PRIZNAJ JA SAM MUŠKO A TI ŽENSKO

Drugovi, ja se ni sada ne stidim svoje komunističke prošlosti!

Uvreženo je mišljenje da su arhive, legati i muzeji, ta sakralna i skrovita mesta stecišta ljudskog sećanja. Ti prostori definitivno predstavljaju sliku sveta u društvenom, ekonomskom, političkom i svakom drugom smislu. Prema tome, način na koji komuniciramo sa prošlošću ostvaruje se kroz predmete koji dokumentuju različite aspekte ljudske delatnosti, čija primarna vrednost i utilitarnost u suštini obitava u limbu, negde na tankoj granici između života i smrti. Sasvim logično, samim tim što reprezentuju prošlost upravo ovi prostori su reprezenti izvesnih politički ideja ili praksi, te iz njih često možemo iščitati smer kretanja jedne društvene zajednice, bilo da se razvija ili nazaduje.

Međutim, šta je sa svim onim odbačenim reliktima koji se iz nekog razloga nisu dali predstaviti, koji su iz nekog razloga politički nepodobni i naprosto su osuđeni na zaborav? Ko brine o njima, ko ih sakuplja i da li nam upravo ti predmeti mogu reći mnogo više o prošlosti nego oni koji su pažljivo selektovani od strane jedne političke nomenklature? Na tom maglovitom polju između jave i sna moguće je uspostaviti drugačiji diskurs, onaj koji ima potrebu da reinterpretira istoriju (istinu), odnosno da je ponovo predstavi, otkrije ili izume. Taj nedefinisan i krajnje apstraktan prostor, kome se teži i u koji se upisuje drugačije (političko) mišljenje, strahovito je potentan, iako se naivno može nazvati utopijom.

Vođena intuicijom i strašću u tom pravcu, beogradska umetnica Milica Rakić realizuje svoj novi umetnički projekat. Kombinovanjem različitih elemenata, poput modifikovane dokumentarne građe pronađene na internet aukcijama (fotografija, članskih kartica, ljubavnih romana), video-rada i predmeta karakterističnih za muzejske prostore (legatski stolovi), Milica Rakić uspostavlja višeslojnu i intermedijalnu instalaciju, manipulišući pojmovima kolektivnog sećanja i ličnog iskustva.

Inspirisana različitim dokumentima iz perioda Federativne Narodne Republike Jugoslavije, pronađenim u Arhivu grada Beograda, Jugoslovenskom arhivu i Muzeju istorije Jugoslavije, po ugledu na legat književnika, kao i narodnog heroja i jugoslovenskog diplomate Konstantina Koče Popovića, umetnica konstruiše Arhiv drugarice Rakič, odnosno vlastiti intiman i hibridni mizanscen. Ovakim postupkom otvara se širok spektar pitanja, koja se tiču ne samo značenja umetničkog medija (u ovom slučaju grafike), te problematike arhiviranja i proizvodnje drugačijeg znanja, već i prekrajanja istorije upisivanjem ženskog iskustva.

Bilo da je subjekt čiji (politički) glas treba da se čuje, umetnica, ratnica, estradna ili seks radnica, umetnica se fokusira na ukidanje rodne binarnosti, manipulišući različitim sloganima odnosno citatima, bilo da su oni nalik nazivima pop/folk pesma, sloganima kozmetičkih kampanja ili političkim parolama. Za Milicu Rakić evidentno revolucija nije mrtva, ona je samo silovana, te mimo čisto likovno uzbudljivog eksperimenta njenu intervenciju treba pre posmatrati kao direktan prodor u polje ideološkog i rodnog, posebno u kontekstu pozicije i statusa žene u savremenom srpskom društvu.

