Lecture (in English)
Nataša Ilić

March 26, 2010, 7 p.m.

Through the use of formal democratic procedures devoid of their real political bite and impact, the transformative potential of the public sphere becomes increasingly blunted by ideological and economic interests intent upon upholding existing power relations. The very existence of the public everywhere is in crisis, as the possibility of social experience on which a renewed political subjectivity could be built has been blocked. In a series of works that take historic wallpaper designs as a starting point for creating the framework for collaboration with marginalized social groups, Danica Dakić questions the ways in which performativity partakes in creating social norms. Taking as a point of origin fictional spaces and experimentation in the fields of theater and film, Dakić incites performative events in enclosed, seemingly protected and yet fragile spaces, transforming institutions of social care into stages, and encouraging the participants' own interpretation of the social framework of their lives and current situation. By inserting the fictional space of theatre into an institution of social care, the artist reinstates the questions of what constitutes desire, solidarity and political action.

Nataša Ilić is a free-lance curator and critic. Ilić is a member of the independent curator collective What, How & for Whom/WHW, a non profit organization for visual culture, formed in 1999 and based in Zagreb/Croatia. Since May 2003 WHW has been directing the program of Gallery Nova—a non-profit, city-owned gallery in Zagreb. Among WHW's international shows are Looking Awry, Apexart, New York (2003), Collective Creativity, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2005), The 11th Istanbul Biennial What Keeps Mankind Alive? (2009).