Marko Marković, Izvrnute piramide, MMSU, 2016. by MMSU Rijeka

The Reversed Pyramids

Izvrnute piramide

Marko MarkoviÄ&#x2021;

Izvrnute piramide

Nikola Tesla

Below, on Earth, they work at full blast. And news are coming in thick and fast. The latest tells of a cosmic gun. To be pelted is very poor fun. We are wary with so much at stake, Those beggars are a pestâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;no mistake.

Fragments of Olympian Gossip

Tesla Files

Geometrija nasilja

Kao žarište okupljenih radova, izvrnuta piramida poziva na pretresanje piramidalne društvene strukture, najavljivane u radničkim i anarhičnim usmjerenjima koja zagovaraju direktnu demokraciju. Nemalo puta izigrane i iscrpljenje, ali i preoblikovane i tražene iznova, a uz izvjesnost proturječja i spornog praga nasilnog i miroljubivog koji prate svaki oblik pobune. Među njezinim povijesnim amblemima spomenimo Piramidu kapitalističkog sustava, grafičku satiru ekonomske nejednakosti koja se u SAD-u pojavljuje u Industrijskom radniku iz 1911. godine. A stoljeće poslije zatečeni smo globaliziranom piramidalnom strukturom. Apsurdnost stanja pojačava prateća retorika uznošenja integracijom, mobilnosti i fleksibilnosti, koja u zbilji živi uz zatvorena vrata i ograničene mogućnosti kretanja. Uz tjeskobu i strah od socijalne neprihvaćenosti. Izvrnuta je piramida tada alarm nad otupjelom političkom korektnosti i deklarativnim programima participacije i demokratičnosti. Direktna represija doima se kao zavrnuti rukav u sada permisivnijem kroju manipulacije koja svejedno cilja na razvrstavanje ljudi na poćudne i one nepoželjne. U jeku ekonomski ubrzanih procesa marginalizacije, Zygmunt Bauman govori o dvama pristupima drugosti drugih, antropoemetičnom i antropofagičnom. Dok potonji podrazumijeva prisilnu asimilaciju i uklanjanje drugosti, prvi je značio ...zabraniti im fizički dodir, dijalog, društveno općenje i sve varijante commerciuma, simbioze i connubiuma. Njeni usavršeni, “rafinirani” (modernizirani) oblici su prostorno razdvajanje, gradska geta, selektivan pristup prostorima i selektivna zabrana korištenja prostora. 1 Kao generatore takve prostorne politike, radovi markiraju distrikte poput Wall Streeta, matrice financijskog kapitalizma, uz njihove simboličke eksponente pomno čuvanih skyscrapera, neprobojnih pročelja ili masivnih rekvizita koji katkad poprimaju obličje umjetničkog rada. Jedan je od primjera javna skulptura Charging Bull u obližnjem Bowling Green Parku, koja je u Markovićevoj intervenciji preimenovana u Zvijer, a njezin instrumentalizirani karakter izvrnut 9

Ksenija Orelj

u crnohumornu akciju laštenja zlatnog teleta. 2 Kao što kaže planetarno udarna valuta, In God We Trust. Marković nerijetko pristupa vlastitom tijelu kao referentnom materijalu, provodniku i otporniku odnosa moći. Pritom se kao poprište trvenja osobnog i društvenog ističe koža. Mjesto je iskazivanja proturječja – opipljiva granica koja štiti tijelo, a istodobno prijemčivo i propusno sučelje. Ranjiva i elastična, sklona oštećenju kao i regeneriranju, koža označava vrijeme i brisanjem, ozdravljenjem površine nakon kakva napada... Ona je tekući sat... vrijeme, pa ipak, jer markira njegov protok i čak ga može vratiti unatrag, čini se da je i u sukobu s vremenom, na našoj strani protiv njega. 3 Upravo to klizište čini okosnicu radova koji zalaze ispod poželjne vizure kože generirane masmedijima i šoubizom. Tome nasuprot, koži pristupaju kao Serresovu metaorganu koji povezuje ostala osjetila, a medij je i otvaranja i povlačenja, u principu odupiranja vlastitu uklanjaju. Primjenom medija kože ili pak njezina aliasa – radnog i zaštitnog odijela, impersonalnost kapitala odražava se u konkretnom. Od nadzornih drilova, do “mekše” regulacije ponašanja, poput globalizirane monetarne ekonomije ili fleksibilizacije radnih odnosa u smjeru najamnog rada. Zamućene granice između priznatih i ispalih identiteta te zaobilaženje problema socijalne diskriminacije uprizoreni su upravo u takozvanim superrazvijenim sredinama. Tako u pozadini videa Janje vidimo zgradu UN-a, a kao središnji prizor okretanje janjca u kojemu kao nositelja radnje možemo razabrati umjetnika. Odsutnost lica koje se provlači videom aludira na rubni status ilegalnih radnika. Pozadinska parabola o janjetu 10

Geometrija nasilja

i predatoru postaje opipljivija uz osluškivanje audiopodloge s govorom Nelsona Mandele, koji se vrti poput mantre: ...I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. Janje, s repetitivnim zvukom i jedva pomičnim, dokumentarnim kadrom, u dosluhu je sa sadržajem, posrnulim idealima solidarnosti, opetovanim pregrupiranjima i novim prepuštanjima, usprkos priličnoj vjerojatnosti ponovnoga gubitka. Ujedno djeluje kao podsjetnik na čestu karakteristiku radova, antispektakularnu, improvizatorsku nervaturu koja o društvenim marginama i brutalno prizemnim okolnostima njihova generiranja govori ogoljelim, minimalno obrađenim iskazom. Od samog početka na domaćoj sceni, svojeglavost i izazivačka ekscesnost pratnja su Markovih radova, od performansa i akcija do videodokumenata. Polazišna je točka izravni udar na poremećaje u društvenom tkivu, akcionistički iskazan na vlastitu tijelu koje bol upija i neposredno materijalizira, poput performansa Samojed ili Iglanje (2008.) koji uključuju autodestruktivno ponašanje i samokanibalizam. 4 Oslanjanje na radikalne body art prakse i na bol kao ultimativnu reakciju na agresiju u društvenom tijelu, u novijim radovima jenjava. U protoku vremena protegnuto je u širi raspon modaliteta, smještajući se s one strane trpećeg spektra i referiranja na vlastito tijelo. Glas 99%, odnosno videorad 99, nastao je u odjeku Occupy Wall Street te masovnih prosvjeda nakon ubojstva mladog afričkog Amerikanca Martina Trayvona, koje je počinio bijeli redarstvenik. Bend u sastavu Marković, Željka Blakšić i Kolja Gjoni uglazbljuje krilaticu javnih demostracija We Are All Like One, a ujedno ju prenosi jezikom gluhonijemih, kao umjetničku gestu bunta protiv rasizma i nasilja. I kao ogledalo reciprociteta nasilja i društvene prakse oglušivanja. Zaokreti u Markovićevoj umjetničkoj biografiji, od praskava izraza ljutnje do njezina smirivanja i 11

Ksenija Orelj

pretvaranja u tihu pobunu, pa opet unatrag, pokazuju se u korelaciji sa žarišnom temom – tijelom kao zajedničkim habitatom, instrumentom fine motorike, podlogom socijalno-ekonomskih grčeva, nositeljem neposluha. Pridodajmo tome rad Popišane gaće. Umjetnik nadopisuje, kupljene su kao najjeftinije gaće za siromašnije stanovništvo, a proizvode se u Bangladešu (vidljivo na markici) gdje su djeca najjeftinija radna snaga. Donje se rublje izlaže uz uobičajeno prikriven kontekst mahnita zakona tržišta čija je potentnost uvjetovana nezaštićenom radnom snagom. Ulijevanjem straha u gaće. Parafraziranje lomova današnje društvenosti neprestance kruži u trijadi – apeliranja na disfunkcije javnih institucija, retoriku kojom se takvo stanje normalizira pridonoseći širenju rezignacije te na iskustvenu, a ne neku teorijsku, bespomoćnost pojedinca koja pritom ne podrazumijeva i njegov krajni poraz. Pad i osjećaj nemoći prije su one nerado priznate stanice dnevna ustrajanja. Blizak diverziji u etiketni kodeks emocija, umjetnikov pristup može katkad djelovati oporo. Svakako ne suzdržano, donoseći prizvuk afekata koji se nerado propuštaju u dekorativnu društvenu retoriku, navođenu holivudskim pristupom i prema životu i prema smrti. 5 Navire i mimo službene politike emocija, raskrinkavajući njezin dvostruki kôd. Izražavanje snažnih osjećaja kada su ona u interesu štićenih skupina, npr. nacionalne epifanije, uz uobičajene preporuke o miroljubivom koegzistiranju koje se u zbilji provode čudnovatim mjerama, pod zaglušljivim taktom vojnih komandi.

