Željka Blakšić

16mm film

2023

This experimental film, created in collaboration with composer Quinsin Nachoff, is part of the multimedia project Patterns from Nature. It was screened alongside live music performed by a local chamber orchestra at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto and Lang Recital Hall in New York City. The film employs five distinct analog techniques to explore the visual language of natural and human-made patterns, transitioning between images of dried mud, polygonal networks found in the polar regions of Earth and Mars, and dried blood droplets used in medical or forensic diagnosis. These disparate forms highlight the delicate balance between structure and decay, focusing on the cracks that appear in rigid environments as they break down. Through this interplay of formation and dissolution, the film reflects on resilience—the capacity for structures to emerge, evolve, and heal even under challenging conditions.

Collection_1

Installation (16mm film, series of sculptures and prints, publication)

2016 - ongoing

“Stitch the Ruin” project reflects on the conceptual, historical, and social concerns regarding clothing production by overlapping history of textile industries on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia (the Broken Industries) and our current fast fashion over-consumption. Collection_1 holds two meanings, common term in fashion industry referring to a seasonal production of different styles and an action or process of collecting something.
Project consists of a 16mm experimental film, series of sculptures and prints, and an artist book. In the film, we can see interconnected microscopic images of textiles, infrared views of a polluted landscape and repurposed sixty-year-old educational films from the US, all combining in a hypnotizing montage of original imagery. Growing up in times of extreme political turmoil and conflicts caused by the disintegration of Yugoslavia, repurposing used clothes from famous Hrelich Flea Market is a practice that comes with a level of agency and skill sharing. Looking closely at these old textiles and garments, focusing on details like stitching and tags, I explore the knowledge of time and labor. These are the stills from a 16mm film depicting extreme close ups of some garments I gathered from Hrelich over the years.
One of the tags read: SUVREMENA ŽENA, which means the Contemporary Woman (name of one of the closed factories).
Series of sculptures called “the tentacles” is inspired by the discarded garments which sink to the ocean floor, only to rise again forming long arms of writhing fabric.

16mm film installation

Performance

Publication

SYN is a multidisciplinary, time-based, collaborative, direct, and almost structured exercise that brought together a group of people who may or may not have known each other from before. People who work inside or outside the institutions are part of the local subcultures or other types of communities in Dubai. What we all have in common is the love for film or curiosity for what film can do. We all met while I was doing a research as part of the Alserkal Residency. My attempt was to present a portrait of a city that intertwines different personal narratives and also political ideals of local youth. With this approach, I demonstrate how art is crucial in creating unconventional spaces for evolving collectivity, debate and imagination. The politics of lived time and particular societal conditions are presented here through a short experimental film titled SPLICE DXB, as well as a publication, performance and some prints.

Special thanks to WYWY for creating the music and performing it live for the performance, Dubai skaters (Hany, Nino, Abby, Macqk, AJ and friends), H&N Camera Repairs (Rashid Hakim and his wife Majedah Rashid); thejamjar Community Arts Space; Universal American School of Dubai that participated in a first direct filmmaking workshop; participants in the second film workshop, who collectively worked on a film from which some still frames are used in the publication; Engy Ehab for designing the publication; Angel-O for documenting workshops and the performance, Leah Kelly for the text and all the wonderful Alserkal Avenue crew.

16mm film

3min

Short experimental film made in collaboration with the composer Quinsin Nachoff for his composition March Macabre, from the album Path of Totality. It features tap dancer Orlando Hernández in both the film and music. 
The film explores themes of the current political climate, immigration, order and freedom.

Musicians: David Binney, Matt Mitchell and Kenny Wollesen.
Guest musicians layering to create a Big Band: Carl Maraghi, Dan Urness, Matt Holman, Ryan Keberle and Alan Ferber.

Series of prints, 2017

“The third way” (working title) is a project that integrates video, sound, photographs, text, objects, and reproductions of a personal archival material. It originated from my research-intensive practice and my passion for collecting of objects, texts and archival footage from Eastern Europe, more specifically Yugoslavia, a country I was born in that ceased to exist in the early 90s. The project is realized through two critical enquiries: The first examining archival material of START and the second looking to the contemporary spatial implications of architecture purchased under Yugoslavian regime in the heart of the West.           

