Dear Countrymen and Women

P r o A r t e F e m i n a e
is pleased to present its inaugural exhibition at
Gallery MC, 549 West 52nd Street, 8th Fl., New York City

Jovana Djuric, Digging the Earth, video still, 2009

Dear Countrymen and Women
Curated by Jovana Stokic
November 18 – December 7, 2009
Performance by Igor Josifov
during the opening reception on Wednesday, November 18, 6 -9 pm

Participating artists: Jovana Djuric, Vlatka Horvat, Sinisa Ilic, Igor Josifov, Vladimir Nikolic, Milena Popov, Ana Prvacki, Ivana Smiljanic, and Jelena Tomasevic.
Selection of video artworks by: Albert Heta, Branko Miliskovic, Nebojsa Seric – Shoba, Katarina Zdjelar, and Sanja Zdrnja.

The exhibition is conceived as the curator’s addressing of the public: her artists and her viewing audience. As a curator I try to “look awry,” paraphrasing Slavoj Zizek’s famous title. The exhibition should be understood as an ironic intonation of regards sent to one’s co-nationals.
Indeed, the selection is purposely trans-national and has intention to disrupt the fantasy of the Balkans as the Other of the West. My curatorial choice of the region represented is, of course, motivated by a personal investment. I am related to the place of the origin of these artists – by birth. As national identity is pre-given and therefore not chosen, I try to prove it is not the deciding factor in one’s identity formation. My addressing my countrymen and separating women from the general address I imply the still present gender inequality in civic as well as artistic spheres. The performative act of addressing the audience and the artists is here meant as a replacement of traditional curatorial strategy of gathering artists to illustrate the thesis. The premise of this exhibition is simple: I have met all participating artists in New York. I plan to leave the center in its center, not overvalued, but also not devalued. By bringing together artists for a region I stem from, I argue for an off-center perspective. I let the artists’ speak about their inhabiting of the in-between spaces, in which they constantly negotiate multifold contradictory identities as patriots, guests, globe-trotters, exiles, nomads, emigrants, apatrids, and Gastarbeiters. What we all share is our sense of lost-in-translation and our need to interpret complex nuances of refracted national heritages. Rather than stereotypical irrationality of the Other, in these quests we all here share a common restlessness.

Special thanks to: Marina Abramovic Institute, Jasna Brujic, Consulate General of the Republic of Serbia, New York, Boban Jovanovic, Hernan Makse, Gorazd Poposki, Viktor Sekularac, and Ana Krsmanovic.

Belgrade-born, New York-based art historian and critic Jovana Stokic holds a Ph.D from the Institute of Fine Arts at the New York University. Jovana has been writing art criticism for several years, and has curated several thematic exhibitions and performance events in the US, Italy, Spain and Serbia. Her most recently written essay will be published in March 2010 in Marina Abramovic’s MoMA exhibition catalogue and she is currently the curator of Abramovic Studio at Location One in New York. In May 2009, Jovana established Pro Arte Feminae Inc. in order to create interest and advance public recognition of contemporary artistic production focusing on feminine visual arts and performance.