Responses by the participants of the Misplaced Women? workshop in Torry, Aberdeen:
On the 10th 0f March 2016, I co-organised and participated in the Misplaced Woman? Workshop with Tanja Ostojic. The Misplaced Women? workshop was organised as a part of the Aberdeen Festival of Politics 2016. During the workshop, participants had a chance to meet the artist Tanja Ostojic in a welcoming and casual settings. People could meet each other, share their immigration stories and expectations from the workshop over a cup of tea/ coffee. Then, the group went out to the streets of Torry in Aberdeen to enact the Misplaced Women? delegated performance. The performance involves unpacking of a bag or a suitcase in a public sphere and recalls the everyday experience of immigrants and refugees, but also of people who move from one city to another. It was not my first encounter with the Misplaced Women? performance and to me, as an immigrant, it always is a powerful experience. This time, the workshop Misplaced Women? made me reflect on mothers. On all the women who must juggle between motherhood and personal development or work. I am among these women too. Luckily, events like this with such inspirational and open minded people like Tanja Ostojic, Amy Bryzgel, and Renée Slater lit up my hope that women will have an opportunity to develop their potential as women. We do not need to act as men in order to have equal rights. We need understanding and equal rights to develop our full potential as women. Thank you for understanding and allowing me to bring my son with me and be the co-organiser and participant of this powerful and inspirational event! ……………………Marta Nitecka Barche
Misplaced Women?
Vulnerable and malleable, Increasingly strong, Out with hierarchy I catch my own self.
Resting only on the skin of others Causing warmth to emanate, I admire the view Streaming in from all angles.
Discarded, unfolded rush Takes place in the uncertainty. Here, there is no such pain Breathing in the entirety of all I have left.
Turn upper torso in search of the sun, Inside the wealth of abandonment, Increasingly hinders the Onset of the time.
And in concern of chaos, My weathered, kneaded soul Takes sanctuary of being, Free from all I own.
………..Angela Margaret Main
I really enjoyed the workshop, I felt vulnerable in the moment but I feel like it gave me confidence in my life. My favourite part of the workshop was watching Tanja perform at the bus stop.
………..Sarah Jackson
I liked the discussion that came from the workshop that Tanja did. Although I knew the issues surrounding the refugee crisis, I felt that listening to other participants talk was extremely emotional and powerful. You always hear these stories but when it’s right in front of you it isn’t a story any more.
………….Rowan Young
For more images and texts about this workshop please visit as well:
As a part of the Aberdeen Festival of Politics 2016, the Misplaced Women? workshop conducted by Tanja Ostojić took place in Torry, an area of Aberdeen separated from the main port and city centre by the mouth of the river. It’s an area with its own distinctive geography. Connected to Aberdeen City centre by three bridges it is also somehow separate and with a strong relationship to the sea. It is easy to imagine it as a place with its own history and stories to tell. When I went to Torry for the first time I was struck by the smell of fish, the sound of the sea and the industrial spaces that dwarfed me as I rode my bike along the coast. I also noticed many different accents that confirmed Torry is a place that holds a diverse community of people who have found it more affordable to live in than other areas of the city. When I came to visit in March it was to meet with Tanja Ostojić in the local community centre and listen to other women speak on their experiences of migration and travel under the umbrella of the festival of politics, hosted by one of the local residents Renée Slater and co organised by Marta Nitecka Barche.
Our base was social centre of Torry, where we first met. We spoke a little bit about why we were there, sharing rich and personal stories around migration and other feelings connected to the idea of being misplaced. We also shared tea and biscuits. I was interested in questions of hospitality and politics in art. As well as this I had recently produced and supported performance art in Torry and wanted to feel what it was like to be on the other side, to perform. In thinking about hospitality I have spent some time trying to decide how it is possible to negotiate the power structures set up by the host/guest scenario. I had thought about the idea that possibly it is only those who have been ‘misplaced’ and know what it feels like to have lost a home that can offer hospitality. I felt that Tanja’s practice was intimately bound up these questions so I was happy that sharing food together, as well as stories of ourselves, round a table was the start of our journey. Tanja was a guest in Torry but also offered us the kind of hospitality that would make it possible to be brave and to move into the uncertain territory of performance art, a foreign land for many of us in the workshop.
After eating we walked out of the community centre, leaving the quiet streets in the area to descend down the hill to the shops and heart of Torry. We were lucky to have a sunny day and a view of the sea. The first place we choose to perform was the front steps of a public library.
Workshop participants in front of the Social Centre, Torry Aberdeen, UK
How did it feel standing outside the library? Angela unpacked things first from a cluttered, unkempt but well loved bag. She made a little line of things on the wall. It seem as though she was meeting a lot of these things for the first time or at least after a long time apart. There were things folded up in things, she stopped as if finished, then realized there was more to be done. I thought about unpacking. I stood on the edge of myself and the public space and paced back and forward. Other people began to unpack in different ways giving us a glimpse of their private worlds some perfectly neat, whilst other more complex. Someone else started to look for something; it became an accidental performance. I delayed. It felt too difficult to start. People started to look on, the librarian paused in the doorway unsure of what was happening. We started to move on. No harm done.
