Occupied, 2021
Video of Occupied performance and two-channel video If once
2’60’’, 1’20’’
Edition: 1/5 + 1AP
The one-hour performance Occupied was staged during the 58th October Salon in the Belgrade City Museum’s public toilet. The toilet comprised five stalls, but each had been occupied in some form and it was impossible to use them. The audience could only peek through the openings and follow individual scenes that together made for a unique atmosphere.
If once is a video that shows two out-of-context scenes from the Occupied performance.
The Occupied performance takes place in a politically neutral location, in a space free of almost all limits and meanings, except those connected to basic biological needs. In a moment that saw rules and restrictions on gatherings go wild during the pandemic, the toilet appeared as an institution of sorts that permanently allowed for free movement of people and, by the same token, of art. The occupied toilet was briefly a synonym for what could be, hopes and dreams, where a couple forever in love still dances to sounds of an out-of-tune tango.
Occupied performance
Close your eyes.
Imagine a perfect place.
Let it be a place hugely important for the city’s infrastructure and its citizens.
A place which offers equal access to everyone, with services rendered in any circumstance. A place you can rely on to always open its door, one that will make you feel happy and fluttery after your visit.
It is here you can escape to in the hour of need, with no fear of your personal borders, privacy or dignity being invaded. A place that stands the test of time, change of government and systemic pressures. A politically neutral, liberated territory that is beyond any ban or restriction. A space in which position and function are made worthless. A space of equality. A democratic space. An ideologically unburdened space. A space of the elite, the mafia, the bourgeoisie, the underdog… A heavenly place in which discrimination and censorship are, in fact, least represented. An interspace for passion, thought and art.
Now, open your eyes and you will find yourself in a public toilet.
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, October Salon and the Artist Collection
Mining agreement: III-5-21/01.02.2023
Inventory No: 170
Photo: a square from the video
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sonja Radaković (Belgrade, 1989) is a visual artist actively exhibiting her work since 2007. She participated in numerous independent and joint exhibitions both nationally and internationally. She completed under- and post-graduate studies in painting at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad, where she currently attends doctoral courses in Fine Arts and works as a senior associate at the Department of Painting.
She won the Republic of Serbia’s Foundation for Young Talents scholarship multiple times, the Erasmus+ programme and various painting and fine arts awards. She won the award of the 58th October Salon in Belgrade. In addition to education, she engages in sports and arts.