Evelina Turković

Picture of Sound, Croatian Radio 3, sound engineer: Danko Kuretić; First broadcast on April 11, 2010

In the performances of Božena Končić Badurina, whether she is herself the performer, or whether some others (her assistants) are, quite often almost nothing is done and nothing is performed. On the whole it is a matter of just simple observation. The visitors look at the artist, the exhibits – live people – look at the visitors (like the exhibition Exposure in the Student Centre Gallery in 2005), the individual looks at the group, or it is just a oneto-one gaze. In some performances the action is still more pared down, reduced to the action of participants with closed eyes in a common space. For example, in a performance entitled Coming Closer, the artist stood in the centre of the space with closed eyes and in this way greeted each visitor individually, trying to sense their encounter. Or, in the same large circular space of the gallery she placed forty extras along the wall in a row, standing calmly with closed eyes. The visitor, entering among them along, necessarily was in a quandary about the ethical nature of his own gaze. Just how embarrassing the position of the superior gaze over powerless and passive others is was shown by many of the visitors finding this position very hard to keep up. Perhaps just because of this formal minimalist condensation, Božena Končić Badurina manages to set up seemingly passive arrangements of observation or coexistence as intensely interactive encounters. Although at the physical surface little is going on, although the people never touch each other, the interchange at another level is very vigorous. The performance itself is produced in fact in the internal goings-on of all the participants. It is equally important what the performer experiences and what the visitor, they are all taking part. And they are forced to become vividly aware of what is happening to them. The individual as a separate sensitive being sets up his or her own event as a consequence of the relationship with another, as the consequence of interpersonal presence. The artist for example, sat isolated for hours behind a screen, and in the gallery venue, only her breathing could be heard. Božena’s subject needs an other, needs witnesses of her isolation. Only in this way can subjectivisation be produced. We might say our loneliness is achieved only in an encounter with others. and so on the radio (an audio medium), where the artist is deprived of the physical body and its encounter with the other as her primary medium and initiator of artistic experience, nothing has been heard that might not have been heard perhaps at the very same moment in the house of one of the listeners; the sound of a person alone with themselves.

U performansima Božene Končić Badurine, bilo da je ona sama performerica ili su to drugi (njezini suradnici), često se gotovo ništa ne ‘izvodi’ ili ne ‘događa’. Uglavnom je riječ samo o jednostavnom promatranju. Umjetnicu gledaju posjetitelji, izlošci – živi ljudi – gledaju posjetitelje (kao na izložbi Izloženost u Galeriji Studentskog centra 2005.), pojedinac promatra skupinu ljudi ili je to pogled jedan na jedan. U nekima od performansa radnja je još oskudnija, svedena je tek na bivanje sudionika zatvorenih očiju u zajedničkom prostoru. Na primjer u performansu pod nazivom Približavanje umjetnica je stala u središte prostora zatvorenih očiju i tako do- čekivala svakoga posjetitelja posebno, pokušavajući ‘osjetiti’ njihov susret. Ili, je u isti veliki kružni prostor galerije u nizu uza zid postavila četrdesetak statista da mirno stoje sklopljenih očiju. Posjetitelj se, ušavši sam među njih, nužno našao u dvojbi o etičnosti vlastita pogleda. O nelagodnoj poziciji nadmoćnog pogleda nad nemoćnim i pasivnim drugim govori to što su mnogi od posjetitelja takvu poziciju vrlo teško izdržali. Možda upravo zbog takve formalne minimalističke sažetosti, naizgled pasivne konstelacije promatranja ili supostojanja, Božena Končić Badurina uspijeva uspostaviti kao intenzivne interaktivne susrete. Jer, iako se na fizičkoj površini malo toga zbiva, iako se ljudi međusobno nikada ne dodiruju, razmjena na nekoj drugoj razini vrlo je intenzivna. Sam performans ostvaruje se zapravo u unutarnjem događaju svakog sudionika. Jednako je važno pritom što doživljava performer, kao i ono što se doga- đa posjetitelju, svi sudjeluju! I prisiljeni su to što im se događa i osvijestiti. Vlastitu manifestaciju kao zasebno, senzibilno biće pojedinac uspostavlja kao posljedicu odnosa s drugim, kao posljedicu međusobne prisutnosti. Umjetnica je tako na primjer satima sjedila izolirana iza paravana, a u galerijskom prostoru čulo se samo njezino disanje. Boženin subjekt treba drugoga, treba svjedoka vlastite samoće. Samo se tako ostvaruje subjektivacija. Mogli bismo reći, naša se samotnost ostvaruje tek u susretu s drugima. Pa tako i na radiju (u audio mediju), gdje je umjetnica lišena fizičkog tijela i njegova susreta s drugim kao svojeg primarnog medija i inicijatora umjetničkog doživljaja, nije se čulo ništa što se nije moglo čuti mož da u istom trenutku u domu nekog od slušatelja: zvuk čovjeka samoga sa sobom…