Maja Smrekar & Manuel Vason
K-9_Topology: Hybrid Family
Berlin, 2016
Series of black&white photos
The Hybrid Family (2015/2016) project creates an empathetic distance to the Other. During a three-month seclusion (at the studio of the Freies Museum Berlin in 2015/16), the artist trained her body to produce breastmilk so she could feed a puppy with her own colostrum. The project deals with the view of the prevalent services underpinning the sociological and ideological status of motherhood, and the instrumentality of breastfeeding turns out to be their derivative in heteronormative society based on the increasingly problematic illusory concept of a traditional family. The project was presented to the public at prearranged visits to the studio, where the visitors could watch the puppy being fed while discussing anthropocentrism and reproductive freedom in heteronormative society with the artist. During the evolution of the project, the artist reflected on humanism, which had placed nature in the position of the Other and people on top of the pyramid to rule over all living organisms. Through the Hybrid Family, Smrekar assumed the position of the Other, in opposition to the cynicism of our time that rejects everything animal, and to say that it is our animality that makes us most human.
Co-curators: Jens Hauser, Jurij Krpan
Consultant endocrinologist: dr. Primož Debevec
Light design and technical consultant: Miloš Vujković
Executive producer: Sandra Sajovic
Production assistant: Katarina Hergouth
Production: Zavod PRAKSA, Ljubljana, Slovenija
Co-production: Galerija Kapelica (Ljubljana) in Freies Museum Berlin (Nemčija)
Supporters: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana, Department of Culture
Photo: Courtesy of the artist
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Maja Smrekar
Opus et domus, 2018
performance, 2018
Opus et domus (2018) correlates to the Hybrid Family project in content and form. The service gesture of turning the spinning wheel involving the entire physical body objectivizes the female body as a means of production. This is increasingly apparent in the time of populism in which the significance of the nation increases, placing also great value on birth rate. Through such social regression the female body is often again sees as property of the state, law and ideology. This is why the artist reverted to this obsolete form of production in her performance, with the advanced technology serving to underline the contrast to the symptom. Smrekar includes her Hybrid Family in her Opus et domus project by producing yarn from dog and human hair, spun into a social fabric that is not defined by technology but by the probability of creating a completely new hybrid relationship. The archetypal relationship of humans and dogs forming a hybrid community thus paraphrases Frans de Waal’s conclusion that “the roots of politics are older than humanity.”
Co-production: Festival Click / Kulturværftet (Helsingør, Danska / Denmark) & Kapelica Gallery / Zavod Kersnikova (Ljubljana)
Supporters: Bikuben Foundation, Danish Arts Council, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana, Department of Culture
Collaborators and consultants: Lovrenc Košenina, Bojana Ažman, Michaela Selmani, Anže Sekelj, Gia Gruden
photo: Sandra Odgaard / Thinkalike
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Maja Smrekar (born in 1978 in Brežice, Slovenia) graduated from the Department of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana and obtained her MA degree from the Department of Video and New Media at the same academy. She works in intermedia, visual and scenic arts. She collaborates with major international institutions, such as Ars Electronica in Linz, Vienna Art Week, ZKM Karlsruhe, Transmediale in Berlin, Het Neuwe Institut in Rotterdam, the RMIT Gallery in Melbourne, and Kulturværftet in Denmark. Over the past decade she has collaborated regularly with the Kapelica Gallery – Kersnikova Institute in Ljubljana. In 2012 she received the Cynetart Award given in cooperation with Hellerau – European Centre for the Arts Dresden (Germany) at the Cynetart Festival; in 2013 the honorable mention at the Ars Electronica Festival (Linz, Austria) and the Golden Bird Award (Ljubljana); in 2017 the Prix Ars Electronica – Golden Nica (Linz) and the Trend Visual Arts Award (Ljubljana); and in 2018 the Prešeren Foundation Award for her achievements in intermedia art
