On Saturday November 21, 5 p.m., I gave a talk Integration Impossible? at the Woodstock of Political Thinking in Haus der Kunst, Munich Germany. While the same day, at 5 p.m. New York time, Valentina Medda was performing my delegated performance Misplaced Women? at Performa, White Box, New York City.
Simultaneously with her NY performance, at 11 p.m. Berlin time, I was naturally performing Misplaced Women? on the TXL airport in Berlin, on my way back from the conference.
I started 45 minutes long performance Misplaced Women? from the White Box Gallery, from where I went to the near by park, and returned back to the gallery. It was important to me that the point of departure and arrival were the same place, while changes were occurring to my identity. Once you’ve left, it’s impossible to ever “come back home” even if you go to that place you still call home. But you never come back, and it’s not home anymore.
Valentina Medda: Misplaced Women?, Performa New York, 2009. Simultanious delegated perfromance with Tanja Ostojic, at Berlin TXL airport.
I wanted my woman to be beautiful and feminine in order not to be confused with other inhabitants of the street: tourists, citizens, homeless… I wanted her to be “something else”, someone who can’t be immediately defined. I wanted to preserve her dignity, that we all as immigrants are often forced to loose while getting accepted by a foreign country. I wanted my woman to get slowly undressed in her process of packing and unpacking. Gently and slowly, the clothes she was wearing became part of the luggage she’s been caring around, as a metaphor of what she’s loosing on the way, but she’s been keeping in her memory, somewhere. Something hidden that could come out any time…
Valentina Medda is New York based performance artist of Italian origin.
T.O.: I met Mare who just arrived to Vienna inside of the exhibition room, on the 7th floor of MUMOK, within her installation box that she came to organize for the up coming Gender Check exhibition opening. I asked her to allow me to photograph her for my Misplaced Women? project. Afterwords I e-mailed her asking to send a short note to accompany the pictures.
M.T.: Your project and the pictures you have online, reminds me the countless times, when I had to struggle re-packing my suitcase at some airport. And the day I left Estonia with just two too heavy bags of belongings and no place to go back to as I had to sell everything to afford to study in London.. And then I just kept moving from one place to another in London with my stupid bags, containing as strange things as a sack of garlic from my mums garden and all sorts of herbs to cure possible illnesses ;-). I was prepared…
Mis(s)placed Women? (2009-2022) is an ongoing art project by Tanja Ostojić, Berlin based internationally renowned performance and interdisciplinary artist of Yugoslav 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? 