061008: Tiroler Künstlerschaft / Kunstpavillon: Tanja Ostojic

Tiroler Künstlerschaft / Kunstpavillon: Tanja Ostojic – Integration Impossible? Politically consequent “Looking for a husband with an EU passport” is the title of an advertisement showing a photo of the naked Serbian artist Tanja Ostojic. She “sells” herself on the EU marriage market and thereby makes a clear statement about the practice of intermarriages between EU and non-EU citizens, and relentlessly uncovering its migration-political dimension. A fellow artist from Germany turns out to be a suitable marriage partner. Their first encounter in Belgrade is staged as a public performance. The couple marries, Ostojic applies for a visa, moves to Düsseldorf, attends the required German lessons; in short: she treads the path, which is oftentimes the only way for women into the EU and whose gloomy perspective frequently ends in prostitution or human trafficking. In 2005, Ostojic organizes a divorce party, which takes place during a vernissage. This project, which includes photos, videos, and letters, and is shown in the exhibit “Integration Impossible?” is among Ostojic’s (born 1972 in Uzice, Serbia) most famous works. The most radical reaction to her photograph titled “After Courbet” (referring to the “Origin of the World” 1866 by Gustave Courbet) occured in Vienna in 2005. In this photograph a woman’s lower abdomen is shown clad in EU underpants. The photo had to be taken down after only two days. With “After Courbet” Ostojic focused on viewing the (im)possibilities of belonging to the EU elite-group from a feministic perspective: sex not only sells well, it is oftentimes the entrance fee. The border between performance art and political activism becomes blurred in many of Ostojic’s works, who often draws from her own experience: when her visa application to Austria was rejected (she had been invited by an Austrian art institution in 2000) she successfully attempted an “Illegal Border Crossing”. In her powerful video installation “Naked Life”, Ostojic is shown reading reports about the deportation of the Roma and Sinti, the largest minority groups in Europe. While reading the horrid facts about their deportation, the artist takes of one piece of clothing after the other: all that counts is naked survival. Tiroler Künstlerschaft / Kunstpavillon 6020 Innsbruck, Rennweg 8a, until 8. 11. 2008 www.kuenstlerschaft.at

Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville

Gratis aber wertvoll!
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Kunst braucht Kritik!

061008

Tiroler Künstlerschaft / Kunstpavillon
6020 Innsbruck , Rennweg 8a
Tel: 0043-512-58 11 33, Fax: 0043-512-58 59 71
Email: pavillon@kuenstlerschaft.at
http://www.kuenstlerschaft.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-Fr 10.00-12.00, 14.00-18.00; Sa 11.00 -17.00; So und Feiertage geschlossen

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