Appointed
live performance
photograph c-print, photo: Danilo Mataruga
80 cm x 100 cm
edition: 1/10
2018
In the three-hour public performance Appointed, Milisković presents eight inaugural speeches of previous United Nations Secretaries from 1946 until today. The performance was premiered at the 57th October Salon; for the first time in history, the new constructed body of the fictive Secretary-General of the United Nations was a “woman”.
In 2016, Milisković spent three months at the EoFA artist-in- residence programme in Geneva, where the idea for this performance came about. His initial plan was to legally enter the United Nations premises and make a photographic session in Ariana Park, which is the UN quart protected territory. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to obtain a legal permission to get an access to the mentioned premises, revolted and humiliated, he came up with the idea to construct his body into the body of the new Secretary-General of the United Nations and take that fictive position – Woman Secretary-General.
With a highly stylized and artfully perfected form of performance, he problematizes a number of current social and political topics, from gender issues to the relationship between the individual and the structures of power and authority. In order to give a clear critique against the rules that apply on the UN territory, against strict security measures and a double steel fence that defends the main gate from possible attacks by the civilians, against the concept of a “secret” society and parallel with that carrying the epithet “global peacekeeper”, Milisković decided to construct and inaugurate a new body of a fictive Secretary-General of the United Nations with an unlimited mandate.
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, the October Salon Collection and the artist
Purchase Contract: III-5-444/2.12.2019.
Inventory No. 1667
Photo: Courtesy of the artist, Danilo Mataruga, installation view 57th October Salon, photo Boris Burić
Selected Bibliography:
57th October Salon, The Marvellous Cacophony. Cultural Centre of Belgrade, 2018
Milena Dragičević Šešić, Mirjana Nikolić, Situating Populist Politics: Arts & Media Nexus, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Institute for Theatre, Film, Radio and Television, Belgrade: Clio, 2019, 138–139.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Branko Milisković (1982, Belgrade, Serbia) studied sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, in the class of Professor Mrđan Bajić; continued the postgraduate studies as a Dutch government scholarship holder at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and graduated from the Department of 3D Art in 2009; obtained a master’s degree in extended media from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, under Professor Jeanne Faust in 2012. He is dedicated to live performance, mono-opera, cabaret, photography and film. His works have been realized at numerous prestigious local and international festivals, exhibitions and artist-in- residence programmes, included in the books Performance Art in Eastern Europe since 1960 by Dr. Amy Bryzgel and Situating Populist Politics: Arts & Media Nexus by Milena Dragićević Šešić and Mirjana Nikolić, as well as in many publications, magazines and newspapers. Branko Milisković is a free-lance artist, a member of ULUS (Association of Fine Artists of Serbia). More information at https://brankomiliskovic.wordpress.com/