The starting-point of this research is 485th issue of START, a magazine published in the summer of 1985. START was one of the most popular liberal newspapers in the seventies and eighties throughout the territory of former Yugoslavia. START’s journalists interviewed key people from the region and significant international names such as: Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, Arthur Miller or Günter Grass. It’s hybrid nature combined the characteristics of a newspaper that featured erotic elements with those of an intellectual magazine focused on progressive, emancipatory and critical analysis of current affairs that brings to light the various use of sexual discourse in the cultural and political context of socialism. The magazine was slowly dying as the dissolution of Yugoslavia approached and it finally went out of print in 1991. The project I am developing combines moving image works with a series of prints and objects relying on photographs, texts and illustrations found in this publication. I am suspending the archival material in motion, applying subtle interventions and presenting this material in an experimental new context. As Yugoslavia never did quite acknowledge belonging to the Eastern Block it maintained a more liberal, market-oriented economic policy which in many ways was further reduced by the freedom of movement and labor flexibility Yugoslav citizens enjoyed. As a result of this generally casual approach to border control and movement of people and labor, country also exhibited a less conventional approach to the topic of sex through this openness to the West.       

“New Generation” (working title) is a project that integrates video, sound, photographs, text, objects, and reproductions of a personal archival material. It originated from my research-intensive practice and my passion for collecting of objects, texts and archival footage from Eastern Europe, more specifically Yugoslavia, a country I was born in that ceased to exist in the early 90s. The project is realized through two critical enquiries: The first examining archival material of START and the second looking to the contemporary spatial implications of architecture purchased under Yugoslavian regime in the heart of the West.           

The starting-point of this research is 485th issue of START, a magazine published in the summer of 1985. START was one of the most popular liberal newspapers in the seventies and eighties throughout the territory of former Yugoslavia. START’s journalists interviewed key people from the region and significant international names such as: Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, Arthur Miller or Günter Grass. It’s hybrid nature combined the characteristics of a newspaper that featured erotic elements with those of an intellectual magazine focused on progressive, emancipatory and critical analysis of current affairs that brings to light the various use of sexual discourse in the cultural and political context of socialism. The magazine was slowly dying as the dissolution of Yugoslavia approached and it finally went out of print in 1991. The project I am developing combines moving image works with a series of prints and objects relying on photographs, texts and illustrations found in this publication. I am suspending the archival material in motion, applying subtle interventions and presenting this material in an experimental new context. As Yugoslavia never did quite acknowledge belonging to the Eastern Block it maintained a more liberal, market-oriented economic policy which in many ways was further reduced by the freedom of movement and labor flexibility Yugoslav citizens enjoyed. As a result of this generally casual approach to border control and movement of people and labor, country also exhibited a less conventional approach to the topic of sex through this openness to the West.          

The second element of this work is a video I will record at the Beeckman’s Mansion at 67th Street in NY, currently home to Serbia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations. This mini-Palace of Versailles was built in 1905 and has a very intriguing history; including attempted bombings, assassinations, imagined identities and hopes for a system of governing. It’s a designated landmark designed by Warren & Wetmore and was purchased by the Yugoslav government post-World War II. For decades, it hosted world leaders during their visits to New York. In 2016, the republics that made up the Yugoslav nation agreed to sell this property after 24 years of negotiations. The work examines this nostalgia for the past which is often mixed with the utopian memory of a socialist society, where the selling of this unique historical place, for me, becomes an allegory for the true and final end of Yugoslavia.

Work in Progress was installed at at Museum de Los Sures (Video, Series of prints, Ceramic sculptures) 

Documentation: Georg Petermichl and Francis Estrada

And at Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella Italy.

March 10th, 2017

"Point to point" was created for the GAME NIGHT #6

Presented at SOHO20 Gallery as a part of the back to Rethinking Feminism program.

This is a collaborative drawing game where players connect the dots in order to reveal a female revolutionary portrait. Start at the number 1 and draw a line to the number that comes next then connect all the dots in order. When you get to the last number, draw back to the number 1 to reveal the mysterious portrait. Try to guess who is the person you just drew.

http://gamenightnyc.tumblr.com/

Game Night is a series of free public events presenting artist-made games for play under a selected theme. Through playful exchanges created by artists, this series invites participants to interact with works of art and each other, experimenting with creative play as a form of public engagement. This series is organized by Anna Harsanyi and Sheetal Prajapati with generous support from the Awesome Foundation - NYC.

This event was presented in partnership with HeForShe Arts Week, a movement started by UN Women, aiming to achieve gender equality through the empowerment of women.

