural powers? If heroes are real and superheroes figures from folklore, vernacular and fiction, is this line separating the rational from the irrational so straight? What are other narratives and other stories?
Heroes and their nemeses – villains – are figures made of ambivalence, values and acts on the border of ethics and politics or “right”/“wrong”, politically “in/correct”. Who is seen as a “villain”, who is seen as “heroic”, “a hero” and why? What is the meaning of a hero in history and today? What are the differences between heroes in popular culture and in real life? What powers do heroes have? What do heroes reveal about the condition of the society that generates them? Are heroes only human? Who are the aliens within?
Situated and local views are important to us, but we are also aware of the interactions that are necessary for equilibrium, be it political or ecological. Who are the heroines in our history and life and who are the superheroes in yours? What are the threads that connect them, where do they meet?
Working Encounters are taking place as part of the Create to Connect -> Create to Impact project having the Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague as one of the partners.
* Boris Buden, Introduction at the Former West Public Editorial Meeting, “There is a Crack in the Museum of History, is that how The Future Gets in”, May 13–14, 2015, Tranzit, Budapest, formerwest.org.
Working Encounters by Create to Connect -> Create to Impact