Geometrija nasilja

Piramida se ponovno izvrće, nastojeći rastvoriti ekonomiju ljudskih odnosa, spregu ekonomskih i psihosocijalnih relacija koje afirmiraju poodmaklu kulturu individualizma i samodostatnosti. Jedna je od analogija i zagovarana i osporavana usustavljenost ljudskih potreba prema vertikalnoj hijerarhiji Abrahama Maslowa. Na dnu su piramide sigurnost i fiziološki zahtjevi. U sredini su ljubav i pripadnost, uokvirene kao društvena potreba, a vrh preuzimaju samopoštovanje i samoostvarenje. Pritom podudarnosti s današnjim društvom nekolicine na tronu ne djeluju tek sporadično. Dok pojedinci raspolažu uvjetima za samoostvarivanje, dolje se dijele rizici i životna nesigurnost. Sagledano kroz kurs na tržištu rada, brojke su prilično upečatljive, odnos godišnjih plaća 100 vrhunskih rukovodilaca (CEO) prema prosječnom radniku (Average Worker) bio je: 1970. godine 40:1; ...2006. godine 1723:1. ...Ovdje je uznemirujući osjećaj da vrhunski rukovodioci milijarderi, koji primaju 1000 puta više novaca nego njihov prosječni zaposlenik, faktički nisu 1000 puta bistriji, 1000 puta prilježniji, ili da intenzivnije (teže) rade 1000 puta. Drugim riječima, razmjer nejednakosti što ga sada vidimo u Americi ne može biti rezultat izvrsnosti. 6 Monopolne pozicije koje utvrđuju odnose nejednakosti, Marković nerijetko sondira upravo u takozvanim civiliziranim okruženjima čija paradna kulisa zakriva vlastitu militantnu povijest. Spomenimo instalaciju Tesla Files, potragu za Teslinim tragovima u New Yorku koja prianja uz napušten utopijski potencijal istraživačevih invencija, nasuprot lukrativne primjene znanstvenih izuma. Okrug uz Hotel New Yorker, u kojem je Tesla umro, jedan je od Markovih mjesta obitavanja, između brojnih privremenih radnih boravišta, poput bauštele. Uz radove s tamošnjih gradilišta, ističe Marko, najjeftinija radna snaga ovdje su Meksikanci koji su skovali izreku Mucho trabajo poco dinero / Puno posla malo novaca. Najbrojniji su ilegalni imigranti koje se iskorištava kao najamnike, a zauzvrat ih se ne dira i ne deportira. 13

Ksenija Orelj

Dokumentarni fragmenti i crteži, biografski vezani uz preseljenje u New York, otvaraju dosje posrtanja i snalaženja jednog od sustavu neprilagođenih, po principu neposluha naspram prevladavajuće pokretljivosti tijela u ritmu korporativnog kapitala. Širenje rezignacije ionako previše podsjeća na programiranu reakciju kojoj bi možda valjalo doskočiti remećenjem serviranih modela dosizanja zadovoljstva u kojima klimaks neprestano zapinje. Baumanovski rečeno, prizvati solidarnost na način dodira koji ne steže u stisak i ne odguruje, poštujući oblik dotaknutog tijela – kao životne forme, ne statističke jedinice.

Geometrija nasilja

1 www.scribd.com/doc/243010619/Zygmunt-Bauman-Teku%C4%87a-Modernost#scribd 2 Akcija je izvedena bez dopuštenja, usp., https://vimeo.com/127031186 3 Stephen Connor, The Book of Skin, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2004., str. 90. 4 Usp, Suzana Marjanić, Izvedba političke kuhinje..., Stud. ethnol. Croat., vol.23, Zagreb, 2011., str. 93–123. 5 Usp., www.ipu.hr/uploads/documents/2288.pdf 6 Usp., www.snv.hr/file/attachment/file/knjigocid.pdf

Ksenija Orelj

Produkcija naslijeđa

Production of Heritage

Mjera svih stvari u globalnoj krizi

Umjetnička praksa Marka Markovića orijentirana je na osobno i zajednicu, spajajući performans i javne akcije. Kritička je refleksija na suvremena društvena uređenja i napore zajednica da preusmjere aktualnu hijerarhiju distribucije moći. Kroz svoju umjetničku praksu, Marković je postajao dio različitih zajednica – nakon što je radio s ljudima pogođenim tranzicijom u Hrvatskoj, povezao se s onima koji su pogođeni globalnom tranzicijom. Marković je istodobno i promatrač i sudionik u spomenutim, recentnim historijskim događajima, što mu omogućava da bude objektivan, ali i direktno uključen u zbivanja. Zaoštravanje (2012.) je bilo izvedeno na prvoj policijskoj barikadi u Sigurnosnoj zoni tijekom američkog proljeća u New Yorku, dok je Aplauz (2013.) izveden sa slučajnim prolaznicima u Gezi parku u Istambulu, gdje je umjetnik aplaudirao građanima, diveći se njihovim akcijama. Povodom građanskih protesta protiv devastacije urbane jezgre Zagreba (Pravo na grad i Zelena akcija, 2006.), Maroje Mrduljaš ukazao je na značaj suradničkog modela između umjetničkog performansa i građanskih akcija, ističući da građanske inicijative trebaju određeni zajednički program ili kulturnu politiku novog tipa koja bi oponirala dominaciji političkog marketinga i nemogućnosti direktne akcije kroz demokratske institucije. 1 Za potrebe ranijeg performansa Uzorno odijelo (2011.), Marković se dogovorio s radnicima Uzora, tvornice tekstila u stečaju, za izradu odijela koje je nosio dok je iščitavao prava radnika. Postupajući na taj način, umjetnik je netko tko angažira radnike i uključuje ih u produkciju umjetničkog djela, ali se postavlja i u poziciju radnika dok posuđuje svoj glas onima čiji se glasovi ne čuju ili su cenzurirani. Vezu između odijevanja, serijske proizvodnje i socijalnog standarda, Marković je ponovo istakao u seriji objekata Popišane gaće (2014.). Veličina gaća, produkta najjeftinije radne snage, djeluje univerzalno – one pristaju svakom građaninu bilo kojeg socijalnog 19

Sonja Jankov

uređenja i geopolitičkog sistema, jer globalna ekonomska kriza može svakog uplašiti do te mjere da se upiša u gaće. U kapitalističkom uređenju koje precizno kalkulira koliko je svako novorođenče zaduženo od svojeg prvog udaha, Popišane gaće predstavljaju jedan od najdeskriptivnijih portreta suvremenog stanovnika. U svojoj knjizi Životi pod hipotekom: od mjehura stanovanja do prava na stanovanje, Ada Colau i Adriá Alemany navode da je država omogućila konfuziju između prava na stanovanje i lakog pristupa kreditu, što je razvilo poriv za privatnom imovinom izvan razumnih granica i ostavilo veći dio populacije duboko u dugovima. 2 U društvu orijentiranom na monopolizirano tržište, dugovi su najvećim dijelom izazvani deindustrijalizacijom i visokom stopom nezaposlenosti. Referirajući se na dugove u republikama bivše SFR Jugoslavije, Marković je izveo performans Rad spašava (2012.) tijekom kojeg je u prsa ubadao značke s logotipima nekadašnjih jugoslavenskih tvornica i kompanija. Ova vizualizirana fizička bol djeluje kao otjelovljenje agresije izvršene nad društvenim i državnim tijelom. Posljedice masovnog zatvaranja tvornica i gašenja industrije osjećamo svi na svojoj koži, kako to Marković ilustrira performansom. 3 Prema Henriju Dreyfussu i Ernstu Neufertu, dizajnerima ergonomije, ono što je bitno je artikulacija interakcije između tijela i mašine na mjestu njihovog spoja. 4 Upravo je poboljšana veza između tijela i mašine ta koja omogućuje najveću produktivnost i učinkovitost. Ovakvo viđenje tijela u domeni ljudskog inženjerstva predstavlja napredak u odnosu na mehaničke proteze koje se dodaju tijelu radi povećanja njegove fizičke i psihičke sposobnosti. U Markovićevim radovima, mjesto spoja tijela i mašine je njegova koža, ali ga prepoznajemo i u radovima Popišane gaće ili Uzorno odijelo, stvorenom od radnika koji su izgubili poslove.

