Kunsthuis Syb

Jelena Andjelovski en Paula Müller ontmoetten elkaar in december 2013 in Zagreb. De twee kunstenaars waren uitgenodigd voor een uitwisseling in het kader van een workshop voor Pogon Jedinstvo, samen met andere kunstenaars uit Servië, Kroatië en Duitsland. Ze ontdekten hun gedeelde interesse voor de boodschap die ligt tussen taal en beeld en besloten verder samen te werken. In SYB hervatten zij hun samenwerking onder de naam ‘Extreme Lives‘.

Jelena Andjelovski (Belgrado, Servië, 1980) studeerde rechten aan de Universiteit van Belgrado en dramaturgie aan de Kunstacademie in Novi Sad. Ze noemt zichzelf feministisch activiste en begon zich in 2002 in te zetten voor het internationale netwerk ‘Women in Black’ in Belgrado. In de daaropvolgende jaren werkte ze als lerares, programmacoördinator, organisator en woordvoerster van andere organisaties zoals SOS Telephone for Women and Children Victims of Violence, Incest Trauma Center Belgrade, Autonomous Women’s Center Belgrade en Novi Sad Lesbian Organization.
Sinds 2009 ontwikkelde Andjelovski verschillende programma’s voor het jeugdcentrum CK13 in Novi Sad. Bovendien is zij de auteur van talrijke toneelstukken en voorstellingen.

 

Paula Müller (Trier, 1977) is kunstenaar en woont en werkt in Berlijn.

Paula:

“After intense conversations about Jelenas history and experience during the war and her engagement as a young feminist in her country, we decided to continue our dialogue. I was interested in her approach, and the way she lives feminism today. My own image of this movement is influenced by German history and the development of certain professional figures, that printed the word feminism into the heads of German women and men. Jelena brought an enlightening aspect into my understanding of being a feminist today. At the age of 19 she decided out of necessity to be active in a freedom- movement in her country. 

          We met again to start a collaboration in January 2014 in Berlin. Writing and drawing in conversation. How do our artistic languages interact and add up to something more than solely pictural or textual understanding of a persons life or destiny. 

          For me the question is- what is there to be understood- what can I express- on another level- that the other medium is not able to? We got touched by heavy biographies of women. Old women, women who fought. During the war, who had a vision and a strong political aim. Who have a hard view on love. Extreme love. Women in extreme situations- confrontation with the outside world.

          In SYB we will work on these histories. We collected true stories of women and work about the way how to transmit these stories in word and image. In my drawings I quote the view on the hand. The hand is situated in between the inner sight and the outside. I connect the outside projection with the conscious view of the own hand. Looking into your palm is peering into your history. Bruises, scars, lines and wrinkles tell about what you were going through. The hand consist many lines, like drawing or writing traces that you know by heart, but cannot read. I project the seen images through the frame of the hand into the world. The story is held together by the perspective, but also by the form of this persons hand. 

Jelenas text is poetic and documentary. Very often her words seem minimalistic and staccato-esque. Feelings get woven into real situations that make us want to scream. We are going to search for stories, mainly womens experiences, that we are going to pierce through with the means of our mediums.”

 

Dit project wordt mede gefinancierd door:

PAUWHOF FONDS /
OVERVOORDE – GORDON STICHTING