Saša Bezjak: Women Have Come, Duba!

Performance in collaboration with Rajko Muršič and Izidor Vogrinec. The event is part of the Punctum. Unusual Art Autobiographies exhibition at MGLC Švicarija.

The concept of the Punctum (Point) exhibition goes back to the role of Švicarija, which has been a clandestine, autonomous and self-organised hotbed of creativity on the edge of the city park throughout the course of history. The artworks on display present unusual art autobiographies of the artists, who have made distinct yet impactful decisions in their lives and careers. What the artists, Dean Ivandić, Dušan Gerlica, Saša Bezjak, The Witch Twins and the Museum of Too-modern Art, have in common is the production of works in large quantities, spontaneous creative zeal and a marginal position in the art world. With their works in the spirit of the times, they transform their own autobiographies into autofiction founded on sincerity.

Saša Bezjak with the spatial installation Room for the Wounded with Lobby explores her intimacy and the fragility of family relationships. She came to art as a painter. However, she has always regarded space as a special category and sculpture as an option that allows her a freer, more academically unencumbered expression. As a sculptor, she expresses herself in a primal manner that she also appreciates in children, people with mental disabilities and indigenous peoples. She supplements her work with performances and actions that highlight the overlooked positions of women in art and society. With the performance Women Have Come, Duba!, she refers to the iconic sculpture of a female motorcyclist on a motorbike, the work Women Are Coming! by the artist Duba Sambolec from 1976, which is considered to be the first Slovenian feminist artwork. The artist uses the performative act and text to draw attention to the dictatorship over the female body and how to find a combative and critical stance towards the ideals imposed on us by consumer society.

Saša Bezjak graduated in Fine Art Education from the Faculty of Education in Maribor and in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where she also completed her master's degree in Sculpture. She is recognised for her drawings without any superfluous detail, which function merely by the suggestiveness of line. The drawings are created impulsively, in great quantities and are later often used as models for her embroideries. With the sensibility of a sculptor, she perceives space as a special category that allows her to express herself in an academically unencumbered way and to experiment more freely. She lives and works in Gornja Radgona.

Reality, digital photograph, 2024. Photo: Jakob Vogrinec. Archive of Saša Bezjak.