Jana Mladenović

Jana lets textiles do what they want, combining research and intuition...

'Making socio-political art is caregiving: caring about each other & caring about instead of talking about issues. Something personally affects you – you have a feeling, then you make work out of it whilst honestly and critically looking at yourself and society. If there’s honesty in the art, the practice will be meaningful. The personal is political.'

'I’ve gotten critical comments about my work: why am I making art about obstetric violence when I have not given birth? But I have witnessed so much pain passively and seen medical discrimination happen to my mother, cousin, friend. One of my projects, the one I want to continue at Bosacademie, started because I saw the news of a Romani women's child that was killed by a doctor in the hospital. When I mentioned it to my mother, she told me that happens to everyone. I’m afraid of it, afraid of waiting patiently for it to happen again. I don’t want it to be like that for me or anyone else.'

'Social media is still a big resource for me; it used to be my main resource. I would wake up and see the news friends sent me. That elicited feelings which I used to create. Since I moved here from the Balkans, I broadened my research into all kinds of myths around women’s health and reproductive care, looking into the historical background. The way I dealt with information changed, I started to appreciate my own artistic intuition more. Now I differentiate which decisions are made by the artist and which are made by the informed individual. For me the research rests in-between. Once I witness or get interested in a subject I cling to it, then I’m able to connect it to research. My personal reaction is always the start.'

'During my material process I combine research and intuition again. I look a lot into what women have done before me; my master’s thesis is about women artists and their relation to pain. Agnes Martin has a great method for geometrical work. I hate to start with a blank canvas, so I combine and rearrange different textiles until compositions start forming. There’s a systematic approach to it. It’s important to let materials speak for themselves, they have an autonomy. You need to let it do what it wants and learn to control it. I’m a painter, so I had to learn to work with textiles. Even paints and brushes do what they want sometimes.'

'Geometry and intuitive elements come from my upbringing. A mathematician and a scientist for parents almost genetically determined my systematic approach. However, I’m learning about the historical meaning of things, like the connection between textile and women's emancipation. My grandmother would give me paper to practice sewing instead of these expensive materials, it’s all starting to make more sense by the day. Now that I’m placed out of my context (Serbia, ed.), I am starting to understand traditions which I considered ridiculous as strong community practices. I’m starting to find great meaning in the communal. How do we behave as a collective with personal feelings towards political events? How can I create a system of resistance within my own artistic practice?

I hope I realized this in time.'

Jana stelt tentoon tijdens de Vruchtbare Grond expo van 14 tot en met 23 mei