November & December 2016

Interdisciplinary project made for Sessions, signature program commissioned by Recess

http://www.recessart.org/zeljkablaksicandbrujas/
Blakšić, an interdisciplinary artist, and Brujas, a free form collective of native New Yorkers that uses skateboarding as a means of community engagement, worked collaboratively to transform Recess into a shape-shifting habitat, with a sculptural skate ramp positioned in the space as its physical anchor. The collaboration between Blakšić and Brujas is rooted in Blakšić’s longstanding involvement with counterculture, beginning in the 1990s with activities related to the punk, anarcho, and eco movements in her home country of Croatia. As a result of her background, Blakšić’s artistic practice frequently draws inspiration from the way that these alternative social groups can give voice to new expressions of democracy, justice, and free speech, and her projects often involve sustained, cooperative work with likeminded partners toward these values. Brujas (a Spanish word that translates to “witches” in English) embody countercultural tendencies on all levels of their collective’s identity: from their composition as a group of primarily women of color in the mostly-male, predominately-white arena of skateboarding, through to their use of skateboarding as a mode of resistance toward the dominant forces of gentrification and privatization of public space.

Throughout this two-month project, the organizers hosted skate sessions, workshops, musical events, screenings, and conversations that reflect their commitment to nurturing networks of support and platforms outside of established societal norms. Additionally, the organizers used their time at Recess to produce an experimental documentary and book that capture the collective’s stories and ethos. Over the course of the Session, the products and traces of the workshops remained in the space and intermingled with the works-in-progress related to the documentary and zine. Together, these pieces amounted to a material representation of not only the Brujas, but also of the community that emerged around them during their time at Recess.

Performance, 30min
08/15/2016
Soma Festival in Cluj, Romania
Project was a part of the Artizen Cluj 2016. Its goal was to facilitate cultural and creative interventions in the public space, to reinforce citizens’ empowerment in the city with a focus on public space in transition. Performance took place at Parcul Feroviarilor (Railroad Worker's Park) in Cluj, Romania.

"Through Active Range of Motion, We Come Through" engaged park visitors in a choreographed series of interrelated physical exercises that weave through the park along its architectural paths. The chapters of a performance unfolded in three different locations in the park, responding to each site individually. Reflecting between types—Boxing, Aerobic, Yoga, Soccer Training and Martial Arts found on and inspired by you tube videos— performance used motifs of these physical activities to stimulate ACTIVE and PASSIVE areas of the park.

DRAMA TEACHER: Cătălin Filip

PERFORMERS: Alina Frandeş, Alisa Iuhos, Anette Marka, Cristina Iovanescu, Diana Ionesco, Iona Moldovan, Raluca Salamon, Raluca Varadi, Sara Pongrac

Photo documentation by: Roland Váczi

Performance, 2h
09/10/2016

Museum of Modern Art, NYC
https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/2336?locale=en

Curated by: Recess

In collaboration with Brujas

Snapshots: Camila Chica
Armed with their boards Brujas Skate Crew claimed the Dada Exhibition space on the 2nd floor for one night. They stood and guarded with their skateboards multiple gallery entrances and controlled who can enter the Dada exhibit.

We constructed a set of rules of who is allowed and not allowed in the space and at what time. These rules were different on every entrance and they also rotated every half an hour. For example, for the first 30 minutes only individuals who identify as women or gender neutral. All the rules were set in advance.

10/30/2014 – 11/29/2014

16mm film installation, laser cut leather, prints

AIR Gallery, New York

The exhibition focuses on a group of works entitled "Paradiso", that includes prints, sculptural work and a 16mm film. The film takes place in the historical military port in Pula, Croatia, in front of the Austro-Hungarian fortress Casoni Vecchi. Pula was occupied by multiple external forces until the end of WWII in 1945 when it was integrated into the Socialist Republic of Croatia. Fifty years later, during the Yugoslav wars, Casoni Vecchi was appropriated by the youth culture, becoming a laboratory for new forms of being, informal economies, independent production, and explorations of alternative value systems. The film follows the activities of a young girl around the legendary fortress where the Monteparadiso Festival took residence from 1992 till 2001, becoming a place of resistance and revolt. Subsequently, the festival moved to another venue, and has become one of the longest running punk festivals, leading Pula into the center of the European sub-culture.

“Step by Step” is a print of the musical notation of Blakšić’s earlier project “Whisper–Talk–Sing–Scream”.  Exploring class and gender divisions withinin society, the artist collaborates through music with Croatian activists and independent journalists to compose protest songs giving voice to minority positions in society. The piece endorses various aspects of struggle–including disfranchised workers, young people who have lost their right to education, and individuals who do not fit the heterosexual normativity. The artist utilizes music as a tool to create new waves of mobilization and expanding horizons of political struggles.

Digitized 35mm slides collage, video installation

01/30/2015- 02/22/2015

Gallery Augusta, Finland

The exhibition is enabled by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York's MOBIUS fellowship program.

