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Tanja Ostojić

Lexicon of Tanja Ostojić 

Lexicon of Tanja Ostojic is an interdisciplinary, participatory research project, in which I utilize online social media networks as well as collaborations with women with whom I share the same first name and family name. Via personalized sociological research and direct social exchange I intend to create maps that will document how approximately 25 project participants – T.O. – have been migrating, and what identity issues, gender issues and labour conditions concern them. The project’s final results will be published as Lexicon of Tanja Ostojic – a book in printed form and as a multimedia archival art installation. In addition meetings, workshops, Tanja Ostojic Conventions (live events), book launch and guided tours will be initiated and developed together with the women participating in the project.
Key words: art project, family, “homonymy”, identity, interdisciplinary, migration, participatory, patriarchy, female-genealogy, gender issues, labour conditions, research, self, self-determination.

Tanja Ostojić (b. 1972 in Yugoslavia) is an independent performance and interdisciplinary artist and cultural activist, based in Berlin since 2003. Ostojić includes herself as a character in performances and uses diverse media in her artistic researches, thereby examining social configurations and relations of power. She works predominantly from the migrant woman’s perspective, while political positioning, humour and integration of the recipient define approaches in her work.
Since 1994 she presented her work in a large number of exhibitions and venues around the world. She has given talks, lectures and workshops at academic conferences and at art universities around Europe and in the Americas. Her last solo exhibition, a retrospective, was in Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia, (2012).
She is currently interdisciplinary fellow at UDK, University of Arts, Berlin.

