Misplaced, Score #3: Becoming One With a Bag, 2021, Millennium Bridge, London, performed by: Dagmara Bilon & Dyana Gravina. Mis(s)placed Women? Performance Weekend and the Community Gathering in Belgrade, October 17 2021, via Zoom. Photo: Mia Bilon.
DAGMARA BILON
Score #3: Becoming One With a Bag, 2001
Around 30 minutes, with or without preparation, two performers
Location: busy city bridge
About:
This score is sort of a combination of the Mis(s)placed Women? Score#1 and Score#2 by Tanja Ostojić. Becoming One With a Bag is a metaphor of displacement, objectification and detachment from humanity, in which the viewer on their way to work crosses the busy city bridge and unexpectedly spots legs coming out of a bag, without a face, without an identity. Next to the bag on legs, there is a second person (co-performer) holding a MISPLACED sign (Score #2). (The bridge here is a symbol of a transient place, in-between two different locations, when one migrates from one place to the other, on the bridge is ‘in between’.)
Instruction:
1. Select a busy city bridge.
2. The main action takes place on the pedestrian area toward the middle of the bridge.
3. The performer wears a dress and high heels, walking over the bridge toward the middle, carrying the ‘refuge bag’ on her shoulder. She stops and steps inside the bag until her upper body disappears inside the bag. The second performer zips the bag and positions herself aproximately one meter away.
4. Both of them stand still as a kind of juxtaposed, obscure attraction and provocation at the same time for about half an hour.
Important: The co-performer needs also to look after the person in the bag who can not see its surroundings.
Misplaced, Score #3: Becoming One With a Bag, 2021, Millennium Bridge, London, performed by: Dagmara Bilon & Dyana Gravina. Mis(s)placed Women? Performance Weekend and the Community Gathering in Belgrade, October 17 2021, via Zoom. Live streaming: Robin Harvey.
Note:
It is interesting to find out to whom this action speaks to and how are the people passing by responding. Reflect upon your motivation to perform this score and from which perspective you speak. (For example, as a non-UK citizen, based in London, I travelled recently back home to unite with my family after having been away for two weeks. Two days ahead of my flight, I received an email from the Home Office stating that if I am not able to present my Settled Status at the border, I won’t be able to enter the country. After 20 years of living in the UK, I would have never thought that I had to fear being stopped at the borders… This experience made me think about the people who struggle daily with this issue.)
Crediting and Publishing:
Mis(s)placed Women? project by Tanja Ostojić, live action by Dagmara Bilon, performed by: your names…
_______________________________________
Dagmara Bilon (1981) is a London based performance and interdisciplinary artist, creative producer and activist of Polish/German origin who conducted various community-led art projects engaging young people in the discourse of gender, sexuality and identity. She is active member of the The Purple Ladies collective since its establishment, and the Mis(s)placed Women? community since 2016.
_______________________________________
Edited and first published by Tanja Ostojić in the Mis(s)placed Women? exhibition catalogue, KCB Belgrade 2021
Mirror, Mirror – Spread Your Reflection! is a collaborative intervention with large mirrors, first performed in Berlin’s underground in January 2018 in the frame of Tanja Ostojić’s Misplaced Women? performance art workshop, confronting manspreading, a habit of men sitting in public transport with legs wide apart, thereby covering more than their own seat.
Instruction:
1. Choose a mirror to bring along with you, (the larger the better).
2. Select a means of transport of your choice, for exsample: metro, tram, train.
3. Take your seat in front of a cis man (short for cisgender man: a person who was assigned male at birth and whose gender identity is male).
4. Hold your mirror between your legs with the mirror reflection towards the person sitting opposite to you.
5. You can do the same action on a different means of transport and see how different it is being perceived at different times.
Note:
Reflect upon how it feels to hold the mirror, to take up space, to be made invisible by the mirror, and to become visible with the mirror.
Mirror, Mirror – Spread Your Reflection! by Hoang Tran Hieu Hanh, developed in the frame of: Tanja Ostojić´s Misplaced Women? workshop, Berlin (Jan. 2018) With: Gaby Bila-Günther, Nati Canto, Alice Minervini, Evdoxia Stafylaraki, Jiachen Xu. Photo: Jiachen Xu
Crediting and Publishing:
It is very important to credit everyone properly. With the Misplaced Women? project we pay special attention to that. Please be sure to fully credit your action as: (Your name:) a performance in response to the delegated performance by Hoang Tran Hieu Hanh, Score 4: spread and reflect, MIS(S)PLACED WOMEN?, project by Tanja Ostojić, performed by: (add names of everyone performing with you and the photographer(s) name(s))— wherever you share it or print it, and we will do the same with your contribution. Send a photo or a drawing of yourself performing, the description about how it went (your name, date, time, duration, location(s) and notes about what happened). Please let us know if you would like your contribution to be published on the blog of the project. We would greatly appreciate that!
