Neda Kovinic

Statement

In my previous work I have been continuously questioning how body politics, social relations, power structures and ecology are inscribed into bodies and how this in turn shapes our movements in space. The climate crisis, political disorientation, distrust in media language, geopolitical crisis and the permanent war are mapping the circumstances in which I create and towards which I relate to in my artworks. In contrast to the “dark sides of contemporaneity” I suggest creating performative communities, a collective research process and processual approach.

My work consists primarily of participatory performances by artists with different practices and experiences.

I place great emphasis on the principles of fair practices, including the capacity for care, empathy, and closeness. I explore body movement exercising on my own in the context of the spaces or I involve local people and the immediate environment in which the group works and holds rehearsals – be it a forest area, an old building complex with its historical references or a new urban landscape. My exhibitions document the process of collective research in the form of an artistic installation. I often use body movement, drawings that I make during the process as well as writings as part of poetic-theoretical narratives in the performances or I edit field recordings into films or sound files.

GlogauAIR Project

Dionysian Socialism

During my residency at GlogauAIR I would like to continue and extend the research that I conducted during 2022-23 and that was dedicated to the legacy of nudism — known as FreiKörperKultur (FKK) in Germany in the former Yugoslavia.

Since I will find myself at the source of this unique culture, I will be exploring its historical-philosophical background, and its relocations through the map of Europe under the influence of different political ideologies, witnessing that there is no politics that is not body politics.

I am particularly interested in communal and the ecological potential of this practice, with its possibility of reconnecting with nature and non-human. The interaction of public and private, public policies and intimacy are reflected in this phenomena.

Changes in interest towards naturism in public and legally marked places or organized clubs in Germany significantly reflect important contemporary phenomena of hyperproduction and manipulations of images with cell phones and drones. The relationship between public and private, urban infrastructures and intimacy is also reflected in this practice. Furthermore the alienation from nature, fear or disgust from direct contact with the skin and natural elements,

The changes brought by capitalism influenced attitudes toward this unique culture. The cult of the perfect fitness body, which is promoted by social medias, as well as drone and photography overviewing the allglobe and manipulations with images is mostly to blame for the declining of interests in social nudity, particularly in naturists clubs, famous in Germany.

FKK or »free body culture« was brought to Adriatic sea from the West Germany in 1960s. Public attitude on this unique culture has been changed after the war in former Yugoslavia in the nineties, with establishing national states and restoring capitalism. Those changes reflected the political shifts – the rise of nationalism, return of religiosity, consumerism and exploratory relation to the environment.

In the XX century, in Germany in particular, numerous groups emerged that advocated nudism in the context »public health«; they were either left-wing and propagated nudity as an image of equality and liberation, or right-wing and worshiped the ideal of the wild (naked) Germans. In the Nazi era, the nudist movement was forbidden until 1941. After 1945 skinny dipping had spread in GDR and Eastern Europe.

I would like to channel this ongoing research into a site-specific installation and performance at the exhibition space that draws inspiration from the history of naturism embedded within the urban landscape of Berlin. The performance would merge sound material from the field, narration and body gestures and actions abstracted from direct experiences and sensory memories. Similar to other works featured in my portfolio, I will offer workshops at the studio space, open for the participants. I would explore FKK places in Berlin and archives. I would edit the video material and archival material I collect and exhibit it as a video installation.

CV Summary

Neda Kovinic is born in Belgrade in ex-Yugoslavia and lives between Belgrade and Berlin.

• Will participate in the European Pavilion 2024 project, Liquied Becomings.
• PhD in performance and documentary installations, Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade.
• Master of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade.
• Master of Interior design, Faculty of the Applied Arts, Belgrade, Serbia.
• Developed dance practice based on early rhythmic-gymnastic trainings and contemporary dance classes in various European dance centres.
• Since 1996, exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Serbia and abroad. Created ambient installations, forming an art basis close to conceptual art. Her art practice refers to questions of artist labor, care, ecology and politics.
• Akademie Schloss Solitude alumna (2022-23).
• Artworks featured in: Vorspiel / Transmediale / ctm Berlin 2024; 37. Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany, 2024; Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Germany 2023; Manifesta 14 Prishtina, Kosovo, 2022; Artists’ Film International at Whitechapel Gallery London, UK, 2021; Hammer Museum UCLA USA, 2021; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany, 2022, etc.

Gallery