Vlasta Delimar, The Wedding | City of Women | Slovenia
In the podcast dichotomies that are present in juxtaposed collages, ideals in gender representation, and the difference between the current historical context and that, in which the artwork was made, are discussed. Such a heroic monument of a woman, which is similar to men in her body proportions and strength was less common than motherly figures, but at the same time she is surrounded by ballerinas, seemingly unstable and fragile in their posture. What would the collage look like, if it was made today, and how could the female view of life be presented in it, are questions that remain open.
Inside this artwork, the interlocutors enter metaphorically as well as literally, as it is an installation. Even if the artwork is built based on the artist's body, it seems to be marked by a disembodied factor, absence, melancholy; like a house without walls or a skeleton, into which we could enter. As we enter the installation, the doorstep bends slightly under our feet and throws us out of balance, while the lightbulb hanging from the steel frame fills us with hope. The conversation concludes with thoughts on the ambivalent idea of safety this can be associated with.
The talk evolves around the tensions of opposites that can be seen in the collage (aggression – gentleness, static – dynamic, entrapment – governing) and analyse its highly-centralized composition, in the middle of which is a nude female figure with Marian symbolism, surrounded by seraphs. As if the author played with ideals and objects of devotion, there are two stars covering the female figure, symbols of ideology and heaven. Just as subverted seems to be the phallic symbolic in the weapon the artist is holding, as if she undermined its destructiveness by appropriating it.
In the podcast, participants discuss a sound of which the photography reminds someone – a constant, unbearable drone – as well as the question, where exactly is the separating line between the body and the instrument. Is the instrument attached to the body or vice versa? The image takes one of the speakers on a journey to a cave, while it also evokes some prejudice about the artist. The conversation is concluded by mentioning the artist’s stories about her initial fear of such performances and how she overcame it.