______________________
Mirror, Mirror – Spread Your Reflection! by Hoang Tran Hieu Hanh, developed in the frame of: Tanja Ostojić´s Misplaced Women? workshop, Berlin (Jan. 2018) With: Gaby Bila-Günther, Nati Canto, Alice Minervini, Evdoxia Stafylaraki, Jiachen Xu and Hoang Tran Hieu Hanh. Photo: Alice Minervini
Hoang Tran Hieu Hanh is a Berlin based activist, who is a member of the Mis(s)placed Women? community since January 2018. As a response to the racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-created a group for the Asian Diaspora in Europe and has hosted artist and community talks on notions of home, mobility and the politics of care. Her activism is centred around intersectional feminism, the right to reproductive self-determination, climate justice and the sense of solidarity in communities of colour. In her spare time, she ponders over creative approaches to link the arts with political activism to shift boundaries, change relationships and create new paradigms. Currently, Hanh is working on migration and displacement in the context of climate change, environmental degradation and disasters.
______________________
Manspreading, Istanbul Underground, Photo: Tanja Ostojić, July 2021.
Edited and first published by Tanja Ostojić on the Misplaced Women? project blog (2021)
“What Makes Another World Possible?” (18.09–05.12.2021) curated by Corina Apostol looks at socially engaged art in the last decade and the role of art in social and political struggles. The exhibited works provide an overview of how art has been used as a tool for shaping society in the last decade.
The exhibition includes works by: Alina Bliumis, Zach Blas, Chto Delat?, Vala T. Foltyn, Núria Güell, Sandra Kosorotova, Kristina Norman, Daniela Ortiz, Tanja Ostojić, Lia Perjovschi, Dan Perjovschi, Dushko Petrovich, Urmas Viik and Ala Younis.
Corina L. Apostol, the curator of the exhibition, remarks that when compiling the exhibition she was guided by the belief that artists contribute to some of the most crucial debates of our times and that their voices are significant in shaping society and imagining how it could be different. “The work of the artists in this exhibition brings together the various facets of art, activism and global politics,” she says.
Corina L. Apostol is the co-author of Making Another World Possible (Routledge, Creative Time), which was published in 2019. Both the book and the exhibition examine ten global issues through the prism of socially engaged art projects, including: the militarisation of society, the proliferation of surveillance, entrenched economic inequalities, rising social movements, the displacement of peoples, cosmopolitics, anti-racism struggles, creative education in crisis, queerness and political expression, and new devices enabling political action.
“The global pandemic has only amplified many of these urgent issues, and interest in socially engaged art has grown: it has moved from the margins of the art world to being a central part of the discussion on contemporary art and politics,” Corina L. Apostol says.
Mis(s)placed Women? is an ongoing collaborative art project started in 2009, consisting of performances and performance art workshops, including contributions by over 170 individuals. Many of them are artists, mainly identifying themselves as women from diverse backgrounds. Within this project, we embody and enact some of everyday-life’s activities that thematize displacement, known to migrants, refugees, and the itinerant artists traveling the world to earn their living. Those performances deal with migration issues, power relations and vulnerability, particularly concerning the female and transgender bodies, an aspect that figured prominently in my art practice. With this project, on one side, we are investigating privilege by making a distinction between working mobility, forced or desired migration, and how arbitrary laws may apply, and on the other side, exploring diverse public spaces and the invisibility of certain groups within them. In the frame of this project, in which I apply feminist emancipatory methodologies of artistic and community practices, I conducted numerous workshops globally where the participants are selected by open call. Individual and group artworks and interventions are developed and produced in this frame. The development of collaboration within the group and forming of a community are very precious processes as well as the further communication with a wide audience that we meet on the streets, and targeted audiences in the venues where presentations, exhibitions and discussions take place. (T. Ostojić)
Tanja Ostojić is exhibiting photos, stories, videos, signs and performance scores from the very rich “MIS(S)PLACED WOMEN?” participatory art project archives in the form of a multimedia installation.
I am grateful to all the participants of the Misplaced Women? project (2009-21) for generous contributions to the project and very pleased that all texts and videos have been translated and are exhibited in three languages: English, Russian and Estonian, and that the Misplaced Women? Installation has been set up so well. Huge thanks to Corina Apostol for her non compromising curation and to the fantastic stuff of the Tallin Art Hall (TAH). – Tanja Ostojić
00.3. Tanja Ostojić: Misplaced Women? Sign, a photocopy on paper, 21 x 30 cm, 2019.
Videos:
Tanja Ostojić: Misplaced Women? Dedicated to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada, 60 minutes performance; performance video, 30 min 30 sec. Performed by Tanja Ostojić, on Sunday, October 16, 2016, in front of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, in the frame of 7a*11d international performance festival. Performance assistance: Eszter Jagica.
A Poetry Intervention by Nati Canto:One Art by Elizabeth Bishop, U-Bahn line U1, Misplaced Women? Workshop Berlin, 2018. Video & photo documentation: Alice Minervini, Sajan Mani, Jiachen Xu, Evdoxia Stafylaraki. Video documentation, 2 min 27 sec.
Misplaced Women?, delegated performance by Tanja Ostojić, Score 1/Unpacking a Bag of Your Own, performed by: Roberta Weissman Nagy, 21.11.2020, Muzil, Pula, Istria. Video 15 sec. Video-recording: Zoltan Nagy.
