Relations: LESBIAN MOVEMENT/25 YEARS OF THE LESBIAN GROUP ŠKUC-LL Ljubljana
Marina Gržinić, Zvonka Simčič, and Aina Šmid
Medium: Video
Issues: Documentary, History, Lesbian History, LGBTQ, and Narratives
Project Links
Description
This documentary video/film is about the 25th anniversary of the lesbian group ŠKUC-LL (1987-2012) and the lesbian movement in former Yugoslavia. Its authors are Marina Gržinić, Aina Šmid, and Zvonka T Simčič. It is a project that visualizes, and defines the context for the movement and of the LGBTQ community within and with relation to politics, economics, culture, arts and legal institutional structures; this contextualization works on two layers: first from the decaying socialism to neoliberal capitalism, and then in the time of the 1990s it depicts the transition to a present, bloody neoliberal global capitalism. The video/film includes analysis of the movement in the EU after 2004 when Slovenia became a member of the EU and includes discussions and analysis of the “climate” that followed the discussions and rejection of a new family code in Slovenia in 2012. The family code was rejected by a referendum in March 2012, the majority decided negatively on basic human rights for same-sex unions and their children. A special place is given in the film to the Pride Parades in the ex-Yugoslavian territory.
Relations presents a variety of processes of marginalization and the struggle for rights of the lesbian and LGBT community in Slovenia and wider in ex- Yugoslavia. It is a struggle for visibility, but also a testimony of the incredible power of the lesbian movement, its artistic and cultural potential, critical discourses, and emancipatory politics. The film consists of interviews, documents, art projects, nightlife, political appearances, and critical discourse. The film also talks about Europe, global world capitalism and the status of lesbians today. Other topics that are covered are alliances, history, the relations and alliances with feminism, gay, transgender and queer, AIDS and the diction of homosexuality. It gives a harsh critique of discrimination, racism, fascism in Europe today. This is a NO budget film as it is made without a single cent of investment by government or NGOs.
Bio
Marina Gržinić is a Doctor of Philosophy and works as researcher and advisor at the Institute of Philosophy at the ZRC SAZU (Scientific and Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Art) in Ljubljana. She also works as a freelance media theorist, art critic and curator. She is Professor at The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Austria. Marina Gržinić has published hundreds of articles and essays and several books.
Zvonka Simčič was active in the beginnings of sexual emancipation in Slovenia with video works in the 1980s. Her works concern the struggle for human rights and are strongly linked to her own experiences in the social space. In 2002, together with Tanja Vujinovć ,(they also worked together for several years as artists), she founded the Automata Institute, which in 2006 split into two separate units. CrossCommunityCreation focuses on the intersections of multimedia arts and social research projects operating in the field of contemporary art and focuses on the intersections of multimedia arts and social research projects operating in the field of contemporary art is led by Simčič. Zvonka Simčič completed her undergraduate (1994) and postgraduate (1996) studies in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana . Since 1988, he has been regularly and frequently exhibiting his works in Slovenia and abroad. The media he uses are installations, video, performance, photography and computer animation.
Aina Šmid is a Professor of art history and has been the editor of a design magazine in Ljubljana for many years. At the present she is freelance writer.
Collaborators
Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid have been involved in video since 1982. They have collaborated in more than 40 video art projects, produced a short feature 16 mm film and numerous video and media installations. They independently directed several video documentaries and television productions. In 1997 they realized an interactive CD-ROM for ZKM, Karlsruhe. Gržinić and Šmid –in their decades long shared engagement — presented and exhibited their video works and video installations in more than 100 video festivals worldwide and have received several major awards. Some of the video works by Gržinić and Šmid are distributed by Video Data Bank, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA. A retrospective of their work made between 1985 – 2003, was held at the Oberhausen International short film festival, Oberhausen, Germany in 2003. A retrospective with the title “30 YEARS: 26 WORKS IN 5 PARTS”, was held at the Gallery D.O.R., Brussels, Belgium in 2011. In 2017 an exhibition with new works and installations, with the title “RADICAL CONTEMPORANEITY – Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid – 35 YEARS OF WORK: revisited” was curated by Aneta Stojnić for KUNSTRAUM LAKESIDE, Klagenfurt, Austria.