Mjera svih stvari u globalnoj krizi

Ali danas taj spoj ne služi povećanju učinkovitosti radnika, već povećanju mogućnosti lociranja tijela – zaduženog subjekta/objekta koji u globaliziranoj mašineriji kapitalizma treba otplatiti dug. Marković u većini radova kritizira agresivnu dominaciju kapitalizma. U instalaciji Produkcija naslijeđa (2014.), 24-karatni zlatni lančić koji je dobio na rođenju pretvara u zlatni prah koji potom postavlja u dvije linije na ogledalo. Kao da osjeća da više nije dovoljno samo nositi zlato na svom tijelu, nego zlato mora biti i inhalirano kako bi se opstalo u današnjem svijetu. Zlatni prah je postavljen pored zlatnih zuba njegove majke, koji predstavljaju obiteljsko naslijeđe, te zlatnika s reljefnim portretom Tita, kao simbola naslijeđa regije iz koje potiče. Poslije smrti zlatnog standarda kao monetarnog sistema, zlato prezentira i devalvaciju dolara za 96% u posljednjih sto godina. Godine 1971., predsjednik Richard Nixon objavio je kraj vezanosti dolara za zlato što je uvjetovalo kolaps Bretton Woods monetarnog sistema i zlatnog standarda koji je bio ustanovljen poslije Drugog svjetskog rata. Rezultat je gubitak povjerenja u aktualni monetarni sistem, što je, svakako, ekvivalentno gubitku povjerenja u sposobnost centralnih banaka da ponovo uspostave stabilnost. 5 Srećko Horvat tvrdi da je i suvremena ekonomija libidinalna ekonomija, koristeći termin koji je Jean-François Lyotard elaborirao 1974. Tijekom uspješne predsjedničke kampanje Billa Clintona protiv predsjednika Georgea Busha starijeg, najupečatljiviji slogan bio je To je ekonomija, idiote! (1992.). Ako je 2008., poslije ekonomske krize, Slavoj Žižek mogao parafrazirati ovaj slogan u To je politička ekonomija, idiote!, s najnovijim filmom Martina Scorsesea (The Wolf of Wall Street) možemo reći: To je libidinalna ekonomija, idiote!. Želje i pobude formiraju i usmjeravaju ne samo pojedince, nego i kapitalizam. 6

Sonja Jankov

Građani i stanovnici su reagirali na ovu činjenicu masivnim protestima, obrćući piramidalne strukture društva i nastojeći društvo transformirati odozdo. U javnoj instituciji, muzeju, izlažući materijale sakupljene tijekom Occupy Wall Street protesta, Marković je naglasio važnost participativnih akcija lokalnih zajednica. Fotodokumentacija perfomansa The Wall (2015.), rekonstrukcije civilne okupacije brandenburških vrata iz 1989., izlaže se odmah pored arhivske fotografije originalne okupacije. Marković ukazuje na narative koji se čuvaju za buduće generacije, ali i pokušava pozvati današnje stanovnike na akciju. U njegovim radovima aktualizira se i simbolično rušenje građevinskih struktura u današnjem vremenu, kada su destrukcija i rušenje sadržani u financijskom planu izgradnje arhitektonskih objekata. Njihovo je uništenje već ukalkulirano u cijenu proizvodnje. To skreće pažnju na činjenicu da se čak i arhitektonski objekti stvaraju s kratkim rokom trajanja kako bi ostavili prostor prodaji novih produkata. 7 Marković konstantno ističe borbe zajednica i građana u unaprjeđenju njihovog životnog standarda. Uz događaje vezane za američko proljeće, participativne akcije su 2012. iskazane kroz projekt participativnog budžeta, koji je te godine prvi put primijenjen u New Yorku. Oko 8.000 ljudi iz četiri dijela grada odlučivalo je o raspodjeli skoro 6 miliona dolara za unaprjeđenje škola, parkova, ulica i javnog prostora. 8 Participativno budžetiranje je jedna od sastavnica suvremenog građanskog prava, a Marković uz njihovo isticanje upozorava i na probleme njihove pogrešne interpretacije. Jedna od najrecentnijih akcija je Potpisivanje parlamenta (2015.), čin izjavljivanja da parlament pripada svim građanima, a ne samo onima koji donose odluke unutar parlamenta.

Mjera svih stvari u globalnoj krizi

1 Srećko Horvat i Maroje Mrduljaš, Politike prostora, u: Život umjetnosti br. 83, IPU, Zagreb, 2008., str. 51. – 52. 2 Ada Colau i Adriá Alemany, Mortgaged Lives: From the Housing Bubble to the Right to Housing, Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press, Los Angeles/Leipzig/ London, 2012., str. 32. – 33. 3 Fotodokumentacija performansa Rad spašava bila je izložena na skupnoj izložbi Iz trbuha diva, MMSU, kolovoz – rujan, 2015. 4 John Harwood, The Interface:Ergonomics and the Aesthetics of Survival, u: Dianne Harris (ur.), Governing by Design: Archi-tecture, Economy, and Politics in the Twentieth Century, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012., str. 130. 5 www.zerohedge.com/news/41- years-after-death-gold-standard-look-how-we-ended-economic purgatory 6 www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/01/it-libidi nal-economy-stupid 201411991730302886.html 7 Luisa Lorenza Corna i Alan Adam Smart, Building Downwards, prikaz knjige Keller Easterling, Subtraction, Sternberg Press, Berlin, www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/building-downwards 8 Usp., Josh Lerner i Donata Secondo, By the People, For the People: Participatory Budgeting from the Bottom Up in North America, u: Journal of Public Deliberation, www.democracyspot. net/2012/12/31/13-new-articles-on-participatory-budgeting/

Sonja Jankov

Aplauz

Applause

Sandy

Zvijer

The Beast

Vize

Visas

Janje

The Lamb

Razgovor â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Interview

Prisustvovala sam tvojem vođenju kroz izložbu i bilo mi je posebno iskustvo doživjeti entuzijazam kojim opisuješ situacije i okolnosti u kojima su nastali tvoji radovi. U kojoj mjeri tvoji radovi imaju političku dimenziju i na koji način komuniciraju s društvenom stvarnošću? Kako umjetničke pozicije danas mogu utjecati na društvenu transformaciju?

I saw your presentation of the exhibition and I enjoyed the enthusiasm with which you described the situations that underlie your works. To what extent do your works have a political dimension and how do they communicate with reality? How can artists influence social transformation today?

Vjerujem da je bitna stvar u cijeloj priči uloga kolektiva, međusobne suradnje i umrežavanja. Zanimljivo je gledati kako se kroz vrijeme slika o pojedincu buntovniku ili nekolicini pojedinaca mijenja u sliku buntovne mase koja se širi. Upravo takvim modelima možemo utjecati na stvarnost i kvalitetu života te stvarati određeni pritisak. Smatram da su građanske inicijative bitne kao oblik samoorganizacije i edukacije. Primjer tome je Island čiji su stanovnici nakon pritiska na vlast, napisali i donijeli novi Ustav u kojem sami odlučuju o svojim pravima. Dakle, oblik direktne demokracije postoji, samo je pitanje jesu li vlasti spremne na to i žele li zaista raditi u korist ljudi i svojih građana ili se okorištavati svojim narodom. To i jest formulacija u prikazu izvrnute piramide. Postavljanjem pitanja i potragom za odgovorima, mi propitkujemo sebe i okolinu u kojoj se nalazimo. Iz tog stava proizlazi i moje djelovanje, ono što proživljavam i što vidim da drugi proživljavaju, o tome i govorim.

I believe in the importance of togetherness, cooperation and networking. It is interesting to observe how the image of a lone rebel has changed into an image of rebellious group that constantly grows larger. This is precisely the way in which we can influence reality and quality of life and exert pressure. I think that citizens’ initiatives are essential for self-organization and spreading of information. A good example is Iceland, whose citizens exerted pressure on the government and adopted a new constitution which allows them to make own decisions about their rights. Therefore, a direct democracy truly exists; the only question is if governments are ready for this and if they really want to work for their people or just use them. This is the basis of the reversed pyramid. By posing questions and searching for answers, we actually examine ourselves and our environment. This is the attitude that guides my work, my own experiences and experiences of people around me.

Govorio si o vlastitoj generaciji koja je rođena u bivšoj Jugoslaviji, doživjela njezin raspad,

You told us about your generation that was born in former Yugoslavia, witnessed its disin-

Marko Marković – Anamarija Batista

stvaranje novih nacionalnih identiteta i političkih tijela. U vrlo ranoj životnoj dobi doživjeli smo krizu koja će utjecati na naše životne putove. Kako se ovo iskustvo odražava u tvojim radovima?

tegration and the development of new national identities and political bodies. This generation was faced with a crisis that affected its life path. How has this experience affected your work?

