Marija Iva Gocić
SRB
RETREAT II
29. 5. live performance during opening
"Retreat II" is a durational performance inside a smoke-filled inflatable sphere. It refers to the social condition of the body separated from the surrounding world by a hardly recognisable surface concentrating mist. A delicate game with transparency, depriving the audience from clarity and detail of vision, uses fog as a symbol representing confusion, enigma and uncertainty and embodies the essence of 'brain fog,' a term that captures the psychological labyrinth characterized by cognitive turbulence and ambiguity.
The piece displays how visibility can be manipulated, either by drawing attention to certain narratives or by obscuring others.
In the sphere, a meditative ritual takes place, a visual manifestation of inhaling air and exhaling stress and negativity in the form of thick smoke. This act otherwise symbolizes the release of burdens and obstacles and the discovery of a clearer path towards our desires and aspirations. In this case, the artist "exhales" the smoke and remains enveloped in a thick fog, remaining in confusion instead of finding clarity.
Born in Belgrade in 1998. Marija Iva Gocić is a performance and visual artist. Her work combines performance art with installation, collective practices, relational aesthetics and activism. The main theme of her work is trust: how it is built, maintained, and fractured within interpersonal dynamics, as well as in relation to media, perception, and societal structures.
Marija currently works as a performance member of Sisters Hope, an award-winning performance group based in Copenhagen. They explore different aspects of what they call a Sensuous society – a potential new world arising from the post-economical and ecological crisis. She is also a director, performer and founding member of The Experience – an experimental dance and performance group established in 2018 in Belgrade. The group creates site-specific and immersive performances that address issues of social transformation, personal identity, and freedom.
Marija maintains her artistic practice alongside philosophy studies at the University of Belgrade. She is based in Belgrade and works internationally.