Exhibitions / Performances / Festivals 
Solo Exhibitions / selection
2012    Tanja Ostojic: Body, Politics, Agency.. Skuc gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2008    Integration Impossible? Politics of Migration in the Artwork of Tanja Ostojić     Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck, Austria
2005–06    Geo-Bodies: A Question of Boundaries, Kniznik Gallery, Brandeis University, Boston, USA (with Ursula Biemann)
2005   Integration Project Office / Divorce Party, Project Room, Gallery 35, Berlin
2004   Salon for Body&Soul, Salon MSU, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade
2003   Integration Project: Sprachschule, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg, Germany
         Strategies of Success / Curator Series, La Box, Bourges, France
2002   Venice Diary, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia
Solo Performances / selection
2011     Misplaced Women?, Stiffelsen 314/ public spaces, Bergen, Norway
2006     Integration Impossible, die-theater Konzerthaus Spiel:platz, Vienna
2003     Integration Project: Dinner Discussion, Kunstverein NRWF, Düsseldorf
1999     Would You Digitalize Your Soul, ICA, London
1997     Personal Space, Hollywood Leather, London
Group Exhibitions / selection
2012     Berliner Zimmer Art-Pavilion Cvijeta-Zuzorić Belgrade, Serbia
           Re.act.feminism 2 – a performing archive, Instytut Sztuki Wyspa, Gdansk, Poland
2011-2013 The Present and Presence, MSUM, Museum of Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
2011-2012  Re.act.femism: Performative Archives, Centro Cultural Montehermoso Vitoria, Spain
      Victims and Martyrs, Gothenburg’s Könsthale, Göteborg, Sweden
2011    Call the Witness, Roma Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale, UNESCO, Venice
      GATE(WAY)S: Art and Networked Culture, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
      Berliner Zimmer: SCCA -Sarajevo Centre for Contemporary Art., Bosnia, MNAC National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest,  Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessalonica, Greece
      Decolonial Aesthetics, Frederic Jameson Gallery, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
2010   Esteticas Decolonilaes, ASAB, Bogotá, Colombia
      Arts Homo Erotica, National Museum, Warsaw, Poland
      Gender Check, Zaheta Gallery, Warsaw
       Agents & Provocateurs, HWMKV, Dortmund, Germany
2009   Gender Check, MUMOK, museum, Vienna, Austria
         The Social Critique, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden
         Agents & Provocateurs, ICA, Dunaujvaros, Hungary
         Transitland Europe, Transmediale/ Collegium Hungaricum, Berlin
          The Renaming Machine, Galerija Miroslav Kraljević, Zagreb, Croatia
          (im)migrants within, Open Space, Vienna, Austria
          Performing East, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria
         Les Femmes Parlent, Gandy Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
         Family Happiness Ministry of Culture of the Check Republic, Prague
         Re.act.feminism, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
2008   49th October Salon, Artist-Citizen, Contextual Art Practices, Belgrade, Serbia
      Cutting Realities: Gender Strategies in Contemporary Art, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York
      Schengen Women, ŠKUC Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
      Old News, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, USA
2007    Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum, New York
          Global Feminisms, Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA, USA
         Kontakt: Erste Bank Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade
         There is no border…, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria
2007   My Own Private Reality, Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg, Germany
2006    Normalization, Rooseum, Malmö, Sweden
          Sexy Mythos, NGBK Berlin; and Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria
2005    Shrinking Cities 2 – Interventions, GfZK, Leipzig, Germany
          Xenopolis, Rathaus Gallery, Munich, Germany
          Workers Club, Prague Biennale, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
          EuroPart, billboard exhibition, public spaces, Vienna
2004   Privatisierungen: Post-Communist Condition, KW, Berlin
2003   Visa, IFA Gallery, Bonn; and IFA Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany
         In Tranzit, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
         2nd Tirana Biennial, National Gallery, Tirana, Albania
        Cultural Territories, GfZK, Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig
2002     In Search of Balkania, Neue Gallerie, Graz, Austria
           22nd Memorial of Nadežda Petrović, Čačak, Serbia
          Uncertain Signs / True Stories, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany
          Cetinje Biennial, State Museum of Montenegro, Cetinje, Serbia & Montenegro
2001   Plateau of Humankind, 49th Venice Biennale, Venice
        Zero Gravity, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
        Digital Bodies, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
       Perfect Match, City Shopping Mall and Museum of the City of Skopje, Macedonia
       Body and the East, Exit Art Gallery, New York
2000    Utopia, Rogaland Kunstmuseum, Stavanger, Norway
1999    Skin, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece
1998    Manifesta 2, Musée d’Histoire de la Ville de Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Video / Film / Performance / Digital Media Festivals / selection
2011      Clandestino Botnik, festival, Gerlesborg, Sweden
            Scores 3 TQW, performance festival, Tanz Quartier, Vienna, Austria
2010     Spoken World Festival, Kaaitheater, Brussels, Belgium
           Internationales Frauen Filmfestival, Dortmund / Köln, Germany
2009    In Transit, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
          PSi Conference, Zagreb, Croatia
          Re.act.feminism, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
          Performa, New York
        Woodstock of Political Thinking, SPIELART Festival, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2008  Globale Film festival, Berlin
2006  INFANT, International Festival of Alternative and New Theatre, Novi Sad, Serbia
2005   Brecht Literature Fest, Theatre Abraxus, Augsburg, Germany
         Prologue, New Feminism / New Europe, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK
2004   East West Academy, Tanz Quartier, Museums Quartier, Vienna, Austria
         Go Create Resistance, National Theatre, Hamburg, Germany
         Berliner Luft / On Performativity, Kanonhallen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2003   Video Forum, Kyoto Biennial, Japan
         In Tranzit, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
2002   Vidarte, Video and Digital Media Festival, Mexico City, Mexico
2001   Span 2, Dilston Grow Church, London, UK

