Chic and Subversion

Chic and Subversion! Loud, playful and resilient. Deep. Arm. Roll! The Chic and Suberzija exhibition brings together artists of the younger generation - Tajana Dedić Starović, Vladimirka Velaga and Isidora Branković, who through their artistic practice explore segments of contemporary society, identity and gender rights. Art as a voice that passes through all the pores of the observer's existence, affirming critical thinking about society and freedom. Loud, noisy. Quiet. Static. Quick. Rock! Sometimes we think that freedom exists. In our houses, yards, schools. To dreams! Our freedom exists in our inexhaustible sources of imagination. Breathing exercises. Breathe deeply. Take a breath. Exhale. Don't panic. You will never find her like that. A patriarchal society in which the majority of men are in positions of power dictate the course of collective and individual identity. And beauty standards! Through the video performance series Mamasita, Tajana Dedić Starović explores the limits of beauty and pain. Opening up questions about tradition, cultural heritage and current trends in the cycle of beautification that becomes a lifelong ritual. Instead of highlighting individuality, makeup becomes a mask that suppresses uniqueness and creates uniforms. In a series of drawings drawn with makeup products, Da ne čuje zli, Vladimirka Velaga examines trends and influences on a woman's aesthetic identity. The format of the work, resembling a filmstrip, alludes to transience, subtly criticizing social norms and expectations related to female aesthetics and identity. Tracing her heritage through the female line of the family, Velaga deconstructs social norms, rituals and stereotypes, opening a space for reflection on the influence of culture, heritage and everyday routines on a woman's identity. Velaga shows a layered segment of women's emotions and perceptions of love, passion and relationships through social norms and given patterns of feelings and behavior through her work Trubo Art. The author provocatively asks questions about the role and value of women's emotions in the social narrative - how they are shaped, repressed, and how they are further projected through turbo-folk through the perception of patriarchal culture. Through symbolic connections, she depicts the enduring vulnerability and strength of women in a community that oscillates between emotional expression and social repression. These verses, both personal and collective, simultaneously become a testimony
historical wounds and warning of cyclical patterns that do not change. The lyrics of Desanka Maksimović gently describe the testimony of female emotions, imposed by a world ruled by the male principle. No, don't come near me! I want to love from afar and I want your two eyes. Because happiness is only beautiful while waiting for it, while from yourself it is only a hint that it is. Through the work Minotaur, Isidora Branković describes the complexity of relationships in our imagination and reality. Taurus man testimony. A woman in the freedom of her tender and deep emotions is blinded by the heavy shackles of social rules, which fall on our faces like silk scarves. Raw sperm power that always somehow falls by the wayside. In the work Miraz, inspired by her family's traumatic experiences during the war in Bosnia in the nineties, Vladimirka Velaga uses two embroidered sheets that her mother made as a girl and later saved in exile and adds a quilt and a pillow on which she intervenes. The artist embroiders the route of their refugee journey on a quilt and pillow, transforming it into a map of personal and collective memory. This work symbolizes a lost home and an uncertain future, while also celebrating the strength of female heritage, tenderness and the fight for survival. The bed is no longer a place of rest, but a testimony to past traumas, which no longer belong to any home. We will leave in silence! The deaf glamochko circle of my mother, grandmother and their mothers must have danced every Friday at a quiet meadow party to show their strength and endurance to choose a husband. And then there is no I won't! Which one is the last one left. My land is full of mud. Full of crumbling soil. Now both women and men dance deaf glamochko. In heavy shoes. Beautiful dresses and jewelry. As long as we show our strength by playing hard in the mud, we will leave in silence! My dad won't let me in the mud.

Isidora Branković on the exhibition Chic and Subversion