17th of January & 20th of February 2015.
@Cultura center Rex Belgrade
Thus spoke Irena Ristic is poly media piece which explores the limits of human encounters in the context of an exhausted and fragmented society. It is based on interviews with the women from the Balkans who share the same name, and possibly even more.
So far, fifty-nine women named Irena Ristic have been invited to meet each other and to answer a few questions. Their personal histories are different in many ways: their range of experience, their desires and choices, as well as the contexts in which they grew up. They differ in social, educational, professional and family status, as well as the conditions in which they live, their tastes and styles, their religious beliefs, ideological and sexual orientations, and also by different historical experiences in the context of former Yugoslavia. By crossing the narratives about the origin of a name, the author explores the possible touch points: what else could connect them, except the names which have been given through circumstance, and which, mostly, were not chosen.
Thus spoke Irena Ristic consists of video and performance elements. Materials were developed on the basis of biographical data, interviews and responses to the questionnaires derived from the “Diary 1966-1971” by Max Frisch.
The question is whether the perverted individualistic model might be replaced by new forms of solidarity, in which an unknown and distant people are connected, in order to share a universal human experiences. At this point, it seems necessary to create a counterpoint to the social segregation that induces mistrust and ideological collisions, as well as the experience of isolation, powerlessness and forced indifference
Author: Irena Ristic
Script: Irena Ristic & Irena Ristic
Performers: Irena Ristic, Irena Ristic & Irena Ristic
Associate writers: Andjelka Nikolic & Milos paunovic
Camera: Aleksandar Papajic
Editing: David Damjanovic
Music: Ah Ahilej
Design: Mihaela Drakulovic
Production: Hop.La!
Irena Ristic 