GORGO

2019 – 2021
video / installation / objects

The series of works that make up the project GORGO are dedicated to the mythic figure of Medusa, the Gorgon – GORGO. Medusa’s decapitation can be interpreted as a violent act of patriarchy, as is the subsequent appropriation of her head, the Gorgoneion, as decoration or fetish. Referancing motifs from folktale and myth, GORGO rests on the premise the Medusa’s dismembered body is made whole again, she is born again. In the video Raščić embodies the character of the GORGO, and dons a copper armor that is at the same time an audio instrument. Contact microphones on the inside of the armor pick up on the performers’ movement and the sounds are further processed in both video and live performances. The armor is fabricated by the sole female coppersmith in Bosnia, breaking with the patrilineal tradition of this craft. The accompanying objects, installations and drawing are a direct testimony of the process, as is in case of the video Making of GORGO, and text and images encountered during research and objects generated as props and costumes are displayed as part of the project, as in GORGO’S Armor and Shelley. Following cues from the Medusa myth, reflections play an important role in the act of viewing in The Dig. The objects’ materiality is negated and dissolved by light, as reflective surfaces that cast golden projections and cast long shadows.

For the exhibition The more tongues you silence, the more they talk, commissioned by the Röda Sten Konsthall, the video GORGO from 2019 was re-tooled to form a symbiotic relationship with the installation Poppaea’s Pans. The two projects share a soundtrack and the collaboration relationship with sound designer Hrvoje Nikšić and coppersmith Nermina Alić.

READ TEXT STAGING GORGO BY JASNA JAKŠIĆ

DOWNLOAD PDF VERSION OF LIMITED EDITION RISO POSTER

GORGO
2019 – 2021
18 min, HD video, color, stereo / 5.1
director and performer: Lala Raščić
cinematography: Ivan Slipčević
video editing and post-production: Hrvoslava Brkušić
sound design and mastering: Hrvoje Nikšić
sound recording: Hrvoje Nikšić, Per Buhre
singers: Per Buhre, Amanda Flodin, Karl Peter Eriksson
copper armor manufacturing: Nermina Beba Alić
additional costume manufacture and consulting: Citoyenne K – Marijana Kramarić

Making of GORGO
2019
12 min HD video, color, stereo
director: Lala Raščić
cinematography and sound recording: Adnan Šahbaz
video editing: Lala Raščić

GORGO’S Armor
2019
(shield, mask, greaves, vambrace, breastplate), copper, leather, textile, dimensions variable

The Dig
2019 -2021
23 glass objects, 4mm glass, 22k gold leaf, paint, wood, light; dimensions variable

Shelley
2021
BW laser print on tracing paper, adhesive tape; 5 cm x 500 cm

Thank you: Göteborg Baroque, Jaik Faulk, Sylvie Fortin, Mario Fudurić, Jasna Jakšić, Lana Pilipović, Amila Puzić, Sarita Vujković

Supported by:
ACA- Acadian Center for the Arts
MSURS – Museum of Contemporary Art of Republic Srpska
POGON – Zagreb Centre for Independent Culture and Youth
Röda Sten Konsthall
Zagreb City Office for Culture
Trust for Mutual Understanding