YUGOSLAVIA, HOW IDEOLOGY MOVED OUR COLLECTIVE BODY
Marta Popivoda| Director | Marta Popivoda |
| Writer | Ana Vujanovic, Marta Popivoda |
| Editor | Natasa Damnjanovic |
| Sound | Jakov Munizaba |
| Producer | Marta Popivoda - TkH (Walking Theory), Belgrade; Alice Chauchat - Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris; Heinz Emigholz - Universitat der Kunste Berlin; Ann Carolin Renninger – joon film, Berlin |
| Year | 2013 |
| Length | 62 min |
| Country | Serbia/France/Germany |
| Subtitles | English |
| Screening | Wednesday 23 January | 19:30 hours | BAK, Utrecht |
A research-based essay film, which deals with the collective history and politics in a specifically cinematic way, via found-footage. The screening will be followed by director’s talk Marta Popivoda and Q&A joined by dramaturge Ana Vujanović. This will provide the opportunity for an in-depth and open discussion about the film, its concepts, the techniques and the researcher/artist’s practice.
Synopsis
Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body is a research-based essay film that deals with the question of how ideology performs itself in public space through mass performances. The author collected and analysed film and video footage from the period of Yugoslavia (1945 – 2000), focusing on state performances as well as counter-demonstrations, civic demonstrations in the ‘90s. Going back through the images, the film traces how communist ideology was gradually exhausted through the changing relations between the people, ideology, and the state. After its world premiere at the Berlinale, this cinematic essay travelled internationally and received a Special Jury Mention at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Director's statement
This research-based essay film is a very personal perspective on the history of socialist Yugoslavia, its dramatic end, and its recent transformation into a few democratic nation states. Experience of the dissolution of the state, and today’s ‘wild’ capitalist reestablishment of the class system in Serbia are my reasons for going back through the media images and tracing the way one social system changed by performing itself in public space.
Director's bio
Marta Popivoda (Belgrade, SFRJ / based in Berlin) is filmmaker and video artist, and a cultural worker. Her work explores concerns with the discursive power structures of the contemporary (art) world, intersections between performance and film, as well as through the production of films, video installations and performance. Her work is strongly related to the TkH (Walking Theory), a theoretical-artistic platform and journal, where she is a member of the editorial collective. Her works have been part of exhibitions and programs at Tate Modern London, MoMA New York, MuHKA Antwerp, 21er HAUS Vienna, GARAGE Museum Moscow, Beirut Art Center, Museum of Modern Art + MSUM Ljubljana, Museum of Yugoslav History and Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade etc.