Sanja Iveković (1949)
Croatia


Biography :

"Sanja Iveković is an important figure, whose work is instrumental in our understanding of the reconfiguration of roles and gender in today’s art. She was one of the first artists on the Yugoslavian (now Croatian) scene to adopt a feminist standpoint in her work. Since 1989, she has used this perspective to tackle subjects such as the fall of the communist regime and the consequences of the triumph of capitalism and market economy, as well as their influence on living conditions, particularly those of women and the violence women have endured subsequently. S. Iveković studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb from 1968 to 1971. She is part of a generation of artists that emerged after 1968 in Eastern European, working in fields as varied as video, film, installation, performance, interventions, photography (private and official), and collage – her series Double Life (1975) and Bitter Life (1975-1976) juxtapose publicity images and personal photographs. Her eminently critical work focuses on imagery and body politics. In her seminal performance Triangle (1979), she simulated masturbation on her balcony during Tito’s official visit to Zagreb until a policeman rang her doorbell. This initiative paved a transgressive path for many creators in the face of the ideological apparatus, as they were able to regain possession of the public space using the premise “the personal is political”."

The artist also analyzed gender stereotypes, as they appear on television (General Alert: Soap Opera, 1995) or in magazines (Paper Women, 1976-1977). From the 1980s, S. Iveković focused his attention on the issues of democracy and politics, exposing the mechanisms of construction of collective memory and amnesia (Personal Cuts, 1982). . The projects carried out around the 2000s (Gen XX, 1997-2001; The Nada Dimić File, 2000-2002) are dedicated to the women of the Croatian resistance during the war against Nazism, those whose names are now forgotten. His work has been the subject of several retrospectives; she also participated in the 10th and 11th Istanbul Biennials (2007, 2009), documenta 11 (2002), 12 (2007) and 13 (2012) in Kassel, and Manifesta 2 (1998) in Luxembourg." Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Extract from the Universal Dictionary of Designers, 2013. (Source, website, Archives of Women Artists Research & Exhibitions)

Works :
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Country