Pođimo, najpre, od tumačenja samog naziva izložbe. Poput repetitivne i krajnje cinične mantre, Priznaj ja sam muško a ti žensko označava poziciju žene u okvirima savremenog kapitalizma. Čini se kao da jedini način da žena bude uspešna i u tom smislu društveno prihvaćena počiva u preuzimanju patrijarhalno konstruisanih osobina i ponašanja imanentnih muškarcu. Situacija u kojoj on priznaje njoj da je ona muško, a on žensko prilično je dvosmislena. Iz konzervativne perspektive posmatrano, ukoliko prizna, on je šonja, papučar ili naprosto nedovoljno muško, dok je sa druge strane propagator savremenog, emancipatorskog, liberalnog diskursa, koji podrazumeva jednakost polova u svakom mogućem smislu. Ovakva dijalektička napetost na najbolji način razotkriva svu perfidnost kapitalističkog sistema u kontekstu ženskog pitanja i neminovno otvara prostor za debatu.

Izvesno je reći da uprkos značajnim pomacima načinjenim nakon velikih društvenih promena kasnih 60-ih i ranih 70-ih (studentskih protesta, seksualne revolucije i drugog talasa feminizma), žene u 21. veku se i dalje susreću sa rodnom, ekonomskom i političkom diskriminacijom. Ovde treba imati u vidu upravo ono čime se Milica Rakić bavi, a to je svakako lokalni ideološki kontekst (socijalističke) prošlosti i (neoliberalne) sadašnjosti, koji jeste doista različit od onoga što prepoznajemo kao zapadni model.

Naime, žene u Jugoslaviji su Ustavom FNRJ iz 1946. godine izjednačene s muškarcima u svim područjima državnog, privrednog i društveno-političkog života, što je podrazumevalo proklamovanu ekonomsku nezavisnost, punu poslovnu sposobnost, jednaka prava i obaveze prema deci, jednaka prava na nasleđivanje, a od 1951, i posebno od 1974. godine, i pravo na legalan abortus. Kako tvrdi čuvena jugoslovenska sociološkinja Žarana Papić, žensko pravo u Jugoslaviji bilo je nešto što je dodeljeno a ne osvojeno, te na tom tragu Milica Rakić kao da uspostavlja revitalizaciju sistema vrednosti duboko povezanih sa idealima revolucionarne misli. Pritom, treba imati u vidu da ovde nije reč o tome da feminizam može pridodati revoluciji, već da on jeste i mora biti integralni deo revolucije.

S tim u vezi, čini se kao da ovaj tekst nije mogao biti drugačije naslovljen do replikom koju odsečena glava Milene Dravić izgovara u kultnom filmu Dušana Makavejeva Misterija organizma. To je bio logičan izbor ne samo zato što je umetnica veliki fan pomenutog reditelja, već zato što se njena misao kreće upravo na istoj ravni kao i Makavejeva. Dakle, u fokusu je ne samo žena kao relevantan politički subjekt, već kao predvodnica, srdita borkinja, sprovodnica revolucije koja podrazumeva ideološki ostrašćenu dekonstrukciju postojećih represivnih mehanizama i kanona, čija svrha jeste ograničavanje seksualnosti, polnosti, rodnosti itd., i sve to u cilju konačnog oslobođenja.

Ideju da svoju umetničku praksu sumira, napravi neku vrstu distance ili, grubo rečeno, retrospektivnog odmaka, Milica Rakić odvodi u potpuno novom pravcu, realizujući možda najličniji projekat do sada. Međutim, uprkos prividu da je levičarska estetika takoreći u službi preispitivanja likovnih ili možda istoričarsko-umetničkih problema, poput toga da li se muzej može transformisati u depo, u arhiv umetničke dokumentacije, ali takođe i u javno mesto na kojem se izvode privatni umetnički projekti (što nije zanemarljivo), umetnica ostaje u celosti fokusirana na proizvodnju strategije ženskog otpora.

Odluka da proizvede arhiv o sebi i vlastitim ideološkim nazorima suštinski počiva na umetničkim metodama aproprijacije, ready made-a, rekontekstualizacije, dekonstrukcije i, u ovom slučaju možda najvažnije, autoironije. Istovremenim uspostavljanjem mita o sebi i razgradnjom date društvene uloge (biti ženom), Milica Rakić kao da se edž nihilo odriče same sebe i gotovo nekrofiliski pohranjuje vlastitu memoriju.

