Performative Gestures Political Moves # A Book

Performative Gestures Political Moves
(2014, eds. Katja Kobolt and Lana Zdravković, pp. 248)
 With contributions by Ana Peraica   Angela Dimitrakaki   Barbara Orel   Dunja Kukovec   Grupa Spomenik / Monument Group   DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location, and Variables   Marija Ratković   Marina Gržinić   Martina Pachmanová   Milijana Babić   Katja Kobolt   Lana Zdravković   Suzana Milevska   Tea Hvala   Waldemar Tatarczuk

While acknowledging the “problem of performativity”, Performative Gestures Political Moves, however, (still) lingers on the term, exploring its echoing in the research focused on what should be considered as an effect of the performance of power – on the art and theory production in so-called “Eastern Europe”. The book does not (only) represent the research on performance art and performativity in a region denoted as “East European”, but also produces positions that go beyond the representation(s) of what performance art, performativity in/and “Post-Socialist Europe” are.

Performative Gestures Political Moves therefore raises questions of historisation(s) and their ideological positioning. Especially within feminist art history but also in feminist curating, the question of labelling art production as feminist has been till today a burning subject. How, what, when, why, where, by whom and for whom is (performance) art feminist, obviously does not have an unambiguous answer. The same is true for art and feminism as such. Therefore, the publication has aimed to foster a reflection on research positions and theoretical considerations of performativity, performance art, feminism, historisation and, above all, their political implications in/and/for the “continental Post-Socialist” condition.

Download: content & opening txt by Katja Kobolt and Lana Zdravković

The Performative Gestures Political Moves has been published by the City of Women, Ljubljana and Red Athena University Press, a collaborative publishing project by the Centre for Women’s Studies Zagreb and trans-Yugoslav feminist scholars.

Funded by:  ERSTE Stiftung