U nekim se radovima referiram na vrijeme bivše Jugoslavije, na ratno i na poslijeratno stanje koje je utjecalo na mene i moju obitelj. Moja generacija i generacije rođene 80-ih bivaju zakinute u mnogim stvarima koje su mogle pridonijeti samoaktualizaciji mladoga čovjeka. Dosta je energije i vremena odlazilo u destrukciju koja je bila svakodnevna pojava tog perioda. Uspio sam izaći iz toga i taj bijes kanalizirao kroz umjetnost koja je postala moj drive. Gledajući sada, izložba Izvrnute piramide razjasnila mi je neke stvari. Doživljavam je kao autobiografiju s kojom se mogu poistovjećivati i drugi ljudi sličnih iskustava. Moj proces poistovjećivanja s problematičnim društvenim okolnostima doveo je do nastanka pojedinih radova pa i onih koji nisu na ovoj izložbi. Ti su radovi prethodili mojem odlasku iz Hrvatske, a u njima se čita sirov bunt zbog mog i općeg nezadovoljstva s društvenim stanjem. Iz tog su razdoblja i neki moji body-art performansi.

In some of my works, I refer to the period of former Yugoslavia, and in some to the war and post-war period that affected me and my family. My generation and the generations of the 1980ies were deprived of some things that could have contributed to the self-actualization of young people. A lot of time and energy was wasted on destruction, which was a common phenomenon of the period. I managed to move away from that and channeled my anger into art, which became my drive. Looking back, the exhibition Reversed Pyramids clarified some things to me. I see this exhibition as an autobiography with which many people can identify. My process of identification with the problematic social circumstances has influenced some of my works that were shown in this exhibition. These works had been created before I left Croatia and they had expressed a raw rebellion resulting from own and general dissatisfaction with social conditions. Some of my body-art performances also date from this period.

Dobitnik si nagrade Radoslav Putar i tim povodom odlaziš u New York. Tamo sudjeluješ i u prosvjedima Occupy Wall Street. Za vrijeme tvojeg boravka New York biva pogođen uraganom i poplavama. Ove okolnosti tematiziraš u

You won the Radoslav Putar Award, which enabled you to go to New York. You participated in Occupy Wall Street protests there. At the time of your residency, New York was

Razgovor – Interview

radovima American Spring i Sandy (2012.) u kojima posebno naglašavaš moment kolektivne solidarnosti. Tema društvene solidarnosti može se prepoznati i u radu Uzorno odijelo (2011.). Koji modeli solidarnosti su prema tvom mišljenju danas značajni, naročito u odnosu na aktualne ekonomske i društvene krize? U kriznim situacijama dolazi do intimnog i emocionalnog naboja koji se iz pojedinaca transformira u masu. Snaga mase izlazi van kada se određene strukture počnu ljuljati. U takvim se situacijama može utjecati na slijed događaja. Nekada uspješno, nekada manje uspješno, a najbitniji faktor su sami ljudi. Taj je proces dio navedenih radova. Udruženi radnici Uzora i Dalmacijavina kroz različite su izvedbe govorili o svojim pozicijama unutar sistema, svojim pravima i obespravljenosti. Sudjelujući u tome s nekima sam postao prijatelj. I zbog društvenog angažmana i zbog ljudskog faktora s predstavnicom radnica Uzora, Ljiljanom Šućur išao sam na suđenja kao njezina podrška. U New Yorku, prilikom Occupy Wall Street pokreta ljudi su izlazili na ulicu i prosvjedovali zbog općeg nezadovoljstva uvjetovanog ekonomskom krizom, monitoringom, kontrolom, rasnim i klasnim razlikama. Također 2012., uragan Sandy je poharao grad i donio veliku štetu. Prvo su sanirani bogati dijelovi Manhattana, a siromašnije četvrti u Brooklynu i Queensu kasnije su dobivale pomoć. U to sam vrijeme živio u Brooklynu u Red Hooku, a u moju su ulicu dolazili

hit by a hurricane and floods. You dealt with these circumstances in American Spring and Sandy (2012), in which you emphasized the moment of collective solidarity. The subject of social solidarity can also be recognized in the Exemplary Suit (2011). Which models of solidarity you find important today, especially in relation to the current economic and social crises? In times of crises, there is an intimate and emotional charge that spreads from an individual onto a mass. The power of people becomes evident when certain structures become shaky. These are the situations suitable for making changes in the course of events. Sometimes these efforts are successful, sometimes they are not, but what is important here are people themselves. This process is a part of the above-mentioned works. The joined workers of the fallen Croatian companies Uzor and Dalmacijavino voiced their positions within the system; they talked about the denial of their rights. In our performance, I made friends with some them. I supported the representative of Uzor’s workers Ljiljana Šućur in the court proceedings, both as a form of social engagement and for human reasons. During Occupy Wall Street in New York, people went out onto the streets, expressing a general dissatisfaction cased by the global economic downturn, monitoring, control, racial and class differences. Also in 2012, hurricane Sandy devastated the city

Marko Marković – Anamarija Batista

kamioni s humanitarnom pomoći. Snimao sam što se događa. Ljudi su grabili odjeću, obuću jer je bilo hladno, a u kvartu nije bilo ni struje ni grijanja. Žena koja je dijelila humanitarnu pomoć pitala me želim li deku. U tom sam se trenutku emotivno raspao. Osjetio sam moment zajedništva u kojem jedna deka znači mnogo više nego što ona jest. To vjerojatno dolazi iz prijašnjih ratnih iskustava i poslijeratnih trauma. Na izložbi koristim deku kao podlogu za projekciju videa kojeg sam snimio tog dana u Brooklynu. Na koji je način tvoja suradnja s Matthew Barneyem utjecala na tvoju umjetničku produkciju? Suradnja s Matthew Barneyem bila je vrlo vrijedno iskustvo koje mi je pomoglo da bolje razumijem različite oblike produkcije umjetničkog djela. Barney je jedinstven umjetnik s vrlo kompleksnim koncepcijama koje se kreću u različitim smjerovima i medijima. Njegov rad doživljavam kao svojevrstan labirint u kojem je svaki layer bitan tako da je samim tim njegova komunikacija zahtjevna, ponekad i ne tako jednostavna za razumjeti. Kao mlađi sam oduševljeno i s čuđenjem gledao Barneyeve filmove. Nakon što sam počeo raditi za njegov studio kao asistent, upoznajući i njega i ljude koji s njim rade, bolje sam razumio njegov rad. U tom periodu počinje me zanimati i skulptura te uviđam važnost eksperimentiranja i testiranja, bitnost vremena kao procesa i obrade materijala. Tijekom rada u studiju često se činilo kao da se zaista nalazimo u jednom od Barneyevih filmova.

and caused widespread damage. The rich parts of Manhattan were the first to receive help and reconstruction, while poor neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens had to wait. I lived in Red Hook, Brooklyn at the time, and trucks with humanitarian aid were coming to my street. I was recording the situation with my camera. People were grabbing clothes and footwear because it was cold. There was no heating in the entire neighborhood. At one point, a woman handing out humanitarian aid asked me if I needed a blanket. I was emotionally overwhelmed. I felt a moment of togetherness in which a single blanket means a lot more than usual. This feeling probably came from my war and post-war experiences. Therefore, in this exhibition I use a blanket as the groundwork for the projection of a video I filmed that day in Brooklyn. In what way has the cooperation with Matthew Barney influenced your art? The cooperation with Matthew Barney was a valuable experience that helped me develop a better understanding of different forms of artwork production. Barney is an exceptional artist. He creates very complex conceptions that take different directions and require different media. I see his work as a labyrinth in which each layer is important. This means that his communication is very sophisticated, sometimes even impenetrable. When I was younger, I watched his films with rupture and amazement. After becoming an assistant in his studio, and meeting him and the people who work

Razgovor – Interview

S obzirom da često sudjeluješ u građanskim akcijama, s jedne si strane netko tko doživljava i kreira određene situacije, s druge strane netko tko zauzima određenu distancu, a situacije reflektira u umjetničkim radovima. Možeš li reći nešto više o tome?

there, I gained a more profound insight in his work. In that period, I became interested in sculpture and I realized the importance of experimenting and testing. I started to appreciate the importance of time as a process and a way of working with materials. Working there, we often had an impression of being inside one of Barney’s films.