6. Marta Nitecka Barche & Tanja Ostojić: Misplaced Women? Banner
49,5 x 181,5 cm, 2016. Canvas, marker, embroidery. Used during the workshop in the public spaces in Torry neighbourhood in Aberdeen, organised as a part of the Aberdeen Festival of Politics 2016.
Photos:
6a. Kirsty Russell and Marta Nitecka Barche performing in front of the public library in Torry neighbourhood in Aberdeen, Misplaced Women? Workshop, Festival of Politics, 2016. Photo: Renée Slater.
7. Luciana Damiani: The Safe Circle, Misplaced Women? Workshop, Park am Nordbahnhof, Berlin, 2019. Photo: Tanja Ostojić.
8. Tan Tan: A Pink River, 60 min performance on “MISPLACED WOMEN?”: “Score 1 – Unpacking a Bag of Your Own”, March 8, 2018, Stadshal, Gent, Belgium, Duration: 1 hour. Photos: Okky Oki, Sara De Vuyst, Sallisa Rosa.
9. Li Fu: Doing Gender 8102.50.3*, University of Innsbruck, Misplaced Women? Project Workshop, Art in Public Space Tyrol, 2018. Photo: Daniel Jarosch. Copyright: Tanja Ostojić.
10. Rhea Ramjohn: Which colonial comfort would you like to consume today?, Misplaced Women? workshop, Tempelhoferfeld, Berlin, January 2018. Photo: Tanja Ostojić.
11. Dagmara Bilon: Misplaced Women? in the Olympic Park, London, in frame of Tanja Ostojić´s workshop, December, 2016. Photo: Aleksandar Utjesinovic.
21. Misplaced Women? interventions by LADY GABY, Berlin Weißensee, 23.1.2018. in the frame of Tanja Ostojić´s Misplaced Women? workshop, January 22–24, 2018, hosted by Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz and Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee. Photo: Sajan Mani.
22 Bojana Videkanić holding the Misplaced Women? sign on the Pearson International Airport in Toronto, October, 2016, and diving into her profoundly touching memories about her initiation into the life of a refugee escaping Sarajevo siege in 1992 and her and her family life as refugees in the UK, Croatia and Canada. Photo: Tanja Ostojić
23. Misplaced Women? Workshop led by Tanja Ostojić in the frame of Telciu Summer School, Romania, 2018. Photo: Manuela Boatcă.
24. Missplaced Women? Performed by Anaïs Clercx at Préfecture d’Aix-en-Provence / Police headquarters, city of Aix-en-Provence, France on December 16, 2015, in the frame of “Missplaced Women?” workshop conducted by Tanja Ostojić. Photo: Tanja Ostojić.
25. Missplaced Women? performed by Tanja Ostojić at Goteborg tram station, September 4, 2015. in the frame of the LIVE ACTION 10, performance festival Goteborg. Photo: Xiao Lu.
26. Misplaced Women? Marking the City, Performed by: Pavana Reid, Mahlet Ogbe Habte, Gillian Carson, Kwestan Jamal Bawan and Karen Kipphoff, on November 2, 2011 on five locations across the city of Bergen that are particularly significant for migrants in the city: Main Train Station, Police Station, BIKS, Bergen International Art Center, Western Union Bank and in front of the Language School for Foreigners. Photos: Mariel Lødum and Karen Kipphoff. Produced by Kunsthall 3.14.
28. Branko Milisković: Misplaced Man?performance, Aberdeen Airport, UK, October 29, 2015. “Misplaced Man?” sign, and the photo by Amy Bryzgel.
29. Azad Colemêrg: Misplaced Women?performance intervention. Main train station Zurich, April 2019, Misplaced Women? workshop by Tanja Ostojić. Video-still: contact zone.
30. Misplaced Women? and The Tourist Suitcase, performance by Tanja Ostojić, May 11, 2018, 30 min performance at Hauptbahnhof/main train station, Innsbruck. Art in Public Space Tyrol, Photo: Daniel Jarosch.
31. Misplaced Women? and The Tourist Suitcase, performance by Tanja Ostojić, May 12, 2018, 60 min Performance by Tanja Ostojić at the Goldenes Dahl, Altstadt, Innsbruck. Art in Public Space Tyrol, Photo: Daniel Jarosch.
Tanja Ostojić: Misplaced Women?: One-Day-Long Intense Performance Art Workshop on Migration in the Public Spaces of Belgrade, Serbia October 29, 2015, (first published by Art as Social Action, Ed. G. Scholette, C. Bass, & Social Practice Queens, Allworth Press, New York, 2018
Mis(s)placed Women? (2009-2021) is an ongoing art project by Tanja Ostojić, Berlin based internationally renowned performance and interdisciplinary artist of Serbian origin. Mis(s)placed Women?, is a collaborative art project, ongoing since 2009, consisting of performances, performance series, performance art workshops and delegated performances, including contributions by over 170 individuals from six continents. ... Continue reading →
Misplaced Women? 