Lala Raščić

In my artistic practice and research, I have been working through the idea of “future antics”, to borrow the term coined by theoretician and collaborator Jelena Petrović. In this play of words, which refers to "antiques" as in classical antiquity and the word "antics" meaning frivolous an outrageous behavior, lies hidden the underlying concept within which I operate. Alone or in collaborations I create performative, discursive, narrative and audio-visual formats based on new readings of Eurocentric - mainly Greek - myths and regional legends and legacies. These “future antics”, offer new and critical interpretations of well-known and obscure formulae and narratives through contemporary theories such as new materialism, feminism, and anti-colonialism. Via contemporary artistic practices I experiment with subverting the dominant narratives that have formed and shaped our society for centuries and that normalize oppression, patriarchy and violence. “Future antics”, take these beautiful storylines from our common past and transform them into palatable formulae that can benefit out futures and teach stories of empowerment, benevolence, and tolerance.

Through a persistent challenge of the normalized patriarchal authority of “telling,” “knowing,” “mythologizing,” my subject matter spans historical narrative, contemporary society, environmental issues, and literature. My self-proclaimed status of a narrator/ storyteller/story-maker is inseparable from the female-gendered embodiment of the same. In my work, the act of performing is the emancipatory fact.