Performance review by Sonja Jankov

Performance and/or contemporary art, International Multimedia Art Festival (IMAF) , 7-9. 9. 2018.

Marta Bosowska (Poljska) incorporated elements of national identities through music. In Odzaci, in her performance „Hop(e) and lies“, she sang adapted verses „Who says, who is lying, hope isn’t small“, occasionally gesticulating towards the church tower. While she shouted these verses, at the same time she ate apples and jumped on the trampoline on the playground for children, demonstrating the process of high self-control needed to avoid choking. In Novi Sad she also stepped out to public space with her performance, singing Polish and former Yugoslavia anthems (Serbia and Montenegro later), both almost identical in melodies. While Polish anthem is still active, Yugoslavian „Hej, Sloveni“ is not, but people in this region remember it. Multicultural character of this performance she emphasized with the title „Marsz-March-Marsh“, and the militant one with a helmet she wore as a pregnant woman’s stomach. In this context, horse-shaped helium balloon she held looked like a parody note of the horsemen monuments we see on the central squares in capital cities. At the end of her performance, when she marched with all the participants back to the gallery, Dariusz Fodczuk started shooting paintballs on the window of the gallery, towards the onlookers outside, connecting the dots into word „love“.

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