1. Home
  2. Kunstenaars

Maja Simisic

sociaal-maatschappelijk , performance , Media , installatie , Gender , Diaspora , Conceptueel , Artistiek onderzoek , Analytisch

Maja is an artist, a dog lover, provocative performer, post-postmodernist, turbofolk bombshell, devoted housewife, prophetic storyteller and a meticulous maker of uncanny worlds. She is a collection of untamed personas. Women that question and criticize their surroundings through a humorous lens. Her performative approach seeps through the narratives in vaguely defiant ways. More often than not, Maja's personas will subvert the status quo for her own benefit, rather than plainly protest it. 'If you can't beat them, infiltrate and dismantle'. No medium is foreign to her, she wove her nest in the intersection of research and making, comfortably intersecting both in new patterns. Right when you think you can pin her art as just fashion, or just performance, or just anything, she'll prove to you that categories are cages and she does not play by the rules.

Going to Canada - 'Going to Canada' is a 5 - 10 minute performance that is dealing with a famous Serbian rap song called 'Going to Canada' which is about the Zemun mafia (a famous mafia group from Belgrade) where they rap about being in prison. 'Going to Canada' is a code they used for telling somebody that they are going to be killed. Because, when you die you are going to heaven. Heaven for gastarbeiters (guestworkers), heaven for Balkan people is Canada. In short, the performance deals with borders, visas, diaspora and the concept of freedom. In my art practice, I am dealing with a personal interest and curiosity about visas, everyday struggle of the common man and the role of women in society.
Re-imagining a happy place - As humans, we tend to have strong emotional connections with certain objects in our house that make us feel at home, for example, one’s spot at the dining table, a favorite pillow to sleep on or a preferred side of the bed. That said, could we make ‘home’ possible with those little things wherever we are? Do we become subservient to those things and get so emotionally attached, that it hurts when those things break or vanish? Even if we do get attached to them, they are there to help us get through something difficult in life. With them we create our ‘bubble’ where we feel safe, and it gives us comfort. Besides the importance of material object, I am examining the value of rituals and sensory input as they highly contribute in the creation of a domestic space.
Spamantha Bones & Housewife House - Blond bimbo bombshell in need of a husband? The newspapers would like to think. Although Spamantha’s fertile womb could carry 10 or so kids until it’s worn out. She has feminist wounds and dark bushy brows - all she wants is revenge. Spamantha is a turbofolk wet fever dream. Electric housewife by day and glitchy superstar by night. Spamantha is devoured by the uncanny valley, something always a bit off. She labours long hours to feed you her notorious ‘sarma’ but in a second she could have a change of heart and leave you hungry, starving even. Her performances are borderline feral as she remembers the folk songs through rose tinted glasses of the diaspora life. At the end of the day she always sets a match to the main institutions of patriarchy and its many sons.
Voyage around my rooms, 2020 - Voyage around my rooms is inspired by my abnormal and surrealist dreams during the pandemic. Every room is like a vivid landscape imagined by the mind. Each room in the house where I am staying during the corona virus outbreak is a different world. The topic of being a woman and what is home for women, unites the rooms into a whole. Playing with contrast of societies, mainstream opinions, objectification, examples in the animal kingdom and ancient stories, I made fantasy like photographs that tell stories with hidden symbolism in the details. Women are seen as these innocent creatures who are supposed to give a man pleasure – be a sex goddess in the bedroom, cooking 3 meals a day in the kitchen and be a polite and obedient lady at the dining table. But what happens if that picture is broken and they show their true nature, their fears and desires?
Voyage around my rooms, 2020
Voyage around my rooms, 2020
Make this Balkan princess our WDKA queen, 2020/2021 - Campaign for Willem de Kooning Academy student council board of 2021. Exploring who and why people like and what attracts them (in this case) to vote, ended up winning the election.

Going to Canada I

Datum:
Locatie: The Performance Bar

A performance at the Performance Bar as the first part of my performance triptych 'Going to Canada'.

Cultural Workers Unite Anti-gentrification workshop

Datum:
Locatie: Rotterdam Studio.151
In samenwerking met: Rebecca Levy

A workshop with the topic of anti-gentrification in the Netherlands started by Cultural Workers United. Rebecca Levy and myself gave a workshop focusing on the future of the human mind and thoughts, calling it 'Homo Peace'. We also did a space performance with the participants.

Fashionclash festival

Datum:
Locatie: LAB Maastricht
In samenwerking met: Rebecca Levy, Yannik Güldner

The 'Amna' performance from my project 'Re-imagining a happy place' at the OpenMic night of FashionClash festival.

https://www.forbeschina.com/city/58678

Graduation show

Datum:
Locatie: Willem de Kooning Academy

An installation with 5 laptop screens playing the irl performances of 'Re-imagining a happy place'.

https://www.wdka.nl/alumni/re-imagining-a-happy-place

'Identity[z]'

Datum:
In samenwerking met: TEDxLeiden University Pitch Night Talk

TEDxLeiden University Pitch Night Talk in The Hague organized by Leiden university students. My talk was about creating identities.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/629319435

Youth Biennale Serbia

Datum:
Locatie: Footnote Center
In samenwerking met: Youth Biennale

An international group exhibition all over Belgrade organized by Youth Biennale in Belgrade. I showed 'Re-imagining a happy place' as a video installation.

https://bijenalemladih.ulus.rs/en/portfolio-item/maja-simisic/

Re-imagining a happy place @ studio.151

Datum:
Locatie: Studio.151
In samenwerking met: Yannik Güldner / Spectrum space

Solo exhibition @ studio.151 of all material and stories which are a part of 'Re-imagining a happy place'

https://www.instagram.com/thespectrumspace/
Deze kunstenaar heeft nog geen toekenningen.