Mišljenja sam da treba eksperimentirati i istraživati svoje granice i granice drugih. Na taj način i radim neke performanse – akcije koje gledam kao svojevrstan trening, a dio su moje svakodnevice. Volim akcionistički izraz koji i ne mora biti u obliku body arta. Akcionizam je sam po sebi zanimljiv zato što svakodnevnu priču izokreće i postavlja je u formu umjetničke prakse. To što gledam i vidim oko sebe za mene je potencijalni performans. Kao što je Tomislav Gotovac rekao, od trenutka kada se probudim, ja gledam film. To ljudi stvarno žive. Neke bih svoje performanse nazvao situacijama jer su fragmenti okoline koju svakodnevno doživljavam. Kreiranje spontanih situacija može biti zahtjevnije od izvedbe staged performansa kada publika tempirano dolazi, gleda ili sudjeluje u performansu te odlazi iz galerije. Kao analogija za spoj tj. niz situacija izvedenih u galerijskom ili muzejskom prostoru, djeluje razmatranje Allana Kaprowa o happeningu, pojašnjeno u njegovom radu How to make a Happening (1966.). Intervencije koje nisu ni isprobane ni najavljene, nego naprosto izvedene u datom momentu i namijenjene slučajnom prolazniku funkcioniraju kao svojevrstan anti-performans. Primjer bi bio čin Francisa Alÿsa, koji

You often take part in citizens’ actions. One the one hand, you are someone who experiences and creates certain situations, but one the other hand you are someone who maintains a certain distance and reflects on the experience in his artworks. Can you tell us more about this?

I believe people should experiment and explore their own boundaries, as well as boundaries of others. This is how I do some of my performances/ actions, which form a part of my everydayness and which I regard as a form of exercise. I like actionistic expression, which does not necessarily need to involve the body. Actionism is interesting because it reverses everyday stories and gives them the form of an artistic practice. What I look at and what I see is a potential performance for me. In the words of Tomislav Gotovac, as soon as I open my eyes, I see a film. People truly live a film. I would call my performances situations because they represent fragments of the environment I see every day. Performing spontaneous situations can be more demanding than doing staged performances, where the audience

Marko Marković – Anamarija Batista

je 2000. u Mexico Cityu ilegalno kupio pištolj, napunio ga streljivom i nastavio hodati po ulici s pištoljem u ruci. Nakon dvanaest minuta policija ga je uhapsila i odvela u zatvor. Na to bih se nadovezao opisom jedne situacije nakon uragana u New Yorku, kada mi je na zgradi izbio požar. Bio sam vani i oko ulaza lopatao zemlju koju je nanijela poplava. Odjednom sam čuo povike ljudi i shvatio da je iznad mene buknuo požar. Nisam imao mobitel pri ruci tako da sam otrčao niz ulicu pozvati vatrogasce koji su gasili požar na drugoj zgradi u neposrednoj blizni. Dok sam trčao snimila me lokalna televizija, a tu sam snimku kasnije dobio od prijatelja koji je na nju slučajno naletio. Taj video zapis smatram umjetničkim radom, nastalim uvjetovanjem vremenske nepogode i ostalog spleta okolnosti, u kojima sam i sam sudjelovao. Definitivno preuzimam ulogu promatrača. Gledam što se događa u mojoj okolini i nastojim na to reagirati. Pokušavam intervenirati u tom vremenu i prostoru, ući u situaciju i promijeniti tijek događanja. Performans nužno ne mora biti umjetnički čin. Može biti svakodnevni čin kojim se dolazi do nekih rješenja ili određene spoznaje. To što živim i radim, jedno je te isto. Bitan mi je angažman u društvu kroz umjetnost, kroz život. Prosvjedi, izlasci na ulice, tribine, različite suradnje i aktivnosti poput festivala ili izložbi. Za kraj, kako je bilo raditi postav izložbe, koncipirati priču i napraviti display koji prenosi tvoj umjetnički rad i tvoje iskustvo boravka u New Yorku?

come at exact time, watch or participate in a performance, and they leave the premises. This is well described in Allan Kaprow’s How to Make a Happening (1966). Interventions that come unrehearsed and unannounced function differently; they are simply done at a given moment and intended for a random passer-by as a performance act. There is a good example of Francis Alÿs, who illegally bought a gun in Mexico City 2000, loaded it and continued to walk down the street with the gun in his hand. After twelve minutes, police arrested him and took him to prison. I would also like to mention another situation from New York, after the hurricane, when fire broke out in my building. I was outside, shoveling the dirt brought by the flood. All of a sudden, I heard shouts and screams of people and realized that fire broke out just above me. I did not have a mobile with me so I ran down the street to call the firemen who were fighting fire in a nearby building. While I was running, I was filmed by a local TV. I got the recording later, from a friend who accidentally saw it. I think this video is a work of art, created in the conditions of a natural disaster and the resulting circumstances, of which I was a part. I definitely assume the role of an observer. I watch what happens around me and try to respond to it. I try to intervene in the time and space, immerse myself in the situation and change the course of events. Performance is not necessarily an act of art. It could be an everyday act, which serves for finding solutions or creating ideas. My life and my work are one in the same. Social engagement through

Razgovor – Interview

Ovo je sigurno najveći retrospektivni pregled mog rada zadnjih pet do šest godina. Također zahvaća pojedine reference na prijašnji period. To je prikaz putova kojima sam prolazio, angažmana unutar određenih sistema i avantura u kojima sam se nalazio i snalazio. Izrazito sam zadovoljan što se to dogodilo u MMSU u Rijeci, s kustosima Ksenijom Orelj i Slavenom Toljem. Postav je bio vrlo zahtjevan, s pregrštom materijala u kojem se lako moglo izgubiti. Tolj je pokazao visoku profesionalnost prilikom oblikovanja postava na koji sam se nadovezao dodatnim intervencijama. Postav je zamišljen kao cjelina koja teče kružno, završna i polazišna točka često se isprepliću. Bitan rad Vize tako predstavlja početak, no istovremeno i kraj izložbe – moj odlazak iz Hrvatske i potragu za novim životom, ali i moj odlazak iz New Yorka i ponovni odlazak u novu okolinu. Skulptura Popišane gaće postavljena je kao vodilja kroz cijeli prostor te predstavlja konstantu čitavog perioda. Prisutna je kroz cijeli postav, u prikazima uspona i padova kroz koje sam prolazio utjelovljujući moment neizvjesnosti.

art is what I find important, and protests, street gatherings, different forms of cooperation and activities such as festivals and exhibitions. In the end, what was it like to arrange this exhibition, to formalize the idea and create the display that expresses your art and your experience in New York? This is a retrospective review of work created over the past five or six years. It also includes some references to the previous period. it is a reflection of the paths I have crossed, of my engagements in different systems and adventures which I have embarked on.I am extremely pleased this happened in the Rijeka Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in cooperation with curators Ksenija Orelj and Slaven Tolj. Organizing the exhibition was quite a demanding job; it included many overwhelming materials. Tolj demonstrated an immense professionalism in the process of set-up, in which I included additional interventions. The exhibition was envisaged as a whole that has a circular flow, in which the beginning and the end often blend together. For instance, Visas represent the beginning and the end of the exhibition – my departure from Croatia and my quest for a new life. It also represents my departure from New York and another visit to a new environment. The Pissed Pants is the midline of the exhibition; it is always present, in the descriptions of ebbs and flows of my life, embodying the moment of uncertainty.

Marko Marković – Anamarija Batista

Parada pobjednika

The Winnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Parade

Zaoštravanje

Sharpening

The Wall

Art is Dangerous

Potpisivanje parlamenta

Signing of the parliament

Geometry of Violence

As the focal point of the gathered works, the reversed pyramid urges us to question the pyramidal social structure, as announced many times by workers and anarchist movements that promote direct democracy. The act of reversing the pyramid has often been accompanied with contradictions and questionable boundaries between the violent and the peace-loving, which go hand in hand with every form of rebellion. Among historical emblems of the pyramidal structure is The Pyramid of Capitalist System, the graphic satire about economical inequality published in the 1911 edition of Industrial Worker. A century later, we are faced with the globalized version of the pyramidal structure. The absurdity of this condition is aggravated by a rhetoric elated by notions of integration, mobility and flexibility, but which in reality keeps the door closed with a strict scope of movement. The reversed pyramid hence becomes an alarm warning against the numb political correctness and its programs of participation and democracy. Direct repression has started to employ softer methods of manipulation, which still remains focused on classifying people into those who are acceptable and those who are not. Speaking of the economically fast processes of marginalization, Zygmunt Bauman described two approaches to the otherness of others: one is the anthropoemic and the other is the anthropophagic. While the latter approach consists of an enforced assimilation and the annihilation of the others, the first consists in barring physical contact, dialogue, social intercourse and all varieties of commercium, commensality or connubium. The upgraded, refined (modernized) forms of the “emic” strategy are spatial separation, urban ghettos, selective access to spaces and selective barring from using them. 1 Marković’s works mark the districts such as Wall Street, the matrix of financial capitalism, as the generators of such spatial politics, along with their symbolic exponents – carefully attended skyscrapers, impenetrable facades or massive accessories that sometimes 53

