workshops, performance
2010 – 2011
workshop facilitator, director
actresses: Jelena Zdravković and Tanja Đurić

The performance was created as a result of the Empowerment through an Art project, in which the participants dealt with female sexuality through psychological and theater workshops. They presented and analyzed how sexuality is expressed, interpreted, and developed, what it depends on and how it is presented: in their own experiences, in theoretical texts, media, works of art, in the family, and public institutions, what are the specificities of the sexuality of women with disabilities, etc.
The processes led to the establishment of relationships in which each participant was given the opportunity to have a greater degree of freedom, initiative, creativity, and responsibility in the context of the topic we were dealing with.
The changes that occurred during the workshops among the participants can be seen in the context of:
education – acquiring information and knowledge about female sexuality, but also acquiring various acting and social skills;
judgment – and then they concern the understanding of the nature and process of sexuality and the acceptance of fairness/equal rights to the quality development of sexuality;
reflections – and then they concern the creation of feelings of responsibility towards oneself and one’s sexuality;
activism – and then they concern the implementation, creation, and realization of actions for positive transformations in the context of primarily two-way relationships: man-woman, society-woman, woman-nature, technology-woman, family-woman, religion-woman, and countless others.
The project Empowerment through art confirms that it is easier for us to acquire information, and a little less easy to start judging it from a feminist perspective, and even more difficult to build responsibility towards ourselves, and the most difficult and unfortunately the least are those – who act as activists and want to do so in public discourse with the help of artistic action- they influence positive transformations in society regarding the position of women.
IN production with “Iz Kruga – Vojvodina…”




INTERVIEW ABOUT THE PROJECT
(taken from portalinvalidnosti.net, 8 December 2010)
1.) To what extent are people with disabilities represented in art today, and how much were they earlier throughout history?
The representation of persons with disabilities in art can be viewed from at least two aspects: their representation in the works of art themselves – how much the artists were inspired by them and the representation of persons with disabilities in the production of the works of art themselves – as active artists. There is another interesting thing, once the manifestation of disability was understood as “giftedness”, “special ability” or “a sign of uniqueness” such persons with artistic talent were attributed genius, even when it was not possible to talk about it. Still, in the case of Leonardo – it was “adequate”.
There are artists who we don’t even know are disabled, because at one time the tendency was to hide the disability fact, but also a time when “disability” is only one of the characteristics of the artist and is not dominant in the public discourse about their work. Furthermore, the question of representation is also the question of how many of them are female artists, women with disabilities, and within which arts. Anyway, especially those with visible disabilities – they are not visible! Especially not here.
2.) Has their role in art changed compared to previous years?
(We are simply witnessing that people with disabilities were previously portrayed in films in a negative context, especially people of short stature).
Something has changed a little, but they are still not present…And there are many reasons for that…from cultural policy, educational policy, entrenched prejudices, ghettoized groups of people with disabilities, low economic and social power of people with disabilities…and to the fact that, especially here, the importance of art is marginalized.
3.) How are people with disabilities portrayed most often in our country and in the world today through art? (Film/Theatre)
It depends on which works of art, in those dating back 20 or more years, were mostly depicted as faces to be pitied, sometimes as sensitive, and intelligent, but never as equal, accomplished beings… However, in recent years, works have been created that affirm, demystify, raise and create an optimistic image of people with disabilities, which teach us to understand, and accept differences and create opportunities for everyone to have and exercise equal rights.
4.) Can you name a few famous domestic and foreign artists with disabilities?
First, that “famous” is relativized in my case… For me, those that I came across through research are known, which does not mean that they are known to everyone, that they entered art histories, encyclopedias… Some of them are, but some are less known to the general public. There are also those whom we do not know are disabled people, because their disability is not visible, such as:
I know Leonardo Da Vinci (painter, sculptor, scientist…); Andrea Bocelli (singer), Claude Monet (painter); Agatha Christie (writer); Richard Pryor (actor); Kurt Cobain (musician, lead singer of Nirvana); Richard Burton (actor); Vincent van Gogh (painter); Neil Young (musician), Michelangelo (painter, sculptor); Ludwig Van Beethoven (composer); Aimee Mullins (actress and model); Harrison Ford (actor) and many others…
Now I would like to highlight those who mean a lot to me personally, and who inspire me in different ways, namely: Frida Khalo (painter), Alison Lapper (multimedia artist), Siniša Tucić (writer), Pim Grooten (performer and playback theater educator), Rebecca Horn, Judith Scott, Nancy Fried, Harriet Sanderson and Laura Splan (visual artists), Graeae (theatre troupe) and one of the founders of the troupe Nabil Shaban…Vic Chesnutt (musician, who is sadly no more).
