Ivana Ivković

Ivana Ivković presents THE BASE OF TRUST Saturday June 8th at Non Canonico Gallery, Belgrade.

THE BASE OF TRUST is a continuation of earlier research by artist Ivana Ivković in the domain of delegated performance and experimental forms of performing practices. It is the prologue of the complex regional project MONUMENT OF TRUST, which is realized in various gallery and public spaces as well as institutions and in cooperation with a number of authors. The focus of this project is the phenomenon of corruption and its effects on social flows. As a symptom or state of mind in society, corruption penetrates deep into the pores of the system and various relationships, creating pressure and a feeling of uncertainty, humiliation, and powerlessness in the individual. The thematic framework of the work includes the issue of trust and hypocrisy in a broader sense, and from an ethical point of view, it problematizes the feeling of irreversible betrayal. Not only referring to the speculative connections between crime and the state but also to corruption in everyday interpersonal relations, the work starts with the question of whether taking responsibility is even a potentially feasible act today.

Situated in the intimacy of a salon apartment that is also an exhibition space—the Non Canonico Gallery—this chamber performance symbolically manifests the hidden and behind-the-scenes when it comes to corruption but also returns to the field of personal relationships, responsibility, and the possibilities of trust. In this project as well, Ivana Ivković continues to deal with issues of patriarchy and heteronormative models, looking at corruption as a cause and effect of an oppressive system, and the male body, as in previous works, is a representation of action on gender frames and stereotypical expectations. Through the constant inversion of the gaze between male bodies on the one hand and the audience on the other, the performance also functions as a mirror that reflects all these issues, historical contexts, prejudices, and taboos present in different societies, as well as the complex relationship between the individual and the surrounding world.

Curators of the MONUMENT OF TRUST project are Miroslav Karić and Sanja Kojić Mladenov, playwright Jordan Cvetanović, actors Željko Maksimović and Đorđe Živadinović Grgur, composer Anja Đorđević, dp and editor Vladan Obradović, and a larger group of performers and other collaborators also participate. The next act of the project THE PORT OF TRUST will be realized in September in Podgorica in cooperation with the NGVU gallery and Jelena Janković, within the framework of the Festival of International Alternative Theater (FIAT) as well as in the ART Gallery (Museums and Galleries of Podgorica). The prologue – THE BASE OF TRUST was produced in cooperation with Non Canonico Gallery.