Prema tome, postavlja se pitanje da li umetnica svesno odlučuje da ne pripada većini jer mogu da je navedu da lažno svedoči ili su joj sve pokrali, nema više ništa, čak ni svoju prošlosti? Bilo da se ove rečenice (koje koristi u radu) prevedene u pitanja mogu činiti kao aforizmi ili pak kao alogizmi, sasvim izvesno sugerišu izraženu ambivalenciju ovog umetničkog zahvata.

Duboka vera Milice Rakić u ideale, ali i puka rezignacija, pesimizam i suočavanje sa nemogućnošću revolucionarnog delovanja u savremenom društvu (kako na lokalnom tako i na globalnom nivou), praktično predstavljaju simulakrum savremenosti. Međutim, ono što čini njenu celokupnu umetničku praksu izuzetno provokativnom i lucidnom jeste trenutak u kome jedna žena ne samo da se ne stidi već ponosno tvrdi da je komunistkinja, što u srpskom društvu, ophrvanom istorijskim revizionizmom, dominacijom patrijarhata i u načelu desničarskom retorikom, jeste priličan eksces.

Vladimir Bjeličić, Istoričar umetnosti

ADMIT IT. I AM A MALE AND YOU ARE A FEMALE.

Comrades, I am not ashamed of my communist past even now!

The prevailing opinion is that archives, legacies and museums, those sacral and concealed places are meeting points of human memory. Those spaces definitely represent the world picture in social, economic, political and any other terms. Hence, the way in which we communicate with the past is accomplished through the artifacts that bring evidence pertaining to diverse aspects of human activity, the primary value and utilitarianism of which essentially dwell in limbo, somewhere on a thin border between life and death. Quite logically, it is through representation of the past that these spaces achieve to become representatives of certain political ideas and practices thereby enabling us to grasp the direction of a social community movement, no matter whether it is made forward or backward.

However, what has happened with all those rejected relics which have not easily represented themselves? And what has happened to those relics, which, for some reason, are politically inappropriate or simply doomed to oblivion? Who looks after them? Who collects them? And, can these objects tell us more about the past that those which have been carefully selected by one political nomenclature? In that misty field, somewhere between consciousness and a dream, it is possible to establish a different discourse, the one feels the need to reinterpret the history (truth), that is, represent it again, reveal it again or reinvent it. This undefined and utterly abstract space at which one aims, and in which different (political) thinking is inscribed, is incredibly powerful, even though it can be dubbed a utopia.

Led by her intuition and passion in that particular direction, Milica Rakić, a Belgrade-based artist, carries out her new art project. By combining different elements such as a modified documentary material found at the Internet auctions (e.g. photos, membership cards, love novels), video work and objects typical of the museum environment (e.g. legacy tables), Milica Rakić sets up a multi-layer and intermedial installation thereby manipulating the notion of collective memory and personal experience.

Inspired by diverse documents from the period of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, found in the Archives of the City of Belgrade, the State Archives of Yugoslavia, and the Historical Museum of Yugoslavia, echoing the legacy of Konstantin Koča Popović, the man of letters and national hero and Yugoslav diplomat, the artist makes up the archives of comrade Rakič, that is, her own intimate and hybrid mise-en-scène. This procedure opens the whole scope of questions concerning not only the meaning of the art medium (in this case, the graphic arts), and the issues of archiving and producing different knowledge, but also altering history by inscribing the woman experience.

Whether the subject whose (political) voice should be heard is a female artist, woman warrior, female stage performer or sexual worker, the artist focuses on abolishing the gender binary set up by manipulating different mottos, or more precisely, quotations, which are in the form of pop/folk songs, mottos of cosmetic companies or political slogans. According to Milica Rakić, revolution has not evidently died, but rather it is just being raped, and thus, apart from the purely artistic and exciting experiment, her intervention should be regarded more like a direct breakthrough in the field of ideology and gender, and particularly in the context of the woman position and woman status in the contemporary Serbian society.

