Łukasz Mojsak

Abstract

Sonja Savić (1961–2008), a star actress of 1980s Serbian cinema, was also a filmmaker whose independent work from the 90s and 2000s remains unknown. Her complex video pieces engage with ex-Yugoslavia’s political situation and portray her generation’s intellectual and countercultural scene, disillusioned by official socialist state culture and forced to endure the war (Super Real, 1997, Play 1997). Savić developed a trancey collage of found footage, animation and staged acting scenes, where motifs freely travel between pieces and unhinged, almost entropic, visuality resonates with her country’s condition in the 80s and 90s. Savić worked with a commune of performers who staged for her absurd activities, obscure rituals and manifested cultural, gender and queer identities. She collaborated with the cult band Supernaut, whose members made acting, visual and musical contributions to her work (Supernaut – Belgrade Underground, 1996), and later formed a “troupe” of young performers (Waiting for God, 2006). Remaining conspicuously ab- sent from her films and eschewing celebrity status, Savić diluted authorship for the sake of collaborative experimentation.

ORCID

Graduate of the Institute of Applied Linguistics and the Institute of Art History at the University of Warsaw, as well as in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. Curator of exhibitions and film screenings. Worked at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw between 2011 and 2016, currently collaborates with the Arton Foundation in Warsaw. Co-curator of Roman Stańczak’s exhibition Flight at the Polish Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale.

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