5.) What are the most famous film works by people with disabilities?
I have a problem with those “famous” ones… I can say which ones I watched, maybe they will be familiar to others too….:-) “I Am Sam”, “My left foot”, “Rain man”, “Little Man Tate”, “House of Cards”, “As Good As It Gets”, “Sound and Fury”, “The Other Sister”, “Birds That Don’t Fly”, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” (I think it was translated here as “Quasimodo”, which speaks the same about the local translation discourse, it’s just not the same…), there are others whose names I have forgotten, I only remember the scenes.
6.) Have you collaborated with any of the famous artists and what were your experiences?
Among famous artists, I collaborated with Boris Kovač, Katalin Ladik, and Jasna Knez, with whom it was great to collaborate (they are known in the international context, but not in the sense that they are TV or film “faces”). But if you ask me about famous artists with disabilities, I am not with them, I mean not with “famous” ones… for someone to become a “famous” artist, and if they are a person with disabilities, it will take more time, and the foreign ones are not available to me either… I am also far from the centers of social, political, and artistic power.
7.) How does the audience react to artists with disabilities, are they sufficiently accepted?
Artists with disabilities are a rather heterogeneous group, and their audience is different… In our country, the audience is mainly made up of parents, relatives, and friends of artists with disabilities and people who professionally deal with that population… And only a small number of those who are at all interested in art and people with disabilities… And the audience reacts wonderfully.
But with “acceptance” comes a whole package that includes: critics, reporters, journalists, media, donors, and politicians… – who enable that art to be visible to the general public, to be accepted… to be accepted as a cultural asset.
8.) In our country, and in the world, what are the basic rights of artists with disabilities, and how are they regulated?
Our country hasn’t developed regulations to regulate the position of artists. Today it happens that freelance artists cannot take maternity leave, and they cannot get sick, because if they do not work they cannot earn an income – they do not have paid sick leave, and their child will not be enrolled in the nearest kindergarten – because they are recognized as “unemployed”, furthermore, it is very difficult to realize some kind of art without technical, spatial and material resources, and when it is realized – then it is difficult to present it to the audience, because in our country there are not enough cultural spaces, and at least those that are adapted for people with disabilities… We can cite the example of a writer, for whom the resources needed by a director to make a play are not necessary, but the writer is not paid to write a book, at best he receives some kind of fee for publishing the book, but until it is published he has to live on something! Where to get a job? Which institutions and organizations need a writer? Moreover, if that writer, a person with a disability, does not write sweetly, and is not a populist writer, then only then is he marginalized! So, he is marginalized both as a person with disabilities, as an artist, and as an artist who does not write “commercial” works. In Novi Sad, we don’t even have a cultural policy – which would provide certain criteria and guidelines for the development of art, and within them, for the development of the art of persons with disabilities. And yet I have to say that since 16 years ago when I started working with disabled people, things have changed a little for the better when it comes to disabled people. Now there are organizations that deal with art and people with disabilities, there are budget funds that support projects, but still insufficient…Finally, the Youth Theater has a ramp bar at the entrance to the building!
9.) Does the state sufficiently support artists with disabilities and, in general, is art, works of art, and the artists themselves sufficiently appreciated and respected?
The state does not support artists enough at all. it does not support the opening of new groups in departments that would enable the artistic education of people with disabilities… I want to say that most people with disabilities do not even know that they have artistic potential, because it should be recognized, nurtured, developed, realized, improved… And where can that happen? In those environments where there is a fragmented system of art education that also includes people with disabilities. In developed environments, there are programs for people with disabilities at art academies. We had the opportunity to see the multimedia performance of the film B.Sc. at the “Front Door” festival. actresses and visual artists who are 100% visually impaired, or a Dutch performer with a motor disability – who graduated from a clown academy… In Berlin there is a professional theater where the actors are people with mental disabilities, in Utrecht in the cultural center the official repertoire is a production of people with mental disabilities, in Arnhem, there is an art center for people with disabilities where even those with severe motor and sensory impairments learn art, create it, share it with the public… Art is extremely powerful in empowering the individual- they recognized/researched and developed it. More developed countries in which there are both formal and more diverse informal art programs intended for people with and without disabilities… because the community is as strong as its weakest member – that’s how strong the community is!