Let us first start from the interpretation of the exhibition title itself. Like a repetitive and utterly cynical mantra, “Admit it. I am a male and you are a female”, points to the position of a woman within the current Capitalist framework. It seems that the only way for a woman to be successful and, consequently, socially accepted, lies in taking over the traits constructed in the patriarchal manner, as well as features immanent in men. The situation in which he admits that she is a male, and he is a female is pretty ambiguous. From the conservative point of view, if he admits that he is a sissy, weakling or simply insufficiently male, while, on the other hand, being a propagandist of contemporary, emancipation-oriented and liberal discourse implying gender equality in every possible sense. This dialectic tension reveals in the best manner the entire perfidious capitalist system in the context of woman question and unavoidably opens up the space for discussion.

It can be said, for certain, that despite significant shifts after great social changes in the late 1960s and early 1970s (the era of students’ protests, sexual revolution and the second wave feminism), women in 21st century still encounter gender, economic and political discrimination. One should bear in mind that the issue Milica Rakić tackles, and that is, certainly the local ideological context of the (Socialist) past and the (Neoliberal) present, which is significantly different from that which we recognize as the Western model.

Namely, according to the Constitution of FNRY from 1946, women in Yugoslavia were equated with men in all areas of state, economic and socio-political life, which implied proclaimed economic independence, full business ability, equal rights and obligations towards children, equal rights to inheritance, and since 1951 and particularly since 1974, the right to legal abortion. As it has been asserted by the well-known Yugoslav sociologist, Žarana Papić, the women’s right in Yugoslavia was something that was granted and not conquered, and it is on this trail that Milica Rakić establishes the revitalization of the system of values tightly connected with the revolutionary thought ideals. Additionally, it should be taken into consideration that it has not been claimed that Feminism can add to a revolution, but rather, it has been and must be an integral part of the revolution.

Given that, it seems that this text could not have been entitled in a different way, other than the one in which the rejoinder uttered by the decapitated head of Milena Dravić in the epic film The Mistery of Organism by Dušan Makavejev. It has been a logical choice not only due to the fact that the artist is a great fan of the mentioned film director, but it is because of the fact that her thought moves along the same plane as the one of Makavejev. Therefore, the focus is not only on a woman as a relevant political subject, but also as a leader, a fierce fighter and revolution enabler implying an ideologically roused passion of deconstruction pertaining to the existing repressive mechanisms and canons the purpose of which is to limit sexuality, sexuality, fertility, etc., all for the sake of the final liberation.

The idea to summarize her artistic experience, make certain type of detachment, or roughly speaking, retrospective distance has led Milica Rakić into the thoroughly new direction thereby fulfilling perhaps the most personal project so far. Nevertheless, in spite of the in spite of the illusion that leftist aesthetics serves the purpose of re-assessing artistic or perhaps historical artistic problems such as whether the museum can be transformed into a depot, i.e. the archives of artistic documentation, and also in a public place where private art projects are being performed (which is not negligible), the artist remains fully focused on producing a strategy of female resistance.

The decision to produce an archive about herself and her own ideological views rests essentially on artistic methods of appropriation, readymade – and re-contextualization, deconstruction and, in this case, perhaps the most important – self-irony. By simultaneously establishing the myth of self and breaking down the social role (being a woman). It is as if Milica Rakić almost renounces herself ex nihilo by establishing simultaneously a myth about herself and deconstructing the socially assigned role (to be a woman), and stores her own memory in almost necrophilia-driven manner.

Accordingly, one might pose a question whether the artist deliberately decides not to belong to the majority, because they can induce her to falsely testify. Or, have they stolen everything from her thereby leaving her with nothing, even without her own past? When these sentences (which she has utilized in her artwork) are translated into questions, they may appear as aphorisms or, as aphorisms, and they quite certainly suggest a highlighted ambivalence of this artistic grasp.

The strong faith of Milica Rakić in ideals, but also mere resignation, pessimism and confronting the impossibility of revolutionary action in contemporary society (both at the local and global levels) as well, virtually represent a simulacrum of modernity. However, what makes her entire artistic practice extremely provocative and lucid is the moment at which a woman not only feels that there is nothing to be of, but proudly claims that she is a communist, which is a considerable excess in the Serbian society, overwhelmed by historical revisionism, the patriarchal dominance and sort of right-wing rhetoric.

Vladimir Bjeličić,Art Historian