Curated by: Boshko Boskovic

This project examines the book Burlington (Iowa) “Once upon the time” by Dan Bield and delves into the slide collection and a publication purchased from eBay. The subtitle of the book, A collection of Nostalgic Pictures and other Memorabilia about the Author's Home Town, succinctly gives an explanation of the subject matter. A product of nearly 50 years of living in Burlington, Iowa in the United States this volume is a collection of mostly factual stories and photographs. Through her research Blakšić finds out that Dan had a desire to excel in everything; his painting and his writing and his interest in jazz was monumental. Blaksic takes upon herself to reanimate the photographic slides of Dan Bield and bring new information to the archival materials from half a century ago. The artist acts as an alchemist, carefully reworking each slide with a diverse array of tools. The slides are subjected to miscellaneous processes such as burning, cutting, bleaching, collage and painting. The aim is to achieve transmutation while simultaneously prolonging life to the original artwork and archive as a whole. Each slide is treated as a canvas, producing a myriad of miniature collages which is the first step in this multi layered endeavor. Blaksic then digitizes each reworked slide, scripting a sequence of scenes that are made into a montage of moving images. Blaksic grabs memories that frame the context of the city of Burlington and the author’s affective recollections of his home town, reworking them physically into new forms of art.

Performance, 10min

Zagreb, Croatia 2012 &2013

Commissioned by: URBAN FESTIVAL

Festival of Contemporary Arts in Public Spaces

Exploring the ways in which class and gender divisions in the society can be articulated by means of music, the artist collaborates with local activists, independent journalists, and artists in order to compose protest songs disclosing the minority positions in the society. In her piece Whisper, Talk, Sing, Scream, she endorses various aspects of the same struggle – including disfranchised workers, young people who have lost their right to education, and persons who do not fit the heterosexual normativity – using music for new waves of mobilization and for expanding the horizon of political struggle. In a performance using the form of child-play and children’s song, girls aged 10-12 perform in public space, breaking the common stereotypes according to which children are unable to grasp what goes on in their surrounding and girls should conform to the traditionally female (pre)occupations, linked to the private, never to the public sphere. The artistic procedure in which the weak – children, moreover girls – represent the weak, manifested in the choice of subject, form, and the performers, subverts the usual positions, tackling the issues of the established yet often invisible mechanisms of dominant ideology to which the youngest members of the society are permanently exposed. The performance also has an outspoken educational character, since the preparation process involves girls with a different view of the society, in which various forms of repression are publicly condemned. In this way, the artist promotes equality and encourages public participation in making decisions concerning public issues.

Collaborators: Barbara Matejčić, Petra, Marko Pogačar, Selma Banich, Crvena akcija, Hrvoje Jurić, Marko Marković, Adam Semijalac, Vlatka Blakšić
Drama teacher: Maja Katić
Music advisor: Igor Lumpert
Design: Vlatka Blakšić
In collaboration with:

Hana, Helena, Lorena, Petra i Marta (Dubrava Children’s Theater)

Organized by: [BLOK]

Resistance of the Earth is a multimedia performance that combines documentary film, live music, and a series of experimental 16mm films. The project explores natural disasters—earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and tornadoes—highlighting them as forms of resistance through which nature pushes back against the imbalances humans have created on Earth. Through a combination of visuals, live instruments, and spoken word, the performance reflects on significant events such as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Hurricane Sandy in New York in 2012, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.

The performance features original music composed by Slovenian composer Igor Lumpert, which is performed live on stage. Additionally, eight experimental 16mm films are integrated into the production, projected in various stage settings throughout the performance. These films, which draw from educational films of the 1960s sourced from eBay, are reanimated using direct filmmaking techniques such as collage, scratching, and hand-drawing directly onto the filmstrip. Through this process, themes of destruction, reuse, and renewal are explored, emphasizing the cyclical nature of both human impact and natural resilience.

2011

Two performances made in collaboration with Allison Schlegel, were a part of the project:
CEZNJA: BORN LONGING
(tales and songs from Croatia)
by: Abena Koomson and Kristina Leko.

Ceznja: Born Longing is part of CEC Arts Link's larger project One Big City. This piece stems from an earlier work by Croatian artist Kristina Leko, a 2005 film and photography project Amerika, which offered portraits of five elderly Croatian women living in Astoria, Queens. This project connects these women and others in the Croatian community with a diverse collective of musicians, storytellers, dancers, and art-makers through interviews, community gatherings, and performances. The project culminated in a presentation at The Kitchen, with additional performance in Queens, where many Croatians currently reside. We organized a performance “Bus Ride”, going from Queens to Manhattan, bringing people from the community to The Kitchen (Chelsea neighborhood). Second performance “Happy” was a part of the big event happening at the theater.