Ksenija Orelj

assume the form of a work of art. One of the examples is the public sculpture Charging Bull in the nearby Bowling Green Park. Marković renamed the sculpture as The Beast, while transforming its instrumentalized character into a black humor action of polishing the golden calf. 2 As stated on the planetary popular currency: In God We Trust. Marković often treats his own body as the reference material and a resistor to power relations. In this process, skin emerges as the central site of friction between the personal and the social. Skin is the place of expressing contradictions – it is the palpable, yet sensitive and permeable, shield covering the body. Vulnerable and elastic, susceptible to damage but also possessing a self-healing capability, the skin marks time partly by effacement: by the healing of lesions, and the reassertion of the surface against every assault. (…) The skin is a soft clock… So the skin is nothing but time and yet, because the skin marks time and can even reverse it, it can sometimes seem, like us, to be at odds with time, and therefore on our side against it. 3 It is precisely this aspect of Marković’s works that scratches the attractive surface produced by mass media and show business. The works treat the skin as Serres’ metaorgan that connects the senses, working as the medium of opening and retreat, resisting its own eradication. By using skin, or its alias – an overall, Marković paints the impersonality of capital as a concrete issue, from supervisory drills to a “softer” regulation of behavior, which includes a globalized monetary policy or flexibilization of labor relations. The blurred boundaries between the accepted and the drop-out identities and 54

Geometry of Violence

the avoidance of coping with the problems of social discrimination are depicted by Marković in the “ultra-developed” environments. The artist presents these environments by pulling off their decorative facades. For example, in the background of The Lamb video we see the UN’s building, while in the central scene of roasting the lamb the artist himself acts as the main protagonist. His face is mostly absent, and this facelessness that dominates in the video carries the connotation of the marginal status of illegal workers. The parable running through this work, about the lamb and the predator, becomes more evident thanks to the audio material with the speech of Nelson Mandela, which is played out like a mantra: ...I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. The Lamb, with its repetitive sound and barely moveable, documentary-style frame, mirrors the fallen ideals of solidarity, the repeated regroupings and new undertakings, with a pretty high probability of a recurring loss. The video is in line with other works, with their anti-spectacular, improvisational nervation that depicts the margins of society and their brutally realistic circumstances using a scant, unadorned expression. Since his beginnings in the local art scene, Marković has been employing provocative excessiveness, from the performances and actions to the video-documents. Direct criticism of disorders that affect the social tissue has been the commonplace of his work. This has often been expressed in the actions he performed on his own body, which absorbs and directly materializes the pain. For example, The Self-Eater and Needling (2008) included autodestructive behavior and self-cannibalism. 4 However, his reliance on the radical body-art practices has somewhat abated lately.

Ksenija Orelj

It has stretched onto a wider range of modalities and settled beyond the aspect of suffering and referring on his own body. The Voice 99%, i.e., the video work 99 was created in the aftermath of the protest movement Occupy Wall Street and mass protests following the murder of the young African American Martin Trayvon, which was committed by a white police officer. The art-punk band consisting of Marković, Željka Blakšić and Kolja Gjoni have set to music the maxim of the public demonstration, We Are All Like One, which they perform using sign language, as an artistic gesture of rebellion against racism and violence, gesture that mirrors reciprocity of violence and social practice of playing deaf. Twists and turns in Marković’s art biography, from the explosive expression of anger to its abatement and transformation into a silent rebellion, and back again, are manifested in correlation with the main topic – the body as the common habitat, the instrument of fine motor functions, the place of social and economic spasms, the carrier of defiance. Let us recall his work The Pissed Pants, where the artist says: bought as the cheapest pants for the poorest people, made in Bangladesh (visible on the label), where the cheapest workforce are children. Here the underwear is exposed together with a hidden context of the frantic market that builds its strength by using the unprotected labor force. By scaring the pants off people. Paraphrases of acute breakdowns in current societal sphere are constantly presenting themselves in triads – first, references to dysfunctions of public institutions, next, the rhetoric which attempts to make such state of affairs seem normal and consequently leads to spreading the feeling of resignation; and lastly, the experiential, not theoretical, helplessness of an individual, which, however, does not imply the final defeat. Defeatism and the feeling of helplessness are more like obstacles on our everyday path of persistence, whose existence we unwillingly admit. 56

Geometry of Violence

The artist’s work may at times seem to be somewhat harsh and austere as it is close to a subversion of conventional modes of behavior. Marković’s approach is certainly not restrained; he evokes the tones of emotions that are rarely allowed to seep into the decorative social rhetoric emulating the Hollywood-style attitudes towards both life and death. 5 His approach bypasses the official politics and unmasks its double code of expression, which is loud and ecstatic when it serves the interests of protected groups, but restrained when it comes to dealing with real issues. This double code pursues the policy of peaceful coexistence, but it carries it out very odd ways, under barrage of military commands. The pyramid is reversed again. The aim is to penetrate the economy of human relations, the alliance of economic and psychosocial matters that affirm the advancing culture of individualism and self-sufficiency. One of the analogies includes the accepted, but also refuted, Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. Safety and physiological needs are at the very base of the pyramid, love and sense of belonging, defined as social needs, are in the middle, while self-esteem and self-actualization are at the top. The analogies with today’s society, with the selected few sitting on the throne, seem not solely accidental. While some people have the opportunity for self-actualization, those at the bottom share risks and insecurities of life. According to labor market data, which include pretty amazing figures, the ratio of annual salaries received by 100 top-quality executives (CEO) and annual salaries received by regular workers (Average Worker) was 40:1 in 1970; in 2006, though, it rose to 1723:1...There is an alarming feeling that high-quality managers and executives, the billionaires, earn 1000 57

Ksenija Orelj

times more than their average employees, but they are not 1000 times smarter, 1000 times more suitable, nor do they work 1000 times harder. In other words, the extent of inequality we currently witness in America cannot be the result of excellence. 6 Marković often explores the monopolistic positions that establish the unequal relations, and he does that precisely in the “civilized” environments which hide their militant history behind flashy backdrops. It is worth to mention the installation titled Tesla Files, which consists of a quest for marks left by Tesla in New York, the quest that follows the abandoned potential of Tesla’s inventions, in contrast to the lucrative use of his work. Marković moves around New York, investigating the surroundings of the formed Tesla’s habitat, and moves to other places, such as the scaffoldings, where he worked himself. He has learned that the cheapest workforce in America are the Mexicans, who coined the expression Mucho trabajo poco dinero / Lot of work, little money, and he notes that the large number of illegal immigrants who are exploited as wage workers, but who accept such conditions for fear of deportation. Documentary fragments and drawings, biographically related to the artist’s migration to New York open the chronicles of an unadjusted individual, an individual who chose to defy the dominant principle of moving the body to the rhythm of corporate capital. The spreading of resignation reminds too much of a programmed reaction anyway. The solution, therefore, may lie in crushing the served models of reaching pleasure, in which the climax is always delayed. Finally, in Bauman’s words, solidarity may be evoked with 58

Geometry of Violence

a touch that does not suffocate, nor does it push away; a touch that respects the form of the body being touched – body as a living form, not just a statistical unit.

1 www.scribd.com/doc/243010619/Zygmunt-Bauman-Teku%C4%87a-Modernost #scribd 2 The action was realise without permission, comp. https://vimeo.com/127031186 3 Stephen Connor, The Book of Skin, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2004, p. 90 4 Comp., Suzana Marjanić, Izvedba političke kuhinje..., Stud. ethnol. Croat., vol. 23, Zagreb, 2011, p. 93 – 123 5 Comp., www.ipu.hr/uploads/documents/2288.pdf 6 Comp., www.snv.hr/file/attachment/file/knjigocid.pdf