Bibliography, as Subject / selection 
•    Dimitrakaki, Angela:“Labour, Ethics, Sex and Capital: On Biopolitical Production in Contemporary Art: Andrea Fraser and Tanja Ostojić” in n.paradoxa vol 28, 2011, KT press, London
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Women Bear Witness” in n.paradoxa vol 28, 2011,KT press London
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Becoming-Gender-Difference” in: Gender Difference in the Balkans, Verlag Dr Mueller, Saarbrueken, 2010.
•    Fassin, Éric and Surkis, Judith: “Transgressing Boundaries: Tanja Ostojić, Transnational Migrations, and European Sexual Politics”, in: The Sexual Boundaries of Europe, Éric Fassin and Judith Surkis, eds., Public Culture, volume 22, nr 3, fall 2010 Duke University Press, Durham USA 2010.
•    Mignolo, D. Walter: “Aiesthesis decolonial”, in: Calle 14, No.14, ASAB, Bogotá, 2010.
•    Minić, Danica: “Gender-Related Art from Serbia”, in Gender Check: a Reader, Bojana Pejić, ERSTE Foundation and MUMOK Vienna, eds. Walter König Verlag, Köln, 2010.
•    Badovinac, Zdenka: “Schengen Women”, in Gender Check: a Reader, ibid.
•    Leszkowics, Pawel: Ars Homo Erotica, Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw, 2010.
•    Matić, Ljubiša: “Rehearsing Race”,  in: MISperformance, PSI No 2, Rautledge Essex 2010
•    Milevska, Suzana: “The Silkworm Cocoons–Gender Difference and the Impact of Visual Culture on Contemporary Art in the Balkans”, in: Gender Check, MUMOK Vienna and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2009.
•    Reiche, Claudia: “Tanja Ostojić: Black Square on White, Von der Mehrlust zum Ekel und zurück / From mehrlust to nausea and back”, in: Mehr(wert) queer. Visuelle Kultur, Kunst und Genderpolitiken // Surplus (Value) Queer. Visual Culture, Art and Gender Politics. Barbara Paul & Johanna Schaffer, eds., Transcript, Bielefeld, 2009.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Zwischen zwei Visuellen Ideologien. Geschlecht, Feminismus Visuelle Kultur Unt Kunst Im Osten”, in: Und jetzt – Kunstlerinnen aus der DDR, Verlag fur Moderne Kunst, Nurnberg, Germany, 2009.
•    Marina Grižinić: “De-Coloniality of Knowledge”, in: Integration Impossible: The Politics of Migration in the Artwork of Tanja Ostojić, Grižinić & Ostojić eds., Argobooks, Berlin, 2009.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Femina Sacra: Bipower and Paradoxes of Humanity in the Art of Tanja Ostojić”, in: Integration Impossible? The Politics of Migration in the Artwork of Tanja Ostojić, ibid.
•    Surkis Judith: “Tanja Ostojić´s European Border Work”, in: Integration Impossible? The Politics of Migration in the Artwork of Tanja Ostojić, ibid.
•    Rune Gade: “Making Real: Strategies of Performing Performativity in Tanja Ostojić´s Looking for a Husband with EU Passort”, in: Integration Impossible? The Politics of Migration in the Artwork of Tanja Ostojić, ibid.
•    Eisenstein, Adèle: Postscript, in: Integration Impossible? The Politics of Migration in the Artwork of Tanja Ostojić, ibid.
•    Ardenne, Paul: “A flux tendu – La création plasticienne au tournant du XXI ème siècle”, in: Art vivant: l’expansion. La création contemporaine au tournant du 21ème siècle, Editions du Regard, Paris, 2008.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “On Dramatizations of Performance and Feminism in Former-Yugoslav Space”, in: Re-politicizing art, theory, representation and new media technology, (Schriften der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vol. 6), Schlebrügge, Vienna, 2008.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “Former Yugoslavia, Queer and Class Struggle”, in: New Feminism: Worlds of Feminism, Queer and Networking Conditions, Marina Gržinić & Rosa Reitsamer, eds., Loecker Verlag, Vienna, 2008.
•    Allara, Pamela: “Geobodies: Feminist Activists Crossing Borders”, in: New Feminism: Worlds of Feminism, Queer and Networking Conditions, ibid.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Femina Sacra, Biopower und Paradoxa der Menschheit in der Kunst von Tanja Ostojić”, in: Förderkohle, StipendiatInnen der Kulturverwaltung des Berliner Senats, NBK, Berlin, 2008.
•    Fraueneder, Hildegard: “Ich treffe Dich – die Verabredung als künstlerische Form und Politik der Sichtbarkeit”, in: dating.21 Liebesorganisation und Verabredungskulturen, Transcript, Bielefeld, 2007.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “O dramatizaciji performansa od strane ženskih performera na prostoru bivse Jugoslavije”, in: Žene na raskrižju ideologija, exhibition catalogue, Split, 2007.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Erotic meets the political in Tanja Ostojić’s work”, in: Fotograf, a magazine for photography and visual culture, Mediagate, Brno, 2007.
•    Kellermann, Kerstin: “Soziale Kunst-Figur / interview”, in: An.schläge, das Feministische Magazin, 06/04, Vienna, 2004.

•    Mayerhofer, E./ Mokre, M.: “Prekäre Verhältnisse als Zuckerseiten des Lebens. Künstlerinnen und die ‘Creative Class’”, 2006, www.van.at/see/tanja/ot/index.htm and in: Gender in Motion. Genderdimensionen der Zukunftsgesellschaft. Bankosegger, K.; Forster, E. J. (Hg.) eds., VS Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2007.