We made it to the bridge and a bus stop. Tanja took that moment to perform. One guy sat at the bus shelter with a group of friends, he watched as she began unpacking. A bus pulled up adding to the suspense. How long would it wait for her? What had been lost? People exchanged glances, questions were hanging in the air. The man on the bench made a decision, he would wait and see what was happening, wherever he was going he decided to delay. His friends left reluctantly without him. A small connection was made between strangers. Meanwhile the rhythm in Tanja’s performance picked up, the pace seemed to be more frantic, she turned items inside out, more stuff was laid out. Finally, at the bottom things were soup stained, a sticky mess. The performance slowed down, started to feel hopeless. Whatever she had been searching for seemed to slip away. She sat on the bench now looking out, spooning in mouthfuls of cold soup from the leaky container. I walked away to find a spot and grab a moment to also perform. I picked somewhere in the sunshine and without waiting dived into my own bag.
Tanja Ostojic´s performance
What are things? I hadn’t really thought too carefully about them before, these things I carry around. That day having taken the leap and begun to unpack, my things felt like little bridges, stretched between people. These objects we travel with make us feel safe, nourished and anxious in equal measure. Kirsty sat next to me unpacking. I decided to emphasize the vulnerability I felt. I piled things in a haphazard way, my papers started to catch in the wind. Kirsty smiled at my ‘filing system’, which was clearly, a broken system, a fragile, human system, under pressure and imperfect. But a system that nevertheless means something to me. I wanted to share what it meant, I was lucky enough to be with people I could share with. What does it mean to get everything out, to feel a little vulnerable but to support each other all the same? It felt good, like I had had a glimpse into another reality and like I would be a better host for having taken the journey.
Caroline Gausend´s performance
Performance by Ashley McNaughton
With the participation of: Karolina Kubik, Caroline Gausden, Angela Margaret Main, Francesco Sani, Gabriel Tracy, Kirsty Russell, Renée Slater, Marta Nitecka Barche, Ashley McNaughton and many other amassing people.
Photos: Amy Bryzgel, Renée Slater, Tanja Ostojic
For more images and texts about this workshop please visit as well:
Inside the Info Park and the park in front of the Faculty of Economy we, the crowed of 18 people (including photographers, camera person and coordinators) have done two group performances that consisted of emptying all contents from our bags and pockets and turning each single item inside out. We were taking each item apart, including taking out batteries and cards from our mobile phones and photo-cameras, and the reverse, packing it all back afterwards. This showed to be introspective and communicative setting for us, and for people passing by including refuges and volunteers who gather on near by benches. I believe that one can understand artistic process and experience of migration and exposure “on own skin” only, so to say… In this sense and as most of participants felt during the workshop and have reported after it was an initiation of a particular kind that gave to more experienced ones a strong flash of even (forgotten / traumatic) memories from the past.
Charming Nazer, one of the asylum seekers joined us and presented to us the content of his refuge bag.
It gave me a feeling of deep gratefulness to figure out that bordeaux Robe-di-Kappa wool scarf that was since my school years part of my father’s closet has now found an important place in Nazer´s bag of basics and necessities…
From the highly valuable and extensive participants reports I would in particularly like to share the following excerpts:
1. “My motivation to apply for this workshop was because I had ample opportunities during my life to develop strong friendships with people who found ten self in very unfortunate situation, who had to leave their homes behind during the wars in former Yugoslavia. I´ve been witnessing scenes of verbal and physical violence against refuges by at the first glance ordinary people and that ones who should be in charge of order — police… Participation in the “Missplaced Women?” performance overwhelmed me with feelings of revolt and sadness. The change of perspective, produced by the artist´s intelligent manoeuvre evoked memories of the scenes I witnessed on Bar-Belgrade train a number of years ago. Policemen was checking in a brutal way a women traveling with two of her kids, while baby stuff were flaying all over the corridor. Being involved in the performance “Missplaced Women?” myself, at ones, from an observer I transformed into the victim myself. I felt naked, attacked, exposed to any passing bayer who might get an idea to approach me. I thought at ones about all possible complications in case my documents, bank cards or mobile phone would go missing. All those paper and plastic stuff that approve our communication and consumption and without which as it seems I would not be homo sapiens but rather Alien. A word that could the best describe experience I had in regard to the luggage searchings that I witnessed and the one I performed myself would be “rape”. I think this performance workshop should be an obligatory educational tool for the ones in the position of power. At the end, I stayed with more questions then answers, as our artists claims, is the role of art… “ — Jelena Dinić (Medical worker from Belgrade)
2. …After an experience of volunteering for two weeks in a refugee centre in Belgium, I was surprised by the energy and enthusiasm of some of the refugees I met here in Belgrade. The facts they shared with me in such a brief period of time I find precious. The children’s drawings in Miksalište left the strongest impression on me. They drew their experience of the trip and the struggle they are going through.
