Exhibition "The rotten smell is you"

Artists:

Kristina Bajilo, Nikola Balberčakova, Sofija Đovanoti, Đejmi Hadrović, Aja Janković, Working group Merlinka (Pavle Banović, Marija Iva Gocić, Lea Rivka Lapiover, Sara Pantović, Kloe Sasi), Milica Mijajlović Živković, Peni Kej, Jessica Stoja, Zuzana Svatik

Curator: Jelisaveta Rapaić

At the exhibition opening, there will be a pole dance lecture performance by Aja Janković starting at 7:30 PM

The second presentation of the exhibition The rotten smell is you, realized in collaboration with the Belgrade Cultural Center, brings certain changes compared to its first realization at Kunsthalle Bratislava (5.9-16.10.2023). The artistic positions are carefully adapted to include additional geographies and histories to emphasize the void that occurs within the local context. The new edition of the exhibition also emerges as a direct response and urgency to react to the growing sympathies and ambiguities related to the rise of right-wing movements in 2024. By exploring and revealing internal disagreements and the generational gap within the feminist movement, this exhibition investigates the essential issue of appropriation by the right wing and mirrored worlds, post-truths, and conspiracy theories. However, The rotten smell is you builds a unique narrative, bringing together different experiences and perspectives to analyze the rift between third and fourth wave feminists, most commonly observed through discourses on transgender identity, sex work, and hyper-femininity.

*In her recent book Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein defines the term Mirror World to describe our destabilized present full of doubles and confusion; where far-right movements express declarative solidarity with the working-class; AI-generated content blurs the line between real and fake; New Age entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers continue to break our conventional political loyalties; while many of us project our carefully curated digital doubles in the realm of social media.