Ksenija Orelj

Popišane gaće

The Pissed Pants

The Measure of All Things in Global Crisis

Marko Marković’s artistic practice juxtaposes the personal and the common, body art and public actions, offering a critical statement on contemporary societies. It is a reflection on the of communities to reverse current hierarchic distribution of power. Through his art practice, Marković became part of different communities. After working with people affected by transition in Croatia, he merged with those affected by global transition. Marković is both observer and participant in these recent historic events, which allows him to be objective, but also directly involved. Sharpening (2012) was performed at the first police barricade in the Security Zone of Wall Street during the American Spring in New York, while Applause (2013) was performed with random passersby at Gezi Park in Istanbul when the artist applauded the citizens, admiring their actions. Regarding citizens’ right-to-the-city protests against devastation of public spaces in Zagreb (2006), Maroje Mrduljaš pointed out the importance of cooperation between performance artist and citizens’ actions, noting that the citizens’ initiatives need common program or a political culture of a new type that could oppose to the domination of political marketing and inability of direct action through democratic institutions. 1 Within earlier action Exemplary Suit (2011), Marković engaged employees of bankrupted textile factory Uzor to make him suit which he wore while reading out the workers’ rights. By doing so, he both employed them, engaging them in the production of artwork, and was viewed as worker, having “borrowed” his voice to those whose voices are either unheard or censored. Marković emphasised again the correlation between clothing, industrial production and social standards in series of objects The Pissed Pants (2014). The size of the panties, produced by the cheapest working force, is universal – they fit any citizen of any social and geopolitical system, for the global economic crisis can make 63

Sonja Jankov

anyone frightened enough to piss their own pants. In the capitalist society which precisely calculates how indebted every new-born is, from its first breath, The Pissed Pants stands as one of the most descriptive portraits of today’s citizens. In their book Mortgaged Lives: From the Housing Bubble to the Right to Housing, Ada Colau and Adriá Alemany note that the State facilitated the confusion between the right to housing and the guarantee of access to easy credit, which drove the impulse towards private property beyond reasonable limits and put a better part of the population deep in debt. 2 Debts within the monopoly-based market were, in their best part, influenced by deindustrialization that caused high unemployment rate. Referring to debts in republics of former SFR Yugoslavia, Marković performed Work Saves (2012), piercing his chest skin with badges that contain logotypes of various Yugoslav factories and corporations. The visualised physical pain appears as embodiment of aggression upon the social body and aftermath of forced shutdown of industry is something we all sense on our own skin, as Marković visualized it. 3 According to Henry Dreyfuss and Ernst Neufert, ergonomic designers, all that matters is the articulation of the interaction of body and machine on the surface of the interface. 4 It is the improved relation between a body and a machine that enables the highest productivity rate. This view of body represents a shift in human engineering from mechanical prostheses that were added to a body by purpose of increasing its physical and psychological abilities. In Marković’s work, this interface is his very skin, but it can be recognised also in works The Pissed Pants, or the Exemplary Suit produced by workers of bankrupted factory, but it no longer serves to increase the efficiency of workers. The interface today serves to increase the ability to locate the body, as indebted item, within the globalizing machinery of capitalism. 64

The Measure of All Things in Global Crisis

In majority of his works, Marković refers to aggressive dominance of capitalism. For the installation Production of Heritage (2014), he turned a golden chain, a traditional gift he received at birth, into 24-carat gold dust, placed in two lines at a mirror. He feels that carrying gold on his body is no longer enough – the gold must be inhaled in order to survive in today’s capitalist society. It was exhibited along with his mother’s golden teeth, as representative of family heritage and golden coin with the portrait of Tito, resembling history of the region he comes from. After the death of the gold standard, gold also represents devaluation of dollar for 96% over the past hundred years. In 1971 president Richard Nixon proclaimed independence of dollar from gold, which influenced the collapse of Bretton Woods and the gold-exchange standard that was established after WW II. The result is a loss of confidence in the current monetary system, which, of course, is equivalent to a loss of confidence in central banks’ ability to restore stability. 5 Srećko Horvat claims that even contemporary economy as libidinal economy, using the term coined by the French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard in 1974: During Bill Clinton’s successful presidential campaign against sitting President George Bush Senior, the most memorable slogan was definitely It’s economy, stupid (1992). If after the 2008 financial crisis Slavoj Žižek could rephrase it into It’s the political economy, stupid!, with the newest Martin Scorsese’s film (The Wolf of Wall Street) we could say: It’s the libidinal economy, stupid! Desires and drives not only form and govern individuals, they underlie capitalism, too. 6 In return, citizens reacted by massive protests, reversing the pyramidal social structures and endeavouring to transform the society from the bottom up. Exhibiting materials collected during the Occupy Wall Street protests in a public institution such as Museum, Marković enabled local community to feel as participant. 65

Sonja Jankov

Photo documentation of The Wall (2015), reconstruction of the citizens’ occupation of the Brandenburg Gate in 1989, was exhibited beside photography of actual occupation, having in mind narratives preserved for future generations, but also invoking current citizens to action. Marković’s works also actualize the symbolic destruction of the building site, at the time when removal and destruction are constituent parts of architectural production, to the extent when the cheapest process of their demolition is already calculated in the price of production. That brings out the fact that even architecture is being made with short expiry date in order to leave place for new product to be sold. 7 Marković constantly highlights struggles of citizens and communities to improve their living standards. Apart from the events related to the American Spring, participatory actions of the community came to focus once again in 2012 which was the pilot year of the Participatory Budget Project in New York. Around 8,000 people decided how to spend almost $6 million across four city districts, improving their schools, parks, streets and public spaces. 8 Participatory budgeting is one of contemporary definitions of citizen’ rights, while the problem of misinterpreting them is something Marković always turns to. One of his latest actions is Signing the Parliament (2015) which was an act of claiming that the Parliament belongs to all citizens, not only to those who decide within its premises.

The Measure of All Things in Global Crisis

1 Srećko Horvat and Maroje Mrduljaš, Politics of Space, in: Život umjetnosti 83, Zagreb: Institute of Art History, 2008, p. 51- 52 2 Ada Colau and Adriá Alemany, Mortgaged Lives: From the Housing Bubble to the Right to Housing, Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press, Los Angeles/Leipzig/London, 2012, p. 32 - 33 3 Fotodocumentation of this performance was exhibited at the group exhibition From Within the Giant’s Belly, MMSU, august – september, 2015 4 John Harwood, The Interface: Ergonomics and the Aesthetics of Survival, in: Dianne Harris (ed.) Governing by Design: Architecture, Economy, and Politics in theTwenteth Century, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012, p. 130 5 www.zerohedge.com/news/41-years-after-death-gold-standard-look-how-we-ended-economic purgatory 6 www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/01/it-libidinal-economy-stupid-20141199173030 2886.html 7 Luisa Lorenza Corna and Alan Adam Smart, Building Downwards, review of Keller Easterling, Subtraction, Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2014, www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/building downwards 8 See, Josh Lerner and Donata Secondo, By the People, For the People: Participatory Budgeting from the Bottom Up in North America, in: Journal of Public Deliberation, www.democracyspot. net/2012/12/31/13-new-articles-on-participatory-budgeting/

Sonja Jankov

Smrt

Death

Marko Marković rođen je 1983. u Osijeku. Diplomirao je na Umjetničkoj akademiji u Splitu 2007. Radi u različitim medijima, od crteža i instalacija do performansa, akcija i intervencija u javnom prostoru, koji često uključuju druge sudionike i aktiviraju publiku. Bavi se i glazbom te je jedan od frontmena u art punk bendu Ilija i Zrno Žita. Dobitnik je Nagrade Radoslav Putar 2011. za najboljega mladoga vizualnog umjetnika u Hrvatskoj. Sudjelovao je na izložbama, videofestivalima i festivalima performansa, npr., Međunarodni filmski festival Rhode Island, Rhode Island, SAD; Performans program Seminar, Pioneer Works, New York; Otvoreni ateljei Bushwick, Bushwick, New York, SAD, (2013.); Samit laserske grafike, Künstlerhaus Beč, Austrija; Hrvatski krajolik, Institut za suvremenu umjetnost, Zagreb, Hrvatska; DOPUST – Dani otvorenog performansa, Court Square, Galerija MC, New York, SAD; T-HT nagrada, Muzej suvremene umjetnosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska (2014.); Mjesec performansa, Berlin, Njemačka; Aproprijacije – Program performansa, Galerija Michaela Stock, Beč, Austrija (2015.). Recentne su samostalne izložbe Raised Fist, Multimedijalni kulturni centar Split; Američko proljeće, Institut za suvremenu umjetnost, Zagreb (2013.). Od 2006. sudjelovao je i u rezidencijalnim programima The Kitchen, New York (2006.), ISCP, New York (2012.), te Simpoziju Alanica, u Vladikavkazu, Sjeverna Osetija, Rusija (2013.). Pokretač je Udruge za istraživanje i promicanje izvedbenih umjetnosti DOPUST i festivala Dani otvorenog performansa. Od 2012. do 2014. radio je kao asistent u studiju Matthewa Barneya u New Yorku. Organizirao je izložbe i performans-programe The Crew i The Crew 2, na kojima su se predstavljali umjetnici iz studija Matthewa Barneya. Trenutačno živi i radi u Beču.