•    Dimitrijević, Branislav: “A Brief Narrative of Art Events in Serbia after 1948”, in: East Art Map, Contemporary Art and Eastern Europe, IRWIN eds., Afterall,London, 2006.
•    Ronca, Marion: “Le retour du jeux politique: quelque reflexions sur le travail de Tanja Ostojić”, in: esse arts + opinions, Montreal, 2006.
•    Molgaard Laustsen, Marie: “Et nogent, nogent liv”, in: Ojeblikket, No. 47, Copenhagen, 2006.
•    Lederer, Anton: “Grenzen”, in: Datum, 01/06, Vienna, 2006.

•    Mokre, Monika: “The Emptiness of the Female Body: On the Projects of Tanja Ostojić”, in: www.van.at/howl/junction/kont02/kont42b.htm, 2006.


•    Gržinić, Marina: “Performativity and Processuality”, in: ProFemina, Nos. 41–42, Belgrade, 2006.
•    Vuković, Stevan: “Balkan Konsulat Belgrade”, in: Balkan Konsulat, Rotor Graz eds., Revolver, Frankfurt am Main, 2006.
•    Gade, Rune: “Med kønnet som indsats – Tanja Ostojic og den operative realisme”, in: Kønnet i kroppen i kunsten, Informations Forlag, Copenhagen, 2005.
•    Gade, Rune: “Making Real: Strategies of performing performativity in Tanja Ostojić’s Looking for a husband with EU Passport”, in: Performative Realism, Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, 2005.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “Intervention of New Media Technology within Representational Politics, Space and (Im)material Identity”, in: Medialisierung/Arbeit/Spatialisierung/ (Re)Politisierung, Vienna, 2005.
•    Erić, Zoran: “Tanja Ostojić’s Personal Space – Public Body”, in: Art as a Critical Reflection of the Public Sphere: The Production of Social Space in Serbia in the Era of Milosević, PhD dissertation, Bauhaus University Weimar, 2005, http://e-pub.uni-weimar.de/volltexte/2005/679/pdf/Thesis.pdf.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Objects and Bodies: Objectification and Over-Identification in Tanja Ostojić’s Art Projects”, in: Bodily Interventions, Feminist Review No. 81, London, 2005.

•    Krusche, Martin: “A Scandal?” (documentation and comments) 2005–06, in: www.van.at/see/tanja/ot/index.htm.


•    Mokre, Monika: “The Emptiness of the Female Body, On the Projects of Tanja Ostojić”, 2005, in: www.van.at/howl/junction/kont02/kont42b.htm.


