Queer respirator - zoe gudovic, andrej ostroski & vladimir bjelicic, serbia / west balkans
The #QueerRespirator is a multimedia drag intervention into oppressive reality burdened with COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia and Western Balkans. The virus outbreak has stripped naked the terrible inequalities globally and especially in small nationalistic corrupted societies such is Serbia. The middle and upper class have been taken care of. The most vulnerable, almost ironically named “essential workers”, including independent artists, have been left on their own to struggle for essentials.
Our #QueerRespirator provides space for a different perspective, a voice for the unheard, a platform for the invisible in our societies - a safe space for ventilating this harsh reality and to laugh, cry, mourn and rebel.
#QueerRespirator uses our already established channels (blog, You Tube show, radio show, podcast) to document and reflect on how this outbreak impacts the lives of the LGBTTIQ from the unique perspective of political drag show. We discuss our everyday among ourselves and with guests – activists (feminists, housing, union, education...) and artists, develop mini shows as a response to current events, organize mini concerts. We believe in the subversive power of drag to deconstruct systems of oppression and codification.
The QueerRespirator is a joint project developed by Zoe Gudović, Andrej Ostroški and Vladimir Bjeličić and their amazing drag personas Zed Zeldich Zed, Dekadenca and Markiza deSada. All three performers are part of Ephemeral Confessions collective where they actively work on developing merry alternatives to bleak reality with cautious optimism and sharp irony.
Art and activism also feature in Zoe’s radio show Zenergija.
liminal banquet
Photography @brankostarcevic
This photographic series, made to inaugurate the Queer Respirator project, depicts three drag personas - @Dekadenca, @ZedZeldichZed and @Markiza_de_Sada - in an idealized version of the kitchen. It was in this particular space where people spent most of their time preparing food during the lockdown in an attempt to indulge themselves and to dream, for a moment, while escaping from news reports, Zoom meetings, other means of communication and screens.
To capture the essence of the most debated concepts during the COVID 19 pandemic, such as isolation, boredom, exhaustion, fear, and rage, the Liminal Banquet offers a unique and critically engaged approach to queer storytelling in the domain of the visual arts.
more from queer respirator
The Four Tales of Now by Markiza de Sada are composed of a series of references from the domain of popular culture and socio-political phenomena to critically reflect the contemporary moment, especially the current pandemic, the migrant and climate crisis, as well as fantastic narratives embodied in conspiracy theories.
Dekadenca comes from a theater background, specifically musical theater. So, most of her performances are somewhat created on that as a basis. She chose to perform this particular song because she wants to send a message that queer people do not need to conform to the hetero-patriarchal normativity that surrounds them in order to be accepted and loved.
It is also, an homage to the late, great Madeline Kahn - an LGBT+ supporter and a queer icon who deserves more attention.
This video had its premiere at the first Balkan online drag show - Dragoslavia - and a glorious reprise at the first global online drag show the Untitled (World), that hosted a roster of 47 drag performers representing 47 countries from all around the World.
Markiza de Sada's mix you are about to listen to was created in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic and racial riots in America as a tribute to all the ingenious black women who contributed their bodies and voices to the richness of musical expression on the scale from disco to house music.
Named ''Female Trouble'', it refers to a John Waters film, but also brings more than ten sensual, dance songs that know no boundaries of race, gender and sexuality.
Ženergija is a radio podcast conceived fifteen years ago, broadcasting at a prolific radio station part of the "Student's Cultural Center" in Belgrade, and was ultimately dismissed from the program because Zoe Gudović, the author of the show, is a lesbian.
After years of absence, with the launch of "Radio Aparat", a new opportunity opened up for Ženergija to shine in all its glory, and conquer the media, and thus the public space with stories about how people live, what stings them, what makes them happy, what social systems they change and what they hope for.
In this special edition of Ženergija, Jelena Petrović, art theorist, researcher of literature and society, and curator, took on the role of host and in a conversation with art historian/artist, Vladimir Bjeličić, artist/activist, Zoe Gudović, and graphic designer/artist, Andrej Ostroški, opened different questions regarding their project Queer Respirator.
Questions ranged from how the project has been conceived and enveloped; how the individual practices of the authors are connected with collective goals; to the issues of aesthetics, ideology, and survival, and the relationship to current debates related to gender, gender, identity, and social roles.