…When I removed all of my personal things from my backpack and placed them where everybody could see them, I felt exposed and vulnerable. That came as a surprise to me. I thought the second unpacking at the next location would be easier then the first one, but it was even more difficult. At one moment, I felt very insecure, and quickly returned everything back into the backpack. I think this experience was valuable because I got a chance to see this situation from a different point of view, and to exchange thoughts and attitudes with other participants of the workshop.— Gorana Bačevac (graduate student of sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts Belgrade)
3. “During the workshop I felt compassion, solidarity and the need for more solidarity.
…feeling of the misplaced position of ourselves and other people around us in everyday life that we all try to suppress…
…it is not that hard to imagine the misplaced position of all of us, if the world continues to act this way…
“We all know the history, and It wasn’t that long ago…” — Bojana Radenović (Master student, theory of art and media, University of Arts, Belgrade)
Gorana Bačevac. student of sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade.
Tatjana Beljinac, student, School of Design, Belgrade.
Tamara Bijelić, master student of Theatrology, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade
Jelena Dinić, medical worker, Belgrade
Irena Đukanović, student of painting, Faculty of Fine Arts Belgrade.
Milica Janković, student, School of Design, Belgrade.
Marija Jevtić, master student, Academy of Arts Novi Sad.
Nadežda Kirćanski, student of sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade.
Irena Mirković, master student, New Media, Academy of Arts, Novi Sad.
Bojana Radenović, master student, Theory and New Media, University of Arts Belgrade.
Sanja Solunac, feminist, activist and independent artist, Belgrade.
Sunčica Šido, Women Initiative and Goethe Institute, Belgrade.
Production: This workshop has been produced by Remont — independent art association Belgrade, in the frame of “From Diaspora to Diversities” international project. Production co-ordinators: Miroslav Karić and Darka Radosavljević
See as well other two directly related blog entries:
Love in the time of water shortages, power cuts, heat waves, slow internet if any at all, price tags on quality education for all, horrid state of affairs with regard public transport if any at all, holding your breath whilst some ghost gatekeepers decide on your legality to move freely in a world which essentially as a Human is your birth right to inhabit as and when and where with whom you please…
Love in this time is not for the faint hearted.
The road is not for the swift.
Remember that you are seeds, you have it in you to be dormant till the time is ripe to rise. Because overcome and rise we shall. Just remember. Love.
Love in the time when modesty is advertised through loud hailers, compassion and empathy shown by fleeting social media status updates…
Love in this time is not for the faint hearted.
Love in the time when opposition to the leadership fears being brushed off, when the leadership is a mockery of the statues of democracy and independence, when human dignity is ripped to tatters.
Love in the time when unsystematic systems further entrench a people in poverty, when developing countries seem to never cross the threshold of development, when a 1st World and a 3rd World are acknowledged in one World…
Love in this time is not for the faint hearted.
Nia sang ‘The road is not for the swift… but for those who endure in righteousness’. Remember that you are seeds, you have it in you to be dormant till the time is ripe to rise. Because overcome and rise we shall.
Just remember. Love in the time where there is no time. Make time. Love
The garden (on the picture) is in Gaborone, Botswana in Mmakgosi´s mothers yard, where she wrote this poem waiting for her visa application to be processed.
Mmakgosi Kgabi is a Performance Artist born in Botswana, has lived in Johannesburg, South Africa and is currently in the process of migrating to Germany.
Missplaced Women? performed by Tanja Ostojic at Göteborg tram station, September 4, 2015. in the frame of the LIVE ACTION 10, performance festival Göteborg.
On Wednesday September 2, at 10 am I performed my “Misplaced Women?” at arrivals terminal of Göteborg international airport. In approximately 45 minutes time I took out the entire contents of my two suitcases, out of my handbag as well as out of my cosmetics bag. I took out each single item one by one, turning them in side out..
During the performance there were very good responses from people with the migration background on the airport, and they said that similar things happened to them and / or to their relatives..
“Misplaced Women?” performance by Tanja Ostojic on the
La Grand Escalier de la Gare du Saint Charles a Marseille, September 20, 2013.
With the participation of:
Jane Kay Park,
Emma-Edvige Ungaro,
Alix Denambride,
Kim Mc Cafferty,
Robyn Hambrook,
Helen Averley
Patricia Verity
and Tanja Ostojic
.
Production: Préavis de Désordre Urbain and Red Plexus, Marseille 2013
This the map for the
“Misplaced Women? Marking the City”
series of delegated performances by Tanja Ostojic.
Performed by: Pavana Reid, Mahlet Ogbe Habte, Gillian Carson, Kwestan Jamal Bawan and Karen Kipphoff, on November 2, 2011 on five different locations in Bergen that are particularly significant for migrants in the city:
1- Main Train Station
2- Police Station
3- BIKS, Bergen International Art Center
4-Western Union Bank
5-Language School for Foreigners
Misplaced Women? is an ongoing art project by Tanja Ostojić, Berlin based internationally renowned performance and interdisciplinary artist of Serbian origin. The project consists of performances, performance series, workshops and delegated performances, ongoing since 2009, including contributions by international artists, students and people from divers backgrounds. Within this project we embody ... Continue reading →