Biografija

Marko Marković was born in 1983 in Osijek, Croatia. He graduated from the Arts Academy in Split in 2007. Marković employs different media, from drawings, installations and performances to public space actions and interventions, which often engage viewers and external participants. He is also occupied with music, as one of the vocals of the art punk band lija i Zrno Žita. In 2011, Marković won the Radoslav Putar Award for the best young visual artist in Croatia. His works have been featured in exhibitions, video and performance festivals; among more recent are, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Rhode Island, US; Performance Program Seminar, Pioneer Works , NY; Bushwick Open Studios, Bushwick, NY, US (2013); Summit of Laser Graphics, Künstlerhaus Vienna, Austria; Croatian Landscape, Institute for Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia; DOPUST – Days of Open Performance New York, performance, Court Square, MC Gallery, NY, US; T-HT award, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Croatia (2014); Month of Performance Art Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Appropriation Performance Program, Michaela Stock Gallery, Vienna, Austria (2015). Recent solo shows are, Raised Fist, Multimedia Cultural Center, Split; American Spring, Institute for Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia (2013.). In addition, Marković participated in residency programs The Kitchen, New York (2006), the ISCP, New York (2012) and the Alanica Symposium,Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, Russia (2013). Marko Marković is the founder of DOPUST - the Association for Exploration and Promotion of Performance Arts, and the initiator of the Days of Open Performance. From 2012 to 2014 he worked as an assistant at the Matthew Barney Studio, New York. He organized and curated exhibitions and performance programs The Crew and The Crew 2, which presented the artists from the Matthew Barney Studio. Marković currently lives and works in Vienna.

Biography

American Spring Crteži i kolaži Occupy Wall Street, New York, 2012.

Aplauz Videodokumentacija performansa sa slučajnim prolaznicima, Gezi Park – Istanbul, 2013., Kamera: Teoman Madra

Art is Dangerous Fotodokumentacija performansa, Frieze Art Fair, New York, 2014.

Bauštela Fotografije, pigment print, New York, 2012.

Dekonstrukcija Video, boja, zvuk, 15’41’’, New York, 2012.

Dokumenti kretanja Fotokopije, New York, 2012. – 2014.

I Love New York Fotodokumentacija performansa, New York, 2015., Foto: Željka Blakšić

Janje Video, boja, zvuk, 5’46’’, Long Island City – New York, 2012.

Izvrnute piramide Crtež na računu ConEdison kompanije za opskrbu električnom energijom, New York, 2013. Skice za redizajn logotipa modne kuće Alberto Makali – odbijeni crteži, 2013.

OWS File Fotografije, pigment print, New York, 2015.

Parada pobjednika Intervencije na fotografijama vojne parade u Moskvi, 2015.

Popišane gaće Ready made (tekstil, epoxy smola), New York, 2014.

Potpisivanje parlamenta Fotodokumentacija akcije, produkcija DOPUST i Galerija Michaela Stock, Beč, 2015., Foto: Sandro Đukić

Posjetnice Printevi, New York, 2012. – 2014.

Produkcija naslijeđa Jugoslavenski zlatnik s portretom Josipa Broza Tita, majčini zlatni zubi, 24-karatno zlato u prahu, ogledalo, 2014.

Izloženi radovi

American Spring Drawings and collages Occupy Wall Street, New York, 2012

Applause Video-documentation of the performance with random passersby, Gezi Park – Istanbul, 2013, Camera: Teoman Madra

Art is Dangerous Photo-documentation of the performance, Frieze Art Fair, New York, 2014

Building site Photographs, pigment print, New York, 2012

Deconstruction Video, color, sound, 15’41’’, New York, 2012

Documents of moving Photocopies, New York, 2012 – 2014

I Love New York Photo-documentation of the performance, New York, 2015, Photo: Željka Blakšić

The Lamb Video, color, sound, 5’46’’, Long Island City – New York, 2012

The Reversed Pyramids Drawing on the invoice of ConEdison, electric service provider, New York, 2013 Sketches for the re-design of the logo of Alberto Makali clothing company – the rejected drawings, 2013

OWS File Photographs, pigment print, New York, 2015

The Winner’s Parade Interventions on the photographs of the military parade in Moscow, 2015

The Pissed Pants Ready-made (textile, epoxy resin), New York, 2014

Signing of the parliament Photo-documentation of the action, Production DOPUST and Gallery Michaela Stock, Vienna, 2015, Photo: Sandro Đukić

Business Cards Prints, New York, 2012 – 2014

Production of Heritage Yugoslavian golden coin with the portrait of Josip Broz Tito, mother’s golden teeth, 24-carat gold dust, mirror, 2014

Exhibited Works

Putopis Video, boja, zvuk, 60’, 2015.

Sandy Video, boja, zvuk, 5’55’’, Red Hook, Brooklyn – New York, 2012.

Smrt Fotodokumentacija performansa, Marko Marković i Nina Ber, 2014.

Stupovi civilizacije Fotografski diptih, lokacija na azijskoj i europskoj strani – Istanbul, 2015.

Tesla Files Crtež, tinta na papiru; stilovi iz videa, New York, 2015.

Test formule 1 i 2 Crteži na papiru, New York, 2014.

Test objekti 2.1 i 3.1 Pijesak, pigment, epoksid, New York, 2014.

Tito was a punk rocker Crteži, pigment print, Beč, 2015.

Vize Potvrde o radu u raznim kulturnih ustanovama radi izrade umjetničke vize, New York, 2012. – 2015.

Vučja ljubav Video, c/b, 1’06’’, Beslan, Sjeverna Osetija, Rusija, 2013., Kamera: Dean Kaluđerović

Zaoštravanje Videodokumentacija performansa, Prva policijska barikada u Sigurnosnoj zoni, Wall Street – New York, 2012.

Zvijer Videodokumentacija akcije, Bowling Green park – New York, 2012. Kamera: Domagoj Blažević

The Wall Fotografski diptih, fotografija građanske okupacije Brandenburških vrata, 1989.; fotodokumentacija performansa – rekonstrukcija građanske okupacije, 2015. Berlin, Njemačka

Wall of Fame Radna odjeća i pribor, bauštela i studio Matthewa Barneya, New York, 2012. – 2014.

99 Videodokumentacija peformansa, ISCP – New York, 2012. Izvođači: Marko Marković – vokal, Željka Blakšić – bas gitara, Kolja Gjoni – bubanj

Izloženi radovi

Travel book Video, color, sound, 60’, 2015

Sandy Video, color, sound, 5’55’’, Red Hook, Brooklyn – New York, 2012

Death Photo-documentation of the performance, Marko Marković & Nina Ber, 2014

Pillars of Civilization Photo diptych, European and the Asian side – Istanbul, 2015

Tesla Files Drawing, ink on paper; stills from the video, New York, 2015

The Test Formulas 1 and 2 Drawings on paper, New York, 2014

Test objects 2.1 and 3.1 Sand, pigment, epoxy, New York, 2014

Tito was a punk rocker Drawings, pigment print, Wienna, 2015

Visas Letters confirming engagement in cultural institutions, needed for the issuance of an artist visa, New York, 2012 – 2015

The Wolf Love Video, b/w, 1’06’’, Beslan – North Caucasus, 2013, Camera: Dejan Kaluđerović

Sharpening Video-documentation of the performance, the first police barricade in the Security Zone, Wall Street – New York, 2012

The Beast Video-documentation of the action, Bowling Green Park – New York, 2012 Camera: Domagoj Blažević

The Wall Photo diptych; Photo of the citizens’ occupation of the Brandenburg Gate, 1989; Photo-documentation of the performance – Reconstruction of the citizens’ occupation of the Brandenburg Gate, 2015. Berlin, Germany.

Wall of fame Working clothes and accessories, building site and studio of Matthew Barney, New York, 2012 –2014

99 Video-documentation of the performance, ISCP – New York, 2012 Bend: Marko Marković – vocal, Željka Blakšić – bass guitar, Kolja Gjoni – drums

Exhibited Works

Izdavač – publisher Muzej moderne i suvremene umjetnosti / Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Za izdavača – for the publisher Slaven Tolj

Prijevod, korektura – Translation, Proofreading Lidija Toman

Lektura i korektura – Proofreading and Language Editing Gordana Ožbolt

Fotografije – Photo Credits Kristina Barišić str. / p. 10, 12, 14, 54, 57, 58, Sandro Đukić str. / p. 50, 51, Marko Marković

Grafičko oblikovanje – Graphic Design Marino Krstačić-Furić & Ana Tomić

Tisak – Printing Kerschoffset, Zagreb

Naklada – Print Run 300

Broj kataloga – Catalogue No. 342

Impressum

Marko MarkoviÄ&#x2021;

The Reversed Pyramids

Izvrnute piramide