“Transformative Encounters: Lexicon of Tanjas Ostojić (2011-17) and Misplaced Women? (ongoing since 2009)”

The complex Misplaced Women?[1] platform, ongoing since 2009, is an ever-growing example of constantly working on a small scale with inclusive creative and performative activities, resulting in the creation of a global community of women of all genders and beyond, by exploring the diverse aspects of misplacement and variety of public spaces.

My recent project, Lexicon of Tanjas Ostojić (2011-2017), further develops the strategies of a conscious ethical politics in artistic production, the creation of a community with shared authorship and ownership, and the emancipatory potentials of collective autobiographical methodologies as the basis for art-making. Lexicon of Tanjas Ostojić is a complex, long-term, interdisciplinary, participatory research art project, in which I used online social media networks, as well as collaborations with women who are sharing my first name and family name. These name-sisters are of diverse nationalities and ages, as well as different levels of education, profession, social background, and life experience. But all of them are able to communicate in Serbo-Croatian, and they, or their parents, were born in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

[1] Please visit the Misplaced Women? project blog with over one hundred contributions: https://misplacedwomen.wordpress.com

Tanja Ostojić (*1972 Yugoslavia) is Berlin-based performance and interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator. She studied art at the Faculty of Fine Arts Belgrade (1990-1998) and E.R.B.A.N. Nantes (1998-99) and she was an interdisciplinary research fellow at the Graduate School of the University of Arts Berlin (2012-14). She performed and exhibited at: Feminism is Politics!, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York (2016); Busan Biennale, South Korea (2016); Call the Witness, Roma Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2011); Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2006); Performa, New York (2009); Plateau of Humankind, Venice Biennale (2001); and ICA, London (1999), among others. Recent solo exhibitions include: Lexicon of Tanja Ostojić, MoCA Belgrade Salon (2017); Tanja Ostojić: Body, Politics, Agency…, Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2012); Integration Impossible? Politics of Migration in the Artwork of Tanja Ostojić 2000-07, Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, Austria (2008). She has published several books, including: Lexicon of Tanjas Ostojić (LADA: London, 2018); Ostojić and M. Gržinić (eds) Integration Impossible? The Politics of Migration in the Artwork of Tanja Ostojić (Berlin: argobooks, 2009); and Strategies of Success/Curators Series (La Box, Bourges and SKC, Belgrade, 2004).
Related links:
<http://misplacedwomen.wordpress.com>
<https://tanjaostojicshop.wordpress.com>
<http://www.van.at/see/tanja/>

Tanja Ostojić will give a 30 min presentation on Tuesday, August 20th from 14.15–14.45 during the seminar “Looking for another space of belonging”