The Duty of Woman’s Mane
“The Duty of Woman’s Mane” (2021) is a conceptual performance in the original duration of two and a half hours. It is compiled in a 36-minute video installation. It represents a “prison” in which a woman finds herself due to stereotypical roles imposed on her by society.
Female hair symobolism
Female hair is one of the central symbols of femininity, intimacy, and secrecy. As such, it is woven into Serbian culture also. Hair represents personality, intimacy, desire, lust, etc. Our grandmothers combed it for hours before going to bed. They were hiding it from the view of others. But especially from the touch of other people, men to whom they “do not belong”.
Collaboration of three female artists
This work was created in collaboration by three female artists: Jelena Pavlovic, Ana Miladinovic and Kristina Jovanovic. Visual artist Jelena Pavlovic had the desire to show the position of women in society. Their struggle in the system is against her through a collective video installation. The initial inspiration was a sketch by Ana Miladinovic for a mixed-media artwork. This drawing consists of a woman’s scattered hair being pulled by different hands. It represents the destruction of woman’s power to make independent decisions. Based on that, this collaboration was born. They elaborated this concept together. And included Kristina Jovanovic, a young actress. Because she encounters this kind of pressure, due to her choice of career and the role assigned by society to all women by birth.
The process of making “The Duty of Woman’s Mane”
“The Duty of Woman’s Mane” video installation was recorded with three iPhones to emphasize the impact of technology on our psyche, as it makes it easier for us to become just voyeurs and for the screen to serve as a kind of “protection. That automated recording method was chosen to create an impression of privacy among the participants. But also to provoke them to show and do those things that would otherwise be unacceptable.
The restriction they had was that they were not allowed to communicate in any way other than by touch. They could not see her face while interacting with her, and she could not see their faces either. The selection of participants consisted of people who are close to her and people she had not met before. Unknown participants were selected to represent different categories of the population. Each participant had a limited time of 6 minutes and free will to stop interacting earlier.
Participants
- Milenko Bjekic
- Jordan Cvetanovic
- Vladica Culic
- Vuk Djordjevic
- Ivana Ivkovic
- Snezana Bjekic
- Marina Markovic
- Ana Miladinovic
- Lena Miladinovic
- Marko Miladinovic
- Jelena Pavlovic
- Sana Petronijevic
- Uros Pertronijevic
- Petra Radivojevic-Petronijevic
- Andrijana Pusica
- Marko Vujic
