Katalin Ladik, The Screaming Hole, Tribina mladih, Novi Sad, 1979, photo: Gábor Ifjú
Katalin Ladik
The Screaming Hole

Katalin Ladik (*1942, Serbia) performs her artistic work on the radio, in the theatre and, finally, in the world of visual art. A writer of poems, she transfers poetic language to other fields of expression, such as visual poetry, performance, Mail art and sound art. Her work is bound to feminist matters in Eastern Europe and reflects the personal, social and existential difficulties that female artists must face. Recurrent dual structures and the use of sexually ambiguous figures (androgynes and angels) as well as gender-neutralising elements inhabit her work, which occasionally acquires Shamanic overtones and integrates therapeutic mechanisms of liberation.

The artist is inside a paper-covered structure, where she begins to cook. The audience realises that something is happening behind the walls and tear the paper, thus ‘deflowering’ the intimacy of the artist who is staging one of her best-known performances. Voyeurism, anticipation and the interaction between the artist and the audience mark this metaphorical performance.

Performances: 1979, Novi Sad; 1996, Budapest

Courtesy Katalin Ladik

Document media
Photographs

Issue date
1979, 1996

Tags
destruction, private/public, voyeurism