Hope is a Discipline

As part of ‘Hope is a Discipline’ at the October Salon, Belgrade, the Feminist Duration Reading Group (FDRG) exhibited at FLU Gallery. Their participation in the biennale included 'Date Nights,' two weekend event programmes developed in partnership with Belgrade-based feminist artists, writers, curators, translators, and activists.

The FDRG’s exhibition included books that have inspired and shaped the group's development, alongside Serbian translations of feminist classics donated by the Reconstruction Women’s Fund. The installation featured CEED Feminisms Bibliography, a resource mapping central and east European diasporic feminisms, devised during the FDRG’s 2023-2024 collaboration with Cell Project Space in an initiative led by Jessie Krish. Tablecloths hung on facing walls were annotated over the course of our events programme, with notes, sketches, and reflections on themes ranging from friendship to translation, group authorship and intergenerational feminist exchange. The 2021 FDRG podcast, ‘Nothing Worth Doing is Done Alone,’ edited by Sabrina Fuller and co-conceptualised with Helena Reckitt, offered a polyphonic account of friendship as a political practice through a chorus of feminist voices and citations. The exhibition was conceived collectively with FDRG members and installed by Helena Reckitt.

'Date Nights’ comprised moments of shared exploration of practices through reading, writing, listening, translating, and performance. Reflecting the central importance of collaboration to the FDRG, each exchange produced a particular way of working, drawing on the strengths and processes of various partners and building the grounds for mutual networks, experience, learning and understanding. The format questioned the group’s role in the October Salon as both hosts and guests.

The first weekend events programme, 9-10 Nov 2024, focused on friendship and feminist organising, through collective readings and relational group work. FDRG Working Group members Beth Bramich and Sabrina worked with Belgrade-based collaborators Hristina Cvetinčanin Knežević, Zorana Simić, and Ana Simona Zelenovic. Readings in English and Serbian respond to the question: how do we meet and organise around shared feminisms, and how might this foster an embrace of difference and the building of enduring friendships? In the reflective workshop 'Feminist Micro-interventions into the Politics of Friendship,' participants explored the significance of otherness and shared experiences, including solidarity, empathy, and resilience, in building feminist friendships. Through storytelling and discussion, the group considered values of solidarity, empathy, and resilience within feminist circles. Audio contributions by Taey Iohe and Dot Zhihan, together with readings from Hristina Cvetinčanin Knežević's text 'Feminist’s Politics of Friendship: A Manifesto,' focused discussions on the joy and conflict that are central to feminist friendships.

The second weekend events programme, 23-24 Nov, 2024, touched on dynamics of language and translation. Activities included the collective writing of a Monster Text, performance, and group reflection. FDRG Working Group members Mariana Lemos and Katrin Lock worked with Belgrade-based collaborators Marija Iva Gocić and Natalija Paunic.

Collective reading in both English and Serbian stimulated the creation of a “monster text” —a hybrid, intertextual collage. Contributions ertr prompted by the question of how meaning is both lost and found in translation – across time, space and language?

Feminist Duration as part of 'Hope is a Discipline' was led by Beth Bramich and Mariana Lemos, co-conceptualised and organised with Sabrina Fuller, Katrin Lock, and Helena Reckitt. With audio contributions from FDRG members Taey Iohe and Dot Zhihan, and curatorial guidance from Lina Dzuverovic, the programme was devised in collaboration with Belgrade-based practitioners Hristina Cvetinčanin Knežević, Marija Iva Gocić, Natalija Paunic, Zorana Simić, Ana Simona Zelenovic.

The FDRG was one of three invited collaborations to exhibit at the FLU Gallery, Belgrade. The other groups were 'And Others: The Gendered Politics of Art Collectives,' and Kathrin Böhm & Jelena Micić.
'Hope as a Discipline' at the October Salon, Belgrade, was curated by Lina Džuverović, Ana Knežević and Emilia Epštajn, with visual identity designed by Rafaela Drazic.

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