On Nettles and Rebellion: Symptoms of Emancipation
07-13.12.2024.
Center for Cultural Decontamination
O koprivi i pobuni: simptomi emancipacije
Otvaranje izložbe: 7. decembar u 18:00
Centar za kulturnu dekontaminaciju
Artistic intervention and discursive program
Exhibition opening: December 7, 18:00
“On Nettles and Rebellion”, an artistic intervention with a discursive program, is based on the long-term research of artist Dejan Marković, who analysed the social background of the so-called “Aptiv Syndrome”, and transponed his research into a series of artworks of the same name. An orthopedist in Leskovac city observed common symptoms in a large number of workers of the local “Aptiv” factory, who were exposed to inhumane working conditions, including 12-hours shifts, six days a week. The symptoms included injuries to the thumbs, wrists, ligament inflammation, sciatica, spondylosis, as well as depression, chronic fatigue and anxiety.
The “Aptiv syndrome” art series consists of nine hand-made tapestries made of LIYCY, UTP patch, flat ethernet, and FFC electrical cables – the basic components of the infrastructure of digital capitalism – and lithographs created in cooperation with workers formerly engaged on the production of electrical installations in the international company “Aptiv” in Southeast Serbia and professional weavers from the association “Atelje 61” in Novi Sad, over the period of one year.
The art installation presented at the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade, entitled “On the Nettle that Grows Again”, was created through a series of conversations and the process of hand-weaving a tapestry based on a sketch inspired by a poster which Đorđe Andrejević Kun, artist, graphic artist and revolutionary fighter, designed for the First Anti-Fascist Rally of Women of Serbia, on January 28, 1945. The raised fist symbolising the revolutionary movement of the Women’s Anti-Fascist Front (AFŽ) is woven into a hand-made tapestry made of electric cables that are wound daily by several thousand exploited women workers in central and southern Serbia in hi-tech equipment factories which embody direct foreign investments. Contrasting in the conditions and speed of production, the tapestry refers to the reflection of the worker of the Aptiv factory, Jelena Živković, who started a workers’ revolt with the words: “I ask you, who will beat with nettles those who trample my humane dignity? Who will beat with nettles those who managed to run so many people over?” quoting doctor and writer, NOB participant Dr. Saša Božović.
The exhibition also presented the lithographs “Conversations about 8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest and 8 hours of culture”, which were created on the basis of extensive interviews with former and current workers of the “Aptiv” factory, Danijela Bubnjevac, Ivana Miljković, Jelena Živković and the doctor of Orthopedics of the Leskovac General Hospital, Aleksandra Rangelov. The litographs were hand-printed using the graphic process of chemical stone processing.
An element of the exhibition is also a twenty-minute sound installation designed by artist Andreja Dugandžić, entitled “The great AFŽ Slam”, in which the author plays with original quotes from women, participants of the Women’s Anti-Fascist Front, which were collected and researched during a long-term project “What has our struggle given us?” Association for culture and art CRVENA from Sarajevo.
Through the form of performative conversation, the accompanying discursive program connected numerous topics that artistic work tackles, starting from the contemporary experience of women’s work, specifically in the industries fueled by foreign direct investments, through thematization of current colonial relations in Europe today, and their consequences on social relations and the nature that surrounds us, the history and politics of remembering the emancipatory struggle of the Anti-Fascist Women’s Front, to the importance of feminist struggles that are being waged today, in which women’s connection and empowerment play an important role.
RELATED EVENTS: Saturday, December 7, 18:30Conversation – performance: “I Suffer, But I Smile. And I Carry a Nettle in My Hand”
Participants: Vida Knežević, Dejan Marković, Jelena Živković (writer and former employee of the “Aptiv” factory), Marijana Stojčić (sociologist, researcher at the Center for Applied History), Melanija Lojpur (trade union and queer activist, member of the Political Platform Solidarnost), and Iskra Krstić (architect and journalist, Portal Mašina).
Concept: Vida Knežević and Dejan Marković
The exhibition is being realized in cooperation with the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade and the Association Kontekst.
The realization of the exhibition was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia.
