Ivana Ivković

Ivana Ivković presents THE PORT OF TRUST, joint name for two exhibitions and one delegated performance in Podgorica. The exhibition at Gallery ART (Museums and Galleries of Podgorica) is opening on September 8th and the one at Gallery NGVU is opening on September 10th. The performance, as a part of FIAT program, THE PORT OF TRUST will take place on September 14th in public space in Njegoševa Street, at Duke Marko Miljanov Monument.

THE MONUMENT OF TRUST is conceived as a complex regional project to be realized in various gallery and public spaces as well as in institutions and in cooperation with a number of authors within Western Balkan countries. The phenomenon of corruption and its consequences for social dynamics are the main subjects of this project. Corruption seeps deeply into the system and different relationships, causing pressure and a sense of uncertainty, humiliation, and helplessness in the individual. From an ethical perspective, the project’s thematic framework problematizes the sense of irreversible betrayal and addresses trust and hypocrisy in a more general way. referring to both the corruption in regular interpersonal relationships as well as the hypothetical connections between criminal activity and the governments. Continuing to address issues of heteronormative models and patriarchy, Ivković examines corruption as both a cause and an effect of an oppressive system. As in previous works, the use of the male body as a performative tool symbolically represents oppression over gender frames and stereotyped expectations. The performance also serves as a mirror that reflects all these issues, historical contexts, prejudices, and taboos present in various societies, as well as the complex relationship between the individual and the surrounding world, through the constant inversion of gaze between male bodies on the one hand and the audience on the other.

THE BASE OF TRUST, prologue, which opened the project MONUMENT OF TRUST, was set in the intimate setting of a salon apartment that doubles as an exhibition space—Non Canonico Gallery. This chamber performance was a symbolic manifestation of corruption’s hidden and behind-the-scenes aspects while also bringing personal relationships, accountability, and trust-building opportunities back into focus. The first act of this intricate project, THE PORT OF TRUST, will be realized in Podgorica this September in collaboration with the NGVU gallery and Jelena Janković as co-curator. The performance will be realized within the program of the Festival of International Alternative Theater (FIAT). It will also be featured in the Gallery ART (Museums and Galleries of Podgorica). The project then continues with the grand opera-performance DOUBLE TRUST: ARENA announced for 2025 in cooperation with the Eugster II Belgrade gallery

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.

Photos: Filip Koludrović