Katrin K. Radovani

What. We.Haven’t. Told. You. I. The Red Dress
PM Gallery
July 16 – August 14, 2020

 

 

An interdisciplinary project on 5 different cases of childhood sexual abuse divided into 5* acts, based on the real, but untold testimonies.

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“What. We. Haven’t. Told. You_I is the continuation of the first sequence of the five-part* work on the topic of trauma caused by sexual abuse (the first sequence was the artist’s eponymous thesis project exhibited and performed at the French Pavilion of the Student Centre in Zagreb, Croatia, in September 2018). With this, also a five-part installation, the artist exposes the space of trauma, visually revealing its layers, stigmas and mechanisms. By dressing the space of the Extended Media Gallery in transparent nylon, she recreates a mental labyrinth that draws the visitor into the very centre of a traumatic experience. This is a multimedia work – it consists of paintings, a site-specific work, sound installation and video that the artist uses to introduce the observer into the work, uttering the text created by studying traumatic experiences. The same, rhythmical and powerful text, makes up the audio installation that activates in different locations around the gallery, overlaps with itself, builds on itself or creates periods of unpleasant silences. At the opening event, the artist gave a performance in which she guided the observes through the spaces of intensity, psychological layers and loops, using a red thread as a guiding line through the underground, repetitive, psychological world of a traumatic experience.

With the work What. We. Haven’t. Told. You_I, Katrin Radovani digs deep into the space of trauma caused by sexual abuse. This topic that is mostly not spoken about, a by-product of patriarchy and stigmatization of women, is still a place of duality in which often the victim, instead of the perpetrator, experiences guilt. Such psychological mechanisms are conditioned by the act of violence, as well as by the centuries-old degradation of women, as the most numerous victims of such power play. Power as a social imperative, appropriation, penetration, violation of another’s physical and mental space, all these are tentacles behind which lie disrespect, non-recognition of otherness as equal, inherent destruction that is the flip side of the society based on domination, with the eternal threat of violence that often affirms the social order. In this sense, sexuality has a special place as a source of life. To penetrate the body, desecrate the source, is a specific expression of pathological domination: often being the victims of abuse themselves, the attackers continue the circle of deprivation, desecration, in an eternal attempt to reach fulfilment, doomed to fail at the very beginning. Thus the trauma is repeated, personally, transgenerationally, almost historically, the force of destruction is maintained, hidden behind institutions, homes, customs and systems.“

From the Foreword by Josipa Bubaš:

 

* Number 5 is a reference to the Council of Europe’s “One in Five” Campaign that assesses that one in five children at the age of 14 have been sexually abused.

Source: Council of Europe, “One in Five” Campaign, Child and Youth Protection Centre of Zagreb

 

Katrin K. Radovani biography:

Born in Split, Croatia in 1986. In 2013 she enrolled into the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Department of Painting. In 2018 she graduated in the class of the Assoc. Prof. Ksenija Turčić with the praise of the Academic Council and earned an MA in Painting. Her thesis project won the first award of the Centre for Women’s Studies as the best student project on the topic of gender and sex issues, as well as the award of the Academic Council. She has won three Rector’s Awards.

In 2017 she won the Venice Summer Academy scholarship for the Art & Performance program, under the mentorship of Prof. Jay Pather. She participated in the final performance marathon of the Curatorial Platform in 2018 and performed “Bolji život“ (“(For) The Better Life“) and “Kabaret identiteta“ (Cabaret of Identities“) at the KNAP centre. She is one of the co-founders of the “CollectiW“ performance collective with which she performed “Sramota!” (“Shame!“) within the Seven Days of Creation Festival in Pazin in 2018 and “Shame!” within the Anima Mundi Festival in Venice in 2019.

She has exhibited in Croatia and abroad, including:  Venientes, Šira Gallery (accompanying programme of the 34th Youth Salon), 21st Miniature, ULS, Vršilica, Withdraw – Into the Mountains (within Into the Mountains project), Shed in Eisenwerk, Switzerland, U planinama (Into the Mountains),  Bačva Gallery, Croatian Association of Artists – HDLU, 5th Biennial of Painting, Prsten Gallery, Croatian Association of Artists – HDLU, Untitled 5, Baumwolle Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany and What. We. Haven’t. Told. You. Act I: The Red Dress (solo graduation exhibition), French Pavilion, SC Zagreb in 2019.

In 2019 she completed an internship as the assistant curator to Mark Gisbourne and local coordinator of the exhibition The Leipzig Connection (5th Biennial of Painting, Croatia) and as the assistant on the project of The De/construciton of the Painting art residency, Leipzig, Germany.

In 2020 she as attended the art residency programs of the Creart A.I.R. Kaunas project in Lithuania, Cité Internationale Paris in France and won the Künstler zu Gast in Harburg scholarship in Hamburg, Germany.

 

WEB:              www.kkradovani.com
INSTAGRAM:  katrin.k.radovani

 

Organizer:

 

 

 

Supported by:

 

 

 

 

Working hours:

 

The exhibition will remain open until July 19, 2020

 

*Remark*

At the entrance to the Gallery there is a bottle with a disinfectant for visitors, which are obliged to disinfect their hands when entering the Gallery.
The security guard at the entrance to the Gallery will have a protective mask and gloves and control the number of visitors. The Gallery can hold up to 5 people at a time.
Visitors are required to maintain a distance of 2 meters.
Touching the exhibits is not allowed.
Doorknobs and any other surfaces that are frequently touched by visitors will be regularly disinfected.