Performance date Saturday, January 11th 2025, 7:00 PM, GMK (Šubićeva 29)
Free admission
The performance is the result of the drangulije residency at GMK during which various drag artists, together with Mx. Bodliere, nominis, and ONA GRDA, explored materials, movements, costumes, and voice alongside lip-syncing and other sounds characteristic of drag performances. You are invited to attend this intimate performance on Saturday, January 11th 2025, 7:00 PM.
We thank Anne Ampersand, Alyssa Gersony, and Ursula Regina for sharing their experience and influencing this performance.
Performers’ Invitation:
In the space of 8ica, we found ourselves and talked in the dark about drag and light. We started to engage with drag materials, movement, costume, and voice, lip-syncing, and other sounds, and the idea of what it would mean for us to do drag in this context. On January 11th 2025, come see the presentation of the beginning of our collective research.
Clusters of sequins accumulate in the corner, shining or not depending on your position, and the light sources that reflect off them, some visible, some not. Light reflections bounce off the material and the text we perform, thus creating a (non?)narrative fiction about light objects and bodies, lighthouse keepers, and sequins. The god/goddess of light dies and is reborn. How does drag art fit into this? What does drag mean today and which eyeshadow looks best while you wait for the end of the world as we know it?
Through the drag performance, we test elements of club performance and forms created as resistance and celebration of queer identity in the community.
The performance arises through nominis’ residency at 8ice and as part of the “drangulije” research, in which other drag artists participated and exchanged ideas: Anne Ampersand, Alyssa Gersony, Ursula Regina… After this initial presentation at 8ice, we organize additional pop-up events that we will announce, so stay tuned.
xoxo
Mx. Bodliere has been involved in drag for the last 7 years and performs across the Balkans. They love to experiment with mixing expressions of gender, as well as motifs of conventional beauty and ugliness. A conceptual artist in search of a concept, an internationally ignored superstar. A time traveler, mega babe, and medical anomaly. Winner of the Tightest Hole in Yugoslavia award in 2018 and 2019 and the third-best drag queen in the region. Sought by Europol for the last two years.
nominis (Josip Knežević) finished a master’s degree in New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. This year, she is participating in the WHW Academy program. Her work spans 3D animation, new media, visual art, text, and performance. Through her practice, she creates and materializes her drag alter ego, “Nominis,” in objects and digital spaces through video, performance, installations, and drag. Solo exhibitions include the performance “Nominis: THIS IS (W)HERE I POST FROM” at Kamba Gallery in Zagreb, Nominis 0.00# at VN Gallery, and Nominis 0.123# at Klub Kocka Gallery in Split. She has also exhibited in numerous group shows in Croatia and abroad, including “An Archive, a Body, an Album, and a Story” at Exhibit Eschenbachgasse Gallery in Vienna, “Koštac/Grappling” at the Improspections festival at MSU Zagreb, and “7 Faces of the City” at Kortil Gallery in Rijeka.
ONA GRDA attends the New Media department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Although they started in the world of theater, they now reside in the digital spaces of alternative internet subcultures, always striving to maintain their anonymity. In their work, they use latex, rhinestones, metal, and unconventional materials and synthesized sound textures to explore ideas of anthropomorphism, bodily discomfort, and the transformative abilities of the body. They find inspiration in alternative drag scenes worldwide and in camp body horror film classics.
Artist in Residence at GMK: nominis
Residency Title: drangulije
Curators: Antonela Solenički, Petar Vranjković
Residency Mentor: Marko Gutić Mižimakov
Producer: Tea Matanović
GMK Manager: Maja Pavlinić
Visual Designer: Sara Pavleković Preis
Production: Generator of Multidisciplinary Co-productions (GMK)
Supported by: Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb GMK’s work is supported by: Kultura nova Foundation, INA, d.d.
