Caressing

Exhibition The Visible Ones, Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, performance Caressing, in collaboration with artist selma banich and Art Gallery Split.
In the context of the continuous attack on our lives and the normalization of increasingly frequent attempts at social fascism that subordinates us to the violence of gender and moral supremacy – those who kneel and pray, the call to caress puts sensation and touch into experiential focus as a feminist act of rebellion and resistance. We placed the intervention of the “affective” in the broader social and spatial context of Peristyle, as the scene of numerous encounters, conflicts and demonstrations of power, dominated by the performances of politicians, artists, fans, supplicants and tourists. Starting from the experiences of multiple asymmetries, especially those of gender, class and status that define our position in relation to the centers of power, with this intervention we questioned the imposed social norms. Combining the critique of power relations in the sphere of artistic work with the critique of social regimes that, deepening the existing asymmetries, continue to subjugate us, we created a tactile, sensory and edible mobilization of the embodiment of defiance and pleasure.

By caressing, accompanied by eat-art poetry in prose, we called for the empowerment of the multi-layered reality of female energies present in us and around us.

We also performed the piece in April 2025, in Zagreb, on the main square.

MILOVANJE u Zagrebu, performans dvije umjetnice 

Zagrebe,

danas smo neposlušno na desnoj strani trga, zalegle na suncem utopljeni asfalt, liječimo kosti od trnovitog vjetra.

stišćemo se, grlimo, milujemo, naslanjamo vruće obraze jedna na drugu.

trljamo dlanove po leđima prijatelja koji su nas došli podržati, šaljemo pulsiranja od grudi prema ramenima.

 četveroruko tijelo,  daje ravnotežu podno-sivoj. u polaganim okretima, oblaci postaju najljepši promatrači. prolaznici nestaju iz naših kadrova, praiskonski dodiri nikoga ne bude.  

Zagrebe, ljudi su postali odsutni od sebe.

danas smo ostvarene zagljajem ali tvojim sugrađanima emocije su utopljene izgužvane i mlitave, poput plutajućih bubica u fontani Manduševca.

 prizemljujemo se, nakon dva sata netipične hladnoće travnja. ideju ćemo razvijati dalje. o današnjem danu neće pričati ni golubovi.

CARESSING in Zagreb, a performance by two artists

Zagreb,

today we disobediently lay down on the right side of the square, stretched out on sun-warmed asphalt, healing our bones from the thorny wind.

we press into each other, embrace, caress, rest our hot cheeks one against the other.

we rub our palms along the backs of the friends who came to support us, sending pulses from the chest toward the shoulders.

a four-armed body gives balance to the ground-grey.
in slow turns, the clouds become the most beautiful observers.
passersby vanish from our frames, primal touches awaken no one.

Zagreb, people have become absent from themselves.

today, we are filled by an embrace, yet in your citizens’ emotions lie drowned, crumpled, limp, like tiny floating bugs in the Manduševac fountain.

we ground ourselves after two hours of atypical April cold.
we will continue to develop the idea.
not even the pigeons will speak of this day.