2011

Performance

HD video- 3:35 min

16mm film- 8:15 min

Surround sound for 6 speakers

Photographs

The installation focuses on the tale of Annie Taylor, the first woman to plummet down Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1901. Her quest to conquer the Falls was prompted by a desire for fortune, a concept that is present when viewing the modern day spectacle surrounding the Falls. This piece attempts to create a participatory experience for the viewer through various forms of media. It derives from conceptualizations of idealized destinations within the United States and Croatia. We are attempting to find a connection between our seemingly disparate geographical backgrounds to identify the familiar roots of myth and commemoration underlying these particular locations. Inspired by natural areas that have been preserved in our respective countries, we are showing a present day depictions of Niagara Falls. The installation combines videos that depict our experience at Niagara as well as illustrate Annie’s relationship with the Falls.

2006

Video: 16 min

Experimental video diary recorded during a 4-month trip through Poland and Ukraine reflecting day-to-day thoughts/images. Most of the video is edited directly in a H8 camera and it depicts places, stories and different people that I met during my travels. It raises questions of adventures, stereotypes and self-discoveries.

2010

Five channel audio-visual installation with emphasized narrative elements. Narration progresses around keys words mother, father, blood and the song “Kenchulaulau” and follows the destiny of one family. Interweaving past and present classical linear time flow is replaced and the work can be read as a visual poem. Five different videos (two of them are personal archival footage) divergent in tone, style and location but united in their thematic preoccupation create expressive elements, blocks of thoughts that evoke thoughts of dysfunction, memory and nostalgia. The work is abstract and open- ended, but it serves as a response to a certain situation.

2009

Video, 9:30min

The joint work of Željka Blakšić and Lena Kramarić deals with the different lives of cities, as well as our experiences of living in them; their mirroring of Dubrovnik in New York and New York in Dubrovnik unfolds like a documentary movie, direct and open. Two artists enter a small plane/helicopter in the same time, each one in its own city located on the different continent. This is the documentation of their journey. Artists approach the subject of the city in quite a different manner. Synchronized aerial recordings and the intimate experiences of two cities, thousands of miles apart, utterly different, yet globally recognized and connected, opens a possibility of questioning the physical perception of time and imagining potential global condensation of human civilization.

2010

Video, 3:44min

This work is created with my own custom software, written in Max/MSP, and involves the improvisation of images and sounds simultaneously and in real-time. The traditional idea of the programing languages is twisted and changed. I use both the non-functional patches and functional patches created with MAX/MSP plus prerecorded videos found online. Sounds are coming from the Omnichord Suzuki vintage Synthesizer used at once as a video controller but also as an instrument.

2010

Curated by: Moyi Zhang, Zeljka Blaksic, Elizabeth Tolson and supported by Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center.

This show is dedicated to the discovery of new media artists living in the US and China. Some of the selected artists have the experience of living in both countries while others have never been to the other side of the world. Nevertheless, they all use digital media as part of their artistic practice. The show includes three different sections: performance, exhibition, and screening. We consider it as a platform for debate relating to contemporary ideologies, cultural integration and the power of new media. The theme “end to end” is inspired by ideas and research related to end-to-end connectivity and network intelligence. It also refers to the idea of connecting artists from different backgrounds by showing their work together. We are able to exchange images and ideas more rapidly than ever before because of the development of new media. But we are still distanced from each other physically. As the Chinese people became familiar with western ideology and practices they began to fuse their new found knowledge with their historical heritage to put forward truly unique works of art. This show gives voice to representatives of this generation, putting the artists presented here and their works in a broader cultural context. This catalog features thirty-six artists, examples of their work, and short texts about their art.

2013

New York City Center, The Lobby Project

Curated by: Zeljka Blaksic

Organized by: Jeanine Tesori

“GOT EYES” brings together a group of artists whose performance-based practices engage questions pertaining to social, political and gender issues.  In the majority of their performative works, be it video or public intervention, the artist plays the role of the protagonist, who examines the status quo, pushing against the preestablished order so as to uncover something real that is going on. Working with the themes of displacement, migration, stereotypes, struggle and protests they expand the boundaries of both personal and public space.  “GOT EYES” presents their research and experimentation offering a prolific ground to demonstrate their strength and fearlessness.

Monica Rodriguez Medina

Kate Gilmore

Miryana Todorova

Allison Schlegel

Katya Grokhovsky

Allyson Ross & Zeljka Blaksic