•    Minić, Danica: “Gender-Related Art from Serbia”, in: Umelec 2/04, Prague, 2004, www.divus.cz/umelec/en/pages/umelec.php?id=352&roc=2004&cis=2#clanek.
•    Sretenović, Dejan: “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me”, in: Salon for Body&Soul, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, 2004.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “The Politics of Queer Curatorial Positions”, in: Dérive, Heft 14, Vienna, 2004.
•    Gržinić, Marina: in: “Between Ostojić’s Legs”, in: Situated Contemporary Art Practices – Art, Theory and Activism from (the East of) Europe, Revolver, Frankfurt a.M. and  ZRC Publishing, Ljubljana, 2004.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “Tanja Ostojić: Yes, it’s Fucking Political – Skunk Anansie”, in: Strategies of Success / Curators Series 2001–2003, La Box, Bourges, and SKC, Belgrade, 2004.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “The portrait of an artist as a young ‘strategic essentialist’”, in: Strategies of Success / Curators Series 2001–2003, ibid.
•    Gade, Rune: “Readymade-realisme – Noget om det ‘gamle’ ved den ‘nye’ realisme”, in: Virkelighed, virkelighed! Avantgardens realisme, Tiderne Skifter, Copenhagen, 2003.
•    Koskinen, Taava: “Enkelinä taiteen valtapeleissä/Tanja Ostojić”, in: Taide, Art Magazine, Helsinki, 2003.
•    Erić, Zoran: “Personal Space – Public Body”, in Artefact, Zagreb, 2003, http://artefact.mi2.hr/_a01/lang_en/art_ostojic_en.htm
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Hesitations – or about political and cultural territories”, in: Cultural Territories, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2003.
•    Kersting, Rita: “Mimetische Ausschnitte”, in: Parkett, No. 67, Zurich, 2003.
•    Zlatanović, Gordana: “V tele Tanji Ostojić”, in: Vlna, No. 16/2003, Bratislava, 2003.
•    Gade, Rune: “Readymade-realisme”, in: Virkelighed! Avantgardens realisme, Petersen & Sundbye, eds., Tiderne Skifter, Copenhagen, 2003.
•    Gade, Rune: “Operativ kunst – en diskussion af Tanja Ostojić s Looking for a Husband with EU Passport”, in: Periodical Passepartout 22, 11 årgang, Copenhagen, 2003.
•    Hübl, Michael: “Uncertain Signs True Stories”, in: Kunstforum, Band 160/02, Cologne, 2002.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “Globalni kapitalizem in aktivistična teorija”, in: Estetika Kibersveta in učinki derealizacije, ZRC Publishing, Ljubljana, 2003.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “A Gaze at the Naked Truth”, in: Venice Diary, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 2002.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “Ostojić’s ‘I’ll be Your Angel’: An Authentic Devil Act! ”, in: Venice Diary, ibid.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Tanja Ostojić”, in: Uncertain Signs–True Stories, Angelika Stepken, ed., Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, 2002.
•    Andjelković, Dejan, & Radovanović, Jelica: “The Marriage of Tanja Ostojić and Klemens Golf”, in: Uncertain Signs–True Stories, ibid.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “Malewitsch auf dem Venushügel von Tanja Ostojić”, in: Springerin, Band Vlll Heft 1/02, Vienna, 2002.
•    Gržinić, Marina: “Encountering the Balkan. Radicalization of Positioning”, in: Art in Europe 1990–2000, Gianfranco Mariniello, ed., Skira, Milan, 2002.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Kosmopolitismus-Debatte…”, in: Springerin, Band Vlll Heft 3/02, Vienna, 2002.
•    Hoffman, Justin: “Search of Balkania/Balkan Konsulat”, in: Camera Austria, 80/02, Graz, 2002.
•    Čubrilo, Jasmina: “Archiving: re-thinking the nineties, or is it possible to write the art history of the nineties? ‘Das Ende der Kunstgeschichte?’ Have the nineties already become the subject of art history or are they still the subject of art criticism? ”, in: REMONT.REVIEW, Beogradska umetnička scena devedesetih, D. Radosavljević, J. Čubrilo, S. Vuković, eds., Remont, Belgrade, 2002 .
•    Koskinen, Taava: “Kansallinen ja kansainvälinen sulavat yhteen Venetsian biennaalissa”, in: Taide, Art Magazine, No. 04/01, Helsinki, 2001.
•    Milevska, Suzana: “Spectacle of the Invisible”, in: NU – Nordic Art Review, Vol. III, No. 5/01, Stockholm, 2001.
•    Leoni, Chiara: “Ready to Rumble”, in: Flash Art, Dec. 2000–Jan. 2001, Milan, 2000.
•    Rouillé, André: “Becoming with the world. An art without present”, in: Becomings, Contemporary Art in South-East Europe / Devenirs, CultureAccess, Paris, 2001.
•    Čubrilo, Jasmina: “Etre une artiste”, in: Profemina, periodical, Belgrade, 2000.
•    Howell, Anthony: The Analysis of Performance Art, Harwood Academic Publishers, London, 1999.
•    Krivokapić, Jelena: “Belgrade Art Scene”, in: ArtPresse, Paris, 1999.
•    Čubrilo, Jasmina: “Tanja Ostojić”, in: Belgrade Art Scene – the Nineties, Radio B92, Belgrade, 1998.
•    Sretenović, Dejan: “The Body Lost and Regained”, in: Body and the East, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, 1998.
•    Dimitrijević, Branislav: “Pain on both sides”, in: Manifesta 2, European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Luxembourg, 1998.
•    Šuica, Nikola: “Personal Space”, in: Arti magazine, vol. 36/1997, Athens.
•    Čubrilo, Jasmina: “Tanja in first person”, in: A Look at the Wall 1994–1996, Radio B92, Belgrade, 1996.