Andreja Kulunčić’s exhibition "You Betrayed the Party Just When You Should Have Helped It" opened in Bucharest

Andreja Kulunčić’s exhibition "You Betrayed the Party Just When You Should Have Helped It" opened in Bucharest

On Tuesday, December 17, 2024, at the Anca Poterașu Gallery in Bucharest, the exhibition "You Betrayed the Party Just When You Should Have Helped It" by Andreja Kulunčić was opened. The curators of the exhibition are Irena Bekić and Anca Verona Mihuleț, with key collaborators on the project being anthropologist Renata Jambrešić Kirin and psychotherapist Dubravka Stijačić.

The opening began with a discussion featuring historian Claudie-Florentine Dobre and anthropologist Renata Jambrešić Kirin, focusing on the discomfort experienced by female prisoners in the contexts of Yugoslavia and Romania ("Discomfort of Being a Female Prisoner: The Cases of Yugoslavia and Romania").

Through the art-research-activism project "You Betrayed the Party Just When You Should Have Helped It" visual artist Andreja Kulunčić addresses the fact that the dominant historical narrative about the political prison camp Goli Otok, as well as public discourse on the subject, completely neglects the specific experiences of women's trauma. The regime in camps for female political prisoners systematically endangered their reproductive health, their sense of ethical responsibility, and their care for others, while disregarding their gender-specific needs. The women were forced to punish, monitor, and interrogate one another, which, combined with hard labor, resulted in deep trauma and years of silence.

In collaboration with feminist anthropologist Renata Jambrešić Kirin and psychotherapist Dubravka Stijačić, Andreja Kulunčić tackles this complex issue, strategically developing the project through several stages and approaches.

Through spatial artistic interventions at the locations of Goli Otok and Sveti Grgur, as well as exhibitions, websites, publications, workshops, reading groups, and discussions, the project seeks to uncover the deliberately forgotten history of women at these sites and create a space for preserving collective memory.

The exhibition focuses on the transformation of women’s bodies subjected to oppression or trauma. Designed to generate an evolving experience for visitors, it does not conclude with a reconstruction of the repression experienced by female prisoners. Instead, it branches out rhizomatically beyond the space and time of the exhibition, with the fragile memories of former prisoners serving as a foundational yet delicate basis for consolidating this contested history.

The exhibition will be open from December 17, 2024, to February 1, 2025, at the Anca Poterașu Gallery (26 Popa Soare Street, Sector 2, Bucharest, Romania).

In addition to the exhibition opening, two clay figurine-making workshops titled "850 Women for 850 Women" were held, encouraging participants to actively engage in preserving the collective memory of this traumatic past. The workshops are focused on creating a movable ANTI-MEMORIAL, a contemporary memorial form that explores the legacy of violence and fosters dialogue in societies that have yet to reach a consensus on confronting such histories. This process serves as a reminder of the importance of recognizing and preventing similar historical tragedies. A third workshop will be held on Wednesday, December 18.

Project website: http://www.zene-arhipelag-goli.info/
Graphic design of the exhibition and project publication: Negra Nigoević

EXHIBITION CREDITS
The project "You Betrayed the Party Just When You Should Have Helped It" was supported by Neda Young, the Kultura Nova Foundation, EPK Rijeka 2020, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Zagreb, the City of Rijeka, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Southeast Europe Office, and the Romanian Cultural Institute.