My Lifetime (Malaika), 2012
Video HD, length: 15´, courtesy of the artist
Presented by Belgrade Cultural Center, Serbia
In most of her videos, Zdjelar examines and deals with different forms of communication processes so-called "semiosphere" (J. Lotman), which include language, but above all the socio-cultural context in which it operates and is implemented.
In her video My lifetime (Malaika) "Katarina's language" is the sound of instruments, produced by the hands of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ghana musicians, with the sound being detached from the will and the presence of those producing it. It seems as if it fails to be a part of the harmony, either as the act of performance or as the symbolic sphere within which this "musical formation" should represent a platform for the development of the "new state."
Namely, when Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the state of Ghana, initiated the establishment of a symphony orchestra in 1959, Ghana was celebrating the second anniversary of Ghana's independence, an act that in itself symbolically represented a platform for future upgrade and promotion of the African identity, since it was the first country on the African continent freed from colonial rule. However, due to the progressive lack of support, interest and competition, musicians from the said orchestra were forced to work on other jobs, which was the reason they were coming tired to their, only four hours long rehearsals. Nevertheless, giving meaning to individual histories of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ghana performers would be as cruel as the act of colonization.
Therefore, even though we have the feeling of liking and empathy for these musicians, "caught up in the trap of contemporary time" while they perform the famous Swahili love song, we are in fact indifferent. We wonder who ever needed to establish the symphony orchestra in Ghana, and why? Is it not yet another example of propaganda, rhetoric and demagogic tool used for the acquisition and/or preservation of political power, demonstrated and consumed in another, non symbolic, "realistic" plane of reality (I Colovic); The reality where Zdjelar examines the limits of power over symbols in different socio-cultural contexts, and where she is, sometimes, an "alien" as well.
Zorana Dakovic Minniti
Katarina Zdjelar (Belgrade, 1979) is an artist based in Rotterdam. Her practice consists of making video pieces, sound pieces, book projects and creating
different platforms for speculation, knowledge building and exchange.
Her work explores notions of identity, authority and community and revolve around individuals who challenged by simultaneous inhabitation of different languages, perform themselves through practicing, remembering or reinventing
themselves.