Premiere:
4.10.2018., Zagreb, Croatia, Vox Feminae festival
Author and performer: Vesna Mačković
Concept:
Our Beautiful is truly the most beautiful. We love her when she is in a good mood and even when she is angry at the whole world. We love her when she is beautiful under the sun which slides through her beautiful feet. We also love her in the dark when she talks about smart and tough things. At first, she talks trough whispering for herself. But we love her even when she screams and yells from the top of her lungs. No, we will not ban her from speaking. We’ll even tell her she can laugh and scream if she desires to do so, even when her screaming is not because of that female orgasm. Because she is ours. Yes, she is our Beautiful. Well, when her voice becomes the voice of many, when we no longer listen to her, instead, we will hear those voices all over the place, many of them, echoing. And then it is her, our Beautiful, and there she is all over in so many, very many.
This is body and voice performance on the subject of lesbian discrimination within the nationalist social trends. Performance emphasizes awareness of the institutionalization of discrimination as a method of annulment of the identity and the problem of stigmatizing sexuality. The textual part of the work includes the Croatian anthem, but the part of Mihanovic’s verses that did not enter the official part of the anthem text, were placed in the context of the subject of this work. By this alternation, author apostrophes the heroism of individuality within the public space that builds the semblance of tolerance. In the section of voice and text experimentation, the artist uses looper on the iPad, and the performer’s voice is mixed and effected on 16 channels as if she is not alone on the stage, as if she is surrounded by various female voices. Reproduction creates a network of marginalized women voices and creates a national body in the context of dominant heterosexual ideology.
In the performance are used lyrics by the poets Aida Bagić (from the collection If I was called Sylvia (Aora, Zagreb 2007)), Anamarija Levak and Antun Mihanović (original text of the Croatian hymn ‘Our Beautiful’).
Media
Announcement of the premiere at the Vox Feminae Festival:
https://voxfeminae.net/festival/vff-2018/vesna-mackovic-nasa-lijepa/